Street names, 16 years later, are still being changed
Lengthy process to change duplicate, similar names often takes several months
Bell Street cuts a narrow line through residential Chinatown and the Glebe Annex, its north and south ends split by the Queensway.
Tightly packed duplexes, row houses and apartment buildings sit close to the road and few have front lawns.
But in Stittsville, Bell Street looks much different. Acres of green grass separate sizable single-family homes from the wide asphalt roadway. There are no sidewalks and no need for strict rules about on-street parking.
The two Bell streets lived in harmony until 2001, when 11 municipalities were amalgamated into the single City of Ottawa.
One city, two streets with the same name. What a pickle.
Sixteen years later, the process of renaming duplicate or similarsounding streets drags on.
To date, 72 street have been renamed, according to a written statement from Frank Bidin, the city’s chief building official.
But five dozen others are in various stages of consultation and processing.
“The renaming of duplicate or similar sounding streets is a very fluid process often taking several months for any individual street to complete from initial consultation with residents, selection of a new name and or civic number change, notification of various stakeholders and final implementation,” Bidin’s statement read.
His department couldn’t share the list of streets that are still to be renamed because the affected residents have not been notified yet.
Names aren’t being added to the list anymore, and the so-called municipal address anomalies project expects “all affected streets will be processed before year end, with implementation shortly thereafter,” the statement said.
City councillors were told last year that the process would be complete by March 2017.
“We are proceeding as quickly as we can,” Bidin said then.
“There’s no question it is a very long process.”
“What’s the holdup?” the Citizen asked.
“Resolution of duplicate and/ or similar sounding street names is a very fluid process requiring significant consultation with affected residents and stakeholders. Residents are also encouraged to participate in the process which entails a significant resource component to research and vet proposed names leading up to a new selection,” Bidin’s recent statement said.
Kanata South Coun. Allan Hubley raised the issue back in 2012, asking then for recommendations to speed up the process, which at the time was dealing with anomalies at a pace of one or two a year.
Council later gave the director of building code services the authority to correct street names to provide efficient wayfinding or to address a public safety hazard, including the correction of the spelling of a name or elimination of duplicate or similar sounding names. Street names that were most problematic were to be identified and prioritized.
“Not all anomalies pose the same risk to public safety, and it is important to deal with those that pose the highest risk. In addition, street name and civic number changes are disruptive to residents and businesses, and the solution to fixing the anomalies that create the greatest potential hazard should be done in a way that creates the least disruption while addressing the problem,” said a 2014 staff report.
The biggest problems were streets with very similar-sounding names (Red Bridge versus Red Ridge), streets with duplicate names and civic numbers but different street type designations (Fenton Street versus Fenton Avenue), and streets with duplicate or similar-sounding names that are geographically close, rather than being at opposite ends of the city.
The new approach for changing a street name involves residents suggesting new street names online. Changes don’t require approval or committee or council.
Which brings us back to Bell Street in Stittsville: In March 2017, the short stretch between Stittsville Main and Norway Spruce streets was officially renamed Bobcat Way.
That was chosen as the replacement street name because it represents Canadian fauna and fits within the theme of the surrounding street names.
And the stretch of Bell Street between Norway Spruce and West Ridge Drive was renamed Snowberry Way, in a nod to Canadian flora and the theme of the surrounding street names.
Resolution of duplicate and/or similar sounding street names is a very fluid process requiring significant consultation …