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County adopts updated address‑assignment policy, adds rural ID and private‑road oversight; fee proposed to fall to $50
Summary
Van Buren County adopted updated rules for assigning addresses, introducing a rural‑ID option for undeveloped parcels, tighter private‑road oversight, a municipal opt‑in and plans for an online application system; staff said improved efficiency could allow the county to lower the address fee.
Van Buren County’s Digital Information Department presented an update to the county’s address‑assignment policy and the Board of Commissioners approved the proposed updates at the July 8 meeting.
Digital Information Director Jerry introduced Walter Elsner, the county’s addressing administrator, who described four principal changes: a rural ID for undeveloped parcels, requiring driveway permits from the Van Buren County Road Commission in some cases, oversight for private roads with more than three residences, and inviting cities and villages to opt into the county’s addressing process. “Rural ID is essentially a way of, addressing undeveloped properties or vacant land,” Walter said.
Elsner said the rural‑ID signs would be visually distinct and not acceptable for building permits, voter‑registration addresses or as a substitute for a final address for permitting. He described the red rural‑ID sign as a way for responders to find people on undeveloped land: “The red sign is basically for the people responding to see that and say, okay. I’m not looking for a structure.” He told the board the green numbered signs for residences will continue and that numbering for rural ID will follow the same coordinate system.
The department also proposed an online portal for address applications and recommended lowering the standard address fee from $100 to $50 based on projected time savings from digitization and process streamlining.
Commissioners asked how the rural IDs would interact with driveway permits and whether the numbering on the signs would match street locations; staff said driveway permits will be required in some circumstances but not strictly for rural IDs, and that the numbering system will align with existing patterns to avoid out‑of‑sequence addresses that can confuse dispatch.
After discussion the motion “to approve and adopt” the updated addressing policy was made, seconded and carried. No roll‑call vote with named tallies was recorded; the clerk announced the motion carried.
The department said it will offer the updated addressing service to municipalities at no cost to the municipality, with the $50 applicant fee covering county costs. Walter told the board the county plans to follow NENA (National Emergency Number Association) standards and that the updates aim to reduce duplicate efforts, improve data accuracy for dispatch, and make addressing consistent across jurisdictions.
