The Lee Board of County Commissioners announced the schedule for public meetings at which the community can provide input on the redistricting process and launched a website landing page to provide data, maps, information and transparency throughout the process.
Florida law requires each county to examine the need to redistrict every 10 years following the U.S. Census. Members of the Lee BoCC are elected by voters countywide, but are seated according to five districts in which they reside.
Four public meetings, including three public hearings, are planned as part of the redistricting process as part of regularly scheduled meetings of the Board of County Commissioners. Meetings begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Old Lee County Courthouse, 2120 Main St., Fort Myers, FL 33922:
- Tuesday, Oct. 5 – Public hearing to review preliminary map options
- Tuesday, Nov. 2 – Public hearing to review map options
- Tuesday, Nov. 16 – Public hearing to adopt new map
- Tuesday, Dec. 7 – Item on the Lee Board of County Commissioners agenda to certify for transmission to the Florida Secretary of State
The new landing page can be found at www.leegov.com/countymanager/redistricting. Residents also are encouraged to sign up for Lee County’s newsletter by visiting www.leegov.com and clicking on the envelope icon. Recipients receive meeting notices with agenda links and other information. Following Lee County Government on Facebook also provides updates.
The goal of redistricting is to readjust the population between commission districts so that no commission district includes substantially more individual residents than the others. If commission district boundary adjustments are needed, Lee County can make such changes during an odd-numbered year. Given the late release of U.S. Census data this year, the normal 10-month process will be condensed to about four months.
