The Boise City Council will vote this week on a new map dividing the city into six voting districts as required by a new state law.
The city released a proposed map Friday, breaking the city into six districts of around 35,000 people each. The districts are made up of smaller neighborhood blocks, with major roadways like Overland, State Street, Warm Springs and the interstate creating many district borders.
“The goal of the map is, to the extent possible, to create districts that are equal in population, geographically contiguous and avoid splitting up our recognized neighborhood associations by following recognized districting principles,” said Council President Elaine Clegg in a news release.
A 2020 state law requires cities larger than 100,000 residents to elect council members by district. This year, districts one, three and five will elect a council member for a two year term. Those are, respectively, west Boise, northwest Boise and central Boise.
To meet the deadline for this November’s election, the maps had to be ready by July - which meant there wasn’t enough time for public feedback. Clegg said the districting process will be formally revisited next year after updated census data is available.
Council members elected in 2019 (Council President Elaine Clegg, Patrick Bageant and Jimmy Hallyburton) will complete their four-year terms and then the entire council will be up for election by geographic district in 2023.
