The city's redistricting plan is due to the state June 15.
HOLYOKE – Preliminary changes would have Ward 4 both gaining and losing some blocks in citywide redistricting that will be the focus of a public hearing Tuesday.
The City Council Redevelopment Committee will hold the hearing at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.
Cities and towns must redistrict, or redraw voting ward lines, after each 10-year federal census to ensure each ward has roughly the same number of residents.
If lines are reestablished to change the configuration of a ward, it could mean some residents will have to go to different polling places to vote in elections.
The census showed the city’s population to be 39,880.
That means each of the seven wards must have between 5,412 and 5,981 people, said Jeffrey F. Burkott, principal planner with the city Office of Planning and Development.
Since each ward here has two voting precincts, that means each precinct must have between 2,705 and 2,990 people, he said.
Cities and towns must file redistricting plans with the state Local Election District Review Commission by June 15.
The goal is to have the City Council vote on the redistricting plan June 7, so officials will be heeding public hearing comments, committee Chairman Kevin A. Jourdain said.
“We could make changes if there’s enough of a groundswell,” Jourdain said.
Burkott and other officials said they wanted to emphasize ward changes at this point are preliminary.
Also, efforts were made to avoid changes that would hinder residents who lack transportation by making them have to walk far to vote, Burkott said.
“We don’t want to strand them,” he said.
To fit each ward to the population requirement, the following changes are being considered, Burkott said:
Õ¤Six blocks would be moved from Ward 4 to Ward 1 between Hampden, Hampshire, Walnut and Elm Streets.
Õ¤Four blocks would be moved from Ward 2 to Ward 4, between Oak, Elm, Sargeant and Hampshire streets.
Õ¤Six blocks would be moved from Ward 6 to Ward 7, from Beacon to Hampden streets, and from Thorpe Avenue to Northampton Street.
Õ¤In Ward 3, 51 people would move from Ward 3A to Ward 3B on Gilman Street, Ball Avenue and Clark Street to Northampton Street.
Õ¤In Ward 2, 172 people will change from Ward 2A to Ward 2B, from Cabot, to South Bridge to South Canal, to Main St., then down Main to Meadow St. and up to the rail bed to the northwest.
Õ¤In Ward 5, some streets will move from Precinct B to Precinct A, which will gain the block of Kane, to Knollwood, to Village, to Knollwood, back to Kane. Also to increase Precinct 5A, moving would be a block that includes Kane to Homestead, to Lower Westfield, then following Tannery Brook (to the east) northerly back to Kane.
Because there is one polling place for both precincts in three of the wards, residents there – Wards 4 ( St. Paul’s Church Parish, 485 Appleton St.), 6 (First Lutheran School, Northampton Street) and 7 (E. N. White School, 1 Jefferson St.) – would be unaffected by precinct changes.