City of Jamestown Ward Map
Jamestown’s Reapportionment Commission will continue the process of redrawing ward boundary lines Tuesday, May 24.
Reapportionment takes place every 10 years following the results of the U.S. Census, and the city’s reapportionment commission is tasked with proposing new ward boundaries to get the average number of people within each ward to be as equal as possible.
Each of the current six wards would need to have 4785 residents apiece in order to have 100% equal population, but the commission agrees that is not possible. State law allows the population numbers to be within 5% of each other, but the commission is hoping to get them within 1% or less.
Based on the 2020 census numbers, all but one of the city’s wards saw population shifts of 130 residents or more. The ward with the largest swing in population was Ward 1, which lost 254 residents. Ward 6 also lost 197 residents. Meanwhile, Wards 2, 4 and 5 each gained 136, 161, and 151 residents, respectively. Ward 3 saw little-to-no change, with an increase of just 5 residents.
Because of the changes in population, the commission will likely have to adjust boundaries for all six wards in order to meet its goal of populations that are within 1% or less.
During its last meeting on May 10, the commission actually voted to move forward with drawing two different versions of the updated city ward maps – one with the current number of six wards and another with only five wards. When it meets on Tuesday, it will review those draft maps and then consider any further adjustments as requested by its 11 voting members.
Once the maps are finalized, the commission will make a final vote on what to recommend to the city council, which has final approval on the reapportionment process. The deadline for that recommendation is September 1.
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