The boundary commission posted the options on their website in advance of a public hearing, which is scheduled to be held March 22 at City Hall.
Serving as an advisory body to the City Council, the commission is assigned to make recommendations for potential district boundaries that balance population totals in each district. According to a presentation given at the commission’s Feb. 22 meeting, districts must not exceed a maximum deviation of 10%.
Under the previous boundaries, council District 4 would have had over 10,000 more residents than any other district with a population 38,530.
On top of balancing the district, city officials said the commission is careful about splitting up neighborhoods, defining districts by identifiable boundaries and avoiding placing current council members in the same district.
Both options include cutting District 4 to a population below 30,000. Under both proposals, the Northrich neighborhood would move to District 3 and the Mark Twain neighborhood would move to District 1. The Lennox residential area is also scheduled to move in both options from District 3 to District 4.
The major difference between options is a property adjustment for District 2 to reduce deviation. Option A totals 6% deviation, while Option B totals 4.5%.
In the first option, the Eastside and GreenVue developments, which are located on the northern section of the Richardson Innovation Quarter, would move from District 4 to District 2.
The second option has these developments remaining in District 4 while the area of the CityLine development east of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Rail Line would move to District 2 from District 4.
The commission was appointed by City Council during its Jan. 24 meeting and is made up of members on the City Plan Commission. Members include Bryan Marsh as chair and Stephen Springs as vice chair along with Gary Beach, Joe Costantino, Michael Keller, Sibyl LaCour, Nate Roberts, Ken Southard and Gwen Walraven.
The city charter requires council to appoint a commission every 10 years to review the boundaries and ensure population equality among them, according to a staff memo. The current district boundaries were adopted following the 2010 census but needed to be redrawn in accordance with population growth reflected in the 2020 census.
More details on each boundary option, including a neighborhood and demographic breakdown can be found below.
