Cibolo City Council on Jan. 11 discussed the redistricting process for the city and the steps needed before the city makes district changes.

During the November election, voters approved a proposition allowing the city to transition from seven single-member districts to four, with the mayor and remaining three districts being at-large.

According to City Attorney Frank Garza, the reason for the redistricting is to ensure districts contain roughly equal populations, and the new districts will help divide the population growth.

Liza Gonzalez, assistant director of planning and engineering, said the population in the city has risen nearly 1,000% since 2000, moving from around 3,000 people to around 30,000, with projections of surpassing 50,000 in the next 10 to 15 years.

Those running in the 2022 elections will not be affected by redistricting changes and elections will move forward as usual until 2024.

“In November of 2024 will be the very first time elections for the newly-created districts 1 and 4, and at-large districts 5 and 6 will take place,” Garza said. “And then in November of 2025, elections for the newly-created districts 2 and 3, and at-large District 7 and mayor will take place.”

According to Garza, this timeline will give the city enough time to draw the new maps and receive public input and feedback before finalizing any changes.

Work on redistricting will begin with contracting a demographer, which the city plans to award near the end of 2022. Public hearings and other opportunities to receive additional community input are estimated to happen around February 2023.