After months of talks inside City Hall, members of Jacksonville's City Council are taking plans for new council district boundaries out to neighborhoods.

The council Rules Committee will host public meetings at four Florida State College at Jacksonville campuses by Sept. 1 to invite feedback on a plan developed by a council reapportionment panel.

Some members said that input can help them do their job.

"The more transparency, the more inclusiveness, the better the product," said Councilman Johnny Gaffney, who chaired the reapportionment effort since July 1.

Gaffney said he's hoping neighborhood groups and the city's Citizen Planning Advisory Committees will be involved in the discussions.

The city will buy ads in three newspapers and spread public notices in advance of the meetings, city lawyer Peggy Sidman told committee members.

The council has a Nov. 18 deadline to adopt new council district lines, which will also become a basis for School Board boundaries.

The changes are supposed to balance the number of people represented by each council district, which shifted as some neighborhoods grew and others shrank between 2000 and 2010.

The plan would break up one district that now stretches from Mayport to the Clay County line, but it also would stretch others, with one running from the Philips Highway to the Nassau River.