CR 95-151 Sweet Name Change Westbrooke Way & Old Settlers Trail
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August 31, 1995
Council Report 95-151
STREET NAME CHANGE
WESTBROOKE WAY , OLD SETTLERS TRAIL
Proposed Action.
staff recommends adoption of the following motion: Move that
Council table action on the name chancre reQUest concernincr
Westbooke Way and Old Settlers Trail.
Overview.
Council received a request from the Meadow Creek Condo
Association to change street names of Westbrooke Way and Old
Settlers Trail to Meadow Creek Parkway and Meadow Court. The
request was accepted and Council endorsed a public hearing
procedure before embarking on a first and second reading of
ordinance procedure. A hearing date of September 5 was set and
staff sent notification to every Westbrooke Way and Old Settlers
Trail address as well as to every non-resident owner of property
on those streets.
Primary Issues to Consider.
· Ramification of a name change
· Resident reaction
· Meadow Creek Condo Association request concerning a public
hearing
· Staff recommendation
Supportina Information.
· Hearing notification
· Letter - Hopkins Postmaster
· Resident letters
~
~essele
Engineering Superintendent
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CR:95-151
Page 2
Primary Issues to Consider
· Ramification of a name change
The first step in carrying out a change is to arrange for the
revision with the U.S.Postal Service. The City can do that on a
local level but the change must meet certain stringent Postal
Service need standards. As an example, the name change cannot be
granted for frivolous reasons nor in cases involving an
abnormally large number of addresses. The Hopkins Postmaster has
informed staff that the district postal office would be opposed
to this proposed name change for the above reasons, although on a
local level he and his staff would honor a blanket name change
request and assure residents of mail delivery. But on a higher
postal level there would be no change made on official street
name rosters or in Zip Code listings. There would be no change
made in the official postal data base. Therefore a resident at
Meadow Creek in the future could encounter problems with mail
forwarding because the address forwarding card would denote a
street that didn't exist on district office rosters or in the
data base. The resident would need to personally notify all
correspondents of a change in order to be assured of delivery.
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In addition to mail forwarding issues, residents would need to
notify U.S.West on an individual basis of an address change. The
telephone company has informed staff that the City could not
submit a blanket request for a street name change. Residents
would also need to apply for new drivers licenses, arrange for
new bank checks, and arrange for changes on legal documents,
mortgages and owner's titles. The City can arrange address
changes for property taxpayers with the Hennepin County Taxation
Department.
A cost to the city would be the posting of new street signs.
staff would need to notify high profile mapping companies as well
as MN/DOT and Hennepin County mapping department of the changes.
· Resident reaction
As of this writing staff has received 17 phone calls concerning
this request and the public hearing and all callers have
indicated their opposition. staff is also attaching letters
received from residents. Opposition seems to center around the
economic burden placed on the residents for unfounded reasons.
· Meadow Creek Condo request concerning the public hearing.
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The Meadow Creek Condo Association has contacted staff and
requested that the hearing and any action be tabled for future
consideration.
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CR: 95-151
Page 3
· Staff recommendation
Staff has informed the association that it is too late to notify
all residents and non-resident owners of a hearing cancellation.
Staff has suggested that the association make a presentation to
Council in advance of a hearing to explain its request and the
association has agreed. Staff recommends that Council then hear
comments from residents who may have appeared for the hearing,
and finally table action to a future date.
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HOP K
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T Y
August 23, 1995
Dear Meadow Creek Condominium Resident/owner:
The Hopkins city Council received a petition from the Meadow
Creek Association requesting a name change for Westbrooke Way and
Old Settlers Trail. The proposed new street designations are
Meadow Creek Parkway and Meadow Court. Before undertaking the
name-change process by ordinance revision, Council has set a
public hearing for 7:30 P.M._ September 5 at City Hall to discuss
the petition. You are invited to the hearing to voice your
opinion concerning the change.
A street name change has an impact on residents and owners:
o All owners/residents need to arrange their own address change
with the telephone company, credit card companies, their
driver's licenses, all legal documents, mortgage and owner's
titles. The City will arrange address changes for property
taxpayers with the Hennepin County Taxation Department.
o The city will arrange a blanket coverage change with the
Hopkins Post Office. The local post office is opposed to the
name change and will not accept individual address change
cards from residents. The Hopkins Post Office will honor any
city request for a street name change but only on an informal
basis.
Should you have questions, call me at 935-8474.
Sincerely,
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James Gessele
Engineering Supt.
