Ravalli County Addressing Policy

To comply with emergency 911 requirements, every private road must be named and the associated residences/businesses must have appropriate physical addresses.

Naming a New Road

1. Get yourself a Road Name Petition:  PDF format or Word Document format.
2. Fill in all of the pertinent information. Use the Road Location and Parcel Tax-ID items to provide a good clue as to where this new road can be found.
3. Choose a unique name for your road.  For further clarification, please watch the Tom Selleck blockbuster classic, An Innocent Man.
4. Supply at least three alternate road names.  Again, supply at least three alternate road names.
5. Make sure that the road names have suffix types that comply with U.S. Postal Standards such as Court, Drive, Lane, etc.
6. Obtain signatures of at least 60% of the adjoining land owners—these signatures indicate that those persons approve of the chosen road name.  This list of signatures must include individuals with properties that have existing addresses that will be affected by this new road name.
7. Have your signature notarized.  (This means your signature, not the other land owners' signatures.)
8. Return the completed form to the GIS Department with the appropriate fee ($125).
9. Allow a week for processing.
10. IMPORTANT:  All residences and business being accessed by this new road must obtain an address that is explicitly associated with this new road.

Renaming an Existing Road

To rename an existing road, the process is essentially the same as above, except that signatures from 100% of the adjoining land owners are required. All residents of the road must be willing to change their address to reflect the new road name and address number sequence.

After the new road has been entered into the GIS database, you will be sent a confirmation letter stating such.
 

Road Signs & Addresses

It is your responsibility to erect an appropriate road sign for your newly named road.  The County no longer has the resources to build and install road signs.  Stay tuned for specifications.

The GIS Department is also responsible for issuing new addresses.  We will provide you with the official green reflective numbers.  Please, please, please display your address numbers in such a manner that emergency responders can find you.

 

Important Notes

• The road must be accessible to facilitate GPS collection by the GIS staff.
• Proper road names must be unique - they cannot be duplicates of existing names within the county. For example: “East Side Lane” will not be accepted because “Eastside Highway” already exists.  Also, no fair choosing a road name that sounds like an existing name--that just confuses everybody.
• Backup names with mere changes in the suffix doth not constitute unique road names.
• Search roads in Ravalli County