Henderson to redraw wards at upcoming City Council meeting

The City Council’s composition isn’t changing, but some residents may find themselves in different wards as a result of the redrawing of council ward maps.

The council will consider whether to approve one of two redistricting plans that will be presented at Tuesday’s meeting.

The wards are changing to even out the population among the four of them, according to Andrew Powell, planning manager and demographer for Henderson.

The wards have to be redrawn when a ward’s population is more than 5 percent bigger than any of the others in Henderson, Powell said. The populations of Wards 2 and 3 currently are each more than 5 percent larger than Ward 1.

The first proposed redistricting plan would convert Lake Las Vegas and Calico Hills from Ward 3 to Ward 1 and extend Ward 3’s southern border down to Horizon Ridge Parkway.

The second option would extend Ward 1’s western border to Gibson Road, taking that area from Ward 2, and extending Ward 3’s southern border to just north of Windmill Parkway.

Powell said the second plan would bring the populations closer together, but would split the Valley View and McDonald Highlands neighborhoods between wards. He said the first proposed plan doesn’t bring the populations as close together as its alternative, but keeps key neighborhoods within the same ward.

“They’re pretty clean boundaries in my opinion,” Powell said. “They don’t bring the populations as in balance in plan one as in plan two, but it balances out by plan one better accounting for future population growth.”

Powell said that city staff will recommend the first, but the decision will ultimately be up to the council.

Ward 3 Councilwoman Carrie Cox said she has “mixed feelings” about both redistricting plans.

She said many residents in her ward reached out to her to say they wanted to stay in Ward 3. Cox initially planned to support plan two so those residents would stay in her ward, but Cox said Mayor Michelle Romero had concerns about that plan splitting up neighborhoods.

Cox then created a third proposal for redistricting the wards that she said would have resolved the concerns of both her constituents and the mayor.

“Plan three would have been a more balanced approach creating the best possible even movement between wards complying with requirements and to keep it fair,” Cox said.

But as of Thursday, that plan was not slated to be included in the options presented to the council.

Contact Mark Credico at mcredico@reviewjournal.com. Follow him on Instagram @writermark2.