Big growth could cause big shift in Lexington County’s new council lines
Lexington County has gotten its first look at what its county council will look like for the next decade.
County council members reviewed the map of proposed new districts on Tuesday, with changed lines that compact some fast-growing districts while expanding districts on the outer edges of the county.
The latest census count shows Lexington County to be one of the fastest-growing in the state, and that’s reflected in the makeup of its county council seats. Seven of nine existing council districts experienced population growth in the 2010s, with six of them seeing thousands more people moving in.
The largest change was in District 3, which covers the west side of Lexington out to Calks Ferry Road between Interstate 20 and Lake Murray, represented by Darrell Hudson. This district has added 9,785 people since 2010. The next fastest growing is neighboring District 5, Bimbo Jones’ district in the Red Bank area south of I-20 to Boiling Springs Road, which added 7,169 new residents.
The two districts that shrank are District 1, the Gaston-Pelion-Swansea area represented by Scott Whetstone, which lost 139 residents last decade, and Beth Carrigg’s District 7 between the Saluda River and south side of Irmo, which shrank by 646 residents.
To compensate and redistribute population among the districts, the new map would extend Carrigg’s district out toward the Lake Murray dam and the north side of Lexington currently represented by Charli Wessinger. Wessinger’s District 6 would become more compacted in the Chapin area, while picking up the south Irmo neighborhoods from Carrigg.
Hudson’s District 3 would retreat on almost all fronts, losing sections of Lexington to Carrigg and Debbie Summers’ District 4, while moving north of Two Notch Road in favor of Jones and ceding its northwestern corner to Larry Brigham’s western District 2.
For his part, Jones would trade the town of South Congaree with Council Chairman Todd Cullum’s Cayce-centered District 9. Cullum also picks up the southern portion of District 4, while trading his south flank with Whetstone’s District 1, which also moves up into portions of Jones’ district.
With a 2020 census population of 293,991, the optimal size of each district would be 32,666 people — close to the 31,600 residents Lexington County added in the last 20 years. Brigham’s redesigned district comes closest to that ideal, being 0.03% larger than the optimum. After its territorial losses, Hudson’s swelling district would end up 1.46% smaller than the ideal, leaving room for more growth over the next decade.
The land swap between Carrigg’s and Wessinger’s districts would leave Carrigg’s new district 1.76% above the average and Wessinger 1.75% below it.
If the proposal is ultimately adopted as the county’s new election map, 42,980 people will find themselves living in a new district when they go to vote in 2022 — almost 15% of the county’s total population.
The growing size of Lexington County led some of the nine-member council at Tuesday’s meeting to wonder if the day will come when their body itself might need to grow to 11, matching the total number of council members next door in Richland County.
Considering the new areas added to his already large southern district, Whetstone said, “It’s getting hard to get around and answer questions.”
This story was originally published December 3, 2021 at 10:02 AM.
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