Your Hilton Head Town Council ward may change due to redistricting. What we know
The town of Hilton Head Island will host several public meetings in the coming weeks for residents to comment on its plan to redraw the island’s six Town Council wards.
Hilton Head’s population increased by only 1.5% between 2010 and 2020, so the tweaks to the Town Council ward boundaries will not be as significant as the proposed changes to Beaufort County’s 11 political districts.
The island’s redistricting process, though, is still likely to affect hundreds of people, according to data provided by the S.C. Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office.
The process is not expected to eliminate any Town Council wards, but it will probably shift some residents from one ward to another.
The town must redraw its wards to more closely match the 2020 population numbers released by the U.S. Census Bureau earlier this year.
The fiscal affairs office is drafting a new ward map for the town to present to residents for review and feedback, Deputy Town Manager Josh Gruber said Tuesday.
The map will serve as an initial “baseline” and “starting point for discussion,” Gruber said. The map likely will be revised at a later date based on public comments and ideas from the Town Council.
Gruber expects to receive the baseline map in the next week or two, he said. The town will distribute the map to community members once it is ready.
Frank Rainwater, executive director of the fiscal affairs office, recently told the Town Council that based on Hilton Head’s 2020 population of 37,661 people, the ideal number of residents per ward is now 6,277 instead of 6,183.
To meet that threshold, hundreds of residents will have to be shifted into Wards 4 and 5, which are represented by Tamara Becker and Tom Lennox, respectively, Rainwater said. Only 5,672 people are currently living in Ward 4 and Ward 5 has just 5,710 residents, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
Ward 4 covers Indigo Run, Palmetto Dunes, Coligny, Shelter Cove and Singleton Beach, among other places. Ward 5 covers Sea Pines and the Cordillo Parkway area, among other spots.
Wards 1, 2, 3 and 6, meanwhile, each have populations above the ideal 6,277 threshold, Rainwater said. (In other words, some people in Ward 6, for example, may be placed into Ward 4 during the redistricting process.)
Ward 1, which is represented by Alex Brown, contains historic neighborhoods such as Squire Pope and Stoney. Ward 2 is represented by Bill Harkins and covers a portion of Hilton Head Plantation and Chinaberry Ridge. Ward 3, which is represented by David Ames, includes communities like Shipyard, Wexford, Long Cove Club and Yacht Cove. Ward 6 is represented by Glenn Stanford and includes Port Royal, Palmetto Hall and a chunk of Hilton Head Plantation.
What is the town’s redistricting schedule?
The Town Council finance committee plans to host at least one charrette, or planning session, in January for residents to provide input and suggest changes to the baseline map, Gruber said.
After that, the town’s geographic information staff will meet with Town Council members to review the public’s feedback and allow elected officials to “explore” alterations to the baseline map.
Then, the finance committee will host a series of public workshops across the island so residents can weigh in on any alternatives to the baseline map.
Gruber said he hopes to have specific dates for those events in the next few days.
On Feb. 15, the finance committee will vote to endorse a map.
The government hopes to have the full Town Council vote on the committee’s recommendation on March 15 (first reading) and then April 5 (second reading).
Hilton Head must finish the redrawing of its wards before July 31, when the open filing period begins for the November 2022 general election.
The Town Council has agreed that the population deviation for its wards cannot exceed 10%.
“Over a series of cases, it has become accepted that a (redistricting) plan will be constitutionally suspect if the largest and smallest (local legislative) districts are more than ten percent apart,” according to the All About Redistricting website.
A redistricting task force?
The Coalition of Island Neighbors, or COIN, a citizens advocacy group, in November pitched to the town its own suggested redistricting process.
COIN urged Town Council members to adopt its recommendations, including the creation of a redistricting task force with representatives from local groups such as the Greater Island Council, property owners’ associations, the Native Island Business & Community Affairs Association and COIN.
Under COIN’s proposal, the task force would have played a major role in the redrawing of Hilton Head’s wards.
COIN also wanted the town to wrap up its redistricting in May instead of April.
The town, though, ultimately did not include COIN’s proposed task force in its plan. And the government still hopes to finish the redrawing of its wards in April.
“I’m comfortable that we are going to incorporate the public in a way that they’re satisfied that their input has been heard,” Ward 3 representative Ames said during the council’s Dec. 7 meeting.
This story was originally published December 15, 2021 at 11:55 AM.
