41-7. Initial Street Naming and Numbering Procedures

  1. Under the authority and provisions of N.C.G.S. 153A-239.1 and local modifications thereto, a County may by ordinance name any street within the County and not within a city and may assign or reassign street numbers for use on such a street. In naming a street, the County may not:
    1. Change the name, if any, given to the street by the North Carolina Board of Transportation without its concurrence.
    2. Change the identification number assigned to the street by the Board of Transportation.
    3. Give the street a name that is deceptively similar to the name of any other street in the County.
  2. The County shall not name a street or assign or reassign street numbers on a street until it has held a public hearing on the matter, except as provided in ยง41-11. At least 10 days before the day of the hearing, the Board of Commissioners shall cause notice of the time, place and subject matter of the hearing to be prominently posted at the County Courthouse, in at least two public places in the township or townships where the street is located, and shall publish a notice of such hearing in at least one newspaper of general circulation published in the County.
  3. After naming a street, or assigning or reassigning street numbers on a street, the Henderson County office of the Property Address Coordinator shall cause notice of the Board's action to be given to the local postmaster with jurisdiction over the street, to the Board of Transportation, to any city within five miles of the street and to the following agencies: the Henderson County Sheriff's Department, Emergency Medical Services, and Volunteer Fire Department (including mutual aid departments) that is responsible for responding to the new street.
  4. The Henderson County Property Address Coordinator is authorized to determine the need for street names and name changes and to recommend such additions or changes to the County Commissioners for streets outside the corporate limits of any municipality within the County. If the Property Address Coordinator determines that a street not previously named under this Ordinance needs a street name, a suggested street name will be proposed to the property owners giving them the opportunity to accept the proposed name or to select a different street name to be presented to the Board of Commissioners. If either no response or a response representing less than a one hundred percent (100%) of the property owners is received within 30 days, the Property Address Coordinator has the authority to post that street and present the street name proposed by the Property Address Coordinator to the Board of Commissioners for the public hearing. If there is a favorable response by the property owners representing a one hundred percent (100%) for any particular street name, whether suggested by the Property Addressing Coordinator or by a property owner(s), then the Property Addressing Coordinator will post that street and present that proposed street name to the Board of Commissioners for the public hearing.
  5. A street name shall be assigned to any street which provides primary access to three or more addressable structures, regardless of the length of such street.
  6. As a matter of general policy, even numbers shall be assigned to properties on the right side of a street and odd numbers shall be assigned on the left side of a street.
  7. In order to allow for future development, the following general policy shall apply: one property address shall be assigned at an interval of 5.28 feet (the equivalent of 1,000 addresses for each mile of street).
  8. Property addresses for corner lot properties normally shall be determined by where the driveway entrance meets the street. Property owners may request an address based on how their structure faces. These request will be dealt with on a case by case basis. Property addresses for driveways that begin on one street and end on another street will be assigned by whatever street the front of the house faces.
  9. One physical address will be assigned to each addressable structure. Addressable structures that have multiple residences or multiple businesses contained in one building will be assigned one physical address per building with the secondary address will being assigned to the property owner. Town homes normally will be given a physical address to each unit. Assignment of addresses to structures not covered above will be assigned on a case by case basis.
  10. All assigned physical addresses will be assigned in accordance with standards that have been set forth by the National Emergency Number Association (NENA).