After more than a year, the renaming of portions of several major Fresno streets as Cesar Chavez Boulevard is now physically underway.

Crews are installing more than 200 new street signs along a 10-mile stretch of the city, running west along California Avenue through downtown and into southeast Fresno.

It’s the culmination of a 30-year effort to honor the legacy of Civil Rights leader Cesar Chavez, and the second time it’s been tried by city officials.

Fresno’s City Council actually voted to rename a similar stretch of Kings Canyon Road and Ventura Avenue in 1993, only to reverse itself after the community complained about the effects to businesses and lack of community engagement in the process.

Those same concerns were raised when the city council voted on the name change in March of last year.

An informal coalition of business owners and residents even filed a lawsuit to halt the name change, citing the inconvenience and cost of changing addresses on letterheads and legal documents. They also argued the change would erase the historic culture nature of the original street names.

A judge ruled in favor of the city.

The name change affects Kings Canyon Road from Temperance Avenue to Cedar Avenue; Ventura Avenue and Ventura Street through downtown Fresno between Cedar Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard; and California Avenue in southwest Fresno from Martin Luther King Boulevard to Marks Avenue.

The Fresno County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to oppose the name change, so areas of the streets that are in Fresno County islands will not be affected.

The 222 street signs include replacing older signs for side streets along the route.

Residents should see signs going up along the new Cesar Chavez Boulevard as work moves east over the the next few weeks, according to a release from Councilmember Miguel Arias.