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The City Council will hold a public hearing tomorrow on five redistricting plans that some are saying could alter the balance of power on the city’s governing board.  

The City Charter requires the city’s eight districts be re-drawn every 10 years according to population shifts reported by the United States census. The charter also requires the council to approved the new district boundaries by Dec. 31. 

According to the census, Berkeley’s population is 102,743, which requires the city to redraw district lines so that as close to 12,843 people are in each district. 

The council will consider five redistricting plans, four submitted by citizens and one submitted by the office of city manager Weldon Rucker. According to the city’s July 2 Redistricting 2001 Information Packet, redistricting plans were to meet three legal requirements, districts should be as close to equal in population as possible, districts should be preserved as much as possible according to how they were originally established in 1986 and compliance with the Federal Voting Rights Act.  

According to the packet, redistricting plans could also consider other criteria such as communities of interest, topography and geography.  

After tomorrow’s public hearing, the council will choose one of the five plans. The council will hold another public hearing on the chosen plan at a special meeting on Oct. 2. After the second public hearing, the council may make some final adjustments to the plan before adopting it as a city ordinance on Oct. 9. 

Redrawing the 2001 district lines was made especially difficult because of alleged census