MOORPARK : Council Rejects Street Renaming

The Moorpark City Council rejected a proposal Wednesday to rename a stretch of Peach Hill Road to match that of a new middle school, citing the historical significance of the nearly 100-year-old thoroughfare.

“I can’t get behind an idea like this,” Mayor Paul Lawrason said.

With the backing of the Moorpark school board, resident Kenneth Sherman had asked the council to rename the east-west section of Peach Hill Road to Mesa Verde Drive, after the middle school expected to open on the street next fall.

“Changing the name will not change the significance of Peach Hill Road to the past of the city. It will not change the history,” Sherman said. “The request is a good idea, a good idea for the city, for the school district and for the students who will attend Mesa Verde school.”

School board members voted unanimously last month to spend up to $1,000 to pay for new street signs if the city agreed to the change, which Sherman and school officials believe would make it easier for parents and students to find the new school.

Residents of the street attending the meeting said the inconvenience of switching to a new street name outweighed any potential benefits.

“I would name to change 62 things, would you like me to list them?” asked Nina Beaulieu, who has lived on the street since 1967.

Earlier in the week, the Moorpark Planning Commission voted unanimously to send council members a memo objecting to changing the name of one of the city’s oldest streets.

“The name of the street has historical significance in Moorpark and is inexorably tied to the Peach Hill area,” commissioners wrote in the memo. “The Planning Commission would strongly recommend to the City Council that it not change Peach Hill Road to Mesa Verde.”