Fayetteville to readdress Hill Avenue

Changes a headache for homeowners, tenants

NWA Democrat-Gazette/Michael Woods • @NWAMICHAELW A public hearing notice posted on Hill Street in Fayetteville gives residents along a section of Hill Street notice their address may soon change. Fayetteville held a public meeting Thursday to discuss address changes on South Hill Avenue. The changes are meant to make it easier for visitors, delivery drivers and emergency responders to find where people live.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/Michael Woods • @NWAMICHAELW A public hearing notice posted on Hill Street in Fayetteville gives residents along a section of Hill Street notice their address may soon change. Fayetteville held a public meeting Thursday to discuss address changes on South Hill Avenue. The changes are meant to make it easier for visitors, delivery drivers and emergency responders to find where people live.

FAYETTEVILLE -- Mail delivery, driver's licenses and voter registration are just some of the ways people are inextricably linked to their street addresses.

And so, for 40 homeowners and tenants living along South Hill Avenue, getting a new house number is a big deal.

At A Glance

The city is changing addresses for 40 homeowners and tenants in 18 residential properties along South Hill Avenue. The changes, which will take effect April 1, are as follows:

• 99 S. Hill Ave. will become 191 S. Hill Ave.

• 108 will become 210

• 112 will become 226

• 124 will become 242

• 126 will become 250

• 128 will become 258

• 131 will become 263

• 137 will become 277

• 143 will become 291

• 157 will become 305

• 159 will become 331

• 161 will become 343

• 160 will become 328

• 162 will become 342

• 166 will become 360

• 173 will become 391

• 175 will become 433

• 177 will become 455

For more information, contact Greg Mitchell, Fayetteville GIS coordinator, at 479-444-3431 or gmitchell@fayettevi….

Source: City of Fayetteville

The city is changing the addresses, between Center Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, next week to make it easier for visitors, delivery drivers and emergency responders to find where people live.

The addresses on Hill Avenue aren't consecutively numbered.

For example, on the east side of Hill, south of Stone Street, the house numbers jump from 302 to 160, 162 and 166 -- and then back to 406 and 410.

Sgt. Craig Stout, with the Fayetteville Police Department, said the odd numbering system doesn't just make it hard for pizza deliveries and UPS drivers. It has potential to keep police officers, firefighters and paramedics looking for someone's house longer than they should during an emergency.

City officials have known about the problem for years. Greg Mitchell, Fayetteville GIS coordinator, said a homebuilder probably came up with his own numbering system nearly 100 years ago rather than using the city's address grid.

With three new houses being built on the west side of the street by Steve Combs Construction, "We had to decide, 'What's going to be the address for these new houses,'" Mitchell said. "'Are we going to give them 100 numbers, or are we going to give them 300 numbers?'

"We decided then and there: Let's just straighten this out. It should have been done a long time ago."

City officials will notify the U.S. Postal Service of the address changes, and, according to Mitchell, mail will be delivered to both old and new addresses for one year.

Officials are also changing addresses on customers' utility accounts, and they're working with the Washington County Assessor's Office. The city will buy new house numbers for people living in affected properties.

It's up to individual homeowners and tenants, however, to notify their banks, credit card companies and magazines about their new addresses. It's also their responsibility to get a new driver's license, voter registration card and change any address decals on their mailboxes.

Rick Bailey, whose family has owned a house at the northwest corner of Hill Avenue and Stone Street since the early 1950s, said he's concerned about other potential problems.

The house has been unoccupied since his mother died three years ago, but Bailey and his sisters are thinking about putting it up for sale or renting it out.

"Our biggest concern is how we're going to get things straightened out with contracts, deeds of trust ... and things like that," Bailey said at a public input session Thursday.

He said he also has an emotional attachment to the house number -- 143 S. Hill Ave. -- from his childhood.

Mitchell said the city will work with property owners as much as possible to address any issues that arise.

"We're trying to make it as seamless as possible, although we recognize it's still going to be a headache," he said.

The city went through the same process a few years back with houses on Greenbriar Drive, near the Paradise Valley Golf Course, and Mitchell said he hasn't heard of any major problems with property owners there since.

NW News on 03/27/2015

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