The Revere City Council approved a new ordinance establishing regulations for naming city properties at its meeting on Monday night.
The ordinance establishes guidelines for naming buildings and other large city-owned properties, such as parks, after people who have made a positive impact on Revere.
The ordinance does not cover smaller items such as memorial benches or rooms within city-owned buildings.
The biggest sticking point for the ordinance revolved around how long it should be after a person has died before a building can be named after them. The original language in the proposal stated that a person must be deceased for at least 10 years before a city-owned property can be named after them.
However, at a subcommittee meeting Monday night, that timeline was amended to one year.
Councillor-at-Large Robert Haas III stated that if the city were to wait too long after a person had died, there may not be as many family members or friends still living in the city to take part in the naming honors.
However, Councillor-at-Large Joanne McKenna proposed a successful amendment to the ordinance putting the wait time at three years after someone dies.
“I think we need time,” said McKenna. “If a person has done wonderful things for the city, we just need time to see that it stands.”
Haas said that a number of other cities have policies where the timeline stands at one year for naming a city-owned property after someone.
“For a memorial like that, to have something named for them, their contributions are pretty much known to the city, known to the residents,” said Haas. “This wouldn’t be taken lightly when naming something after someone.”