The Anchorage Assembly approved a final reapportionment map Tuesday night. The process to redraw district boundary lines occurs every 10 years, following the U.S. Census.
The goal of reapportionment is to have roughly the same number of people in each district while following community and natural boundaries as closely as possible.
The biggest changes to the map include putting all of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson into District 2, which includes Eagle River and Chugiak. District 1, commonly referred to as Downtown Anchorage, doubled in size, changing its boundaries to move further east to Boniface Parkway and south to parts of 36th Avenue and the northern part of Spenard Road.
Another change is making all of Muldoon Road part of East Anchorage’s District 5 instead of including the northern part in the Eagle River district. And District 1 is now officially referred to as North Anchorage rather than Downtown Anchorage.
The reapportionment ordinance was approved 9-2, with Midtown Anchorage members Felix Rivera and Meg Zaletel opposed.
Changes to the district boundaries will not impact the upcoming April 5 municipal election.
The Anchorage reapportionment is separate from the state legislative boundary changes, which now face legal challenges over accusations of partisanship gerrymandering.
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Wesley Early covers Anchorage life and city politics for Alaska Public Media. Reach him at wearly@alaskapublic.org and follow him on X at @wesley_early. Read more about Wesley here.
