Larimer County advances draft addressing and road-naming resolution to improve emergency response and clarify appeals

Larimer County commissioners reviewed a draft update to the county’s addressing and road-naming resolution at a March 31, 2025, work session intended to shorten a 20-year-old document, standardize procedures and improve emergency-response reliability across unincorporated areas.

County staff said the update narrows terminology, adds standardized forms and templates and formalizes a public-safety review when property owners request exceptions to the rules. Greg Turnbull, Director of Innovations and Insights in the county’s information-technology department, said, “The goal with this resolution was to create something that we could we could launch from.”

The draft addresses three recurring problems staff and emergency responders described: duplicate or inconsistent road names, nonsequential or confusing address numbers, and a lack of standardized outreach and documentation when names or numbers change. Staff told the commissioners the prior resolution grew out of a 2000s rural-addressing project, became cumbersome and was inconsistently applied, and that the update is meant to be shorter but more comprehensive.

Key changes and procedures

- Coordinator role and standard forms: The county will formalize the addressing coordinator role and require a standardized online “request to deviate” form for any property owner…