City to rename portion of Chain Lake Drive

After June 16, when you make a left hand turn at the bottom of Susie Lake Crescent in Bayers Lake, youll no longer find yourself on Chain Lake Drive.

Thats because the southwest portion of Chain Lake, from Susie Lake Crescent up to and including Lane Home Furnishings, will be renamed Horseshoe Lake Drive to accommodate an extension to access the new Rona store and a planned future connector between Chain Lake and Saint Margarets Bay Road.

There werent enough numbers available to service the realignment, says Ruth Thurston, civic addressing technician with the Halifax Regional Municipality.

The new street name and numbers have been in discussion for more than a year.

Last year we met with the Bayers Lake Business Park Associaton to discuss the realignment, which was on the citys business planning books for a while, Thurston says. We sent out letters to all the businesses there, suggesting several [new street] names and they came back with comments.

Thurston estimates about 13 properties will receive new civic addresses, including the HRM salt shed.

The businesses on the soon-to-be renamed section of Chain Lake dont appear too concerned their customers will struggle to find their way to Horseshoe Lake Drive.

Lane Home Furnishings, at the southwestern end of the properties to receive a new address, is hoping business will not be affected, but declined further comment.

Terry Hill, owner of auto body shop The Coachworks Limited, doesnt anticipate any negative impact on the business, saying Ive been here 20 years.

Rob Frederick, director of operations at The Courtyard Club, has some concern about the cost of doing business.

We have to change everything, from flyers to the Web site and all the way down to business cards, Frederick says.

Its a point Nancy Edwards, marketing and communications manager at Amirix Systems, raises as well.

Therell be some costs incurred to try to change some things, like stationery. Well be using labels wherever we can and replenishing [with new address information] as we run out, Edwards says.

Thurston says the city has made efforts to alleviate some of those cost issues.

We realize theres a cost to doing business and this change isnt the fault of the businesses, so we wanted to provide them with additional time. In this case, the department will extend the [Canada Post] redirect period to 12 months, which gives them plenty of time to notify clients of the change of address, she says.

That will definitely help, Frederick says. It was good of them to do that.

However, the citys approach to the consultations did come with some controversy.

As far as city consulting, there was none, Hill says. We got a letter about six months ago saying they were changing the address, but nobody came and sat down with me and said wed be making major changes. The only time we saw someone from the city was after numerous calls and complaints.

But Amirixs Edwards disagrees. I believe [the process] was well done. The city gave us ample warning. A year ago we were first informed and then another letter reminding us not that long ago, she says. I felt that they did a pretty good job.

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