Commissioners Approve County Redistricting

Fayette County Commissioners gave preliminary approval to a redistricting proposal for the four county commissioners precincts.

According to state code, commissioner precincts in a county must roughly equal each other in population. Population figures from the 2020 US Census revealed that Fayette County’s four precincts were out of balance.

The County’s population was 24,435 in the 2020 census. Ideally, each of the four precincts should contain a population of 6,109. Pct. 1, with a population of 6,939, had the greatest deviation above the ideal size, about 13.59 percent. The population in Pct. 2 and Pct. 3 was about 5.5 percent below the ideal size. Pct. 4 was about 2.5 percent below the target number.

The County must draw new precinct lines due to the imbalance. Commissioners hire law firm Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta LLP to conduct a population analysis and draw the new lines. The law firm presented a proposal at a special meeting of the Commissioners on Monday, Nov. 1.

According to the proposal, Pct. 2 would gain a section of territory from Pct. 1 between Post Oak Road, US 77 and FM 2145. That area includes the Chaparral Estates subdivision and the future La Grange Springs apartment complex. Pct. 2 and Pct. 3 would also swap some territory with Pct. 1 in the City of La Grange. Pct. 4 did not change.

None of the changes would affect road maintenance responsibilities. Pct. 2 and Pct. 3 have more miles of county roads than the other two precincts. Pct. 1 has the fewest miles of county roads. Pct. 1 Commissioner Jason McBroom said he would have preferred to gain some road mileage in order to relieve the other commissioners.

“Going into it, I think I would have rather redone some streets, to get more from y’all and into my (precinct),” said McBroom. “It’s kind of hard to lose population and gain some roads at the same time. It didn’t work at this time with the census.”

Commissioners have until Nov. 12 to formally adopt the new precinct lines.