Stafford redraws political map, to hold public hearing on countywide changes

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on March 15 to consider changes to the county’s magisterial districts.

Those changes would involve adopting new election districts and precinct boundaries and new polling places. A county redistricting committee developed the option, which will be presented at the hearing and the board’s redistricting work session held this past February.

The board proposal will involve many changes to the districts, exception Garrisonville District which would remain unchanged. When reorganizing the districts, the committee examined future population growth, fairness to political parties, and racial equality.

The proposal includes changes such as:

• Extending the southern boundary of the Griffis-Widewater District to the intersection of Garrisonville Road and Richmond Highway (Route 1). The proposal would also move all of Marine Corps Base Quantico to Griffis-Widewater.
• The Aquia Harbour subdivision would be placed entirely in the Aquia District along House District 23.
• The Falmouth District would extend north, creating a new boundary with Aquia at Hospital Center Boulevard and Old Potomac Church Road.
• The Celebrate Virginia Subdivision and areas south and east of the Greenbank Road would form the new southern boundary of the George Washington District.
• Areas north of Poplar Road and south of Aquia Creek would move to the Rock Hill District.

Virginia jurisdictions are required by law to reorganize their election districts every 10 years to reflect population changes. The reorganization relies on new data from the U.S. Census, held in 2020.

Redistricting was delayed because the U.S. Government did not release the Census data until August 2021 due to delays attributed to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the 2020 Census, Stafford County’s population is 156,479. In 2010, it was 128,961. The county’s population grew 19 percent in 10 years.

Other delays in the process included establishing a state redistricting committee responsible for drafting the commonwealth’s congressional and state assembly maps, which rely on redistricting information from the local level.

Those maps were produced by the Virginia Supreme Court on December 28, 2021, following the failure of a statewide, bipartisan redistricting commission to agree on new maps.

The late adoption of the maps accelerated the process for local redistricting, county officials said.

A public hearing will be held in the board chambers at 1300 Courthouse Road on March 14 at 7 p.m.