By unanimous vote, Mesa City Council on Nov 15 approved the recommended map for the new City Council district boundaries.

The new map, recommended by Mesa’s nonpartisan redistricting commission, takes effect immediately and is available to view at mesaaz.gov/government/redistricting.

The redistricting commission, a five-member citizen panel created by mandate of the Mesa city charter, held a series of public outreach meetings, an online survey, an online mapping tool and other forms of community outreach to complete the recommended map for new Council district boundaries, based on how local populations have changed.

Key outcomes from the new map, according to the release, include:

• Maintains as many neighborhoods as possible within the same district. Superstition Springs, Washington-Escobedo, Mesa Grande and the Evergreen Historic District were among neighborhoods kept intact.
• Unites historic neighborhoods of the city into District 4, which includes downtown and areas near downtown.
• District 6 in southeast Mesa is slightly under-populated to help account for the planned growth over the next decade in this area of the city.

Every 10 years, local governments — including the city of Mesa — use new Census data to redraw their City Council district lines based on population shifts. Delivery of U.S. Census data by the federal government was delayed several months compared to prior decades due to the pandemic.