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goal
The regional Street
Name Clearinghouse (SNC) is one of the earliest programs undertaken
by the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission. The intent of
the program is to avoid and eliminate, whenever possible, existing
street name duplicates which create confusion in property and
address location. This confusion increases public and private
service delivery costs and creates a public safety hazard resulting
from delays in emergency service responses.
The Street Name
Clearinghouse (SNC) program is advisory only. The recommendations
may be (and occasionally have been) disregarded as a prerogative of
local government. However, over the years, local governments have
usually honored the recommendations from the Richmond Regional
Planning District Commission. With the implementation of the E-911
system for Richmond, Powhatan, Henrico, Goochland, Chesterfield, New
Kent, Charles City, and Hanover counties, avoiding duplication and
sound-alikes is extremely important.
This procedural
guideline report summarizes the responsibilities of Richmond
Regional Planning District Commission (RRPDC) staff, local
government staff, and the developers (or their agents) in obtaining
street name approvals.
the
development process
Normally there are
many stages of review before a subdivision development is ultimately
built. Most local governments require that the developer submit an
approval form from the Richmond Regional PDC street name
clearinghouse along with their final plat for development approval.
The street name review process works best if the developer contacts
the clearinghouse early in the process. Ideally, a developer should
clear the proposed names through the SNC before completion of the
preliminary plat so the names may be submitted for approval from the
locality along with the preliminary plat.
Sometimes developers
do not seek street name approvals early in the process, but as the
very last step before the development plan is recorded as the
official, legal document. Or if changes are made to the development
theme, the subdivision name and street names may change requiring a
re-submission for new names in the development. In this case the
action may be an urgent priority for the developer in order to close
a development deal, start work, etc. The clearinghouse
attempts to accommodate these emergencies but cannot be responsible
for missed deadlines.
Distribution of
these guidelines to the development community should help better
inform them of the clearinghouse process and reduce the need for
urgent requests. In addition, local governments often forget to
notify the clearinghouse of recorded plats and their street names.
Developers and local governments should be reminded of the
importance of maintaining an accurate and up-to-date list of
reserved and recorded street names.
richmond
regional pdc snc procedures
1. The
developer or the local government submits a street name reservation
request form (generally received via fax). This form includes
information about the contact for the reservation, the locality of
the reservation, the proposed street names to be reserved, and the
types of street names (St., Rd., Ct., etc.).
2. Staff
responsible for the SNC reviews these proposed names using the SNC
database to find duplicates or sound-alikes. Staff also uses the
SNC criteria (listed below) to evaluate proposed street names.
3. After
all the submitted names have been reviewed and accepted (or
rejected), the RRPDC staff faxes the request form to the developer
(or his agent) to advise him/her of which names are acceptable. This
form should be submitted to the county at the time the subdivision
plat is submitted as the approval document.
4. At the same
time the request form is faxed, the requested names are added to the
SNC database. The reservation form then goes into a monthly SNC
reservations file for future reference.
5. While the
name is to be held on reserve for the developer for two years,
sometimes developers are delayed in planning or completing designs
for their projects and the street name reservation expires. In order
to ensure that the reservation is valid, local government staff will
normally require the developer to obtain a time extension on the
name reservation. This type of request is handled by following the
above steps, except that the extension box is checked on the
reservation request form.
street
name review criteria
The following
criteria are used in considering name requests:
1.
The requested name
should be easily understood over the telephone. Foreign language
words should be pronounceable by the "average" person.
2.
The developer must be clear about spelling of the street name,
indicating single or double word name, proper capitalization, and/or
punctuation (e.g., hyphens or apostrophes).
guidelines for street name clearinghouse requests
1.
The requested name should be easily understood over the telephone.
Foreign language words should be pronounceable by the “average”
person.
2.
The developer must be clear about spelling of the street name,
indicating single or double word names, proper capitalization,
and/or punctuation (e.g., hyphens or apostrophes).
3.
The proposed name should be unique with in the entire Richmond
Region. Intended use of the name outside the city/county where the
name is currently used or reserved for use is irrelevant. The
principle here is to avoid regional duplications!
4.
Use of the same street names with different street type designations
is acceptable if it is understood that the main road will be
designated as a road, drive, avenue, street or boulevard (implying a
through street), with all remaining same street names branching off
of this main road to be named as court, place, circle, way, and
terrace (implying a dead-end or cul-de-sac situation).
Pictorial Example
Example:
Deep Creek Road--
main road
Deep Creek Court--
connected to main road (cul-de-sac)
Deep Creek Terrace-- connected
to main road (dead-end)
5.
Directional prefixes (e.g., N. Deep Creek and S. Deep Creek Court)
are not acceptable as unique names.
6.
If single-word street name represent duplication, a second word may
be added to make a unique compound word street name.
Example:
Existing-- Cavalry Rd.
Proposed-- Cavalry Drive
- unacceptable duplication
Alternatives-- Cavalry
Creek Dr. - ok, if not duplicated
Cavalry Horse Rd. -
ok, if not duplicated
Cavalry
Charge Blvd. - ok, if not duplicated
7.
The review of the name for possible duplications will also check for
similar sounding, but differently spelled names.
Examples:
Proposed Name--
Pines Dr., sounds like
Existing
Name-- Pine Dr.
Proposed Name--
Pear Dr., sounds like
Existing
Name-- Pare Dr.
Proposed Name Patty
Lane., sounds like
Existing Name-- Paddy Drive
Such similarly sounding names should be rejected to
avoid address confusion.
8.
The street name can’t contain two extensions. (Emerald Terrace
Court, Maple Row Drive)
9.
The
Street Name Reference (a PDF) can
be reviewed or saved to your computer as a guide to what name are
existing or reserved. Reviewing this information will
help to avoid submitting numerous requests that are rejected for
duplicates, sound-alkies, etc.
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