It is the ultimate challenge in creativity — finding a new name for every street in the fastest growing county in the nation.
The brainstorming belongs to Loudoun’s developers, rather than the top minds of county government.
“YOU HAVE TO be very imaginative,” said Leonard “Hobie” Mitchel, who developed Lansdowne and South Riding. The latter community name surfaced after he looked at old English names. There were North Riding, West Riding and East Riding, so why not have South Riding in the southern section of Loudoun?" he mused.
A year later, Mitchel, president of Lansdowne Community Development, learned about a book on planning called “South Riding.” He said Friday that he decided to name the streets after the book’s characters, who were architects in the early 1900s.
The names of Lansdowne thoroughfares, such as Kipheart and Coopermine, were found in archeological reports of the property.
Mitchel also borrowed names from Martha’s Vineyard’s streets and golf courses. He called one, “Rachael’s Hill,” after his accountant’s daughter. So far, no streets bear the names of his children, though.
“I never did my wife or myself,” he added. “Somebody wanted to do ‘Hobie’s Way,’ but I said, ‘No.’ I was never into it.”
At his company’s Summer Garden Gala last year, Lansdowne Community Development raised about $1,000 for Loudoun Interfaith Relief by auctioning off opportunities for two people to select names for two streets. “They can use their own name or whatever, as long as it is available in the county,” he said.
THE OFFICE OF MAPPING and Geographic Information oversees the naming process, to ensure no one breaks the law governing the process. The rules prohibit any that sound alike or are duplications, Director Larry Stipek said. Some street names, however, predate the law that set the guidelines. In Sterling, for example, there is a Cedar Lane off Woodland Road and a Cedar Drive in Richland Acres.
“Today, you couldn’t have East Maple Avenue and West Maple Avenue,” Stipek said. Those streets are in Sterling Park.
Some streets carry two names. Route 28 has been known as Sully Road, but it also has the distinction of being Darrell Green Boulevard. The state has the power to name a road in commemoration of someone — in this case, a former Redskins defensive back.
Address coordinator Vicki Keegan said she would not want the job of finding names for all of Loudoun’s streets, which now total 5,793. Stipek agreed. “Two new streets are named and mapped every business day.”
Keegan said she and two other employees do all of the addressing and mapping. They are dealing with up to 20 parcels and addresses every business day.
THE PROCESS COMES with its own share of problems. Red Rum Drive in a commercial section of Ashburn has drawn the most complaints. The developer was using a race horse theme, but many people associate the words with Stephen King’s “The Shining.” In the movie, the protagonist fills typewritten pages with “REDRUM,” “murder” spelled backwards.
Michael R. Green, owner of Dulles World Cargo Inc., said he and his colleagues get a kick out of it.
“I am an air freight forwarder. It is the third most stressful industry, so the job will kill you,” he said, with a belly laugh.
First customers will repeat the name of the street, and ask if he ever saw “The Shining.”
“They say how appropriate, murder spelled backwards. I have heard it from everyone.”
His company moves large quantities of merchandise; a recent order involved three million pounds of food to the Middle East. “That is not something Fed Ex is going to do,” he said, still laughing. “We get goods to and from anywhere in the world. As long as it’s legal.”
THE COUNTY CANNOT change the name of a street without permission of its landowners. In the early '90s, neighbors on Rehobeth Church Road in Lovettsville altered the name after signing a petition. They wanted the spelling changed from Rehoboth to Rehobeth.
Keegan said developers use a number of themes, such as flowers, trees, creeks and historical places. “Sometimes they are developers’ relatives or the first name of everyone in their office,” she said.