The Baltimore County Redistricting Commission voted 4-3 Monday evening to recommend a new map that would divide the seven existing County Council districts into nine.

The new map would create two majority-Black districts on the west side of the county, and two majority-minority districts — one on the county’s east side and one on its west.

The commission will present the map to the Baltimore County Council by next Wednesday. The council has until October to vote on whether to approve it.

Commission Chairman Eric Rockel acknowledged the minority populations of Hispanic and Asian residents on the east side of the county were “not significantly on the radar” before several public meetings.

Many residents from Essex, Middle River and the new home community of Greenleigh told the commission over the last several months that the county’s east side had grown increasingly diverse and deserved an opportunity to elect a councilperson who represented their interests and understood their struggles.

All the existing districts except one, one the west side, have always elected white representatives. The west side district was carved out to include Black precincts 20 years ago, and only because federal courts required it.

“We all had to give a little to get a little,” said Michelle Davis, a member of the commission who came up with what has become known as the 2-2 map plan, which was approved Monday night.

Immediately after Monday’s commission vote, the three Republicans on the County Council put out a statement saying they “stand united against the partisan map advanced by this commission.” The County Council has seven members, and the map needs five votes to pass.

Also unhappy with the vote were the three commissioners who voted against it and preferred an alternative map that kept Black communities more together in Woodlawn.

Commissioner Cordell Grant said the maps that passed “dilute the Black vote.”

The three commissioners who voted against the 2-2 map plan to outline their opposition to council members, similar to Supreme Court justices offering their dissent.

Of the four commissioners who voted for the 2-2 plan, two — Michelle Davis and Al Harris — are Black. A third, Lisa Belcastro, is a white, gay Democrat. Rockel, the chairman, is a white Republican.

Nearly all members of the commission praised the group effort to come up with a solution to a difficult problem that is bound to upset many residents — how to make seven districts of 122,000 each into nine districts of 95,000 each, without breaking too many historic communities apart.

Linda Dorsey Walker, who has been trying to increase diversity on the council for decades, would say they failed. Dorsey has been attending redistricting meetings with signs asking for Woodlawn to be kept together.

“They ripped Woodlawn apart,” she said.

The 2-2 plan, which surfaced in later commission meetings, caps what at times was a contentious process. Belcastro and Davis both reported being “accosted” at public meetings, Belcastro from the audience and Davis in the hallway after she left.

Both incidents were captured on video, though Davis’ incident could only be heard, not seen. The county hired extra security for Monday’s meeting at the commission’s request, but things remained calm.

Since the council was established in 1956, only five women, all of them white, have ever been elected to it. Several women, including two Black candidates, have filed to run in 2026, though they don’t know where their districts will be.