The West Jordan City Council declined to rename a street Rosa Parks Drive. The reason had nothing to do with Parks, her legacy or her accomplishments but with a city ordinance.

The technicality? The city doesn't have a code to rename a street in honor of anyone.

“We need to be very sensitive when we set precedent,” said Rob Bennett, a member of the council.

Instead the council voted 5 to 2 to form a committee charged with developing a policy to follow when an individual or group wants to rename a street.

It was a delay that Mike Kellermeyer, the councilman that suggested the renaming, wanted to avoid.

“Whatever we do I hope this doesn't put this way down the road,” Kellermeyer said.

The amount of delay was lessened by Councilwoman Kathy Hilton who successfully argued for a three-month time limit for the creation of the city code.

“I don't think time is of the essence but I also don't want to see this drag on for six months,” Hilton said.

Kellermeyer formed the idea of a Rosa Parks Drive after the 92-year-old woman died in late October. Parks invigorated the civil rights movement and launched a bus boycott after refusing to give up her seat to a white man.

Suggestions for streets to rename include Jordan Landing Boulevard (a road near the 500-acre Jordan Landing shopping center) and a road connecting the West Jordan Police Department to the newly opened 3rd District Courthouse.

A Rosa Parks Drive will be the first name considered once the city gets a street-renaming policy.