Oakville Street Naming Policy: Purpose statement
This procedure outlines the parties involved and their responsibilities for the development of street names for public highways (roads) which are under the jurisdiction of the Town of Oakville (town).
Scope
This procedure applies to all street names including heritage street names for public roads within the town.
Procedure
Standard Street Naming
The naming of new streets in Oakville shall be agreed upon between the town and the applicant of new development lands, who shall be requested to provide a list of potential street names, in accordance with the criteria outlined below:
All street names shall be one word except for veteran and historical name recognition or as approved by the Director, Transportation and Engineering Department, or designate.
Proposed street names should be short in length, easy to spell, and easy to pronounce.
Names which follow a theme within a new plan of subdivision are encouraged. Thematic examples could be key urban and community design features.
Personal names shall only be permitted to celebrate a past life to reflect significant historical relevance to the area.
Names should be based on only the surname of an individual unless the street name requires the first name or person’s title to avoid duplication within the town/Region of Halton.
Names from the list of Oakville/Trafalgar Township Veterans as supplied by Heritage Planning are encouraged. As some of the Veteran names have common surnames, special consideration has been provided by emergency services to accept both the individual’s given name and the surname.
For development applications which involve the development of more than one new street, and where the property does not contain a heritage resource, Heritage Planning staff will advise the applicant that at least one heritage street name must be used in the new development. See heritage street name selection criteria.
Transportation and Engineering department staff will work with the applicant to develop the proposed name list, should assistance be required. Transportation and Engineering staff will review and amend the list as required.
Street names that already exist within the Town of Oakville and Halton Region municipalities shall not be permitted and Transportation and Engineering department staff will revise the list accordingly.
Transportation and Engineering department staff will send the potential list of street names to emergency services for review and comment. Emergency services will review the list of potential names with the master list of street names for the Region of Halton (City of Burlington, Town of Halton Hills, Town of Milton and the Town of Oakville). Street names that already exist in Halton Region will not be permitted. Emergency services will also recommend that names with similar spelling or pronunciation or names that are too lengthy not be used.
The following shall apply to the renaming of streets:
Requests to rename streets may be brought forward for consideration by any member of Council.
Streets may be renamed to recognize the contribution to the community of an individual or a group of individuals or a significant event, subject to meeting the other criteria within the Procedure for Street Naming and approval of Council. Streets shall not be renamed after living individuals
A report outlining the request or reason for renaming an existing street shall be submitted to Council for approval.
Heritage Street Naming
Heritage Planning staff will provide a list of potential heritage street names to Transportation and Engineering staff who will verify that these heritage street names meet the Town’s selection criteria for street naming for each application.
All heritage street names shall comply with the following criteria:
Heritage street names should be developed with consideration for the names, places and events that relate to the Town of Oakville, Halton Region, former Township of Trafalgar, former Village of Bronte and the former County of Halton. Proposed names must meet one of the following criteria;
The name has direct associations with a theme, event, belief, person, activity, organization or institution that is significant to a community;
The name conveys information that contributes to an understanding of a community or culture;
The name conveys information that contributes to an understanding of the local geography and/or landscape; or
The name is from the Oakville/Trafalgar Township Veterans’ List. As some of the veteran names have common surnames, special consideration has been provided by emergency services to accept both the individual’s given name and the surname. All new street signs used to commemorate veterans shall be marked with a red poppy to differentiate them from standard street signs.
For development applications which involve the development of more than one new street, and where the property does contain a heritage resource, Heritage Planning staff will advise the applicant that 50% of the new street names shall relate to the heritage resource and this requirement shall be a condition of draft approval for a plan of subdivision.
Heritage Planning staff will develop a list of potential heritage names that are relevant to the property under application. This list will be based on the Oakville/Trafalgar Township veterans’ List and the North Oakville Settlers’ List which are maintained by Heritage Planning staff.
If the applicant desires, he/she can provide his/her preferred heritage street name selections to Transportation and Engineering staff.
Commemorative Street Naming
The town may recognize local citizens by introducing a commemorative street name, which will be considered subordinate to the primary street name that currently exists. A time frame may be established by Council or the Director, Transportation and Engineering Department during which any commemorative street will continue to be in effect. The town reserves the right to remove any commemorative name at any time, should conditions arise that makes it no longer in the best interest of the town.
Names not permitted
The Town will not allow new street names that:
Are duplicate or too similar to an existing street name within the Halton Region.
Have similar pronunciation sounds such as; Beachtree Crescent and Peachtree Lane, or Morrison Road and Morrison Heights Drive.
Contain apostrophes, hyphens and dashes. The possessive “s” may be used but without the use of the apostrophe.
Could be construed to promote alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, or addictive substances, pornography, weapons or other life-threatening products.
Present demeaning or derogatory portrayals of individuals or groups or contain any message that is likely to cause deep or widespread offence.
Promote religious or political messages that might be deemed prejudicial to other religious or political groups
Recognize a living individual.
Could be construed as advertising a product, commercial enterprise or religious institution.
Contain words that have already been excessively used in the Oakville community.
Have unconventional spellings, and do not accommodate ease of recognition and pronunciation.
Park Naming Policy: Purpose statement
This procedure establishes formal criteria that shall be used when naming or re-naming public parks and open space areas. This procedure will be used when new lands are acquired by the Corporation of the Town of Oakville (town), or when members of the public request re-naming of a public park or open space area and may also be used when naming individual components of a park or open space area, such as a trail within a larger park area.
Scope
This procedure will only apply to lands being used as public park areas or other similar open space areas forming part of the open space network within the town. This shall be understood to include all lands that are owned, leased or maintained by the town. Staff shall be responsible for naming new parks as they are acquired. Requests to rename existing parkland areas will be submitted to Council for information and, if directed by Council through a request for report, to the Community Services Committee (CSC) and Council for decision.
Procedure
When the town acquires new parkland, or a new open space feature, the following naming criteria shall be considered:
The name of the street on which the park or open space area is located. In the case of parkland areas having more than one street frontage, the primary street frontage should be considered first (i.e., the street that corresponds to the municipal address of the property).
Topographical or unique physical characteristics of the park or open space area.
The name of the community or the neighbourhood in which the park area is located.
Name of a person (or persons) that have significant historic relevance to the area.
The following shall apply to the re-naming of parks or open space areas:
Any member of the public may request the naming or re-naming of a park or open space area.
Parks or open space areas may be named after an individual or a group of individuals or a significant event; these types of requests will be forwarded to the Community Services Committee for consideration.
Judgment and discretion shall be used when naming new parks to minimize possible confusion with other park areas that may have similar names.
Consideration for parks within/adjacent to neighbouring municipalities may also be considered when choosing names for new park areas.
A report outlining the request or reason for renaming an existing park or open space area shall be submitted to Council for information
