A proposed name change to the main thoroughfare in Riverside could help the city establish its own identity but also could be a “controversial move,” city officials said.

The Riverside Multi-Modal Transportation Committee recently proposed that city council consider renaming a six-mile stretch of Needmore Road/Harshman Road/Woodman Drive as Wright Brothers Parkway, its current honorary name.

Lori Luckner, chairman of the committee, addressed city council earlier this month after filing a letter with the city July 13 recommending council “entertain legislation which would permanently rename those portions … to Wright Brothers Parkway.”

City Manager Bryan Chodkowksi said council will discuss the proposal at a future work session.

“The committee is on the right track,” Chodkowski said. “Their proposal is a step to uniformity and really a step to begin to establish Riverside as Riverside. As a community, we’re relatively young, but there’s a great deal of history here. This presents a very unique opportunity to establish some uniformity and some identity.”

Luckner said the name change would benefit the city in a number of ways, including giving Riverside more recognition with the visitors of the National Museum of the United States Air Force and strengthening its identity with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

“I know there will be some opposition to it, but you’ve also got to look at the benefits and how this progresses our city,” Luckner said. “It’d be nice for us to be the leaders in this.”

However, Mayor Bill Flaute said that even if Riverside moves forward with the name change, confusion stillwill exist in the area because the same road will remain Needmore in Dayton, Turner Road in Harrison Twp. and Woodman in Kettering.

“It’s a controversial move for us to make,” Flaute said. “I’m not sure if it’s been thought out completely because we haven’t talked to the other cities. For just Riverside to make that change would not be helpful in my opinion. Hopefully, the multi-modal commission will talk to the other cities and come to some agreement.”

Chodkowski said the process will be “very cautious and reactionary,” with input from the Riverside Area Chamber of Commerce taken into consideration and public hearings possibly scheduled for the residents.

The chamber of commerce has declined to comment on how the change would affect businesses along that road until it gathered more information on the proposal.

Chodkowski said that the city would incur only “incidental costs,” such as labor to change the signs, because state funding would be available to help pay for the new street signage.

“I applaud the idea and the hard work the commission is doing,” Flaute said. “It just needs a little more work and a little more fine-tuning before we move ahead with it.”