Salt Lake County Council unanimously approves new redistricting map

Every 10 years the U.S Census Bureau does a count of the number of people living in the United States. Understanding the population numbers helps the federal government know how to more equitably distribute funding, but these numbers are also used to help with redistricting. Allocating the 435 congressional House seats based on populations is an important part of this process, but so is drawing new boundaries for congressional, legislative, council, school boards and other districts based on the census results. 

You may have heard in the news the results of the state’s efforts to redistrict, including the four new congressional boundaries, state school board, and state House and Senate boundaries. Many don’t realize that in Salt Lake County we implement a similar process to draw boundaries for the six county council districts, as well as the school districts.

When this redistricting process occurs, the Salt Lake County Council utilizes a seven member independent redistricting commission to provide boundary recommendations for the six Salt Lake County districts. Earlier this year, the County Council conducted an application process where interested parties could apply to be appointed to the independent redistricting commission. From these applications the County Council chose and appointed seven commissioners to the county’s independent redistricting committee. 

Utilizing the new U.S. Census Bureau data, the Salt Lake County Redistricting Commission was tasked with creating new district maps to rebalance the population growth that Salt Lake County has experienced in the last 10 years. In addition, the Commission also aimed to create maps that avoided the displacement of current County Council Members, aligned district boundaries with jurisdictional boundaries of municipalities and townships as much as possible, and included at least two jurisdictions within each district.

This committee was asked to present new map options to the County Council by December. The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the publication of census data until September which meant the redistricting commission had to produce maps under a very compressed time frame. 

In November the Salt Lake County Redistricting Commission presented three maps to the Salt Lake County Council. On Nov. 16, 2021, the County Council unanimously approved one of these maps that closely adhered to the current district boundaries. The new districts will take effect Jan. 1, 2022. 

(See new redistricted boundaries in Salt Lake County. The black lines represent existing district boundaries, and the colored sections represent the newly approved boundaries.)

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