JG/rr
1010 First Street South Hopkins, Minnesota 55343
Phone: 612-935-8474 Fax: 612-935-1834
An Equal Opportunily Employer
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~ POST.dL SERVICE
August 4, 1995
Jim Gessele
City of Hopkins
1010 First St S
Hopkins MN 55343-7573
Dear Jim:
In response to your inquiries concerning the possible street name change for
Westbrook Way to Meadowcreek Parkway and Old Settlers Trail to Meadow
Court. The Postal Service does not condone, welcome or encourage street name
changes. They are simply administrative nightmares for the Postal Service. Some of the
reasons for our objections are:
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confusion to mailers and delivery personal because street signs and
addresses will not always match with phone books and maps,
computer databases for all companies doing business with the residents
must be changed; this is a cost factor which eventually results in higher
charges to consumers and in mailing errors,
everyone involved will not be diligent to inform their correspondents
of correct address,
mail will eventually be returned to sender causing delays and
upsetting customers,
puts Postal Service in middle because there will be residents who are not
going to approve of the change because of the inevitable errors,
residents will be upset because they will be required to change
driver's license, deeds, stocks, property taxes, etc.,
forwarding of mail when resident physically moves will require
duplicate forwarding order and, finally,
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the large number of residents involved makes it much more difficult.
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Jim Gessele
City of Hopkins
August 3, 1995
Page 2
Jim, I hope this short list provides you and the residents enough information to
decide not to make a street name change.
J~ 141-
Timothy N. <O'Hara
Postmaster
Hopkins Post Office
910 1st St S
Hopkins MN 55343-9998
935-8606
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August 28, 1995
Monica Bannon
810 Old Settlers Trail, #2
Hopkins, MN 55343
James Gessele/Engineering Supt.
1010 First Street South
Hopkins, MN 55343
Dear Mr. Gessele:
I am unable to attend the public hearing on September 5th at City Hall. Therefore, I am writing to
express my views on the proposed street name change. I am a resident and owner of a
condominium at Meadow Creek and I feel that a name change would be a great inconvenience.
moved to the complex in November of this year and have recently changed a number of
documents and informed many different companies of my new address. I am not willing to go
through the time and the expense of another name change.
Please express my views to the City Council. If you have any questions or concerns please feel
free to contact me at (612)988-0429.
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Sincerely,
;l('r;/[,(,~tl J~A'~
Monica Bannon
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823 Old Settlers Trail #5
Hopkins, MN 55343
August 28, 1995
Mr. James Gessele
Engineering Department
City of Hopkins
10 I 0 First Street South
Hopkins, MN 55343
Dear Mr. Gessele:
Thank you for the time you spent explaining the recent letter I received from the City of
Hopkins regarding the petition to change the street names from Old Settlers Trail and
Westbrooke Way to Meadow Court and Meadow Creek Parkway respectively. This letter
was the first communication that the majority of residents at Meadow Creek
Condominiums received regarding the petition filed by the Meadow Creek Association.
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As I told you in our phone conversation, I feel this is a ridiculous request that has been
made by the Meadow Creek Association. The Association is a group of people that own
units at Meadow Creek Condominiums. There are 439 owners of the 535 units at the
complex and of these 439 owners only 31%, or 136 people live at the complex. As you
can tell by these numbers, the majority of the owners would not be affected by the
changes that they want to make solely to improve the reputation of the complex and get
rid of any negative COIlllOtations associated with the current street names.
This petition would require the owner-occupants and the more than 400 renting-
occupants to change their address to reflect the new names. To accomplish this, $8 per
driver's license would need to be paid for each person to change their address and a call
would need to be made to State to change title information for cars, trailers, and boats. In
addition, new checks would need to be reorder which on the average cost $13 per 150 for
duplicate checks, address labels would need to be reordered at approximately $10 per
1000, and letterhead would need to be reprinted at a cost of more that $200 per box. In
addition, the time spent making address corrections to friends, catalogs, magazines,
utilities, and companies, would be a full day, if not more, which is worth almost $50 plus
not being able to do other things that need to be done.
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The impact of the changes on the governmental bodies and businesses affected also needs
to be considered before granting the petition. For the Post Office, there are in excess of
530 new addresses that must be now learned. In addition there are more than 530 old
address that must be matched with new address every postal delivery. This will result in
slower delivery times and mail that could possible become lost because of the confusion
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with old and new street names. For the City of Hopkins, this name change would require
that street maps be redone to reflect the new names, the snow plowing manuals will need
to be updated with the new names, street signs will need to be redone, and various city
records will need to be updated and reprinted. All these revisions are not necessary and
are a great expense to taxpayers that is not necessary to help the city of Hopkins function
and exist. The business that service the residents of the complex such as NSP, Paragon
Cable, the garbage service, and countless pizza/restaurant deliveries will not know where
the street is which means the residents will have to wait longer to be serviced by these
companies. The Hopkins Post Office has already stated that they are against the name
change. This should indicate to the Council that they should carefully consider the
various repercussions that the name changes would have on those directly and indirectly
involved.
