The Eugene City Council approved a resolution realigning city ward boundaries within Eugene in a unanimous vote at a Dec. 13, 2021 city council meeting.
The updated boundaries combine changes from two scenarios that the public reviewed in a survey earlier this year.
Eugene is divided into eight wards, each represented by the ward’s elected city council member.
The Eugene Charter mandates ward boundaries be reviewed and updated every 10 years — after the federal census — to adjust for new population data and ensure populations within wards are approximately equal to provide accurate representation by local officials, according to a statement from the city.
As Eugene’s current population is a little over 176,000, each of Eugene’s eight wards should have approximately 22,000 residents. The city council approved a set of criteria earlier this year to guide ward boundary scenarios. The criteria included establishing a population range difference of plus or minus 3% between wards, considering geographic and neighborhood features and striving for relative compactness and contiguity, according to a statement from the city.
Changes include moving a piece of the Amazon neighborhood from ward three to ward two, a strip from the northwest of ward three to ward one, part of the Bethel neighborhood from ward seven to wards six and eight and a north piece of ward five to ward four.
Councilor Mike Clark said he wanted to compliment staff who came up with the strategy for dividing the ward boundaries.
“I thought it was sound and logical and reasonable in keeping with the way the law specifies we’re supposed to do this work, as opposed to other governmental entities who fumbled it and gerrymandered it and had controversial outcomes,” Clark said. “I think we did a fantastic job with it.”
Although he voted in support of the resolution, Councilor Randy Groves asked that officials take more time to consider the ward boundaries.
Data from the 2020 census came in later than expected in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The council had to finalize new ward boundaries by the end of the year to allow the county elections office to change the precinct boundaries in time to prepare ballots and materials.
“I would like to encourage staff before we do this again in 10 years, or whatever council is sitting here in 10 years, that we give a little deeper dive into this in enough time ahead of getting down to crunch time like we are now,” Groves said. “I just think it’s worthy of taking the time to really do a more in-depth study of this issue and what makes the most sense.”
