Ward Redistricting Committee Carves Equal Boundaries

Editor's Note: The attached map is the old version. These redrawings have yet to be approved by council.

When Census figures came out earlier this year, Solon's Ward 3 proved to have the biggest population. The Ward Redistricting Committee was charged with looking at the numbers and finding a way to equalize the population in all seven of the city's wards.

At Monday's council meeting, committee member Craig Novak said the biggest changes were coming to wards 1, 2 and 3. Council did not take action on the redrawings because Councilwoman Nancy Meany was absent.

"Based on the 2010 Census count, there are 23,348 people in Solon," Novak said. "Our goal was to get each ward to 3,335 or within a couple percentage points of this goal."

He added, "We needed to redistrict based on common sense and where each councilperson lived."

Here's the breakdown, according to Novak:

• Toni Richmond's Ward 3 was 1,200 people over target. Since Richmond lives in the north end of the ward, the committee cut off the bottom half at Pettibone Road, which eliminated 1,150 people.

• Those 1,150 people are now members of Councilman Richard Bell's Ward 1. However, adding them put the ward over the target, so the committee cut out the high school and ABC street block. They also took out the Preserve.

• Those cut from Ward 1 are now members of Councilman Bill Russo's Ward 7. Originally, his ward had approximately 2,000 people.

• The Preserve is now in Edward Kraus' Ward 6.

• No changes were made to Nancy Meany's Ward 5.

• People who live on Hannover Woods Trail, Seminole Way and Navajo Trail area were added to Robert Pelunis' Ward 2.

• Bill Mooney's Ward 4 was short at 2,802 residents. He was blocked on east side by Ward 3,  so there was no room to add, and Ward 5 was at a satisfactory number. Novak dropped Mooney across Route 422 to include everything north of Bainbridge and east of SOM Center roads.

Council will hold a work session at 5:45 p.m. before the next council meeting on Aug. 1 to discuss the changes.