Commissioners Accept Staff Recommended Changes to Monroe County’s Districts, Final Maps to Be Presented in December

MONROE COUNTY, FL – The Monroe County Board of County Commissioners accepted the preliminary new district maps at Wednesday’s regular Board of County Commissioners meeting. Monroe County received the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau population count for Monroe County. The 2020 Census data puts Monroe County’s population at 82,847 as of April 1, 2020 – an increase of 9,757 more people than were reported in the 2010 census. The Florida Constitution requires counties to redistrict county commission districts after each decennial census. The Legislature has mandated that the process must be completed in an odd-numbered year so the new district boundaries can be set well in advance of the next round of elections. In addition to the county commission, both the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority and Mosquito Control District must use the district boundaries as their district boundaries; the School Board opts to use BOCC boundaries.

With the new data, the five districts should be near 16,569 people per district. The law requires that districts be contiguous, keep census blocks intact, and have less than a 10 percent deviation between the largest as smallest districts. The greatest deviation in population on the accepted maps is 3.29 percent. Guidelines, not required but used in redistricting, include keeping districts compact, preserving communities, using existing boundaries, considering existing officeholders, among other criteria. Changes from the 2010 census districts were 247 people moved from District 1, 300 people added to District 2, 927 people added to District 3, 811 people moved from District 4, and 169 moved from District 5.

“It is impossible for any redistricting plan to attain 100 percent compliance with every guideline,” said Monroe County Attorney Bob Shillinger. “Our staff balances the individual criteria with each other using population as the dominant criteria.”

The final adoption of the maps will be at the regularly scheduled December 8, 2021 Board of County Commissioner’s meeting. The process is required to be completed no later than December 31, 2021.

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