Thank you.  You just answered two questions for me at the same time:

1. How to force everything to go through this method so that everything is tracked.
2. How to get around the "lock out" that I discribed.

You restrict the use of sp_rename.  This forces everybody else to use ALTER TABLE, ALTER COLUMN, etc. to make changes.  If your logon still has access to sp_rename, etc. this gives you a back door.