Title
Review and Comment on Revisions to the City Council Facility and Street Naming Policy.
Body
To: Honorable Chair and Members of the Recreation and Park Commission
From: Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Re: Review and Comment on Revisions to the City Council Facility and Street Naming Policy.
BACKGROUND
Naming public spaces such as parks and city streets is meaningful and powerful. This was evident during 2020 in the discussion of removing monuments of people with histories of racism and discrimination as well as through the City of Alameda’s (City) renaming of Jackson Park to Chochenyo Park.
The existing City Council Facility and Street Naming Policy (Naming Policy), addresses naming new City facilities and renaming existing facilities (Exhibit 1). It was last updated and adopted by City Council on May 17, 2016, to include procedures for naming streets after business entities. Otherwise, the current Naming Policy dates back to the 1990s with a focus on historical themes.
During the process concerning the renaming of Jackson Park, the Recreation and Parks Commission and community-led Park Renaming Committee discussed the need to update the Naming Policy to reflect better current standards and values.
On February 16, 2021, the City Council discussed changes to the Naming Policy, and it directed staff to revise the Policy and bring a draft to various City Boards and Commissions for review and comment. On April 8, 2021, the Recreation and Parks Commission reviewed high level concepts for the Naming Policy and requested that the draft Naming Policy be brought back for review. Comments from the Historical Advisory Board (HAB), Planning Board and Recreation and Parks Commission are being compiled in September and brought back to the City Council in October.
DISCUSSION
City Facility and Street Naming Criteria
The existing Naming Policy was developed with a narrow focus on historical themes. The City Council’s direction is to broaden the naming criteria to allow greater diversity, equity and inclusion as well as broader community input at public Brown Act meetings. With that direction, staff has developed the general naming criteria following these principles:
• Standing criteria that is written into the Naming Policy will reflect diversity, equity and inclusion. It’s important that City facilities reflect everyone in the Alameda community. New names should intentionally broaden the representation of people in our community.
• Maintain the requirement that if naming after a person they must be deceased for at least three years.
• Focus on local Alameda significance but leave an option for names that reflect California or a national lens when appropriate.
• Require consultation of any affected group of the name and include research on names.
Summary of Proposed Changes
With the direction provided by the City Council, staff revised the Naming Policy to broaden naming criteria and outline a new public process. The following lists what has changed and not changed from the previous Naming Policy:
What Has Not Changed:
• Planning Board will review street names from developers for new streets as part of subdivision plans which are ultimately approved by City Council.
• Requirement that a person be deceased for at least three years to be considered for a facility or street name.
• Corporate naming criteria to name a street after a corporation.
• Alameda Point streets will reflect WWII naval themes to be consistent with the area’s historic district designation.
Proposed Changes:
• There is an overall focus on facility and street names that value inclusivity and diversity. Names should intentionally broad the representation of people in the Alameda community.
• Names should focus on local Alameda significance but may reflect California or a national lens as appropriate.
• Revised HAB’s role as keeper of an overall approved name list and instead HAB only recommends names for historic properties. A pre-approved name list will no longer be utilized.
• Greater public participation for naming and renaming facilities involving a four-step process with Boards/Commissions and final approval by City Council.
• Creates an application process for renaming facilities and streets and requires that the City Council first approve whether a facility/street will or will not be renamed.
The remainder of this report describes the proposed changes in greater detail.
Current Naming Policy
The current Naming Policy identifies the following Board or Commission for making a recommendation to the City Council for each facility type. The City Council has final authority regarding the naming of City facilities. Here are the roles and responsibilities of the Boards/Commission under the existing policy:
• Recreation and Parks Commission - parks and recreation facilities
• Golf Commission - golf facilities
• Public Utilities Board - Alameda Municipal Power facilities
• Library Board - Library facilities
• Housing Commission - Housing Authority facilities
• Planning Board - Streets and other city facilities not listed above
• Historical Advisory Board - keeper of the facilities/street names list
Draft Policy and Procedures for Naming New City Facilities
A key element of the revised Naming Policy requested by the City Council is a broader public outreach/input process. The draft Naming Policy requires a four-step public process and meetings of the appropriate City Board/Commission. Each meeting and its purpose would be broadly marketed through print, social media, and email to encourage residents to attend and provide input. This would be an effort to extend beyond the standard meeting notifications as required by the Sunshine Ordinance and to involve a diverse group of stakeholders in the community, including residents who are historically underrepresented in City public discussions.
