A stretch of Range Road 291 will be renamed John Church Lane, following a 6-3 vote by Rocky View County (RVC) council at a regular meeting June 11.
The decision came after administration responded to a notice of motion presented May 28 by Coun. Daniel Henn, who stated the renaming of Range Road 291 would allow RVC to honour one of Balzac’s legacy families.
“Based on previous discussions on this issue over the past year, administration believes the notice of motion referred to approximately one kilometre of Range Road 291, north of Highway 566 and adjacent to RVC’s municipal campus,” said Grant Kaiser, executive director of Community and Business Connections.
According to Kaiser, “the Road Renaming Policy points to refusing the renaming.” Per the policy, road names are chosen to honour the history of the County, to promote safe communities by ensuring accurate property identification and to encourage ease of movement by using names that are not easily confused with other roads.
“There is currently a Church Ranches Lane and four other roads in Division 8 that use Church Ranches in their name, with addresses for about 80 properties,” he said.
Calgary 911 also provided feedback, Kaiser said, indicating because of the existing Church Ranches road names elsewhere in RVC, they could not support similar road names in a different area due to the potential for miscommunication in dispatching emergency vehicles.
Additionally, mapping apps can take several years to update road names in rural areas, Kaiser noted, meaning the renaming could cause problems for motorists seeking specific locations.
Henn moved to approve the renaming, and to waive a $500 road renaming application fee. In his report, Kaiser said waiving the fee could have a minor impact on estimated annual revenue for the County as part of the budgeting process, but administration did not have details on the related expenses available at the time of the meeting.
“Should council approve the road name change, the County will incur the cost of producing and installing road signs,” the report stated.
According to Henn, the budget implications of the waiver would be minimal, and he said he felt waiving the fee was an important symbolic gesture in recognizing a local family. While Henn acknowledged the waiver essentially pushed the cost onto RVC taxpayers, he said as a fellow taxpayer, “it was a cost he had no problem bearing” and hoped residents would recognize the importance of honouring legacy families around the county.
Couns. Samanntha Wright, Kevin Hanson and Crystal Kissel opposed the motion, with Wright saying she felt 911’s concerns were too serious to disregard.
“When it comes to emergency services…one person, one phone call, one dispatch makes one mistake – it could be a matter of seconds, it could be a matter of minutes, but those could be the seconds and minutes that save a person’s life,” she said.
Henn replied that a person making an emergency call would likely specify their address to the dispatcher, adding he believes mistakes by dispatchers would not be an issue.
His motion to approve the road renaming and fee waiver was ultimately carried 6-3.
