OGDEN – After spending most of a year wrestling with a proposed honorary name for 2nd Street, the Ogden City Council is investigating carefully how such names are approved.
Primarily in an effort to promote equity and inclusion, but also to define more clearly how voluntary street names are accepted and approved by the city, the Council is currently considering a draft regulation that would implement a variety of new practical guidelines.
Honorable street names are not uncommon in Ogden. The designations were given to recognize St. Joseph, Ogden, and Ben Lomond High Schools. In 2018, the city approved a measure that renamed expanded portions of 24th and 30th Streets after Martin Luther King Jr. and César Chávez, respectively. But what was a relatively innocuous process got more complicated in 2020 when Ogden-resident Anna Keogh petitioned Ogden City to honor 2nd Street from Wall Avenue to Century Drive.
In the mid-19th century, the entire area near 2nd Street west of Wall Avenue served as a fortress for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The fort was a meeting place for about 600 early settlers and was the largest fort in Weber County. Keogh’s original petition was intended to honor these settlers, but its proposal was changed twice at the behest of Ogden’s Diversity Commission and some city council members, since the northwestern Shoshone tribe was known to inhabit the area near what is now 2nd Street and Wall Avenue.
The prevailing criticism of the original street name was that it did not honor the people who first lived in the area and that the word “fort” points to a troubled and often violent history between Native Americans and early European settlers. After consulting the tribe, Keogh finally landed on the “Chief Little Soldier Way” for the honorary name. Ogden City Council will hold a public hearing on July 13th to consider the proposal.
During the discussions on 2nd Street, Councilor Angela Choberka tabled a motion to review and revise the city’s ordinance governing honor street names.
“(The goal was) to review it and make some recommendations to see how we can do a little better,” said Choberka.
Ogden Council deputy director Glenn Symes said a draft regulation is in the works that includes a host of new guidelines for the process.
Street names can be initiated by the Mayor, Engineer, Council of Ogden, or by townspeople according to the current code. And while the draft regulation would allow citizens to continue to apply for voluntary street names, they would have to articulate the broader public purpose for the change and meet certain criteria regarding the historical, cultural or neighborhood significance of the name. The draft regulation also clarifies that names that resemble existing streets are not allowed and that people commonly associated with tobacco, alcohol, profanity, or sexually oriented businesses or activities are prohibited.
Another essential requirement of the proposed revision is the involvement of the diversity commission in the process.
The diversity commission would work with the town planning commission to review voluntary street name proposals for the “positive and potentially negative effects” of a particular name and then forward these results to the city council. Specifically, the Diversity Commission would study how a particular name might affect communities outside of the proposed name – namely, minorities and historically marginalized communities.
The Council discussed the proposal during a working session on July 6th and will bring ideas to the next meetings.
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