Preservation of communities defined by actual shared interests, known as communities of interest, is a traditional districting principle for many localities. You can identify a community of interest by creating a named selection set using the standard Maptitude selection tools. For more information on selection sets, see Working with Maptitude Selection Sets (Filters) (https://www.caliper.com/learning/media/working-with-maptitude-selection-sets-filters). In most instances, you will create a community of interest by selecting areas in the base layer of the plan (census blocks).
Once you have identified the communities of interest in your plan, if you try to reassign a portion of a community of interest to another district, the entire community of interest gets reassigned. You can also lock a community of interest so that no portion of it can be reassigned to another district.
To Create Communities of Interest
- Create one or more named selection sets, probably by selecting census blocks.
- Choose Redistricting>Settings>Communities of Interest to display the Set Up Communities of Interest dialog box.
- Click Add to display the Add Communities of Interest dialog box.
- Choose the layer containing the selection set from the Layer drop-down list.
- Choose the selection set from the Selection drop-down list.
- Click OK. Maptitude for Redistricting adds the selection set to the list of communities of interest. When any part of the community of interest is assigned to a different district, the entire community of interest will be reassigned.
- Click OK.
Maptitude closes the Set Up Communities of Interest dialog box.