The Houston City Council approved an ordinance Oct. 12 solidifying new council district maps for the next decade with a few last-minute changes.
In District C, council members listened to requests from residents in the Fourth Ward and Freedmen's Town who for the past several months have been showing up to comment sessions to ask the city to reverse its proposal for the community to be moved from District C to District H.
District C Council Member Abbie Kamin said it was important to her to fight for the change.
"My amendment is not an easy amendment," Kamin said. "We have an obligation to listen to our constituents that come before us. We have heard overwhelming public comment week after week ... from Precinct 30—Fourth Ward [and] Freedmen’s Town—requesting to remain in District C."
However, the move necessitated a trade-off to keep the population of each district balanced. By keeping Freedman's Town in District C, Kamin proposed moving two voting precincts in Garden Oaks—precincts 73 and 324, covering a chunk of Garden Oaks west of Shepherd Drive and south of Pinemont Street—from District C into District H.
While drawing the new maps, the city had to follow several key guidelines, two of which were at the center of the Oct. 12 conversation: The city cannot draw lines that diminish the voting power of demographic groups, and it cannot draw lines that result in more than a 10% difference in population between the least-populated district and the most-populated district.
The splitting up of Garden Oaks was an amendment to an initial proposal from Kamin that would have only moved portions of Precinct 324 from District C to District H, splitting up the Candlelight Plaza and Shepherd Park Plaza neighborhoods in the process.
By further amending her proposal, Kamin sent Precinct 324 to District H in its entirety, which also helped lower the District C population and bring the city further below the 10% threshold, said Houston demographer Jerry Wood, who helped the city produce the new maps.
The move passed with a vote of 11-6 with Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and District H Council Member Karla Cisneros among those opposed. Cisneros referenced letters she said she received from members of the Garden Oaks Civic Club and the Garden Oaks Super Neighborhood requesting not to be broken up.
"I have not talked to anyone up there who is supportive or who even knew about it until last night," she said.
Tonya Knauth, president of the Garden Oaks Civic Club, said she did not find out about the proposed changes until 7 p.m. Oct. 11. She said she contacted the Houston Planning Department in July to highlight the boundaries of Garden Oaks and request the community not be broken up in redistricting, but she otherwise had little need to participate in the process up until this point.
"I didn’t advocate for inclusion in one district or the other; I just said, ‘please keep us in one district,’" she said. "I so appreciate that redistricting is complex. It is not that we don’t understand that. We had no opportunity to provide any input and try to craft a solution."
The Garden Oaks subdivision was founded in 1937 and operates as an active, unified community, Knauth said. Moving forward, she said is prepared to work with both council districts to address the community's needs but said it will likely put an increased strain on the Civic Club and its volunteers.
Wood also expressed concerns about the movement of the two Garden Oaks precincts, particularly what they could mean for District H. Communities adjacent to Shepherd Drive, while majority Hispanic, have been gentrifying over the past decade. The percentage of Hispanic residents fell from 75% in 2010 to 59% in 2020, a trend he said he expects to continue.
As a Hispanic opportunity district—a district where the population of eligible Hispanic voters is high enough for them to elect council members that support their needs—District H could see the voting power of Hispanics reduced over time if gentrification continues, Wood said. Wood admitted the move would provide an immediate increase to the Hispanic population in District H overall from 67.7% to 69.4%, based on 2020 census numbers, but said he did not think it would last.
"I believe that we’ve already seen erosion in the number that causes the Hispanic percentage to rise, and I believe that erosion will continue into the future, and we should be aware of ... any changes in terms of bringing any largely Anglo upper-middle class population into District H," Wood said.
Several council members who supported the move pointed to that increase, arguing it was not appropriate to draw map lines based on demographic assumptions that have not yet come to fruition. Kamin said she felt the changes were the best compromise to satisfy residents in Freedmen's Town, keeping communities largely in tact and boosting the percentage of Hispanic residents in District H.
Other updates
In addition to the District C changes, council members approved of several other amendments Oct. 12 before the final maps were approved.
An amendment from District I Council Member Robert Gallegos will allow the Magnolia Park community near Houston's Greater East End to stay in tact with an area known as the Smith Addition. Gallegos said the move would help protect both District I's and District H's status as Hispanic opportunity districts.
Another amendment from at-large Council Member Mike Knox undid a proposal that called for moving portions of Precinct 177 from District G into District C. The communities involved are Highland Village and Lynn Park, residents from which Knox said contacted him asking to stay in District G. The amendment passed without opposition and will have a negligible effect on the district population, Wood said.
A proposed amendment from District G Council Member Mary Nan Huffman failed to pass because it would have made the total population in District G too high. The amendment would have moved precincts 274 and 730—located just outside Loop 610 and south of I-10 West—from District A back into District G, where they are now.
The council action Oct. 12 set the stage for the ordinance to be ratified in January. However, the new maps will not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2024, according to a timeline from the city of Houston.
Find more information on the maps and redistricting process here.
