People living in Montgomery in the city's northwest are tired of having the main route through their community called Bowness Road and are working to get the name changed.

The Montgomery Community Association has followed up with the city to change the name of its section of Bowness Road N.W.

A number of community members are requesting the change for the section of roadway that passes from the Trans-Canada Highway, west to the Bow River. The Montgomery Community Association has followed up with the City to change the name of its section of Bowness Road.

The plan, explained in the community association’s July newsletter, states "if we do this as part of the Main Streets Initiative, the City will support us by covering, among other things, some of the infrastructure costs (road signage for example)."

Planning Committee Chair Janice Mackett said the local Business Improvement Area Association (BIA), Montgomery on the Bow, is supportive of this initiative to improve the community's identity. "Especially for a small community like ours, we're about 4,000 people, just having something that ties us all together and connects everybody, makes them feel that this is their place."

Local business owner David Brooke runs a sign making shop and is in favour of the street name change.  He admits that while he may benefit from helping other businesses rebrand there are fears regarding the rebrand. "It goes from Memorial Drive to 3rd Avenue to Parkdale Boulevard to Bowness Road so the same road has four different names so to add a fifth to the mix might be confusing”,

‘Montgomery Park Way’ alludes to the parks and greenery along the route and might spur us on to plant even more,” said Mackett in the letter. "There are rules that have to be followed and there is a limit to the number of letters in a sign." 

At the Main Streets Open House on June 12, ‘Montgomery Way’ proved the most popular name suggestion for Montgomer's section of Bowness Road.

The City is expected to upgrade the Montgomery Main Street in 2020 and the community wants to have a road name solution in place by then.