Concord's Voting Ward Boundaries Could Change

Now that the 2010 U.S. Census numbers are in, the city of Concord may have to change the look and boundaries of its voting wards, due to changes in population.

This week, officials began looking at the data and current maps to figure out how to re-form the wards in order to make them more equal in size. After looking at potential changes, the Concord City Council will hold a public hearing later this month and then, render a decision on the changes in August. A charter change will then be placed on the ballot in November, to be approved by the voters. 

What does the Census show?

According to the initial Census worksheet data, seven of Concord’s 10 voting wards saw population growth since the 2000 Census while three saw losses.

Some wards have seen significant growth, like Ward 2, an oval-shaped ward situated below Penacook and above the North End. Many new houses have been built in the ward before the bubble burst. Another ward, Ward 8, the area south of Loudon Road that runs to Bow and over to the Merrimack River, has also seen significant growth. Ward 10, the northeastern area of the city, is the largest city ward. It has also seen a large number of new single-family homes built in the last 10 years. Ward 10 grew by nearly 20 percent in between decades, according to the data.

Other wards, like the South End’s Wards 6 and 7, and Ward 9 on the Loudon Road/Heights corridor, lost significant population. Most of the other wards had smaller changes between decades.

In 2000, city officials attempted to average out the wards to as close to 4,067 people in each ward as possible. This year, the goal is to make every ward as close to 4,270 people in each. Ideally, officials would like to get within 5 percent of that 4,270 average. In order to meet the criteria, officials will look at maps and data and consider four to five different maps before coming to a final decision.

The committee meets

The Redistricting Committee, the group that will be eyeing changes to the voting wards, met on July 18, to start the process. The members included the mayor, Concord’s four at-large city councilors, the school board president, the city clerk, three ward officials, the assistant city solicitor and assistant city manager, and two political activists representing the state’s two major political parties.

Concord Mayor Jim Bouley called the committee's work “a big math problem,” and noted that all the elected officials involved in the process represented the entire city, in order to limit conflicts brought on by potential changes in ward representation. Also complicating matters was the issue of the city’s dual school districts and the New Hampshire State Prison, which populates half of Ward 3. Bouley said planning officials would put together the data and sequenced it with current maps in order to come up with some changes to the wards.

Deputy City Solicitor Jim Kennedy stated that recent court cases have decided that a 9 percent deviation between wards was acceptable. He noted that Bouley would like to get to as close to 5 percent as possible. Kennedy said that the wards didn’t have to be equal, just reasonable and as equal as possible.

“We’re well within those bounds,” he said. “The idea will be to create boundaries that can be recognized on a map and that can be easily identifiable and are drawn out. The practicality of it is for the boundaries to make sense.”

The city will be required to do voter outreach to explain the process and changes to voters, Kennedy said.

At-large City Councilor Mark Coen asked what would happen if the voters rejected the changes.

Kennedy said the city would keep the current ward structure but be forced to continue to work on new voting wards, “however long it takes to create wards that are acceptable to the voters.” He said not all municipalities in New Hampshire make changes. Portsmouth, for example, adapts ward changes by session law and the last changes were made in 1983, he said.

Each member received a large map of all the Census districts that were built around clusters of streets with a specific number of residents in the cluster. Bouley noted that he had scribbled some potential shifts on the map to show how to balance out each of the wards. He said the most important thing to remember was that each ward needed a voting location that was ADA compliant and had ample parking. Bouley said some of the complaints he heard in recent years were based on people having to drive by one polling location to vote at another.

Jae Whitelaw, a local attorney who was on the city's 2000 Redistricting Committee, said federal rules changed everything around which forced Beaver Meadow Elementary School out of one district and into another.

“It didn’t make sense to the people driving by but it made since when we were drawing the lines,” she said.

Bouley said he would also like to resolve issues around the Ward 4 polling location, at St. Peter’s Church, since an office building next to the church had complained about voters using its parking lot. 

Steve Henniger, a city planner, will provide better color maps which will show polling locations, important landmarks, such as schools and city buildings, as well as other potential changes for the committee to eye.

Future problems?

Right out of the gate, members addressed some confusing problems with the process such as when the new wards would be implemented, how it would affect the upcoming Concord School District Charter changes which propose moving from at-large school board members to both at-large and ward members, and how changes would affect ward city councilors, even though decisions would not and should not be made based on where current representatives lived. 

Kennedy said the charter amendment language would need to reflect the exact date that the changes would be implemented.

Whitelaw, who also assisting Laconia with its redistricting, asked for clarification on the issue, noting that depending on the changes implemented, some ward city councilors might not be living in the new districts after the 2011 municipal elections, due to changes to the maps made earlier this year.

Kass Ardinger, the Concord School Board District president, said any changes could also affect the school’s charter change proposal. If approved in November, ward school board members would start to be elected in November 2013.

Kennedy said he would recommend that the ward lines not go into effect until the next municipal election, which would be November 2013.

At-Large City Councilor Dan St. Hilaire also noted that state representatives could also be affected by the changes but that state officials might follow the city’s guidelines.

The state was also in the process of redistricting and considering new ways of electing state representatives, according to At-Large City Councilor Steve Shurtleff, who is also a state representative. He and St. Hilaire said Concord will probably be redistricted from multiple representatives spread out over the city’s 10 wards to a single representative from each ward and three at-large state representatives.

This type of change would upend Concord’s current representation since three state reps. from Merrimack District 12 all live on Wilson Avenue in the South End, for example.

“That’s why our drawing of our wards will most likely impact the state elections,” St. Hilaire said.

“It could be confusing,” added Shurtleff, since representatives could be in different wards after they were elected.

“That could be a problem too,” Kennedy realized. “I’m confident that we’ll figure it out.”

Bouley requested that Kennedy look into the specifics in order to make sure there were not any problems to the process after redistricting.