Developer seeks to rename Moccasin Wallow Road. It won’t be easy. Here’s why
Developer Pat Neal’s goal to change the name of Moccasin Wallow Road has aroused the ire of Parrish residents.
That opposition and the lack of a clear process for changing the name of a major county road make Neal’s quest a challenging one.
An online petition posted at change.org claims to have more than 4,500 signatures, with a goal of 5,000.
“We, the undersigned citizens of Parrish and the surrounding area, do not want the name of Moccasin Wallow Road changed to North River Parkway, or any other name. We are signing this petition to reflect our desire for Manatee County officials to support our wishes and deny any requests made to change the name of Moccasin Wallow Road,” says the petition started by Tami Vaughan, an officer of the Parrish Civic Association.
“We ask that you do not set a precedent in Parrish and surrounding areas to allow developers to push for changes to existing road names or changes to community names,” the petition says.
Changing a road name would cost thousands of dollars in changes to road signs along I-75 and county road signs along Moccasin Wallow Road. Other considerations include how it would affect the 911 system, maps, business advertising costs, mail delivery, mapping software for deliveries, the county tax collector, the property appraiser, bank mortgages and deeds, the petition says.
Neal, who with his son, John, is building thousands of homes along Moccasin Wallow Road, including their largest development yet, North River Ranch, says, yes, he does want a name change to anything but a road named after a snake.
North River Ranch, projected to have about 5,000 homes and 28,000 residents, is still early in its development.
“We want to get rid of the name Moccasin Wallow,” Neal said in an interview. “The name doesn’t represent the vision of the future.”
Among Neal’s talking points:
▪ The name needs to reflect the aspirations of the people who live there in the new and hopeful future for North Manatee County. It should be a place to attract young people, professionals and people who aspire to a better and more prosperous future.
▪ Manatee County has to attract education, technology and jobs, especially at the State College of Florida Parrish campus. A new high school and elementary school are also located along the two-lane road, where millions of dollars of road improvements are coming to the area.
▪ Moccasin Wallow Road, named after a water snake, has previously had other names, including Fire Tower Road and Red Top Road. West of Interstate 75, Moccasin Wallow becomes Bishop Harbor Road.
In addition to a name change, Neal has also offered to enter into a partnership with the county to expand and improve Moccasin Wallow Road.
Gretchen Fowler, president of the Parrish Civic Association, said the 4,500 names on the online petition is an accurate number, and does not include petitions signed on paper.
It’s not so much that residents are attached to the name Moccasin Wallow as they are opposed to developers coming in and trying to change the name, Fowler said.
“If there is going to be a change, we don’t want it to be North River Parkway. We want something that represents the heritage of the community, like Parrish Parkway,” Fowler said. “Why can they come in and try to change us again?”
Neal previously supported naming the area’s new high school, North River High School, rather than Parrish Community High School, a name eventually chosen by the Manatee County School Board.
Several years ago, Pat Neal, along with school board member (now acting county administrator) Scott Hopes talked to residents of the Copperstone community, located south of Moccasin Wallow Road, about changes coming to the neighborhood.
Hopes was there to hear a request from Copperstone residents to change the entrance road for Barbara Harvey Elementary School, which was under construction, Fowler said.
Neal talked about the North River Ranch project, and his desire to change the name of Moccasin Wallow Road, Fowler said.
James Satcher, the county commissioner who represents the Parrish and North River area, said he is aware of the petition opposing changing the name of Moccasin Wallow Road but has not made up his mind regarding a possible name change.
“Most of our efforts have been to improve our roads and sidewalks and making sure our intersections are safe,” Satcher said.
Ogden Clark, strategic affairs manager for Manatee County government, said while there has been no official request or formal consideration by the Public Works Department staff or the county commission regarding the renaming of Moccasin Wallow Road, there have been numerous inquiries requesting information on the process and steps needed to change the name of a road.
In some of those cases, the roadway may have been Moccasin Wallow Road, Clark said in an email.
“What I have found through researching these renaming requests, is for existing roads like Moccasin Wallow, the answer is ... there is no process clearly defined. We have several ‘roadway re-naming’ tools outlined in our land development code, but none appear to be directly applicable to renaming a facility like Moccasin Wallow,” Clark said.
Renaming an existing major road appears beyond the scope of what can be accomplished using this Land Development Code process, Clark said.
Moccasin Wallow Road is seven miles long and has dozens of potentially affected property owners and service providers.
“If someone were to desire officially renaming an existing, major county road, the process could prove quite complicated. The issue is that for actual renaming of a well-established major road with many adjacent property owners, we don’t have an adopted process,” Clark said.
“Based on staff research, it seems clear the county commission has the power to do it, but because of the number of impacted property owners and stakeholders, it should not be done casually. With these recent inquires in mind, we are preparing a request for legal services to get an opinion from the county attorney’s office for further clarification on the process,” Clark wrote.
This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
