Access road to Powerhouse, downtown Durango fire station to be named ‘West 12th Street’

Durango City Council followed the Durango Planning Commission’s recommendation to name the road connecting Camino del Rio to the downtown fire station and the Powerhouse “West 12th Street.”

The name isn’t as sexy as “Electric Avenue” or as commemorative as “Dunaway Street,” “Gallagher Way” or “Greg Hoch Way,” names suggested for the road by city staff and residents, but it was chosen for its practicality.

It’s also a tall order to ask anyone to choose between honoring a longtime city planner or one fallen firefighter over another, something councilors said they felt uneasy about during Tuesday’s meeting.

Mayor Melissa Youssef said sticking to West 12th Street, which the Colorado Department of Transportation already calls the small road off Camino del Rio, “feels like a bit of an opportunity lost,” but she supports the Planning Commission’s commitment to practicality and the value of wayfinding.

Councilors Jessika Buell and Dave Woodruff said choosing between one influential community member over another is difficult, but a public survey conducted by the city to gather name recommendations did provide plenty of suggestions for other projects.

“How to honor someone is increasingly difficult, to try to dissect who is worthy or who is more worthy,” Woodruff said. “I feel like there could be a really great way to honor both – all three of them, honestly. … Practicality is probably the best measure. And we as a community can decide how to best honor both Mr. Gallagher and Mr. and Mrs. Dunaway to really solidify their contributions and their impact on this community.”

Durango residents seized the opportunity to take part in the naming of the roadway. The city received 1,054 survey responses, which provided preconceived names thought up by city staff and also allowed residents to submit their own.

Two hundred fifty-eight respondents said they support “Gallagher Way,” while 182 survey takers said they want “Get Out the Way, Way.”

Another 181 respondents said “Electric Avenue” is fitting for the road connecting the community to the Powerhouse, named for its history as a power plant during the city’s early development back when Durango was more accurately called a town.

The Durango Community Development Department also received about 45 written comments available in full in Tuesday’s City Council meeting agenda.

City Planner Daniel Murray said names such as “Electric Avenue” were disqualified right off the bat because the unnamed road runs east-west at its start, and avenues in the city run north-south.

He said the city has policies for naming roads, parks and facilities after significant people and events, which are pretty broad.

Names need to have “a demonstrable meaning to the citizens of the area,” he said. And names for the deceased – such as ‘Gallagher Way’ or ‘Dunaway Street’ – require written approval from family, which the city received from Gallagher’s wife and daughter and the Dunaways.

In a Dec. 22 letter to the editor, Greg Hoch, former Community Development member of 35 years, asked if a road is to be named after him, “I’d recommend they do so only posthumously.”

“Can you imagine giving a tourist directions from the train station to go up to Greg Hoch Street and take a right? That’s crazy making, when right now it’s simply the math of, “Oh, that’s three blocks north,” he said of a proposal in a Herald opinion column to rename Ninth Street after himself.

Murray said practicality is a significant factor to consider. The name “West 12th Street” keeps the city’s street grid intact, because 12th Street resides just beyond Camino del Rio and aligns well with the unnamed road.

Murray said just because City Council may choose not to give the road an honorific name doesn’t mean community members can’t be honored in other ways.

“There are a variety of ways to recognize individuals within our community,” he said. “ … There could be other facilities, parks or fields, or even buildings, that council could choose to recognize these individuals, or any others for that matter.”

He provided the following list of other roads, buildings and open spaces in Durango named after individuals:

cburney@durangoherald.com