Miami-Dade commissioners must redraw their districts. Here’s the first proposed map
Rapid residential growth in South Miami-Dade has left a pair of county commissioners representing too many voters, an imbalance a consultant would remedy while tinkering with boundaries of each of the 13 commission districts.
On Thursday, Miami-Dade’s planning office released the first proposed map from the county’s redistricting consultant to adjust boundaries based on 2020 Census data. The proposed boundaries contain no dramatic changes but enough reworking at the edges to matter to campaign consultants and candidates — a subset that would include any commissioner planning to run for reelection.
Miami-Dade’s redistricting consultant, ARCBridge out of Herndon, Virginia, plans to present the proposed map at a 1:30 p.m. meeting Friday of the county’s Citizens Redistricting Advisory Board committee. It will be held in person on the 18th floor of the Stephen P. Clark Center and online.
Two of the districts with the most new residents are District 8, represented by Danielle Cohen Higgins, and District 9, by Kionne McGhee. Both are in South Miami-Dade, and grew by about 75,000 people since the last Census in 2010 — accounting for more than a third of the overall growth in Miami-Dade.
To shrink District 8, ARCBridge proposed shifting areas north and west of Palmetto Bay and Pinecrest into District 7, currently represented by Raquel Regalado. For District 9, portions on the northern edge would migrate to District 7 and District 11, represented by Joe Martinez.
Commissioners ultimately approve on setting the new boundaries, which are enacted by county ordinance. But courts could have the final say if lawsuits are filed claiming unfair representation or districts drawn to protect or harm incumbents rather than provide balanced constituencies.
Broadly, the new districts could trigger a change in the ethnic and partisan balance on an officially non-partisan county commission where Hispanic members no longer control a majority of the seats, a record five members are Black, and Democrats outnumber Republicans 7 to 6.
For example: a portion north of Miami Lakes in the proposed map would switch from District 13 — represented by René Garcia, chairman of the Miami-Dade Republican Party, to District 1, represented by Oliver Gilbert, a Democrat representing a district where President Biden captured 76% of the vote in 2020.
Other changes in the proposed map include:
▪ District 5 Commissioner Eileen Higgins would represent all of Miami’s Brickell neighborhood under the proposed map. Currently, the southern portion of Brickell falls in Regalado’s District 7.
▪ South Miami currently falls fully in Regalado’s district, but the proposed map has part of the city moving into a new southern leg of District 6, represented by Rebeca Sosa.
▪ Portions of Opa-locka would shift from Gilbert’s district to District 2, represented by Jean Monestime.
▪ In Hialeah, portions of that city, the second-largest in Miami-Dade, would shift from District 12, represented by Commission Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz, to Garcia’s District 13.
This story was originally published September 30, 2021 at 7:19 PM.