During the city’s June 5 City Council meeting, the council voted to approve the final draft of the new district lines that are a part of the city’s transition to having single-member districts.

During last November’s elections, Buda residents voted to amend the city’s charter to transition from the existing at-large format to six single-member districts with an at-large mayor.

The council voted in January for even-numbered council member seats to be the first to transition to single-member district seats, and in March it approved the first draft of the new district lines. In April and May, Buda hosted two public hearings and a workshop on the first draft of the new boundaries. After public input, the council was offered a second draft, which City Attorney George Hyde said was compliant with state and federal law.

“One of the efforts that we were trying to do was not have districts divided solely by railroads because other people living on the other side of the railroad tracks, so to speak, is a different divider,” Hyde said. “We have also made the effort to include subdivisions in the same district, which was a laborious task with the census data being what it was.”

C. Robert Heath from Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP, which created the new district maps, said because the U.S. 2010 census data was not a true representation of Buda’s current population, the team had to track the number of households per block and then multiply the figure by the average number of people per household to get a 2018 estimate of Buda’s population.

Council members Wiley Hopkins in Place 2, Paul Daugereau in Place 4 and Evan Ture in Place 6 will be the first to switch to districts A, B and C, respectively, in November. The single-member district position replacing the Place 2 seat will carry a one-year term; Place 4 a three-year term; and Place 6 a two-year term to ensure staggered elections of the seats.