County Legislators Say City's Redistricting Changes Are Minor

Members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators have begun their decennial process to redraw their district boundaries.

The changes are being done to account for changes in population data from the 2010 Census. The criteria that Beveridge cited in drawing districts include geographical contiguity and having a similar population size. Click here for more information on redistricting. 

Despite maintaining similarities with the current districts, there are some changes in municipalities. White Plains' county legislators—Bill Ryan and Alfreda Williams—say there are only slight changes for the city's district lines.

“There really are minor changes being worked into a redistricting plan for all 17 county districts,” said Ryan (District 5-White Plains, Scarsdale), after the committee's Monday meeting.

The lawmakers are working from a plan unveiled at a April 21 meeting of the Committee on Legislation. The map, presented by Dr. Andrew Beveridge, a sociology professor at Queens College, mostly calls for incremental changes to the district boundaries, something that he called "a nip and tuck approach."

White Plains is currently represented by Ryan, who has about two-thirds of the city, and Williams (District 8-Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Elmsford, Greenburgh, White Plains), who has one-third.

Ryan said there would be “slight modifications to both District 8 and 5 with respect to some blocks in the city of White Plains,” though they would be minimal.

Williams represents Battle Hill, Fisher Hill, Ferris Avenue, and parts of the downtown—in 10 of the city’s 43 districts—and could gain some a small area currently in District 5.

The current redistricting proposal would give District 5 parts of Silver Lake, in the Town of Harrison—also known as East White Plains. Ryan had some of West Harrison and North Castle before the last set of redistricting changes were made a decade ago, when he gained most of White Plains and Scarsdale. Williams could lose Sleepy Hollow and gain areas of unicorporated Greenburgh, in addition to some areas in White Plains additions. Williams said the plan was still being discussed and finalized on Monday.

Ryan said that the committee should sign off on a proposal for the consideration of the board of legislators at their meeting on Thursday. Public hearings will be held on the redistricting proposal. Legislators say they are shooting for May 9.

“We're looking to expedite it [redistricting ] for sure,” said Ryan. “We want to get it on [the board of legislators’ agenda] as soon as possible.”

Ryan said this will allow proper time for mechanical issues, like creating new elections maps, to be resolved. To submit comments on redistricting to the board of legislators click here or leave one on their Facebook page or Twitter page.

Click on the PDFs for a map of the proposed and current boundaries for District 5, proposed map of District 8—as well as a map of all the proposed districts and other redistricting documents. To see what the current districts look like, click here for the board's website.

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