Racial, ethnic and neighborhood politics are at play in a battle among Denver City Council members as they wrestle with how to redraw council district boundaries to reflect the explosive population growth in Stapleton and Green Valley Ranch over the past decade.

Denver has 11 council districts with representatives from each one as well as two citywide council members.

Every 10 years, the City Council must redraw its district boundaries based on population changes reported by the decennial census with a goal of getting an equal number of people in each of the 11 districts.

Overall, Denver grew by nearly 46,000 residents between 2000 and 2010.

The neighborhoods in northeast Denver, including Stapleton and Green Valley Ranch, added 34,484 new residents over that time, while the neighborhoods in northwest Denver lost nearly 5,000 residents.

Now, to balance out council representation, each district must be reworked to represent 54,560 people apiece.

Unlike the recent redistricting and reapportionment clash on the state and federal levels over legislative and congressional boundaries, this conflict is not about Republicans versus Democrats.

Instead, council members are battling over keeping neighborhoods and “communities of interest” together.

Some incumbent council members also want the new maps to be redrawn to ensure they aren’t living in a new council district.

So far, three maps have been proposed. More maps are expected before the council votes on the issue by the end of April. Changes would go into effect for the 2015 municipal election.

This week, the council takes the issue to the community, holding the first of a series of neighborhood meetings about the issue — starting with one at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at the City and County Building.

One proposed map is particularly vexing to at least one council member — a scenario that reassigns the historically Latino-dominated District 9 entirely to another part of the city.

“District 9 as we know it today would be extinct and would no longer exist,” said Councilwoman Judy Montero, who represents District 9 and is fighting the proposal publicly and behind closed doors even though she is at the beginning of her third and final term in office.

Her district stretches north from the Baker area, at South Broadway and West Alameda Avenue, past the Auraria campus through Lower Downtown to Globeville. It also includes the Swansea/Elyria neighborhood as well as Sunnsyide and Lo-Hi.

“Those neighborhoods are in one council district, and that was done in the past so that Latino residents were able to choose a candidate of their choice,” said Councilman Paul Lopez. “It doesn’t mean that it is a Latino seat.”

But he said the boundaries are usually drawn to give people with common concerns a champion on the council.

District 9 has been represented by a Latino council person since 1975, when Sal Carpio unseated incumbent Eugene DiManna.

“I’ll be godd—ed if they are going to dismantle District 9,” said Nita Gonzales, longtime activist and head of the Escuela Tlatelolco, a contract school with Denver Public Schools. “We are not going to stay voiceless. We are not going to let maps be constructed that diminish our ability to have a voice.”

The census shows District 9 lost more than 8,000 Latino residents over the past decade and gained nearly 9,000 white residents. The district that in 2000 was two-thirds Latino now has about equal numbers of white and Latino residents.

In the map generating the most controversy among council members, District 9 would be assigned to the Montbello and Green Valley Ranch area.

In that area, the Latino population has exploded by more than 128 percent. District 11, which is made up of far northeast Denver, in 2010 had 32,748 Latino residents, compared with about 14,000 in 2000.

District 8 would take over much of the area now served by District 9.

Former Councilwoman Susan Barnes-Gelt said that the city, in Debbie Ortega, has its first at-large Latino council member and that many of Denver’s historic Latino neighborhoods have been integrated.

“The days of racial politics are over,” she said. “We have had two African-American mayors, a Latino mayor. For them to be playing racial politics is silly.”

Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com

Public meetings on redistricting

Central quadrant:

5:30 p.m. Wednesday

City and County Building, Room 391, 1437 Bannock St.

Southwest quadrant:

5:30 p.m. Thursday

Southwest Improvement Council Building, 1000 S. Lowell Blvd.

District 9:

10 a.m. Saturday

Historic Delmonico Hall, 3220 Federal Blvd.

Northeast quadrant:

6 p.m. March 7

Central Park Recreation Center, 9651 E. Martin Luther King Blvd.

Southeast quadrant:

6 p.m. March 8

Police District 3 Station, 1625 S. University Blvd.

Northwest quadrant:

10 a.m. March 10

Historic Delmonico Hall, 3220 Federal Blvd.