While population has shifted somewhat throughout the city during the past decade, Litchfield City Council members decided Jan. 18 that the changes were not significant enough to redraw ward boundaries.
Governmental bodies must evaluate election districts following every census, and with the completion of the tally from the 2020 U.S. Census, the city faced a deadline of March 29 to approve a ward map that will be used for the next decade.
City Administrator Dave Cziok said he met with Meeker County staff, including Auditor Barb Loch, and also attended a county work session at which the process, deadlines and requirements for redistricting were discussed.
The county must act on its redistricting by April 15, but it can’t make a final decision on its district maps until municipalities have finalized their ward maps.
“Adjusting city wards could require significant adjustments for the county,” Cziok wrote in a memo to the City Council. “Leaving wards unchanged is the preferred option as far as the county is concerned.”
The city adjusted ward boundaries in 20212, following the 2010 census, Cziok said. Among the guidelines the city must follow when considering ward maps is that each be within the 90th percentile of the “ideal” ward size of 1,325, with a minimum not less than 1,193 and a maximum not more than 1,457. Another “test,” Cziok said, is that the three least populous wards cannot have fewer total residents than the total of the two most populous wards.
The 2020 census shows Litchfield has two wards with population greater than the ideal and three with fewer than the ideal. The total of the two most-populous wards (Ward 1 and 2), at 2,865 is less than the total of the three least-populous (3, 4, 5), at 3,759.
Council member Eric Mathwig asked how the ward maps might be affected by the city’s comprehensive plan, or vice versa. The comprehensive plan sets the course for where residential growth might occur by virtue of zoning.
“If we have three apartment buildings and in two years we have an extra 250 people in a specific ward, at what point do we change this?” Mathwig said.
That is a real possibility, too, as developers have targeted the northeast quadrant of the city for multi-family housing in the past. That area of town is home to the most populous wards, with Ward 1 having 1,416 residents and Ward 2 having 1,449, according to the 2020 census.
Cziok explained that redistricting happens only following the census, which means any change would wait until after 2030.
