Commission meeting recap

The City of Carlsbad Independent Redistricting Commission held its second meeting last week, discussing plans for its first public hearing Sept. 23, the public input process and overall project schedule.
 
  • The city’s project team presented an overview of the redistricting process and the independent commission’s role.
  • Unlike when the City of Carlsbad first created City Council districts in 2017, the updated district boundaries will be chosen by the commission, not the City Council.
  • Once the new map is adopted by the commission, it will go into effect immediately and apply to the election of City Council members from Districts 1 and 3 in November 2022.
  • The City Council will update its city code to reflect the new map.

To ensure its role was clear to the public, the commission voted to change the wording on its meeting schedule to clarify that the City Council would not be involved in choosing the new district boundaries.

Public input

The commission reviewed public input gathered to date as well as plans to encourage broad participation by the public in the redistricting process.

  • The City Council directed staff to go beyond the outreach required by the state to ensure all Carlsbad residents had multiple ways to provide input.
  • Commissioners asked staff explore additional ways to reach residents who do not use computers regularly, including sending information in city water bills and using school resources.

Public hearing

  • The city’s demographer from National Demographics Corporation reviewed information to be presented at the first public hearing, scheduled for Sept. 23, and a proposed outline for that meeting.
  • The commission will hold four public hearings. The first hearing will focus on identifying communities residents think should be grouped into the same district for the purpose of electing a City Council member. These are called communities of interest.
 
Mapping tools

  • The city’s demographer also gave a demonstration of how to use three map making tools that can be used by residents to draw proposed district and community boundaries.
  • DistrictR, a simple digital tool, is available now.
  • A paper map kit will be available on the city’s website and at city libraries and other buildings.
  • A third option is a digital tool that comes with additional features that will utilize actual census data as residents draw proposed maps.
  • Maps with updated census information should be available in October, although there is not a firm date at this time.
Upcoming meetings

Here's what's coming up:

Sept. 23, 2021 - First public hearing
Oct. 23, 2021 - Mapping workshops to learn how to use map making tools

Take the online survey

Take our survey to identify communities that share common social and economic interests, called communities of interest, that should be kept in the same City Council district. You can also provide input on the current district boundaries.

Get updates by text

If you’d like to get redistricting updates by text, you can text the word “districts” to 797979.
Redistricting 101 webinars on demand

If you missed the recent Redistricting 101 webinars, you can watch the meeting videos on demand from the city’s website. Each meeting covers the same information, although questions from participants differed. The meetings are about an hour.
New questions

We have recently updated the commonly asked questions page of the redistricting website. Here’s what’s new:

  • What is the basis for the April 17, 2022 final map adoption deadline?
  • How are electoral district lines related to the city’s quadrants: northwest quadrant, southwest quadrant, northeast quadrant, and southeast quadrant? Is it possible to draw those boundaries as our districts?
  • How is redistricting affected by the housing plan update?
  • How do the districts for the State Assembly, State Senate and House of Representative tie into the Carlsbad districts?
  • What is the 2020 population of each district?
  • Why was it necessary to draw district lines in 2017 when they are changing again in 2022?
  • How is an independent redistricting commission different from other ways of creating new districts?
  • How and why were the current districts decided?
  • Does the census data include the number of Carlsbad residents who are registered voters?
  • When will the official State of California Census data be available?
  • How close do population counts have to be in each district to be considered “substantially equal”?

If you have a question about the process that isn’t included on the website already, email us at redistricting@carlsbadca.gov.
More information

Contact the City Clerk’s Office at 760-434-2808 or redistricting@carlsbadca.gov.