Growing pains: Orange County begins redistricting process

Orange County voters in November approved a charter amendment to expand the number of commission districts from six to eight. The Orange County Board of County Commissioners has undertaken a redistricting process to establish new district boundaries and incorporate two additional districts.

A redistricting advisory committee was formed in January to hold public meetings to gather community input, review data from the 2020 U.S. Census, propose the new boundaries and recommend adjustments to the existing districts, and submit a new mapping recommendation to the county commission in September.

Nicole Wilson is the commissioner for District 1, which encompasses almost all of West Orange and Southwest Orange and is one of the two fastest-growing districts in the county.

“I’m happy to make sure we’re doing everything we can to have fair representation across all the districts,” she said.

But she criticized the timing of the redistricting process.

“The conversation that was had at the Charter Review Commission … their analysis was based on population growth,” Wilson said. “I think my criticism is … we should redistrict in census years.”

The U.S. Census is taken every 10 years and is used for the basis of redistricting at every level of government, she said.

“The local decision to add two commission districts was done by the 2024 Charter Review Commission, a citizen-appointed panel,” Wilson said. “Their analysis was based on population. My concern is the data they have is outdated … from the 2020 census.”

Her hope is residents will pay attention to the process.

“I heard from people at the second and third meetings that they were no longer in District 1,” Wilson said. “Have people take a look at where their address is and where they fall on the map.”

To ensure fair and equal districts, about 60,000 people will be redrawn out of each district to create the two new ones, she said. She hopes the new maps will pull residents from around the edges of her district.

“We’re not an interior district,” she said. “We get to Lake County, and there’s no wiggle room. We get to Osceola County, and there’s no wiggle room. Try to nibble around the edges if possible. My feeling is people in District 1 just got finished with a pretty long and difficult election cycle, and it’s a lot to ask people to try and stay engaged. … People expect that (there) will be steady representation until 2028.

“I have a very protective feeling about some of these communities because we’ve worked on (projects) together,” she said.

Wilson said she’s concerned about keeping communities together, such as Hunters Creek, Williamsburg, Dr. Phillips and Horizon West.

Scott Boyd, who served as District 1’s commissioner from 2008-16, is opposed to adding commission seats.

“It’s ridiculous, it’s needless, and I don’t really understand how the commission or their charter review committee members thought this was a good idea,” he said.

Boyd said every district is different, and it’s difficult to redistrict communities.

“I’m not a fan of the new districts,” he said. “Having gone through it in the past, some parts of the county aren’t going to be lumped in with other districts. When I was a commissioner, I wasn’t happy about losing Orlo Vista, about losing MetroWest. I lost some of Ocoee, and the district got compressed to the point of being the wealthier side of the community.

“It’s going to be hugely important in how it all works together,” Boyd said. “All six (commissioners) will lose 20-something percent of the area they currently represent. That’s significant.”

Because of the growth in West Orange and Southwest Orange, this area definitely will require another commission district, Boyd said.

“It’s been preferred to have one district voice,” he said. “You may have two now, you may have three. I think that could be interesting. I don’t personally think it’s efficient.”

What makes the most sense in West Orange County, Boyd said, is keeping Ocoee, Winter Garden, Oakland and Windermere together because those municipalities work well together.

“They’re very engaged with each other on what’s happening with each other,” he said. “Horizon West obviously has a huge community, a growing community, that would benefit from having one commissioner on the board.”

The redistricting absolutely is not necessary, he said.

“They’re just making an already-complex situation more complex,” Boyd said.

REDISTRICTING 101
During the Nov. 5 General Election, voters approved Charter Amendment 6, which increased the number of Orange County Commission districts from six to eight, creating a nine-member County Commission consisting of eight commissioners and the mayor. The county is now engaged in this redistricting process of adding two more districts and redrawing existing lines in a fair and equitable way.

The goal of redistricting is to rebalance the population between commission districts so no commissioner is representing substantially more individual citizens than the other commissioners.

County citizens are invited to the community meetings to share their opinions on where the district lines should be redrawn on the map, keeping in mind population, municipality lines, historical and cultural communities.

The county will develop and adopt a revised county commission district map based on public input and three redistricting criteria: Equal population, Federal Anti-Discrimination Law and consideration of the “Traditional Redistricting Principles.”

Equal population is the most important of the redistricting criteria, according to Orange County, and is based on the constitutional concept of “One Person, One Vote” derived by the U.S. Supreme Court from the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Districts must be divided so they are contiguous and as nearly equal in population as practicable.

The traditional redistricting principles include compactness, contiguity, preservation of municipal boundaries, preservation of cores of prior districts, maintaining communities of interest and general protection of incumbents.

Orange County has formed a Mid-Decennial Redistricting Project Team, which consists of personnel from various county offices, as well as a Mid-Decennial Redistricting Advisory Committee. The MRAC will recommend maps reflecting eight proposed commission district boundaries to the Board of County Commissioners for its consideration and eventual adoption.

The Orange County Charter requires commissioners to adopt a plan redistricting the county into eight districts by Nov. 1. The redistricting committee has been meeting weekly since March to recommend map proposals for consideration by county commissioners.