Redistricting is going to be a hot topic for the next couple of months.

The 2022 elections will be held in newly redrawn City Council, Guilford County Board of Commissioners, North Carolina state House and state Senate and US congressional districts.

The congressional districts have the potential for the largest changes, since the growth in population of the state resulted in North Carolina gaining another congressional district.  Instead of the current 13 districts, in the 2022 elections North Carolina will elect representatives to the US House from 14 districts.

While the state has grown significantly since the last census in 2010, Greensboro has not, averaging about 1 percent growth a year.  Technically Greensboro is required to redistrict because City Council District 2 was 0.01 out of compliance with the current standard that districts be within 5 percent of the ideal district with a population of 59,807.

The Redistricting Committee found that it could comply with the current standard by moving one-and-a-half precincts.

Perhaps because so few alterations are necessary the City Council redistricting hasn’t sparked much interest in Greensboro.

The Greensboro Redistricting Committee is scheduled to meet Thursday, Oct. 12 at 7 p.m. to choose a map or maps to recommend to the City Council.

The committee itself meets in city hall.  The public is not invited to attend the meeting, but can watch the meeting virtually on the City of Greensboro YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/user/CityofGreensboroNC .On Thursday, Sept. 30 the Redistricting Committee held its public hearing on the proposed maps and received no comments from the public on the maps it was considering.  One of the more interesting public comments came from a caller who wanted to know how to watch the virtual town hall meeting being held at the same time by District 2 City Councilmember Goldie Wells.

While the council districts could be brought into compliance by moving one-and-a-half precincts, the map the Redistricting Committee expressed the most support for at the Sept. 30 meeting is a map that moves 22 precincts.  The map referred to as the “pie shaped map” uses the districts drawn in 2001 as a base rather than the current City Council district map that was drawn in 2011.

Although councilmembers have been hesitant to weigh in publicly on the Redistricting Committee’s work while it is a work in progress, several have expressed concern off the record about moving 22 precincts when compliance with the current standards could be reached by moving one-and-a-half precincts.

The City Council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the map or maps recommended by the Redistricting Committee at the virtual meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 19 and to vote to approve a redistricting map at the hybrid City Council meeting on Monday, Nov. 1.  The redistricting map has to be sent to the North Carolina Board of Elections by Nov. 17.