Orange County NC Website
ISSUES <br />Providing efficient and effective public safety services to residents was a top priority in adoption <br />of the Ordinance. Public safety responders were having a plethora of complications when <br />attempting to locate and respond to calls from residents in need. Many addressable structures <br />could not be located without considerable time and effort, neither of which can be spared in a <br />time of emergency. <br />The Tax Office and its Land Records /GIS Division have been working to enumerate broad <br />categories of issues to be resolved. Prior to the Ordinance, and continuing to present day, the <br />following issues have been identified: <br />• Most mobile home parks have no street names. Once an emergency responder arrives at <br />a mobile home park, she or he may not be able to locate a specific mobile home unless <br />there is a central office with available staff. The mobile home parks host mailboxes at <br />the main road with no identification on the structures themselves. <br />• Years ago Orange County addresses were route numbers. The route numbers were then <br />proposed to convert to house numbers and compliance with the new system at that time <br />was voluntary. Therefore, current manifestations of both systems are throughout the <br />county. This has resulted in addresses being out of sequence and difficult to locate. <br />• All new roads in the county should be recorded through the Register of Deeds. Some <br />road names identified as problematic will involve a full title search whereby all road <br />maintenance agreements, surveys and other public records are reviewed for compliance <br />with the Ordinance. <br />• Some areas of the county have roads with a main driveway where mailboxes are hosted at <br />the main road, then the main driveway branches into multiple different driveways with <br />several structures down each corollary. The structures have no identification nor do the <br />driveways, which makes emergency responses incredibly difficult. <br />CURRENT STATUS <br />Implementation of the Road Naming and Addressing Ordinance will be an enormous <br />undertaking. At this point, reports of non - compliance are a result of citizen actions or <br />emergency responder insight. Considering the reorganization of GIS and county addressing <br />from IT to the Tax Office, and the need for myself and the Land Records /GIS Manager /Address <br />Administrator to learn the Ordinance and develop implementation plan, the Tax Office has <br />conducted very few field visits. Staffing demands are being evaluated for the 2013 -2014 budget. <br />We held multiple meetings with Ms. Annette Moore in the County Attorney's Office and Orange <br />County Planning, and will be meeting with the local fire chiefs in March to discuss our <br />implementation plan accepting constructive feedback. We would like to solicit feedback on our <br />plan of action to ensure we have a clear understanding of the impetus, goals and outcomes <br />needed of this Ordinance. <br />' <br />