(a) Individuals or groups that have distinguished themselves by significant contributions to the City, state, nation, or world may be honored through an honorary street-name designation (for purposes of this section, "Designation").
(b) A Designation shall be proposed through a stand-alone ordinance introduced into the City Council. The ordinance submission shall state the name of the individual or group intended to be honored and the series of blocks to receive the Designation. The ordinance submission shall be accompanied by a biography of, and the reason(s) for honoring, the individual or group and a map indicating the blocks for the Designation. Any Designation shall cover a maximum of two contiguous blocks and shall be applied to a single street.
(c) Requirements and restrictions.
(1) If a Designation ordinance is considered and rejected, no new Designation ordinance on behalf of the same individual or group may be proposed for a period of one year.
(2) When a section of street has received a Designation, no other proposals for that section of street shall be considered while it has that Designation.
(3) Each alderman may propose up to two Designation ordinances per calendar year. Designations honoring city employees that died in the line of their respective duties in service to the City of Chicago shall not count against any aldermanic allotment in a calendar year.
(4) No living individual shall be the subject of a Designation.
(5) Proposals shall not be for names that could be considered derogatory, pejorative, obscene, or blasphemous.
(6) The proposed Designation may not duplicate an official street name.
(d) When the City Council passes a Designation ordinance, the street shall retain its official name and its legal status. The Department of Transportation shall issue two signs, each to be installed on an existing pole at either end of the section of street designated. The Department of Transportation’s cost of installation and removal shall be paid from the proposing ward’s annual menu program budget or the ward’s aldermanic expense account upon passage of a Designation ordinance except for those designations honoring city employees that died in the line of their respective duties in service to the City of Chicago. The cost will be the responsibility of the Department of Transportation.
(e) A Designation shall expire five years after the date of ordinance passage unless renewed. Inclusive of signs currently posted as of the effective date of this section, once five years has expired the Department of Transportation shall remove the signs. An alderman wishing to renew a Designation shall propose an ordinance requesting the renewal. The renewal shall be for five years. Designations honoring city employees that died in the line of their respective duties in service to the City of Chicago shall not expire.
(Added Coun. J. 2-22-17, p. 43626, § 2; Amend Coun. J. 9-20-18, p. 84433, § 1; Amend Coun. J. 6-12-24, p. 13364, § 1)
Editor's note – Coun. J. 11-6-02, p. 96511, § 1, repealed former § 2-8-040, which pertained to compensation for aldermen. See § 2-8-041 for similar provisions.