Henderson City Council votes to change ward boundaries

The Henderson City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to change ward boundaries for the first time since 2012.

Ward 1 will extend west to include downtown Henderson, while Ward 3 will move almost entirely north of the 215 Beltway, according to the updated map.

Lake Las Vegas will become part of Ward 3, and Ward 4 will remain unchanged. The plan will give Ward 2, which has the most potential for growth, the lowest estimated population.

“A lot of residents in the downtown area were not sure what ward they were in because there were three different council members in that area,” Councilwoman Gerri Schroder said. “(This plan) will save a lot of confusion with constituents by having most of the downtown area in one ward.”

The new boundaries take effect July 31 and will affect 15,843 residents, according to the plan.

Henderson has about 308,000 residents and is expected to reach 390,000 over the next 20 years. Nevada law mandates that the population within a city’s ward boundaries not exceed that of any other ward by more than 5 percent.

The city demographer determined that the populations in wards 2, 3 and 4 exceed the population in Ward 1 by 8.4 percent, 7.6 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively.

Despite public outreach efforts, City Clerk Sabrina Mercadante said, her office did not receive comments regarding the proposed changes.

Contact Sandy Lopez at slopez@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4686. Follow @JournalismSandy on Twitter.