Small Change for Peabody in First Draft of New Legislative Districts

[Editor's Note: The article has been updated to reflect a correction in the exact changes proposed for the 13th Essex District. Peabody will experience a slight change.]

State lawmakers revealed the first draft of newly redrawn legislative districts throughout Massachusetts on Tuesday, giving the public an opportunity to provide feedback before the final map is approved.

The new map being worked on by the legislature's Committee on Redistricting will be in affect until 2022 when lawmakers have to revisit any large population shifts in their districts again. So far, there's not much change proposed for the North Shore and only one precinct in Peabody would be affected.

State Rep. Ted Speliotis (D-Danvers), who has the 13th Essex District seat in the House, would pick up an extra precinct in Peabody along with representing most of Middleton (its larger of two precincts), in addition to West Peabody (Ward 6) and Danvers. Until now, Speliotis had represented Topsfield as well, but that has been apportioned to Brad Hill (R-Ipswich) in the 4th Essex District.

The 12th Essex District (Wards 1-5 in Peabody) represented by Joyce Spiliotis (D-Peabody) remains largely untouched but gives Speliotis Precinct 2 in Ward 5.

In addition to adding those 3,000 Peabody voters to his constituency, Speliotis will also see 2,200 more in Ward 6 due to itself this year.

The 2nd Essex District in the state Senate, represented by Fred Berry (D-Peabody), is not slated to see a change.

Speliotis, a Peabody native, said that while he will miss Topsfield and its agrarian community, he’s glad to build his Peabody constituency, and Middleton is more compatible with Danvers anyway, certainly in existing shared infrastructure.

Not yet ready for public scrutiny is the redrawn congressional map, which will ultimately eliminate one of the 10 districts in Massachusetts and a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives due to population decline in the past decade.