Agenda - Public Works Committee - 04/18/2018

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City Engineer Westby stated that staff from various departments recently met to discuss potential alternatives for re -naming three street in The COR per the direction of the Public Works Committee. He stated that the public safety staff would be most impacted by the renaming and objects to the renaming (whether in The COR or other areas of the City) due to concerns with the confusion this could create for emergency responders attempting to quickly located an address, especially for responders coming from outside the City. He explained that street names are an important component of public safety response, which can have a significant impact on response times and outcomes. He stated that public safety staff also noted that during emergencies, electronic navigation might not be available, so responders must reply on their knowledge of the City's street naming convention to locate addresses. He stated that for those reasons, public safety staff recommend that the City follow the County's street naming grid system or come up with its own street naming convention that is consistent throughout the City. City Engineer Westby stated that the options staff discussed were to select new street names common to a theme related to The COR. He stated that because Veteran's Drive exists within The COR, perhaps a patriotic theme could be chosen. He noted that staff was unable to come up with names using those themes for X or Z, but noted that Yankee could be used for Y. He noted that another option was to consider names outside of the alpha order and consider using place context names such as "City Hall", "Municipal", "Lake Ramsey", "Plaza Park", "Northstar", Railroad", or "Station" for street names. He provided examples of historic names that could be considered. He reminded the Committee again that public safety staff recommends that the City should continue to follow the County street grid system or come up with its own street naming convention that is consistent throughout the City. Councilmember Kuzma stated that this subject has been the focus of many discussions and the City is spending too much time on this. He suggested that the City stay with the County naming grid to prevent public safety problems. Chairperson Riley stated that the problem is the bad names for the X, Y, and Z streets. He stated that this will be the fourth Z street in Ramsey. He noted that looking across the County, many cities have chosen other names that deviate from the grid. He believed that the reasonable answer would be to change the names just within The COR for the X, Y and Z streets. He stated that he likes some of the examples given in the staff report that focus on elements of The COR such as Itasca, Northstar, or Stonebrook. Councilmember Kuzma stated that he believes that the City is spending too much time discussing the street names and this could continue to open up future road name discussions. He stated that if he found a home he likes, he is not choosing it based upon the street name. Councilmember Johns stated that while she does not like the street names, her concern is with public safety. She noted that because the public safety department does not support these changes, she would hesitate to approve changes. She stated that if the changes are made for the X, Y and Z roads, she would support the name suggestions mentioned by Chairperson Riley. Public Works Committee / March 20, 2018 Page 6 of 9