Now that upgrades to the “Peter Pan” intersection have been completed — and considering the fact that the Trans-Canada Highway officially bypasses Charlottetown altogether via the arterial highway — a public consultation was held today to rename the stretch of the old “Trans-Canada Highway” from the Maypoint/Upton road to the the new intersection at the end of University Ave. A small group of business owners, local residents, and other interested parties were in attendance.
Understandably, there is a lot of confusion caused by the current situation. Tourists are getting lost, mail is being delivered incorrectly to duplicate addresses, emergency services have responded to the wrong address, etc. An option to do nothing, i.e. do not rename the road, was quickly dismissed.
A long list of names that had been put forward in previous discussions on this topic was presented. Some names of longstanding area residents were removed from the list because no one was present to make a case for them. In the end, after much discussion, the list was narrowed down to four options; two “generic” names, and two names of individuals that were pitched by their children.
- Colonel McCormack
- Etta’s Way
- Capital
- University (West)
(a designation of road, avenue, drive, etc, is also to be determined)
A recommendation will be forwarded to council for our November 12th meeting. Business owners felt it was important to make a decision as soon as possible, as much of the tourism material for next year will be going to print within the next month or two and they did not want to suffer another season of their guests and customers being lead astray.
Since this road is very close to Upton Farm, and Dr. Jack Jenkins and his wife Elizabeth Louise Mitchell owned and operated a horse race track and PEI’s first airport. He came from a long line of Jenkins doctors and she was the 1st licensed female pilot on PEI.Would it not be appropriate to name it in their honor? Please check http://www.cahs.com/NewsAndViews/PEINewsletter.htm for info. Just a suggestion. Thanks,
Hi Kathy,
I believe the Jenkins name was on the short list, but was scratched because there was nobody present at the meeting to “make the case”. It gets very difficult picking one family over another.
Any word on what the new name will be, Rob?
Council passed a resolution last night to rename the section of the old Trans-Canada Hwy, from the Peter Pan intersection west to the city boundary, to Capital Drive.
University West, which was a popular choice amongst many business owners on the road, was rejected by Planning Board because the city’s street naming guidelines strongly recommend against using suffixes like East, West, North, South.
Shawn, unfortunately for you and your family, as well as the Thompson family, the board was not comfortable choosing one family over another. It was generally felt that “Capital Drive” was a good choice because this is such a major artery into the provincial capital.
No problem Rob. Thanks for your efforts!