Council to discuss policy on how to give roadways their handles

— The Oceanside City Council is scheduled to decide Thursday whether to adopt a street naming policy that would bring the city in line with state guidelines and provide a way to request name changes.

The proposed policy gives specific details for how streets should be named, saying, for example, when a street should be called “circle,” “drive,” “boulevard” or “lane.”

Street names or name changes had previously been approved by city planners. If the policy is approved, the City Council will now approve new names or name changes.

The city planner, city engineer and fire chief will still review proposed names.

The names go through the Fire Department to make sure they don’t interfere with emergency response. For example, similar sounding street names could send an ambulance or fire engine to the wrong location.

Though creating a street naming policy has been on city planners’ to-do list for a while, the proposal was sped along when Oceanside Unified School District board of education President Mike Blessing asked city officials earlier this year about how to request a street name change. He was told there was no official policy.

Blessing wants to change the name of an approximately 100-foot road now called Vista Entrada to Irieside Road after his 25-year-old son’s band, Irieside. The band plays hip-hop, reggae, rock and funk in the “party and bar scene,” the band’s website says. That name change is not up for discussion or a vote Thursday.

Blessing said he will submit a request after the policy is adopted.

The proposed regulations would create a framework for new names and name changes. Arterial roads would be called boulevard or highway. A generally straight road would be named street or calle if it goes north and south, and avenue or avenida if it runs east and west. Somewhat curvy roads would be called drive or paseo if they go north and south, and road or camino if they go east and west. Hillside roads, residential loops and cul-de-sacs would have specific names, too.

The whole name must be 16 or fewer characters, including spaces, so they can fit on a normal sign and must fit with the area’s theme.

For example, streets near the Mission San Luis Rey have Spanish names, and streets in the Townsite neighborhood are named after states.

The council is also scheduled to certify the election results from June 5, when Proposition E and F were defeated soundly.



