Parks Board asks for moratorium on naming parks

Without rules, they won’t name.

That is what the Parks and Recreation Board decided Tuesday night when members considered an item to rename the Quick Start Tennis Courts on Johnny Morris Road. The board voted not to recommend the item, and in a 4-0 vote (Members Michael Casias, Hill Abell and Susan Roth were absent), sent an entirely new resolution to City Council: put a hold on naming or renaming parks and recreational facilities until the parks board can write clear guidelines for the process.

Members said that over time, their board agendas have swollen with requests to name or rename parkland and facilities.

April Thedford, a project assistant with the city, said the idea to create naming rules first surfaced at the board’s Land, Facilities and Program Committee meeting in early March. The committee recommended that city staff review naming codes used by other departments or cities; for example, the Austin Police Department has a codified process for naming facilities.

“The committee members thought that was a good framework due to the number of applications that come in that do not have a lot of merit to the applications,” said Thedford. Board Member Jeff Francell said he was concerned about requests to name buildings or parks after people still living — an issue brought up when city staff reviewed applications received for the original item on the agenda, the renaming of the Quick Start Tennis Courts, all of which suggested naming the center after living, local tennis leaders.

Last year, Council considered the renaming of a park on Del Curto Road four times — three of those were voting sessions — before finally reaching a compromise. Council members combined two suggested names for the park, eventually designating it “The Tom Lasseter South Lamar Neighborhood Park.”

Sara Hensley, director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said at Tuesday’s meeting that it is not just a matter of efficiency or, as Francell pointed out, naming etiquette, but a question of funding.

“What are the implications when we do this? The cost?” she asked. “And then maintenance associated with renaming or naming things … we’re getting to a point where we’re naming more things that we don’t have signs on now, so that means more signs, and that means more maintenance.”

Hensley presented these concerns at Council’s regular meeting Thursday, during an item to rename Onion Creek Park. The parks board had advised Council against giving the park a new name. Council followed this recommendation, voting to table the motion and keep the park’s name as is.

The parks board’s final resolution Tuesday said it would hand over whatever naming rules it wrote to the Council’s new Open Space, Environment and Sustainability Committee. The committee would review what the parks board was able to draft, make any changes and send it along to Council for approval — theoretically ending a still-to-pass moratorium on naming.

City staff said they hope to have drafted language for a parks board naming code by next month’s meeting.