Three wards would change significantly under redistricting plan

LACONIA — Several hundred city residents will be voting in a different ward next year under a proposed redistricting plan.

The biggest changes would be in Wards 1, 3 and 6 under the plan being presented to the City Council.

The changes reflect an increase in the city’s population of more than 900 people in the past 10 years, and the shifts in populations among the city’s six wards.

The biggest change would be in Ward 3 where 725 residents will be affected. All residents on Blueberry Lane, Lynnewood Avenue, and all of Wildwood Village would be in Ward 3. In addition, Lexington Avenue would become the northern boundary of the ward, putting the Belknap County Complex in Ward 3 for the first time.

The proposed change will also necessitate finding a new Ward 1 polling place because the location of the current polling place — the Beane Conference Center on Blueberry Lane — would be in Ward 3 under the redistricting proposal.

Other significant changes would be in Weirs Beach where all residents on the east side of the Weirs Channel will be included in Ward 6, along Old North Main Street where people on both sides of the street will be in Ward 1, and in the South Down and Long Bay condominium communities which will be entirely in Ward 1 instead of being split between Wards 1 and 6. That change would also include placing Leigh Court, Linney Lane, along with parts of Van Buren Road, North Street, and Massachusetts Avenue in Ward 1 as well because the city cannot split census blocks — the smallest geographical unit which is used to tabulate the decennial census.

Normally the redistricting changes would be in a referendum submitted to the voters in next month’s city election. However, because of delays in releasing the census data due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was not possible to come up with a redistricting plan in time to meet the deadline for printing the ballots. As a result, when voters go to the polls in just over two weeks they will be asked to approve a change to the City Charter which will allow the City Council to approve the redistricting plan.

The council would need to pass the redistricting plans by a two-thirds majority in order for it to be approved.

The ward boundaries needed to be adjusted because there was too much variation in the populations of some wards. For example, the 2020 Census showed there was a disparity of 640 people between Ward 3 with 2,429, and Ward 6 with 3,069.

The ideal ward population given the city’s total population of 16,871 as shown in the 2020 Census would be 2,812 residents. Under the proposed redistricting plan, the largest variation in ward population would be 129 people — the difference between Wards 2 and 3.