Item 6: PH - Ordinance Renaming 3rd/4th Connector

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") RElJVEDI.J,.PUBUC 14EARINQ . ON: . fY\~r c;.'" 14, ~OO(P FILE NO:~C oiP -II Public Testimony Before the Eugene Planning Commission On Street Naming of the So Called Jrd/4th Connector To Shelton Boulevard on Tuesday, March 14,2006 By Ray Wiley, SMJ Associates Board Member Approximately six years ago, the SMJ Board started to look at the possibility of naming the street that runs east to west in front of the house with a name that would be historic to tie it to the House. At the time, we were told that tIle only way that could happen would be for all of the property owners along the street to agree on a name. The manager of the apartment complex to the west of the House was contacted. Since the name of their complex is "One West Fourth Apartments", they wanted to keep their current address. So, in our mind, that killed the idea. Some time after that, We folli1d otif that the City planned to brit1g that street up to local standards with a major redesign, a.nd also that the Whiteaker Reflfiert1eftt Plan had proposed many yeats ago giving the street an histonc name tied to the house. This raised our interest in again pursuing an historic name. We talked with several councilors and Public Works staff; they seemed to be very supportive of our desire. We preferred the name ""Shelton Way", but someone told us that we couldn't use a name similar to another in the City. Since there was already a very short street in SW Eugene named "Shelton Ave.", we switched to McMurphey Way. A letter was sent to Mayor Torrey and the City Councilors on September 23, 2003 requesting that name. At the time, we were given assurance that would happen when the new construction was completed. When the new street was nearing completion, Public Works staff asked us, what name did we want for the street. We told them McMurphey Way. Later we were told by Mary Walston, that we would have go tP.1"ough some kind of formal process, she wasn't sure what, but we should talk with Gab Flock in Planning. I had a meeting soon after with Gab; the most significant thing to come out of that meeting was that no one was sure whether the street had ever been officially named. He said if that was the case, it would much easier to fiame it. I called the surveyof, DOM Stetfitfi'S office, and they did significant research, and determined the street had never been officially named, even though they used "3rd_4th Avenue Connector" on the plat map. I relayed this information to Gab and Eric Jones in Public Works. Eric told me that Ken Guzowski had done considerable historic research on streets in that area and had found a number of old Sanborn maps, but none showed a name for the street in question. There was one very interesting fmding, two of the maps (1925 & 1962) showed that the street