Newport News City Council narrowly approves plan to redraw voting districts

With the deadline to apply to run for political office just around the corner, the Newport News City Council narrowly approved a redistricting plan.

Since hearing the three proposals for redrawing the city’s voting districts last month, the council had been divided between two of the options, but needed to select one quickly so candidates would have time to collect signatures to run for office.

In a 4-3 vote, the council approved a plan Tuesday night that will move the Knollwood Meadows and Sanford precincts from the central district to the north, and the Jenkins and Oyster Point precincts will shift to the central district. Warwick and Hilton precincts will shift from the central to the south district.

The map now must receive approval from the state attorney general’s office.

The filing deadline for the November elections is June 15, and the approval process could take up to 60 days, meaning it could go as late as May 22.

Cities across the state are facing a similar crunch because the pandemic delayed the 2020 census, so states did not receive the final demographic data until early fall. Virginia then had to redistrict, and when the state’s redistricting commission couldn’t agree on a map, the Virginia Supreme Court was tasked with the responsibility. The maps were finalized by the end of December, which then left it to the municipalities to redistrict.

Redistricting is required by state and federal law following the census every 10 years. Newport News needed to redraw its districts because the city’s population grew from 180,719 to 186,247 people — about 3.1%.

Most of the population increase was in the city’s central district, and the growth left the municipality’s three districts uneven.

The redistricting map was created based on population and had to be drawn using observable boundaries such as waterways or highways. Districts must be compact in shape and the precincts within the district must touch geographically. Under state law, the city was also not allowed to have any split precincts, which means the local districts for city council and school board had to remain within the same congressional district and state house and senate districts.

The city hosted three meetings — one in each district — to hear community feedback about the redistricting options.

The council members who voted in favor of the redistricting map chosen Tuesday night said that of the options, it was the most compact.

Newport News Mayor McKinley Price said the map was “very aesthetic” and did not have any appearance of being gerrymandered. He stressed that the maps were drawn based on population, not politics.

The maps were drawn by a committee of city employees including the director of planning, city attorney and registrar.

Those who opposed the redistricting map Tuesday said one of the other options that had been previously presented aligned more closely with the existing districts.

“I think when we’re in a situation like this with an upcoming election — because it is about elections too — we need to keep things as near to what we had as we can, so people will not be disrupted,” said Councilwoman Pat Woodbury, who voted against the plan.

Councilman David Jenkins also voted against the plan, saying he preferred a different option because it did “a better job of keeping communities of interest together.”

Jessica Nolte, 757-912-1675, jnolte@dailypress.com