The best opportunity for people to provide input on the new City Council district map will be at the public hearing during the virtual meeting of the Greensboro Redistricting Committee, beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 30.

The redistricting maps that the Redistricting Committee chose to move forward can be found at https://www.greensboro-nc.gov/government/2022-redistricting-info .

Those who want to speak at the public hearing need to register to attend the meeting on Zoom by 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 30. at Redistricting Committee Zoom .

After the public hearing, the redistricting committee plans to continue meeting and choose a map to recommend to the City Council.  The City Council also plans to hold a public hearing on the redistricting map or maps, but to get in on the ground floor before the decisions are made the Sept. 30 is your best bet.

The Redistricting Committee has not yet discussed which map the committee members favor.  At the Sept. 23 meeting the Redistricting Committee was presented with the maps for the first time and the committee discussed and reached agreement on how many maps to present at the public hearing.  The committee decided on three and then reached agreement on which three to present.

The redistricting web page, however, includes four maps, including “C2 Draft Map” that the consultants revised after the Redistricting Committee meeting.

It appears unlikely that the “Least Change Draft Map” will be the one presented to the City Council because, while the map meets the legal requirements, it does not fulfill all the criteria set by the City Council.

However, the maps that do meet most if not all of the criteria are the “Pie Shaped Draft Map,” “C2 Draft Map” and “Moderate Change Draft Map.”

The pie shaped map, which is based on the districts drawn in 2001 rather than the districts drawn in 2011, has some history going for it.  In 2011 the City Council had a Republican majority.  The current City Council is made up of nine Democrats, so the current City Council may be more inclined to go with a revised 2001 map drawn by a City Council with a Democratic majority rather than a revised 2011 map drawn by Republicans, despite the fact that City Council races are nonpartisan and party affiliation is not supposed to be considered.

People are also invited to present their own proposed redistricting maps at the public hearing.