Name that Street
For too long UUCR has been a ridiculously hard-to-find facility. When someone goes to our address on Mannakee Street they find no church in sight! Although Norris Street is small and also hard to find, it has the virtue that our church frontage is actually located on it. We've learned from 40 years of experience with (literally) lost souls that it makes more sense to have our address where our church can be found. Therefore, the Board has decided to seek a formal address change to coincide with the opening of our new building.But wait-- there's more! You may not realize this, but no home or public facility currently has an address on Norris Street. We think it may be possible to seek a name change for Norris Street without ruffling any feathers. If we can find a name that captures something about our church's meaning or history and is also acceptable to the City of Rockville, they may grant an application for a name change. We think this would lend distinctiveness to our out-of-the-way presence in Rockville, and make us that much easier to find and remember from now on.
In January we asked congregation members to nominate possible street names. We got about 25 entries, and we voted on our favorites at the congregational mid-year annual meeting on 26 January 2003.
The three most popular choices were:
Chalice Way
Welsh Park Way
Peace Place
UPDATE MAY 2003
We submitted the above choices to the City of Rockville Dept. of Community Planning, and presented our rationale for changing the street name. The request was reviewed by the City's Department of Public Works and Department of Recreation and Parks. Both gave it an unfavorable review, saying a name change involves notifying 40 agencies and they saw no compelling reason to do so. They also were very unfavorable towards Chalice Way or Peace Place, saying the names were "not in character with other street names in Rockville". They thought a name related to Welsh Park might be acceptable, but said "Welsh Park Way" could be mistaken for a "parkway", and suggested another ending such as Welsh Park Drive. These were advisory opinions and not binding upon the City Planning Commision, but they were concerns that had to be addressed and countered. We decided to go forward with our request, and to make our arguments directly to the Planning Commission. We did so at their meeting on May 14.
WE WERE SUCCESSFUL! Susan Hedges and Roald Schrack presented on behalf of UUCR. In our argument we focused on changing the name to Welsh Park Drive. We pointed out that we were put at a great disadvantage because the only frontage we have on any public street is a little bit on Norris Street, and Norris is a very small and hard-to-find street. Renaming it "Welsh Park Drive" would make the street more findable by linking it geographically to the park it abuts. Welsh Park is well known to residents in Rockville, so the street and UUCR would be easier to find. We also argued that the city owed us this consideration because Norris Street was originally supposed to continue past its current dead-end, on to a connection with Lynch Street. Had that occurred, it would have been a less obscure street AND our church would have had substantial frontage on Norris Street. When that never happened--the land became part of Welsh Park-- we were put at a substantial disadvantage. We argued that this even created a safety concern; we fear not being found by fire and rescue personnel in the event of an emergency. Our arguments prevailed and all 5 Commissioners voted in favor of the name change, as well as an address change for UUCR from Mannakee Street to the new Welsh Park Drive.
UUCR's new address will be 100 Welsh Park Drive, Rockville, MD 20850
The change will be effective by June 1, 2003.
If you have questions or comments, please contact Building Committee member Susan Hedges at susan.hedges -at- verizon.net