Joliet council looks at yet another district map

joliet — One more map was added to the options for Joliet City Council redistricting on Tuesday, and it’s the one council members said they’re likely to approve.

The proposed maps for new council districts are to be posted on the city’s website on Wednesday, giving potential candidates in the April 4, 2023 election a chance to see what district they are in.

The council plans to vote on a map on June 21.

But council members in a straw poll taken at the Tuesday meeting said they are likely to vote for the latest rendition suggested by Councilwoman Sherri Reardon.

The map, like two of the other four that have been proposed, keep all current council members in their districts.

Reardon proposed the latest version to avoid dividing her own Twin Oaks East neighborhood into two districts.

“That meant if you lived on the other side of the street you would be in another council district,” Reardon said.

Reardon’s version was a slight revision of a map suggested by Councilman Larry Hug, who wanted to avoid splitting the Warwick subdivision where he lives and the Wexford East subdivision into two districts.

Hug was among council members who said they would support the Reardon map.

The five district council members in Joliet are elected only by residents in the districts they represent. The council also has three at-large members who are elected by the entire city. The five district council seats and the mayor will be up for election in 2023.

The remaps are needed because the 2020 Census showed that Joliet grew disproportionately in District Three, which Reardon represents and which extends into the far West Side where most new homes are built.

The new maps are designed to keep the five districts at roughly 30,000 people. The population of Joliet now is 150,362.

At-large Councilman Cesar Guerrero urged interested residents to check out the proposed maps.

“If we need to make any additional changes, we can do that before the next council meeting,” Guerrero said.

City staff created two maps using GIS software. The first simply reallocated on population, and it created a new District Three in which Reardon was no longer a resident. A second one reallocated on population with the condition that all current council members remain in their districts.

The Hug and Reardon revisions are based on the second staff-produced map for the sake of keeping subdivisions intact.