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to CITY OF SAN LEANDRO STAFF REPORT DATE: December 17, 2001 TO: John Jermanis, City Manager FROM: Ed Schilling, Assistant City Manager BY: Elizabeth Greene, Planner II PROJECT DESCRIPTION: APPROVED AND FORWARDED TO CITY COUNCIL r'Vl b goo l-Ctlg Ci ger C I u O� Matter of Discussion of Redistricting of City Council Districts to correspond to 2000 Census population data. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATION The 2000 Census showed that the population in San Leandro's six City Council districts has grown disproportionately between 1990 and 2000. In order to keep the districts relatively equal in population, the district lines will have to be redrawn. Staff has developed three options for consideration which keep the districts within 5% of each other. Attached are the maps and populations of the current districts and the proposed options created using the 2000 Census data. Staff recommends that the City Council either choose one of the options or provide direction to staff for additional changes for consideration in drafting new maps. BACKGROUND When a jurisdiction creates districts, it is important to ensure that the districts are similar in terms of population count. After each decennial Census, political district lines must be re-evaluated to determine whether changes in population have substantially altered the balance between district populations. Section 230 of San Leandro's Administrative Code specifies that if the City's population has changed by more than five percent, the Council shall create six new districts. These districts are to be geographically compact contiguous territories with populations that are as equal as possible. San Leandro's population increased from 68,223 to 79,452, a 16% increase. Most of the population growth was experienced in the south-west portion of the City, where large housing developments like Marina Vista and Heron Bay added new families to the area. Figure 1 shows how the populations of the Council districts changed in the ten years between 1990 and 2000. Because of the clear disparity in population between the current districts, it is necessary to reconfigure the Council districts to achieve a more even distribution of residents in each district. 3� 1