Councilor Bill Linehan defended his proposal to divide Chinatown when City Council district lines are redrawn, denying that he had his own political future in mind and saying that every district will face difficult changes.
Linehan, who heads the council’s Redistricting Committee, said his map was generated with the help of computer models that take into account many factors, including shifting populations.
But his plan has come under intense criticism by council colleagues and neighborhood advocates because it calls for the removal of three precincts, including one in Chinatown, in District 2, which includes Chinatown.
Two of the precincts overwhelmingly voted against Linehan in recent City Council elections, casting ballots for a challenger from Chinatown, Suzanne Lee.
The race came down to a recount that showed Linehan won by a narrow margin; critics accused him of undermining the political clout of an underserved neighborhood to preserve his own career.
Linehan said yesterday that his map attempts to fairly cope with population changes reflected in the recent census and preserve council districts that are evenly divided.
“It appears that could be, you know, gerrymandering or whatever, and that’s a legitimate response,’’ Linehan said after a council meeting yesterday at City Hall. “But . . . I didn’t do it for those reasons.’’
Linehan said he drew his map based on feedback he received at community meetings he has held since the summer.
That feedback included keeping intact wards, neighborhoods, and communities of interest, such as Chinatown, Mattapan, and the Polish Triangle, a swath in District 2 at the border of Dorchester and South Boston.
Rules for redistricting require each of the nine council districts to have roughly 65,000 to 72,000 people.
At yesterday’s meeting, several councilors said they would support proposals that maintain neighborhoods and underserved communities, including maps presented yesterday by Michael Ross and Matt O’Malley.
Councilors are not allowed to discuss the proposed maps with one another.
O’Malley said his proposal favors keeping areas such as Mission Hill, Chinatown, and West Roxbury intact.
“I put a higher premium in keeping neighborhoods whole, as opposed to keeping wards whole,’’ said O’Malley, who represents West Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.
Charles Yancey, who represents Mattapan, said that redrawing the electoral map is always controversial, but added that the new map should erase the status quo in which a majority of districts remain mostly white. Boston has become a majority-minority city, and the new map should reflect that, Yancey said.
“This has to be recognized in this process in a very dramatic way, which means that, at the minimum, five out of the nine districts should be districts where a majority are communities of color,’’ said Yancey.
Linehan said he will come up with another version that includes the five minority-majority districts.
More than two dozen people attended the council meeting, including eight councilors, several residents, and advocates from Chinatown who listened to translations of the meeting on hand-held devices.
Lydia Lowe, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, said she was pleased that many councilors seemed willing to create a fair process, but she said she did not hear strong commitments to support communities of color.
While minorities represent 53 percent of Boston’s population, few of the district councilors are people of color, she added. “It’s been unchanged since district elections began,’’ she said. “So if we tweak it here and adjust the population, I don’t think that is going to give us the opportunities that we are looking for.’’
The precincts Linehan proposed moving from his district are Ward 5, Precinct 1, which includes part of Chinatown, and where Lee defeated Linehan 713 to 172; the South End’s Ward 4, Precinct 3, where Lee beat him 197 to 40; and Ward 7, Precinct 9 of Dorchester, where he won, 109 to 69.
A coalition including the NAACP and MassVOTE had complained that the redrawn district appears to have been designed to benefit Linehan.
Linehan, who faced a recount and complaints about his role heading the redistricting committee, said every councilor would have input and that the process of coming up with a map is likely to involve sacrifices by each of them.
“You will be very uncomfortable with the last map we draw,’’ he told them.
Meghan Irons can be reached at mirons@globe.com.