Panel Backs Survey on Renaming Tapo Street

Don’t play taps for Tapo Street just yet.

Despite a desire to revitalize the bedraggled street and eliminate confusion with a similarly named thoroughfare nearby, a committee of city leaders and business boosters were split over a plan to rename Tapo.

As a result, members of the Tapo Street Revitalization Committee decided at a Tuesday night meeting to ask the City Council to send out a survey to about 300 businesses on the street. In the survey, merchants would be asked if they favor doing nothing, changing the name to Santa Susana Boulevard, or keeping the name and calling the area the Santa Susana shopping district.

“The next logical step was to go out with a formal survey,” said Councilwoman Sandi Webb, who sits on the committee charged with sparking recovery on the street in the east end of town, which was hard hit by the recession and the 1994 Northridge earthquake. “If we send one out with the city’s logo and the city’s mailing address, I think people will respond.”

Suggested names for the street--which is scheduled to receive a face lift early next year--had included Town Street (Tapo originates from the Chumash word for town) or Clark Street (in honor of Michael Clark, the first Simi Valley police officer killed in the line of duty). But Santa Susana Boulevard, in honor of the old town by that name, was the clear favorite of the committee.

Webb introduced the idea in the summer, noting how difficult it is to give directions in the east end of town, where Tapo Street and nearby Tapo Canyon Road are both major north-south arteries.

Even though the name change would cause businesses to change letterheads, business cards and advertising, several shop owners at the meeting didn’t seem to mind the hassle and expense.

“Right now, there’s a negative image,” said Marshall Shrago, who owns Holiday Hardware on Tapo Street. “Improving the public areas and having a name change will change the perception of this area of town.”

His feelings were in line with an informal survey conducted by Webb, in which about 55% of responding Tapo Street business owners said they favored a name change.

Business owner Jack Spotts, however, was lukewarm about the idea.

“The years I’ve been in business, you have certain criteria,” said Spotts, owner of Jack’s Shoes. “The first one: Is this going to help business? Changing the name isn’t going to bring me any customers.”

A preliminary study found that the name change would cost the city up to $140,000 to reprint maps and change police tracking software, Assistant City Manager Don Penman said.

Before any decision is made by the city, a more thorough examination of associated costs will take place, he said.