What would seem a fairly simple process has turned into a nightmare for the Utah Transit Authority.
UTA's policy for naming light-rail stations is to receive suggestions from residents and the local governing body, then adopt those recommendations.
The UTA Board of Directors was set to approve four names for the new University TRAX extension at its monthly meeting Wednesday. But when board members took a look at the suggestions made by the Salt Lake City Council and the University of Utah, they knew it wasn't going to happen.
The council, trying to please various sentiments in the community, chose three hyphenated station monikers that are not only mouthfuls but might not fit on the space provided for the name plaque at each station.
Those names are: City Hall-Library Square Station (200 East), Central City-Trolley Station (600 East) and Ninth Street-Gilgal Garden Station (900 East).
The university's suggestion is long, too — Rice-Eccles Stadium Station.
As a result, the UTA Board's Internal-External Committee will re-examine the names, make its own suggestions and send them back to the council and university for reconsideration.
Mike Allegra, UTA's director of transit development, said it is already too late to have permanent name panels prepared for each station before the spur opens in the fall, if in fact that ambitious pre-Olympic construction schedule is met.
Allegra said it's important that the station names be simple and easy to understand.
"We have a hyphenated name for each station and the board wants to understand whether that's appropriate," he said. "Are we being succinct in our descriptions and are they valid for mobility purposes?"
The City Council devoted time in several meetings to the topic and Council Chairman Roger Thompson seemed a little tired of the process at last week's meeting.
Wednesday, UTA board members asked and were assured by General Manager John Inglish that they have final authority in the matter. The board and Internal/External Committee Chairman Max Hogan informally agreed to stick with the current policy and turn the matter back to the City Council and university before making that final decision.
Inglish, however, told the board it could change its policy for future station naming.
Meanwhile, the arguments for or against certain station names shifted from the City Council to the UTA Board. Three residents spoke to the board Wednesday and several letters were submitted in the last week.
Edward Lewis, president of the Tri-State Conference of the NAACP, asked the board to consider naming one of the stations Rosa Parks Station in honor of the Montgomery, Ala., woman who ignited the desegregation effort in 1955 when she refused to give her bus seat to a white man.
Julia Robertson, chairwoman of the East Central Community Council, asked the board to name the 600 East station Central City Station and the 900 East station Gilgal Garden Station.
Robertson said one reason the council recommended Ninth Street-Gilgal Garden Station is because it did not know the address of the station would be shown beneath the name.
Jess Agraz, chairman of the citizen-based Community Coordinating Team, said his group had a set of criteria to follow in recommending names and suggested similar guidelines be developed for local governments.
"We're going to have more and more stations in the valley," Agraz noted.
One problem with the proposed name Central City Station is that there is already a similar-sounding City Center Station on the north-south line.
Here are the names suggested for each of the station locations on the 2.5-mile extension, with the sources of the recommendations in parentheses:
200 East — City Hall-Library Square Station (City Council); Library Station or City Hall Station (Community Coordination Team).
600 East — Central City-Trolley Station (City Council); Central City Station (Central City Community Council and East Central Community Council); Trolley Square Station or Liberty Park Station or Central City Station (Community Coordination Team).
900 East — Ninth Street-Gilgal Garden Station (City Council); Gilgal Garden Station (Central City Community Council and East Central Community Council); 900 East Station or Incline Station or Bryant Station (Community Coordination Team).
Rice-Eccles Stadium — Rice-Eccles Stadium Station (University of Utah); Rice-Eccles Station or Stadium Station (Community Coordination Team).
Contributing: Diane Urbani
E-mail: zman@desnews.com