If you want to change the name of a public space, park or road in Savannah, you can’t do it alone.
It's an exhaustive process that requires support from not just two separate city government bodies, but also the people and business operators who own property surrounding the space.
The city ordinance outlines the process for naming and renaming public properties of all kinds: unnamed buildings and public spaces, roads and squares - anything that will eventually have a name has a process. But the requirements vary drastically for each.
The most stringent of these processes is the long list of approvals needed for renaming a public space, which is what the Center for Jubilee, Reconciliation and Healing is trying to do with Calhoun Square.
The law requires that when naming new city-maintained public spaces or renaming existing ones, the new moniker has to either honor or commemorate a noteworthy person associated with the city, the county, the state or the country; or commemorate local history, places, events or culture.
The Center's proposed Susie King Taylor Square, or just Taylor Square, fits into this description.
But all city ordinances for renaming public property include a signature threshold. Joe Shearouse, the city’s director of policy and external affairs, said this is meant to make “overwhelming community support” a prerequisite for a name change.
And for squares, it doesn't happen often. Savannah's squares have had the same names for the last 138 years. In 1883, then-St. James Square was renamed Telfair Square to honor Savannahian and former Georgia Gov. Edward Telfair, who held the office for two terms in the late 18th century.
Renaming roadways is a bit more demanding than a square, with a signature approval threshold of 75%. Shearouse says this is because changing the name of a roadway typically has more effects on the surrounding area: businesses have to change their address on marketing and signage; first responders are dispatched by road names, and have to update their systems, plus relearn the name of the road.
Will Peebles is the enterprise reporter for Savannah Morning News. He can be reached at wpeebles@gannett.com and @willpeeblessmn on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: The road to changing the name of a public space in Savannah is long, and it’s meant to be
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