Residents ask for street name change

Earlier this year, longtime residents of Novus Place were surprised to learn that, technically, they weren’t actually living on Novus Place.

During a review of land records, Sarasota County officials discovered that the 2600 and 2700 blocks of what has been called Novus Place is officially designated as Novus Street.

Despite what those records say, for decades, the street has functioned as Novus Place. The street signs say Novus Place. The mail gets delivered to Novus Place. Emergency personnel respond to calls on Novus Place. Homeowners’ property records list them as living on Novus Place.

And yet, something needed to be done to correct the discrepancy between the real world and county documents. The county alerted city staff about the issue, and the city notified residents. Based on input from those residents, the City Commission voted unanimously Monday to begin the process of officially renaming the road Novus Place.

“I’ve lived on this cul-de-sac road for over 30 years, and it’s always been known as Novus Place,” resident Bryan Sutherland said at Monday’s meeting.

Novus Street runs from School Avenue to Lockwood Ridge Road, but it’s not a contiguous street. The street that residents know as Novus Place is not connected to any other roadway segment that bears the same name. The street shoots off Wood Street and terminates in a cul-de-sac a block later.

In total, there are 27 properties on Novus Place. Over the course of about five days, 26 residents on the street signed a petition asking to establish Novus Place as the official name of the road going forward. The two-sheet petition was marked with a footnote on both pages: “DON’T MESS WITH OUR PLACE!”

Assistant City Engineer Daniel Ohrenstein said there might have been technical reasons the road was officially listed as Novus Street. According to the city’s engineering guidelines, “streets” are supposed to run east-west, which Novus does. “Places” are supposed to be short north-south streets.

Still, city engineering staff endorsed the proposal to adopt Novus Place after receiving assurances from the county and the U.S. Postal Service that a name change wouldn’t cause any issues. As a result, the commission directed staff to prepare a resolution that would officially designate the road as Novus Place.

Which, as far as residents are concerned, is what it has been all along.

“From time immemorial, this block has been known to residents and local agencies as Novus Place,” Ohrenstein said.