Local District Boundaries Could Change in Latest County Redrawing Plan

Romeoville could join with a portion of Naperville to become a single legislative district in Will County if a plan to redraw boundary lines is approved.

Once every 10 years, the Will County Board must use U.S. Census data to redraw the county’s district map so that each district serves the same number of residents. The county , with a 35 percent bump, between the 2000 and 2010 Census counts.

So the county board is considering two possible plans: redraw the current nine districts with three members representing each, or drawing 13 districts that would each have two representatives. 

Currently, portions of Romeoville are located in three county board districts (districts 7, 5 and 3). The nine-district plan would split the village into four different districts (districts 3, 4, 5 and 7). 

"I'd love to keep Romeoville in as few districts as possible," said Romeoville Mayor John Noak. Splitting the village into a larger number of districts could mean less representation within in the county, he said.

"If you're not a significant portion of any one of those districts, chances are you're going to get less representation," Noak said. Currently, there are no Romeoville residents on the board.

"I still think it's early in the process and I'd love to see how it progresses," Noak said, adding he looks forward to working with the county board during the process.

" ... We'd just like a map that's a reasonable representation [of Romeoville]," he said.

 The county board will continue to hold public hearings for interested residents and to review more plans. The hearings are mandatory under the 2011 Illinois Voting Rights Act and Public Participation and Transparency Act. Although redistricting is necessary, it's often involved political ploys that have manipulated voters, in many cases minority groups. 

County Executive Larry Walsh, who has previously said he wouldn't want to increase the number of districts, will present the board with his plan for redrawing district lines within the next few weeks, and he'll work with the board to compromise.

"Given the fact that the county executive has not submitted a map, it's going to take a while before we see what the impact [of the proposals] would be [on Romeoville]," Noak said.

To Learn More: Click on the PDF that's attached to this article to see the nine-district plan, or go to the county board's website for more information. See below for the proposed district populations if the nine-district plan was adopted.