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Pleasant Grove pauses street-renaming request, asks staff to define 'extraordinary' criteria
Summary
The Pleasant Grove City Council agreed to pause a pending street‑renaming petition and directed staff to research how other cities define "extraordinary civic contribution" before deciding whether to approve a commemorative sub‑name for 1150 East.
The Pleasant Grove City Council on Tuesday agreed to pause consideration of a petition to add a commemorative name to a city street while staff researches and recommends clearer criteria for honoring living residents.
City Administrator Scott said the city’s existing street‑naming policy — written about seven to eight years ago — is intentionally limited and contains four criteria that can be used to name or sub‑name a street. "The request that we've received falls under criteria 1, which is extraordinary civic contribution to the community," Scott said, adding that the policy does not currently define what "extraordinary" means.
The council discussed a specific pending petition to add a commemorative sub‑name to 1150 East. Scott explained the technical approach: the numeric address (for example, "1150 East") would remain the official address, and the commemorative name would appear as a secondary name on street signs so residents would not need to change mailing addresses.
Several council members said they want a clearer, less subjective definition of "extraordinary civic contribution" before the city acts on this or future petitions. One council member noted that, historically, many civic naming actions have been for people who died in the line of duty and that it is "not super common to name something after somebody while they're still alive." Another council member said the city should consider both veterans and long‑serving local citizens who have made notable contributions.
Scott told the council staff will contact other cities to learn how they interpret and apply similar criteria and return with recommendations. The council agreed to pause action on the current petition while staff prepares a proposal. Members discussed a suggested commemorative name, "Bessant Boulevard," and some said the council could explore alternate wording (for example, honoring the Bessant family generally rather than a single individual) to avoid proliferation of identical surnames on local streets.
Council members asked staff to consider whether the policy should specify whether honorees must be deceased, whether living honorees are acceptable, and what thresholds of service or recognition should apply. Scott said the research and staff recommendation will take several weeks and asked the council if that timeline was acceptable; council members agreed.
The council also discussed a possible timing request tied to a planned July 4 event but did not commit to a specific schedule. At the end of the discussion the council directed staff to pause the current application, research how peer cities handle similar requests, and return with proposed language defining "extraordinary civic contribution" and any other recommended changes to the city policy.
No formal vote was taken on the underlying petition during the work session.
