FOLEY — The city’s 2011 redistricting plan for the 2012 municipal elections has been approved by the U.S. Department of Justice.

City Administrator Michael Thompson received a letter dated Sept. 7, to that effect from DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. A landmark civil rights case more than 20 years ago requires Foley to seek pre-clearance for voter redistricting through DOJ.

The letter to Thompson notes the city sent its 2011 redistricting plan to DOJ in July 2011 and “additional information was received through August 15, 2011.”

Approval of the redistricting plan for the 2008 elections turned out to have time constraints the current redistricting plan isn’t facing. In a June 2008 letter from DOJ, the city was asked to respond to 11 points in its redistricting plan. With municipal elections set for Aug. 26 that year, city officials noted then that those elected wouldn’t be able to take office until DOJ approved the 2008 plan.

“We’re real pleased that redistricting is where it needs to be at this cycle,” said Thompson, who pointed out that a number of Foley residents were unable to vote for council seats in 2008 as a result of DOJ’s late approval of the redistricting plan that year. Thompson, however, described the 2011 redistricting plan as having gone “smoothly.”

In 2008, one of the problems cited by city officials regarding DOJ’s request for further explanation of the redistricting plan two months before the actual election was the fact that the city’s black population hadn’t kept pace with the growth of the white population.

The 2011 redistricting plan shows the city’s five districts with a total population of 14,611. Of that total, 15.51 percent or 2,266 are black.