New street names revealed: Bobcat, Snowberry, Brae, Henry Goulburn, Turtleback

Councillor Shad Qadri shared the information below in an email to residents today. We like to hear from our readers, particularly people who live on the effective streets: What do you think of the new names chosen? Add a comment below or email feedback@stittsvillecentral.ca

Due to the amalgamation of the City of Ottawa in 2001, the City identified a number of streets in Stittsville that posed a public safety risk due to duplicate and similar sounding street names. As a result, in January of 2016, the street-renaming project was presented to Stittsville to reconcile the problems which these street names may invoke, not only to residents, but to Emergency Services.

The affected streets are Bell, Elm, Goulbourn, Meadowland, and Long Meadow.

After the first round of consultation, the project deadline was extended to August 12^th to provide more opportunity for suggestions from the community.

There were many suggestions made for each street name from the community as well as residents on the affected streets.

Now, I am happy to announce the results of those consultations and the vote. Please note that only residents who own property on the affected streets were eligible to vote and only for their own street. The results are as follows:

Bell St (from Stittsville Main-Norway Spruce) – Receiving 75% (3/4 votes) was Bobcat Way

Bell St (from Norway Spruce-West Ridge) – Receiving 38% (17/45 votes) was Snowberry Way

Elm St (sic) – Receiving 73% (44/60 votes) was Brae Crescent

Goulbourn St – Receiving 45% (14/31 votes) was Henry Goulburn Way

Meadowland Way – Receiving 20% (2/10 votes) was Turtleback Way

Long Meadow Way was also presented for a name change, however, the primary concern with this street was in its repeated civic number procession with similar-sounding Lone Meadow Way. As such, this street was unique in that a solution could be found by changing civic numbers to the 900 series (ex: 23 Long Meadow Way becomes 923 Long Meadow Way).

This idea was put forward to residents as an alternative to Bonfire Way (which received 58% or 7/12 of the initial votes).

In the end, 94% of voting residents (15/16) agreed to remain with Long Meadow Way with a civic number change to the 900 series. As such, Long Meadow Way will not be undergoing a name change.

I would like to thank all residents who took the time to participate in this extensive process and for those of you who contributed street name suggestions to provide options for residents to vote on.

Special thanks go to Rebecca Anderson for compiling this information as well to residents who worked within their streets in determining a consensus from residents on their street.

This has been a long and arduous process and I appreciate residents’ patience throughout it all. As I have mentioned, I too would rather not have to change any street names at all; however, as this is a community safety project taking place across the city to ensure that our Emergency Services operates at its greatest capacity, I do believe that we have finally reached a final result which will benefit our community for generations to come.

Official street renaming will take place in the upcoming weeks and affected residents will receive advance notice to make the necessary preparations. Should residents have any questions in the meantime, I encourage you to contact me and City staff, Rebecca Anderson, at Shad.Qadri@ottawa.ca and Rebecca.Anderson@ottawa.ca.