MIAMI – Three weeks after a federal judge struck down Miami’s city commission map, ruling it was unconstitutionally racially gerrymandered, the groups that sued the city over its redistricting announced Wednesday that they’ve reached an “expected final agreement” with city officials to implement new boundaries and end the legal saga once and for all.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the plaintiffs in the case, issued a statement announcing the settlement Wednesday, which it says “unifies neighborhoods across the city” that were “divided along racial lines” in the struck-down map, including Coconut Grove.
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U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore, ruling on April 10, said “Miamians suffered” after the city perpetuated “serious harms” under the struck-down map.
“The agreement secures a fair map for the rest of this decade and proposes lasting reforms to the city’s redistricting process that will be submitted to the voters in a charter referendum,” the statement reads.
The new map, the statement reads, “was drawn to serve communities, rather than dividing the city along racial lines or improperly favoring incumbents or candidates, as in the struck-down maps.”
“Unlike the maps passed by the City Commission, these new districts follow major roads and easily recognizable boundaries, rather than dividing communities and forming irregular appendages,” it reads.
City commissioners are expected to vote on the agreement at their May 9 meeting.
In addition to adopting the new map for the November 2025 election, the settlement will require commissioners to place a charter amendment on the ballot that “will ban gerrymandering that favors particular candidates and incumbents and will create a Citizens’ Redistricting Committee to draft maps and propose them to the Commission in all future redistricting processes.”
According to the accompanying resolution on the commission agenda, the city will foot the plaintiffs’ more than $1.5 million legal bill.
The resolution notes that the changes would not “affect the qualifications of any incumbent commissioner,” meaning that they could continue to serve their districts even if they now reside outside of the new boundaries.
That includes incumbent District 3 Commissioner Joe Carollo. A carve-out in the current map includes his Coconut Grove home within District 3; however, assuming commissioners approve the settlement, the entirety of Coconut Grove will lie within Commissioner Damian Pardo’s District 2.
A city of Miami spokesperson told Local 10 News the resolution “does not call for special elections,” the possibility of which Moore had raised in his ruling.