County Board Approves New Legislative Boundaries

The McHenry County Board Tuesday night approved new legislative boundaries, with most changes in the six districts made to the county’s heavily populated southeastern section.

The vote came after the county administration building lost power during Tuesday night’s storm, with the emergency generator kicking in to provide some light to allow the meeting to continue.

The redistricting was required after the 2010 Census showed a nearly 19 percent jump in the county’s population to 308,760 residents.

Board members decided to maintain six districts with four representatives each, shuffling around 15 of the county’s 212 voting precincts — all in Grafton and Algonquin townships — to make the population in each district equal.

District 1 board members Anna May Miller, Marc Munaretto and Bob Bless and McHenry County Board Chairman Kenneth Koehler of District 2 all voted against the new map.

"We tried very hard to stay within a 3 percent population margin,’’ said James Heisler, chairman of the county’s Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee, which proposed the changes.

 The former target population per district was 43,500 residents, now it is at 51,460. The majority of changes are to Districts 1, 2, 3 and 5, with District 6, the most rural part of  the county, left unchanged.

District 5 saw the largest population growth of up to 68,000 residents before the redistricting. Twelve precincts were taken from District 5 and moved to Districts 1 and 2, covering Algonquin Township.

"We tired hard to follow township lines if possible – municipal lines if possible,’’ Heisler said of reworking the boundaries.

Despite the redistricting, county residents will not see a change in their county board representatives, Heisler said.