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Ordinance committee sends revised honorary street‑naming draft to public hearing on Sept. 15
Summary
Norwalk's ordinance committee reviewed a revised Chapter 95 on honorary and historic street naming, agreed to remove a strict petition threshold and asked DPW and Finance to prepare an application form and fiscal‑impact statement; the committee voted to send the draft to a public hearing on Sept. 15, 2026.
The Ordinance Committee on July 21 approved sending a revised draft of Chapter 95 (honorary and historical street naming) to a public hearing on Sept. 15, 2026.
The committee's review focused on application requirements, public‑notice expectations and fiscal impacts. Staff explained the new fiscal‑impact process, saying that a request must be submitted to Finance and the affected department at least 21 days before a hearing and that the chief financial officer must provide the fiscal‑impact statement to committee members no later than 10 days before the hearing. "If an item is going to public hearing, then we need to make sure that finance and the appropriate department have time to conduct this analysis," staff said.
Committee members discussed several draft criteria, including a proposed petition requiring signatures from 0.667 of residents on the affected street. Multiple members called that threshold impractical on larger or mixed‑use streets and supported replacing it with open‑ended language requiring applicants to demonstrate a good‑faith effort to notify neighbors. As Chair Jalen Seed put it, the committee preferred to "leave it open for them to be creative" and allow DPW to suggest recommended methods in the application.
Members also agreed that showing a geographic relationship between the honoree and the street and requiring a council member's signature could be handled in the application rather than as a strict ordinance requirement. The committee discussed fees and timing for ceremonies and directed staff to request a fiscal‑impact statement from Finance and DPW to quantify sign and staff costs before finalizing language.
The committee recorded a motion to send Chapter 95 (streets and sidewalks, Article 2) to a public hearing on Sept. 15, 2026; the chair called for a vote and the motion was approved during the meeting. The transcript does not record an individual roll‑call; the committee marked the measure as passed at the meeting.
Next steps: staff will provide DPW with examples for an administrative application form and the committee will review the fiscal‑impact statement before the public hearing.