Step 1 - Commission/Board Meeting #1: Initial presentation on the City facility and confirm naming criteria
• Present the City facility or street to be named, its location and any identifying features.
• Discuss and finalize naming criteria for the facility. Examples could include a maritime or naval reference if the facility is located at Alameda Point, a community value, a natural reflection of a location, or other theme.
• After criteria is confirmed, staff should conduct public outreach described below to solicit name ideas. If a street is being named or renamed then the public outreach must include a notification mailed to all property owners and site addresses on the affected street. This ensures that owners, renters and business lessees are notified of the public process.
Step 2 - Commission/Board Meeting #2: Review a list of names that meet the criteria
• The entire list of available names is reviewed, including the existing facility names list and new names generated from outreach.
• Staff recommends a shorter list of names that meets the criteria for Commission/Board review.
• Commission/Board discusses and narrows down to short list of names.
Step 3 - Commission/Board Meeting #3: Final name choice to recommend to City Council
• Commission discusses a short list of names and recommends a name to City Council for final approval. The names on this list shall be previously researched and vetted, particularly names of people.
• Research and consultation with any affected group of the proposed name is strongly recommended.
Step 4 - City Council Meeting: The City Council will consider a recommendation from a Board or Commission and make the final decision to name a City property or facility.
This revised process would replace the existing process in which the HAB first approves names to be added to a Names List that was primarily limited to historical themes. The Historical Advisory Board would continue to serve a role as the primary body to review and recommend names for historic facilities. A pre-approved name list would no longer be utilized.
Draft Policy and Procedures for Naming New Streets
The draft Policy would require the Planning Board to continue reviewing proposed names for new streets as part of the development entitlement process. A new development with new streets requires a subdivision map, which as standard practice under the Subdivision Map Act that the Planning Board reviews and recommends to the City Council for final approval. In the same way, the Planning Board can hold public hearings to consider the merits of the proposed street name according to established naming criteria and make a recommendation to the City Council on the street naming. Staff recommends keeping this process. Otherwise, there are no changes proposed to the technical requirements for street names, such as meeting 911/emergency system standards, or to the Corporate Naming Policy previously approved by the City Council.
Application Process for Renaming a City Facility or City Street
The City Council directed staff to develop and refine the process for initiating and reviewing requests for renaming existing facilities and streets. Staff recommends an application process for renaming as described below.
• A request to rename a City facility would be initiated by one or more City resident(s), business owner(s), or property owner(s) using a City Facility Renaming Request Application (Application), which would be submitted to the City Manager. The Application would include reasons and/or justifications on why the name should be changed as well as letters of support, articles, documents, and other evidence demonstrating broad-based community support for the Application.
• The Application must include a petition with at least 500 Alameda resident signatories.
• City Street Renaming: Application required along with a petition of at least 50% plus one signatories of the property owners on that street or the 500 Alameda resident signatories.
• City Manager reviews the Application to ensure it is complete.
• City Council reviews and determines whether the City facility or street will be renamed.
• The appropriate Commission or Board then utilizes the naming procedure as outlined in the approved Naming Policy and, following that procedure, recommends a new name to City Council. City Council has final authority on City facility names.
FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no financial impact from this recommendation.
RECOMMENDATION
Review and comment on revisions to the City Council Facility and Street Naming Policy.
Respectfully submitted,
Amy Wooldridge, Recreation and Parks Director
Exhibits:
1. Draft City Facilities and Street Naming Policy
2. City Facilities and Street Naming Policy (adopted 2016)