While many folks don’t give it much thought, the name of the street they live on could be a nod of respect to a fallen warrior, an important municipal leader, an athlete or a local titan of industry.
In Springwater Township, there’s a policy for naming roads in the municipality and it exists to ensure history isn’t entirely relegated to the back pages.
In Midhurst, for example, Finlay Mill Road was named in honour of Alex Finlay, who once owned a tree nursery and saw mill on Willow Creek in the village.
According to Doug Herron, the township's director of planning and development, the municipality’s street-naming policy celebrates history, with an emphasis on local.
In the township’s road-naming policy, there are five existing criteria that are designed to help developers pick appropriate street names:
- The surnames of local pioneer families in the immediate vicinity of the proposed development or existing road
- The names of prominent former residents who contributed through community involvement/athletic/business acumen
- The names of local servicemen who made the ultimate sacrifice
- Any prominent geographic or other natural feature which makes a site unique or identifiable
- A historic name which once identified the location.
“The vast majority of new street names are related to new plans for subdivisions,” said Herron. “For a new subdivision, a condition of draft plan approval is that road names are assigned. The road names need to be requested by the developer and meet the criteria of the township’s road-naming policy.
“This condition needs to be met before registration of the development,” he added.
On occasion, Herron said, the township will initiate a street-name change to reflect historical significance, such as S. E. Campbell Lane in Elmvale, the result of a council notice of motion.
“The rear laneway north of Queen Street West was renamed to honour S.E. Campbell,” Herron said. “Campbell has been a prominent, long-standing name in the Elmvale and Springwater community. Most recognizably, the Campbell family owned a hardware business on Queen Street West, which was established in the early 1900s and operated for over 75 years.”
According to Herron, when road names are submitted for approval, the names are circulated to internal departments, neighbouring municipalities, and county emergency medical services (EMS) and geographic information system (GIS) for review.
The proposed road names are assessed for 911 criteria to ensure that names are not duplicated within the same municipality or close to the borders of neighbouring municipalities.
“The 911 assessment will also vet against similar phonetically sounding street names,” Herron said. “The goal is to ensure emergency responses are directed to the correct address.”
The road names are then presented to council for final approval.
Herron said that while developers will typically submit street names that are culled from the local pioneer, prominent personality or local servicemen who died in battle categories, they will, on occasion, suggest names which reflect an historic, or commonly known feature or characteristic of the area where they are developing.
When the street names were submitted for the D. Hickling and Thompson Lands subdivisions, located northwest of the corner of Anne Street and Carson Road West, the suggested street names referenced wild flowers that are found across the province, including Bearberry Road, Daisy Street, Lupine Lane, Elderberry Road and Periwinkle Road.
Township council approved 23 road names based on Ontario wild flowers as they conform to the township’s road naming policy — a “prominent geographic or other natural features.”