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The approval of the petition for the street name changes would be a gross mistake by the
City of Hopkins and the residents of Hopkins should be made aware of the fact that there
tax dollars are being wasted on changes that are not necessary only to please less than 140
residents in Hopkins, a city with more than 12,000 residents. Those who would be
inconvenienced by the petitioned name changes are the residents of the complex, the
Postal employees, the businesses that service the residents, the city of Hopkins, the state
of Minnesota, and friends and family of the residents. Those who would benefit from the
name change would be the Meadow Creek Association's 439 members. These numbers
speak for themselves.
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Natalie J. Wold
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To: James Gessele, Hopkins City Hall
From: Drid Williams, 952 Westbrooke Way, #5/ Hopkins MN 55343
Date: T\1onday, August 28, 1995
RE: Proposed street and condominium complex name changes.
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I have discussed the matter of name changes with my sister, Doris M.
Irvine (15052 96th St. NE, Elk Rivcr/ MN 55330; Tel. 612-441-1940),
who is the UW1Zcr of the uni t in the Meadow Creek Condmnini UillS
that I occupy. She instructed Ine to convey her vote ot "no" to the
recently proposed name changes, because she doesn't want to incur
the expense of the legal fees that would be required to facilitate such
changes.
As the renter of the premises at 952 Westbrooke Way, #5/ I also wish
to register my vote of "no" to the changes, because I don't want to go
through the tedious hassles and aggravation that an address change
would entail.
As we discussed in a telephone call last wcek/ I write asking you to
please add 2 NO votes to the register.
Thank you. ( " /.
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RUG 31 '95 09:30 MEYERS PRINTING MPLS
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August 30, 1995
Mr. James Gessele
Engineering Supt.
City of Hopkins
1010 First Street So.
Hopkins, MN 55343
RE: NMvffi CHANGE OF WESTBROOKE WAY AND OLD SETTLERS TRAIL
This letter is to inform you that I am TOT ALLY AGAINST the name changes as per your notice
dated August 23, 1995.
The ramifications of this would be costly, confusing and burdensome to me as well as my current
and future tenants. I see no merit in the name change whatsoever.
Thank you again for the time you spent-with me on the phone today clarifYing this situation.
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Janet Ringer
8865 Irving Ave. S.
Bloomington, "MN 55431
(Owner of956 Westbrooke Way #7)
cc: Meadow Creek Association
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August 30, 1995
Mr. James Gessele
city of Hopkins
1010 First street South
Hopkins, Minnesota 55343
Dear Mr. Gessele:
This letter is written in response to your letter dated August 23,
1995 concerning the petition from Meadow Creek Association
requesting a name change for Westbrooke Way and Old Settlers Trail.
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I would like to have this letter become part of the official
hearing record. I am strongly opposed to this change being made. A
street name change is not going to increase my property value
(which is all I am concerned with at this time). It will simply
mean additional costs to both owners and residents. At the present
time, my unit it rented out and I do not want to see my renters
faced with changing all the documents you reference in your letter.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
~~~1<lL
Karen L. Ramsey L~
6916 West 23rd st~t
st Louis Park, Minnesota 55426
Property Address: 924 Westbrooke Way #1, Hopkins, MN
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Dear Hopkins City Council,
I am resident of Hopkins living on Old Settlers Trail. I have received notice of a
proposal to change the name of my street I am against this proposal. I have yet to be
given a reason for the change to go forward. Any change in the name of a street
requires its residents to change their addresses with many businesses. This can lead to
problems for the residents and for the companies that they do business with. In making
all of the address changes necessary it would be only natural for some companies to
make errors and fail to send information I products and bills to the residents property.
Some companies immediately refer slightly delinquent accounts to collections for legal
action, thus complicating the address change further. Some companies would fail to
deliver their products property, from CDs to insulin. A notice from the condominium
association proposing this change also states that the association will endeavor to
arrange with utility companies to automatically change the addresses of the residents of
Old Settlers Trail and Westbrook Way. If this was all that would be necessary then there
could be little objection. Unfortunately there are many other businesses than utility
companies that the residents of these streets do business with. Further, there are the
expenses in time and money in making a change of address with the Department of
Motor Vehicles. These are inappropriate burdens for a change of street name that has
yet to be justified by the association proposing it I have not had a problem with the
current street names, so I must ask, why fix them? Thank you for your time and
consideration.
c~;(~---
Elizabeth Ann Johnson
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