Dozens of Baltimore residents weighed-in over the course of five meetings, including city meetings and two community town halls, with their thoughts on Mayor Brandon Scott’s proposed map for new city council districts.

It is up to the city council now to decide if they will come up with their own version to counter the mayor’s — a commitment President Nick Mosby wasn’t able to make after Tuesday night’s town hall.

Mosby said it’s up to the individual council members to introduce another option but hinted that there’s a strong possibility additional maps are forthcoming.

“It would be disingenuous of the council to just have folks come and take hours and hours and time off work and away from their family to come and talk to us and we not take the comments and the concerns they provide to us seriously,” said Mosby.

It’s unclear yet what kind of opportunity the public would have for comment on a new proposal. The new map must be passed by November 18th, as per city charter, which doesn’t allow a large window for a new series of town halls.

As for the residents that weighed in, their feelings were mixed.

The proposed map splits some neighborhoods between two, or more, city council districts. Residents from communities like Bolton Hill and Morrell Park came out in full force to express their displeasure and concerns that it would be difficult to manage shared community spaces, like parks, if they had to deal with two or more council people.

Other residents favor the map; in Highlandtown, residents are currently split between the first and second district but would be reunited fully into District One for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Mayor Scott’s proposal works to redistribute the population so that voting power is more equitable. The proposed map aims for an average of 43,000 individuals in a district, whereas the current map has District 11, the area that includes Federal Hill and Mount Vernon and has grown exponentially over the last decade, at 53,000 people. Meanwhile, District Nine, which includes communities like Sandtown-Winchester and other areas where population has declined, currently only has 36,000 people.

Redistricting must be done after the census and Baltimore’s city charter requires the process to be done later than many other parts of Maryland, many of which did the process in 2022. By law, Mayor Scott is required to come up with a proposal by February 2024 which gives very little time for residents and candidates to be prepared for the new districts before the May 2024 primary.

Scott introduced the proposed map on September 18th but the clock is still ticking. The map must be passed within 60 days of introduction — if the council fails to come up with and pass an alternative map, the mayor’s version automatically becomes law. Although the mayor could veto the council’s version, Scott wrote in a letter to Mosby last month that, “I hope that we can come to an agreement on the map such that a veto is not necessary.”

The council currently has a meeting dedicated to the topic of the redistricting map scheduled for next Monday, October 16th at noon.