Board of Alders map
Proposed new ward lines.
Westville’s Ward 25 would dip down into West River.
Morris Cove’s Ward 18 would stretch up to the city’s industrial port.
Dwight’s Ward 2 would take over an apartment-rich stretch of Goffe Street.
While Ward 14 would remain straddling one river and three neighborhoods.
Those are some of the changes, and non-changes, included in a draft map released on Tuesday by the Board of Alders’ Special Committee on Ward Redistricting.
The committee published a PDF version of the proposed map on the city’s website in advance of the committee’s next public hearing on May 10.
Click here to view the proposed new ward lines in detail, and here to view the ward lines as they currently exist.
Local legislators have until the end of May to vote on a new map for the city’s 30 wards, with the goal of evenly spreading out New Haven’s 134,023 residents, as counted in the latest U.S. Census. If they fail to meet that deadline, the mayor can appoint a 15-person commission to change the boundaries and total number of wards, instead.
The final, approved version of the resulting local political district map will remain in place for a decade.
Click here, here, here and here to read previous Independent articles about this year’s redistricting process.
The draft map published by the aldermanic committee on Tuesday does not explicitly call out which ward lines are new and which have remained the same.
Nevertheless, a comparison with the city’s current ward map shows a number of proposed changes, including:
• The southeastern edge of Ward 25 would extend into the West River neighborhood as far as Chapel Street and Norton Street, taking up streets currently held by Ward 26.
• The southern end Prospect Hill/Newhallville/Dixwell’s Ward 21 would extend further along Sachem Street, taking over several blocks of Mansfield Street and Winchester Avenue.
• The northern edge of Downtown’s Ward 7 would extend up to Whitney Avenue and Cottage Street.
• The northern edge of the Hill’s Ward 6 would go up to Court Street between Orange Street and Olive Street.
• Fair Haven’s Ward 14 would continue to cross the Quinnipiac River and include small sections of Fair Haven Heights and the Annex.
• Dwight’s Ward 2 would include a section of Goffe Street between Sperry Street and Orchard Street, home to the St. Martin’s Townhouses at 200 Goffe.
To submit suggestions or other feedback to the redistricting committee, email [email protected].
The further dismemberment of the East Rock community. Why does Ward 9 cross The train tracks into Fair Haven? Why is a downtown ward penetrating all the way up to Lawrence?
If the goal was to keep community lines cohesive…epic fail.