On December 13, after a public hearing, the Eugene City Council unanimously approved updated ward boundaries for the City of Eugene. The updated boundaries combine changes from two scenarios reviewed by the public earlier this year.
Every 10 years, after the federal census, boundaries for federal, state, and local elected offices, including City of Eugene wards, are reviewed and adjusted to reflect new population data. Updating ward boundaries helps ensure equal representation by local elected officials by making sure each Councilor and EWEB Commissioner represents about the same number of constituents. The current population of Eugene is 176,667, which indicates that each of the eight wards should have approximately 22,083 residents.
Earlier this year, the Council approved a set of criteria to guide the creation of the scenarios including limiting the population range difference among wards to plus or minus 3 percent and creating scenarios that consider geographic and neighborhood features and strive for relative compactness and contiguity. The City received the official US Census data in August and began using the Council’s criteria to develop ward boundary scenarios based on the new population information.
In September Council reviewed and approved two ward boundary scenarios to go to the public for review and feedback. After reviewing updated data and community input at a November work session, Council incorporated elements of both the proposed scenarios and directed staff to prepare the final map and Resolution for new ward boundaries.
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