2011 2:00:00 PM

Monday, September 26, 2011 2:00 PM
Legislative Building, 745 4th Street, Sparks, NV

Public Hearing and Action Items Unrelated to Planning and Zoning: 7.1

Title: Consideration, Second Reading,Public Hearing and possible adoption of Bill No. 2636, an ordinance redistricting the City Council ward boundaries based on the 2010 United States Census (for possible action).

Petitioner/Presenter: Jim Rundle, Sr. Planner/City of Sparks/Jim Rundle, Senior Planner

Recommendation: Staff recommends the City Council approve the “Proposed Ward Boundaries” map, including any modifications agreed to by the Council during consideration of this agenda item, and adopt Bill # 2636, an ordinance redistricting the City Council ward boundaries based on the 2010 United States Census.

Financial Impact: N/A

Business Impact (Per NRS 237):
A Business Impact Statement is not required because this is not a rule.

Agenda Item Brief: At the August 29, 2011 City Council meeting staff presented three different redistricting concepts (1A, 1B, and 1C) for the Council’s discussion. Based on that input, staff focused on modifications to 1C. Staff has included the “Stonebrook” development and the area master planned Tourist Commercial within the “Tierra Del Sol” zoning handbook in Ward 4. This staff report also includes demographic information for the proposed wards. Staff recommends the City Council approve the “Proposed Ward Boundaries” map, including any modifications agreed to by the Council during consideration of this agenda item, and adopt Bill # 2636 as an ordinance after conducting a public hearing.

Background: The 2010 United States decennial census is complete and information has been forwarded to state and local governments. With this census data, the City initiated the process of redistricting the five Sparks City Council wards. The ward boundaries were last redrawn in 2003 when the City’s population was estimated at 78,435. The 2010 census determined the City of Sparks’ population was 91,057. While growth occurred throughout the City of Sparks, the majority of it occurred in Ward 4 as illustrated on the “Council Wards” map on page 5. Title 2 of the Sparks Municipal Code requires that population between Wards not differ more than 5%. Currently, the difference exceeds the 5% threshold. Therefore, the ward boundaries must be redrawn.

Analysis: Dividing the 2010 Sparks population number of 91,057 by five (wards) provides a target population of 18,211 per ward. Relative to this target, Ward One is currently under populated by 10%, Ward Two is under populated by 3%, Ward Three is under populated by 16%, Ward Four is over populated by approximately 26% and Ward Five is over populated by approximately 3%. At its August 29, 2011 meeting, the Sparks City Council discussed modifications to Concept 1C. Concept 1C used the existing Ward boundaries as a starting point, as illustrated on the “Redistricting Concept 1C” map. At this meeting members of the Council requested: • Keeping “Stonebrook” in Ward 4; • putting the Tourist Commercial designated land of “Tierra Del Sol” into Ward 4; and • ensuring that the homes along Siltstone Way are in the appropriate ward based on their zoning district and home owner’s association (HOA) affiliation. As staff creates ward boundary concepts for consideration by the City Council, staff ensures: • that the ward boundary includes the current council person’s residence in that ward; • the ward boundaries are contiguous; and • wherever possible, the ward boundaries follow arterials/major streets. The “Proposed Ward Boundaries” map represents the ward boundaries staff has developed based on the above considerations and the Council’s input to date. The ward boundaries ultimately adopted by the Council should, in addition to redistributing the population equally between wards, strive for equal legislative representation for all citizens. To do so the redistricting plan should balance geographic compactness, contiguity, respect for political subdivisions, respect for communities of interest, protection of incumbents and other "political" factors, and race-neutral redistricting principles. Staff has analyzed the available 2010 Census data and calculated the percentage of each proposed ward’s population that is of Hispanic, African American, American Indian and Asian origin (see Table 1, attached). For comparison purposes, staff has done this same analysis for the existing ward boundaries using the 2010 data (see Table 2, attached). The current ward boundaries have been in place since 2003 and no concerns have been brought to City staff’s attention regarding either the dilution or over-concentration of minority communities. The proposed ward boundaries are largely consistent, in terms of their populations’ breakdown by race and Hispanic origin, with the existing wards. The federal Voting Rights Act obligates the City to refrain from diluting the political cohesion of minority groups and avoid creating racially polarized voting districts. There are generally three methods of dilution: "fracturing," "stacking," and "packing." Fracturing refers to the practice of drawing district lines so that minority members are dispersed among as many districts as possible to ensure that the members remain a minority in each district. Stacking refers to the practice of drawing district lines to combine concentrations of minority population with greater concentrations of majority (white) population to ensure that members remain a minority in each district. Packing refers to drawing district boundary lines so as to concentrate as many minorities as possible into as few districts as possible in order to minimize the number of minority districts. Staff did not intentionally employ any of these dilution methods and believe, based on the comparison presented above, that the proposed ward boundaries maintain the current cohesion of the community’s minority groups.

Alternatives: The Council can still propose changes to the Proposed Ward Boundaries map. Staff will prepare to address the question posed during the September 12th Council meeting about potential changes along the Pyramid Highway to the proposed boundaries for Wards 2 and 5. Staff may be unable, however, to address the implications of all the possible scenarios involving these or other changes that involve shifting population between wards without further analysis to assure compliance with the Spark Municipal Code (particularly the 5% limit on population differences) and other considerations (e.g., Voting Rights Act). If additional analysis is required, the redistricting process may be delayed beyond the mid-October date by which the Washoe County Registrar has requested the City complete redistricting.

Recommended Motion: I move to approve the “Proposed Ward Boundaries” map and adopt Bill # 2636, an ordinance redistricting the City Council ward boundaries based on the 2010 United States Census.

Attached Files:

Redistricting population ethnicity tables 1 & 2.pdf

Redistricting plan 1c.pdf

Proposed Ward Boundaries - Colors.pdf

ordinance.pdf

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