Changing City street names has a number of impacts, including financial costs to change street signs, staff time to process the change and notify affected residents, and potential confusion for residents when the name changes.  There can be costs to residents or businesses if the address for their property changes.

For these reasons, City Council adopted Resolution 2001-9-30(R) on September 24, 2001, setting a policy that restricts the renaming of existing City streets to those necessary for public safety or as allowed by the City's Subdivision Ordinance.  This policy helps to save City funds by limiting expending resources for requests for City street name changes to only those that are strictly necessary. There may be a few additional occasions when the City Council is willing to consider the renaming of a City street, including:

1. when the City itself acquires property adjacent to the street proposed to be renamed;
2. upon written request of the federal, state, or county government or a school district, but each government entity may only make such a request no more than once every five years; or
3. upon the City Council’s own motion, but no more than once every five years.