Orange County to consider changing some rural addresses to help EMS responders

Orange County Emergency Services responders are tired of getting lost when responding to calls in rural parts of the county.

For years, EMS responders have reported trouble locating homes in rural areas because of improperly displayed or non-sequential addresses and unmarked private drives.

To address these problems, which can waste time in emergency situations, the county is considering adopting an ordinance that would require homeowners to correct these inconsistencies.

“We’ve had fatalities because emergency services couldn’t locate a home,” said Steve Averett, director of Geographic Information Systems for the county.

The county will hold a public hearing Tuesday for residents to provide input to the commissioners. Depending on the public hearing, the county is scheduled to consider adopting the ordinance on Dec. 13.

County Deputy Clerk David Hunt said about 10 percent of the county’s 23,000 addresses are considered incorrect.

Averett attributed the inconsistencies to the adoption of the grid system in 1989 that some homeowners refused to switch to. He said these homeowners do not understand the need to update and post their addresses.

The Ford Road area has caused particular concern, Averett said.

“How does the mailman even find where to deliver mail out there?” he said.

The Addressing and Road Naming Ordinance would require homeowners to properly display their addresses, reorganize some house numbers to make them sequential and name unmarked private drives, among other things.

Averett said the county has been encouraging these changes to homeowners for years, but the ordinance would allow them to enforce the regulations.

“We’re not really doing anything different than we’ve ever done,” he said. “We’re just sort of codifying it so we have more authority.”

Frank Montes de Oca, director of the county’s emergency services, said enforcing proper addressing will improve EMS response time, which now averages about 17 minutes.

“In some instances, it can improve a response by several minutes and in others, a matter of seconds,” he said.

Once the ordinance goes into effect, the county will allow homeowners a one-year grace period to correct their addressing inaccuracies. The county will conduct an educational campaign for property owners about the ordinance during that year.

After that time, homeowners will be given a notice and 60 more days to comply. If they choose not to, they will be fined $50. If they continue to not comply, they will be fined an additional $50 in 14 days. From then on, homeowners will incur a $50 fine every week.

“In no way, shape or form is this any attempt to raise revenue,” Averett said. “If this penalty or ordinance never raises one penny of revenue, we will consider it a tremendous success.”

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