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Street names in Mountain Brook proposed

(9/15) With the Mountain Brook development working quickly toward their start of construction, Zoning and Code Enforcement Officer Darryl Hale introduced a list of acceptable and unacceptable names sent from the County for the naming of streets in the development. For Commission Member Dan Myers, even though the development is called "Mountain Brook," he felt the names suggested were strange, Saint Helens and Grand Tetons being among the suggestions.

Chair James Parker raised additional concerns, commenting that many of the names utilized the term "Road," going against a decision made by the Commission years ago about prohibiting the use of "Road" as part of a street name within city limits.

City Manager Jim Wieprecht replied, "Street is standard in the city. We name everything ‘street’ these days, it’s our standard convention, we don’t generally use road." He pointed out that circle (a looped road) and court (a dead-end road) are also utilized and Avenue (a road with a median) is occasionally used.

Weiprecht gave examples of roadways in the city that do not follow the existing street naming standards. "For example, Crimson Avenue isn’t divided at all but runs through Sarahs Choice, Meadowbrook and Meade’s Crossing." Older roads such as Roberts Mill and Caroll Heights were named before being annexed into the City, so they also do not follow the current standards.

In Myers opinion, "The main road going through the development would be a road, while all others would be streets, and if it’s behind the house it would be an alley." This brought up the question of how a home's address is chosen.

Wieprecht pointed out that the Post Office is not as particular now with cluster mailboxes as it has been in the past, but it's usually the emergency services that determine the address location. "Emergency services want the address to be with the road or alley you would use to access the property," he said. With this possibility, alleys will also need to be named. City Council Liaison Chris Tillman disagreed, stating, "The address should be the easiest way to find a property, not necessarily how you would get an emergency vehicle to it."

One example of this not being in effect is at Taneytown Crossing where some of the homes front West Baltimore Street and Harney Road. However, to access the homes you would use Community Place and Benton Drive. He said that by using the current standard, the homes on East Baltimore Street on the middle school side should be addressed Herman Drive instead of East Baltimore Street.

The possibility of changing the main thoroughfare through the development from its current, well known name of "Antrium Boulevard" to "Denali Boulevard" was also brought up to the Commission.

Wieprecht said he has been discussing the name change with Hale. "It being named something different is common," he said. However, he wanted to see the name be the same the whole way through from 194 to 140. Without knowing the future of when it will connect to 194, they would prefer to avoid changing the name at this time. "We don't want to create a condition like we have had with two Grand Drives and two O’Brien Avenues that are not connected."

Parker commented that with no houses expected to be accessed through the main roadway (Antrium or Denali), there shouldn’t be any issues with addresses in the years to come.

The Commission will discuss the County’s recommendations this month and revisit it at a later meeting.

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