MASON, Mich. — The Ingham County Apportionment Commission has approved a county redistricting plan that will create a new district and take the Board of Commissioners from 14 members to 15.
"And so now we will have 15 districts representing Ingham County on the Board of Commissioners," Ingham County Board of Commissioners Chairperson Bryan Crenshaw said.
Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum said the 15-member map "has an out-county portion and it has Meridian Township which is basically Haslett and Okemos, and then there's a strong Delhi Township portion, and then Lansing is broken into areas that are similar.
"We focused on eliminating as many breaks as possible, so there weren't breaks of jurisdictions. We wanted to keep communities of interest as close as possible and the main factor was certainly population," she said.
Byrum said the target population per district was 18,993 county residents. The new district will represent 19,467 county residents.
"Meridian Township increased in population, so they have two districts representing basically Okemos and Haslett, and then Delhi Township has basically its own district, and I think that's important for representation. Lansing decreased in population but still has a lot of population so those districts were drawn as such," Byrum said.
In 2011, the number of districts was reduced from 16 to 14. The county Apportionment Commission, made up of county elected officials along with the chair of the county Republican Party and the chair of the county Democratic Party, meets every ten years following the census.
Byrum said the new map was a compromise.
"I introduced an 11-member map. There wasn't support for it. There was support for increasing the number of county commissioners," Byrum said.
The 15-district map will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023. Byrum said she doesn't think constituents will see "much of a change."
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