Menifee Council Gives State Agency 2 Options To Rename Residential Street

The Menifee City Council has voted to submit two potential options for renaming a residential street in the city.

The street, Squaw Valley Drive, was originally named after a Lake Tahoe ski resort, which has since changed its name to Palisades Tahoe, after Interior Secretary Deb Haaland declared the word to be a derogatory term and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring the removal of the term from all geographic place names and features in the state.

“The word’s origin and historic usage varies, and although many say the word originated as a generalized term for Native American women, others, including countless Native American tribes, say the term is demoralizing and denigrates Indigenous women,” Craig Carlson, building official for the city, said at the Aug. 7 meeting.

Staff originally suggested Sun Valley Drive after the Sun Valley Ski Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, in an effort to adhere to the current street naming convention in the neighborhood after consulting with the Pechanga Band of Mission Indians and the Soboba Band of Luiseño Indians.

“Both Pechanga and Soboba tribes deferred to the city to implement a respectful name that is reflective of the surrounding features and places,” Carlson said. “City staff researched the surrounding community and found that street names nearest to Sq. Valley Drive reflected ski resorts.”

Prior to the council meeting, city staff held a meeting for residents of the street to get feedback. Cheryl Kitzerow, community development director, said three residents showed up to the meeting and none took issue with the proposed street name Sun Valley Drive.

However, Howard Walmsley, a resident who lives on the street, suggested a secondary option for the council to consider: Olympic Valley Drive.

“Renaming our street Olympic Valley Drive would honor the legacy and the heritage of the original namesake, reflecting a place of renowned nature, beauty [and] world class skiing,” he said. “This is a change that would be in line with our community’s values [and] history, providing a name that we could all be proud of.”

The community where Palisades Tahoe is located hosted the 1960 Olympic Winter games, in which United States athletes won three gold, four silver and three bronze medals. That community is now known as Olympic Valley.

“Our community deserves a name that reflects our pride, our heritage and our positive aspirations,” Walmsley said. “Olympic Valley Drive would be a name that connects to our history, celebrates connection to a renowned resort, the Olympic Games of 1960 and avoids negative connotations of [Sun Valley].”

Councilmember Bob Karwin said he liked the name Olympic Valley Drive, especially in light of the next summer games being held in Los Angeles with equestrian events tentatively set to take place in Temecula.

“A lot of people would ask why it’s called that, and there would actually be a reason behind it, and then we look like geniuses when the Olympics show up in ’28 and we go, ‘That’s why we did it that way,’” he said. “So I would be fine substituting the motion to call it Olympic Valley Drive and getting it off of our list of concerns, because we got to change it anyway.”

Ultimately, the council voted to send both potential new street names to the California Advisory Committee on Geographic Names (CACGN) for final determination with Olympic Valley Drive as the city’s first choice.

Whichever street name CACGN approves will then come back to the council for adoption at a later date. Once the street name has been approved, new signs will go up and the city will submit the updated address verification documents to the Menifee Geographic Information System (GIS), Riverside County GIS, 911 emergency services and the United States Postal Service. 

Residents of the street will be responsible for ensuring they have updated their addresses with all residential service providers and that the new street name is reflected on all legal documentation regarding their homes.

A full recording of the meeting can be found here on the city’s YouTube channel.