Consider Street Name Change of Azurite Street in the Sunfish Lake Business Park

The City of Ramsey has responded to inquiries by the public over the years regarding Azurite Street at the intersection of Bunker Lake Boulevard.  Azurite Street is a curving road that begins across from 143rd Avenue and continues to Sunwood Drive (See attached map).  It should be noted that Azurite Street actually has two intersection nodes on Bunker Lake Boulevard, separated by another intersection in between (Basalt Street).  City Staff has been exploring potential solutions surrounding confusion of the intersection of Azurite Street and Bunker Lake Boulevard.  A potential solution was presented to the City Council on January 11, 2011, which tabled action and referred the matter to the EDA.

When this segment of Azurite Street was originally constructed, the City responded to certain concerns regarding the name of the street due to the unique alignment of the street.  The City explored multiple options of a naming scheme, and chose what it thought was the best solution to a challenging naming scheme.  After monitoring the actual operation of the street and responding to inquiries from both the public and amongst City Staff, the City decided to re-evaluate the street name for this segment of Azurite Street.  It appears most of the confusion stems from the fact that Azurite Street intersects Bunker Lake Boulevard in two (2) separate locations.  Moreover, these two intersections are separated by a third intersection of Basalt Street and Bunker Lake Boulevard.

 

When coming up with a proposal for a street name change, City Staff attempted to balance the needs of the existing residents, the existing grid system for street names and addresses, and public safety response.  The original proposal for a potential street name change was to amend a portion of Azurite Street to 143rd Avenue, which matched the west half of the intersection of this roadway at Bunker Lake Boulevard.  The segment of the road that generally runs east/west was chosen as the closest match to the Anoka County grid system for road naming and addressing.  The City received one (1) comment from 14440 Azurite Street suggesting the entire segment of Azurite Street from Bunker Lake Boulevard to Sunwood Drive be changed.  This property owner suggested that two smaller segments of roadways may be just as confusing as what exists today.  More critically, extending 143rd Ave would result in 143rd connecting to 144th Avenue, and would not be viewed positively by first responders.

 

During the City Council Meeting to discuss the matter, a representative from 14350 Azurite Street commented that the address change for his business may reflect negatively on that business by its clients and preferred that there would be no street name change.  The Fire Chief has responded that, if it will help mitigate the concerns of this business, he would be willing to write a letter of explanation of need for this street name change to address any potential image of instability due to changing addresses.  After much discussion, the City Council ultimately decided to delay action on the matter and forward to the EDA for review.  One option to consider was changing the name of the entire road segment.

 

Following the City Council discussion, City Staff informed affected parcels of the decision to delay the matter and explore further options with the EDA.  At that time, City Staff received comments from two parcels.  The response from 14485 Azurite Street was to request no change of the street, citing a potential economic impact of $50,000 related to existing retail product in stock, among other things.  The response the City Councilmembers received via email is attached for your review.  Finally, a representative of 14410 Azurite Street commented that her preference was for no change to the street name change.

 

In reviewing any potential change, the EDA should consider the following:

* Public Safety response

* Financial impacts

* Other impacts to businesses (perceived instability/numerous address changes)

All costs associated with reviewing this proposal are being handled as regular staff duties.  In the past, the City has financially assisted affected residential parcels.  If that is the case in this matter, the EDA may wish to identify potential funding sources to assists parcels with any transition.

City Staff recommends careful consideration of any potential street name changes, especially as it might impact our businesses.  Changing the name of only one-half of the road segment would seem to add more confusion to the situation.  Changing the name of the whole segment would impact eight business properties.  While the City-owned property at 14280 Azurite would be minimally impacted, the same cannot be said of the businesses.  Diamond Graphics is concerned that an address change would be viewed negatively by its clients (businesses with several new addresses in less than 10 years can be viewed as financially suspect).  Wildlife Research Center moved into its current location in 2006.  Among its concerns are the significant financial burdens of changing its product labels, printed materials, and packaging vendor information.  It projects its costs for an address change to exceed $50,000.  From an economic development perspective and given the financial burden to our businesses in a challenging economy, staff does not recommend a street name change at this time.  

Motion to recommend either staying with the current Azurite Street in the Sunfish Lake Business Park or further studying the name scheme for this road segment.