Growth prompts Batavia to consider tweaking ward boundaries

The Batavia City Council appears poised to approve redistricting of its city council wards with little discord or discussion.

Monday, the council’s government services committee voted 7-0 to recommend approval of the map presented by the city administrator.

Wards must have equal populations to make sure a ward isn’t under- or overrepresented. Courts have ruled vote dilution is a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment regarding equal protection, according to attorneys for the Illinois Municipal League.

Batavia’s population grew by 9.1 percent between 2000 and 2010, and most of that occurred on the edges of town, particularly the west side. Batavia has seven wards, with two aldermen per ward.

City Administrator Bill McGrath and the city’s geographic information system manager devised the new map. It still reflects the city’s major geographic dividers, Wilson Street and the Fox River, while aiming for an average population of 3,726 residents per ward.

Ward 7’s geography would increase, taking in a chunk of the northwestern edge of Ward 2. Ward 3, on the city’s northwest side, would lose some territory to Ward 5. Ward 4 would extend slightly south of Wilson, and Ward 6 would add territory north of Wilson.

The proposed map can be viewed on the city’s website, cityofbatavia.net.

The highest deviation from the average population would be in Ward 3, with 4,029 people, or 1.15 percent over the average.

McGrath said it will take several weeks for city workers to write the exact legal descriptions for the boundaries, so the committee set a deadline of bringing the map to a city council vote by July 1.

The proposed boundary changes would not affect any of the aldermen; all would remain in their current wards.

“There wasn’t even any real gerrymandering done to do that,” said Mayor Jeff Schielke.

The St. Charles City Council redrew its ward boundaries earlier this year. The five-ward Geneva City Council, which grew past 20,000, would have had to add two wards after the 2010 Census, except for a change in state law in 2011. That change allowed councils to decide, if the population increased, whether to add wards or stay the same. And Geneva has not redrawn ward boundaries.