Virginia-Highland to Remain in Wan's District Under New Council Map

Virginia-Highland and the Atlanta portion of Druid Hills would remain in Atlanta City Councilman Alex Wan’s District 6 under the latest map being considered by the council in its redistricting effort.

Under a previous map being considered, the communities would have been split between Wan’s district and District 2, currently represented by Kwanza Hall.

“This map has pretty solid support across the council, and I can’t envision a scenario where any other map will be developed or proposed,” Wan said. “This is as solid a solution as we’re going to get.”

Hall said the council needs to adhere to the guidelines of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which he said "prevents historically black voting districts from being diluted in terms of their voting strength."

"My colleagues and I had to develop some agreements and strategies to see if we could develop some solutions to our concerns,” Hall said.

After holding and several committee meetings on new district boundaries, , thus starting the process all over again.

“Several council members were concerned about the demographic makeup of their redrawn districts,” said Yolanda Adrean, who represents District 8. “This new map makes some great progress in terms of complying with federal law.”

Cities, counties and states are required by law to redraw and adjust their electoral boundaries when a new Census is completed, to reflect new population numbers and demographics.

In order to account for 2010 census data, each of the city’s 12 districts must have a population of 35,000.

City planners developed a total of three maps for consideration.

However, on Monday, the council decided to consider its own, council-drawn map.

“District 2 was a critical issue because its population increased substantially over the last decade, while many other council districts declined,” Hall said. “So we had to determine how to redistrict population among districts that were majority white and others that were majority non-white.”

Another public hearing will be held on Monday, Dec. 12, at 6 pm, in Atlanta city council chambers.