Sedgwick County redistricting committee plans to recommend map with minimal changes

Sedgwick County’s redistricting committee has settled on the proposed County Commission district map it will recommend the governing body adopts for the next 10 years.

During a short meeting Wednesday, the Sedgwick County Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee selected Plan 6, a redrawn district map that makes minimal changes to the existing five County Commission districts.

Under Plan 6, the neighborhoods around Heights High and Stucky Middle schools and suburban Bel Aire would be shifted from District 1 to District 4, as would the neighborhoods around Wesley Hospital and MacDonald Golf Course.

District 1 would pick up the area south of Douglas to Harry east of the Arkansas River, including Century II, Intrust Bank Arena and Naftzger Park.

The redistricting committee’s favored map would not significantly alter the racial makeup of the commission districts, according to an Eagle analysis.

The 15-person committee, which was created last month amid questions of fairness in the redistricting process, met last week and eliminated seven of the 11 district maps proposed by the county, including three drawn by sitting commissioners.

On Tuesday, the committee eliminated three more options, Plans 1, 3 and 4.

Public feedback factored heavily into the committee’s decision to abandon maps 3 and 4, both of which would have split up three Riverside precincts from other voters in the neighborhood.

The committee reviewed 70 public comments submitted through the county website. Public comments were not read aloud during the meeting, but members said many of them were from concerned Riverside residents who didn’t want neighborhood precincts separated.

The committee had the authority to amend proposed maps or introduce their own, but did not do so.

Their final report is due Friday, five days before the commission’s final pre-holiday break meeting on Dec. 15.

This story was originally published December 8, 2021 at 2:49 PM.