Proposed redrawn Met Council district map gains committee approval

At the state level, House and Senate districts are redrawn after each decennial federal census to create districts of equal population size.

The same is true, albeit less widely known, for members of the Twin Cities metropolitan area regional policymaking body with changes to be effective in a year ending in “3.” By statute, the Legislature is charged with the task.

Approved, as amended, Friday by the House State and Local Government Finance and Policy Committee is HF2204, a redistricting map of the Metropolitan Council’s 16 districts. Its next stop is the House Floor.

Rep. Mike Freiberg (DFL-Golden Valley), the bill sponsor, said the metropolitan area population grew by 11% from the previous census, and each new district has a bit more than 197,000 people.