Dallas City Council Approves New Redistricting Map

Dallas City Council has agreed on district boundaries using data from the 2020 Census that stick close to the existing lines.

The council was not able to come to an agreement during two previous meetings but made another attempt around the horseshoe during a special-called meeting June 27 and voted unanimously to pass the new lines.

District 11, represented by council member Jaynie Schultz in Preston Hollow, now encompasses parts of Far North Dallas past Arapaho Road, taking away from District 12. On the contrast, though, part of District 12 will move into District 11 until Keller Springs Road near Prestonwood.

Gay Donnell Willis, council member for District 13, will also see slight reworking of the area she represents following a modification submitted by her and council member Omar Narvaez. The amendment calls for Lenel Place to be used as a border between Districts 6 and 13, the neighborhood between Northaven Road and Royal Lane west of Webb Chapel is moving to District 6, and the neighborhoods south of Forest Lane between Josey Lane and Webb Chapel will be kept in District 13. In turn, District 13 has 525 more constituents than previously drawn for.

During the June 22 meeting, Willis said it’s important to look down the horseshoe 10 years from now, as other areas will continue to develop but hers may be stagnant. 

“We gave a lot of thought to how the numbers would move, and this is really in response to the discussion that took place around the shoe with concerns over the size of District 13,” Willis said. “If you look at the sheet that we were given today, [it] begins to really show that the 13 number came down considerably.”

The decision was made during the special-called meeting without discussion after hearing from community members who shared their support or lack thereof for the new redistricting map. Council member Jaime Resendez was alone in wanting a discussion period and was heard murmuring “f–king cowardly” over his microphone during the voting period. 

If the City Council hadn’t come to a decision by June 29, the version of the map recommended by the city’s redistricting commission would have been adopted by default.