The Denver City Council narrowly struck down the first reading of a bill Monday that would have created a ballot measure to eliminate at-large council members.

If passed by voters, the ballot measure would have converted the two at-large council seats into two additional district seats, increasing the number of City Council districts from 11 to 13. The bill failed in a 7-6 vote after over two hours of public comment and council debate.

Increasing the number of council districts was proposed as a response to Denver’s growing population. Denver’s population reached 749,103 in 2020 — up from 600,158 in 2010, according to the latest Census data.

“The question is, what is the appropriate size of the districts?” Councilman Chris Herndon said in support of the bill. “I believe this is a valid question.”

With 11 districts, each district will have approximately 68,100 residents after the upcoming 2022 redistricting. That is an all-time high district size for Denver.

Denver’s highest council district population was in the 1960s when there were 54,876 residents in each of the nine districts. After that, the city added two more council districts, bringing the total to the current 11.

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From 1950 to the last redistricting in after the 2010 Census, Denver council districts have ranged from 42,000 residents to 55,000, according to city data.

Supporters of the bill argued the record-large districts would make it too difficult for Denver residents to contact and be adequately represented by their council members. The bill was championed as a way to localize democracy.

In addition, supporters argued this could be a once-in-a-generation opportunity to pass the bill, since the council is in the middle of its every-10-years redistricting process and both at-large council members are set to be term-limited in the next election.

“I think the solution is for the Mayor’s office to fund our council office appropriately. That said, I think my colleagues are right, now is the time to look at this issue,” Councilwoman Amanda Sawyer said in support of the bill.

Opponents argued not enough community outreach was done and eliminating the at-large members would reduce the number of council members each resident can contact from three to only their one district representative.

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Councilwoman Robin Kniech, one of the at-large members, said at-large members have the freedom to focus on citywide policy and have traditionally absorbed constituent work of district offices, especially when vacancies occur.

Kniech also pointed to data collected by her staff that shows Denver’s council district populations are lower than many of its sister cities, including Colorado Springs, Memphis, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and San Diego, which have district populations between 72,000 and 158,000.

“At a certain point, I invite us to reflect on our humility,” Kniech said. “Every district (in the U.S.) has gotten larger. I struggle with that … as populations grow, the only answer is to shrink district size to keep up with that.”

On Monday, the council also unanimously voted to approve the first reading of a bill that would create a ballot measure to move Denver’s municipal elections from May to April to address federal deadlines for mailing ballots to military and overseas voters.

In a final reading, the council voted 10-3 to create a stand-alone Office of Special Events, allowing the office to issue a special event permit, mandate community notifications of events and charge an application processing fee beginning in 2023.