To allow people to have some say over how new legislative districts are drawn, state lawmakers are holding public hearings on the proposed maps that will greatly affect the future of local communities.

Members of a state senate committee showed up Thursday in Elmhurst where leaders from DuPage County towns asked that their communities not be cut up into different districts and that they not be included in majority Cook County districts when legislative maps are redrawn.

Elmhurst Mayor Pete DiCianni, DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin and others made those appeals to the Senate Redistricting Committee at a hearing attended by about a dozen people.

Illinois lawmakers redraw districts every 10 years after U.S. Census figures come in.

As much as possibly can be done, Whitney Woodward, a policy associate for the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, said state lawmakers are required to create districts that are compact, contiguous and which share common interests.

Since recent elections have put Democrats in control of how redistricting gets done, Republicans are concerned about how the new maps may further erode their power and influence.

Noting that DuPage County’s population of nearly one million increased only about 1.4 percent from the 2000 census, Cronin called the county “mature” and said that the new map should be drawn to look like the existing one.

“Let’s keep the one that has been fair and equitable,” he said.

Elmhurst and Addison share a border with Cook County, but DiCianni and Village President Larry Hartwig of Addison, expressed the concern that parts of their towns will be represented by Cook County legislators, which they don’t want.

From schools to how their water is delivered, both said their communities have much more in common with DuPage than with their neighbor to the east. They also said that significant barriers like Interstate 294 separate them from Cook.

State Senator Kirk Dillard, a Hinsdale Republican, asked DiCianni about how he would feel about having a legislator that would come from Bellwood, Maywood or another Cook County community.

DiCianni said he works with mayors from those towns on various issues that concern them, but “we definitely have different wants and needs.”

Bob Pickert, chairman of the Democratic Party of DuPage County, asked for the opposite of what Cronin specified. He said the map should be drawn to reflect changes he noticed in the 2010 census –a greater influx of Cook County residents moving to DuPage and more minorities.

He said 30 percent of the county is currently made up of African Americans and Hispanics. A new map should reflect that “changing constituency,” he said.

“I don’t think we can draw districts based on politics,” countered Dillard. “I think we can just do them on population.”

Though state lawmakers are not required to share it, local officials also want to able to see a rough draft of a proposed map before it goes for a vote.

“I’d like to see if you have been able to follow these principles as you move forward with a map,” Hartwig said.

Woodward said her group also is pushing to have the public be able to see and comment on proposed maps before May 31, the deadline for state lawmakers to approve them.

“It’s a little difficult to talk about it in abstract terms without an actual map in front of you,” she said.

Hartwig noted that the State Senate Redistricting Committee has committed to allowing such a review, but the House committee has not.

The Senate Redisticting Committee held a public hearing in Elmhurst.