The City of Carlsbad Independent Redistricting Commission will hold its third of four public hearings Thursday, Jan. 13, at 6 p.m. At the hearing, which will be virtual to help limit the spread of COVID-19, draft City Council district maps will be presented for feedback.
The City of Carlsbad needs to update the boundaries of its four City Council districts based on the latest Census, so each district has about the same number of people.
An independent redistricting commission will choose the new district map without involvement from the City Council.
The deadline to have an approved new City Council district map is April 17, 2022.
The public hearing will be livestreamed on the city’s website. Instructions on how to provide live comments will be included on the meeting agenda, which will be posted to the city website a minimum of five days prior to the hearing. The draft maps will be included with the agenda.
At the commission’s Dec. 16 meeting, the city’s professional demographer presented 28 draft maps created by members of the public and four maps the demographer created. These maps presented different approaches to establishing new City Council district boundaries:
Some maps made small changes to existing City Council boundaries.
Some had part of the city’s coastline in each district, and one had the coastline all in one district.
One map divided the city into quadrants, using El Camino Real and Palomar Airport Road as the main dividing line, although to balance the population, the boundaries deviated from those main streets in some areas.
These maps along with new draft maps will be presented for input at the public hearing Jan. 13.
How to submit a map
It’s not too late to submit a draft map. Maps created by members of the public will be evaluated by the city’s professional demographer. Maps submitted by the deadlines below will be evaluated prior to the corresponding meeting. All maps will be shared with the Independent Commission and the public.
Maps submitted after Jan. 3 and before Jan. 14 will be evaluated in time for the Jan. 27 Independent Redistricting Commission meeting.
Maps submitted after Jan. 14 and before Feb. 1 will be evaluated in time for the final public hearing, Feb. 17.
What’s Next?
The Independent Redistricting Commission will hold a regular business meeting on Jan. 27 where it will review maps and discuss its consensus building process of selecting a final map.
A final public hearing is planned for Feb. 17.
The deadline to choose a map is April 17, 2022.
See the Full Schedule
How to create maps
Online: Residents can draw maps using Districtr or Maptitude, online mapping tools that let you draw just your community or all four districts. Both tools have the final, adjusted census data.
Please note, you’ll be prompted to make an account when you start to use Maptitude. This allows you to save your work and draw your map over multiple sessions.
Paper: Maps can also be created using a paper mapping kit and an excel spreadsheet.
About the commission
The Carlsbad City Council decided to appoint an independent commission to make the final decision about a new City Council district map. Members were chosen from applications at random based on criteria established by the state and the City Council. The commission has regular meetings that are open to the public. You can see the schedule here.
Get updates by text
For text message updates about redistricting, residents can text the word “districts” to 760-302-5500.
More information
Contact the City Clerk’s Office at 760-434-2808 or redistricting@carlsbadca.gov.
