New ward options unveiled for Commerce City

anything preconceived - ‘Oh, Ward 1 is going to look like this, Ward 2 like this’,” City Clerk Dylan Gibson said. “We wanted residents to really be a part of the process from the start.”

BY SCOTT TAYLOR STAYLOR@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Commerce City will put ve plans for redistricting City Council seats up for public discussion, leading to a March 6 approval of a new map.

“We didn’t want to come in with e city is looking to redraw the boundaries between City Council Wards based on 2020 census results City Clerk Dylan Gibson said.

“In 2010, the population for Commerce City was 45,913. Our 2020 population was 62,418,” Gibson said. “ at gives us a 35.9% increase in population since 2010 and as we are all familiar with, must of that growth was in the north.” e 9,043 resident di erence between those two ward represents a nearly 58% discrepancy - far beyond the 10% di erence required by the charter.

Commerce City’s four wards are meant to be roughly equal in population — within a 10% di erence, according to the City Charter.

Results from the 2020 census show how unbalanced the wards have become since the boundaries were last adjusted in 2013. Gibson said the goal is for each ward to have roughly 15,605 residents.

Ward 4, in the far northeastern part of the city, is the most populous, with 21,239 residents, according to the census - 5,634 people above the goal. Ward 2, in the southwestern, has the fewest residents, 12,196. at is 3,409 below the goal.

“So we are a little out of band for what is allowed for a municipality, therefore we must redistrict our wards,” Gibson said. “It’s also important to preserve the idea of one person, one vote.” e nal maps need to have populations roughly equal to each other - at least within 10 percent. ey also have to balance racial equity.

Gibson said city sta hosted ve public information sessions in 2022 to nd out what residents wanted and reviewed 11 maps, narrowing those down to the ve presented to City Councilors.

Both of those are requirements by law, Gibson said, but there are other factors that might not be legally required but are important. ose include compactness, trying to preserve current boundaries as much as possible and protecting communities of interest - such as neighborhoods and special districts.

Gibson said the first map was drawn up by a computer algorithm.

“It’s an algorithm that take total population and racial demographics from the census and tries to draw as equitable boundaries as possible,” Gibson said. “However, one thing it does not do is consider ‘communities of interest’. So this plan is technically satisfying for the legal criteria. But you will notice it divides streets and major thoroughfares and neighborhoods.”

Councilor Susan Noble said she could eliminate three of the plans immediately. Plans 1, 4 and 5 all divide up Commerce City special districts.

“There are little areas that need to be part of certain metro districts,” Noble said. “Maps 1, 4 and 5 break up those districts in ways that isn’t unworkable.”

Councilors did not settle on a single plan but continued the public hearing until March 6. Gibson said the maps and more information about the process would be available at https://www.c3gov. com/redistricting on the city’s website for residents to review.