County reports an increase in population
(Seguin) – The number of people that live in Guadalupe County is officially larger than it was in 2010. Guadalupe County Judge Kyle Kutscher says data received from the 2020 Census shows thousands of more residents.
“It indicated that over the last 10 years, we have increased in population from right over 131,000 to almost 173,000 residents in Guadalupe County. We fully expected to see a number close to that just with all the growth that has been happening but with that growth, it creates a lot of changes for services, how resources are allocated and that ducktails right into the discussion on redistricting,” said Kutscher.
Although Kutscher anticipated the increase to be a little more than 42,000, he says the increase is still significant and demonstrates that Guadalupe County is on the fast track for even more growth.
“Originally, we anticipated the number being just a little higher. There had been reports that there has been some underreporting at certain times, but I think that is more opinion than anybody having valid issues to address or any proof of that. The population increases and the numbers in our region is something we look at on a regular basis whether it be from the state demographer’s office as it pertains to transportation, modeling and growth and development, but again, it’s something we watch and we knew that it was going to be somewhere around that – even though we expected it, it is a tremendous amount of growth. It really changes how the way the county has to look at things moving forward,” said Kutscher.
In looking at the added population, Kutscher says much of that growth lies on the county’s north and west sides.
“We’ve seen tremendous growth all over the county, but you do have some isolated areas of higher growth. We definitely see that in the Cibolo and Schertz area in portions. Another isolated area is along the 1044 FM 725 county line area coming out of New Braunfels and then a lot of us in Seguin know and are aware that we are seeing a tremendous amount of growth between Interstate 10 and 35, the river and 123, basically between Seguin and New Braunfels. Those are really the high growth areas,” said Kutscher.
This new census data, according to Kutscher, means serious work for the county. Kutscher says the county this week will continue to discuss its obligations to redraw and review the county’s commissioner precinct boundaries. He says these changes must be made to comply with federal law and other authority.
“The plan moving forward with commissioners court on our redistricting process, is to give the court another option, the availability to look at additional options to give the public the chance to be involved in that process, to voice any concerns or ideas, comments. We just want to take the time during the public meeting to refine the process to make sure we are as good as we can be on the redistricting process but redistricting really is the act of equalizing the precincts to make sure that all citizens have equal representation and that is something that is really important,” said Kutscher.
Commissioners during last week’s meeting began their discussion on what this new census data means for the county. That discussion, according to Kutscher will continue during Tuesday’s regular meeting of the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court.
“We definitely invite and welcome public input and comment. We have the availability for citizens to give comment on the redistricting process through our website. Citizens are also able to go to the county website, scroll down about halfway on the homepage and click on the redistricting tab and at that location, you can view map options and if you are unable to attend commissioners court and would like to still be involved, you can watch the stream of commissioners court or call in to participate,” said Kutscher.
This week’s meeting begins at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Guadalupe County Courthouse. Included in that meeting is a public hearing on the redistricting project. The public is invited to join the meeting virtually or via phone. The link for that meeting can be found on the Guadalupe County’s website under the tab “postings.” The tab can be found on the commissioner’s court page.