We obviously do not need a mailbox at this point in time, but we need an address – and from what we are discovering, this will be yet another hill (albeit small) we need to conquer. Up to this point, coordinating with banks, surveyors, friends and family to meet us at the property have consisted of sending a pin on Apple Maps with a description of where to find the pull off made from a long ago logging trail. So far that’s worked out pretty well; but we are not multi-millionaires who bury their taxes and property under a corporate holding to have a secret getaway, nor are we a government agency that needs to hide property for some reason or another. This is not some sort of streaming movie, but real life where utility bills and school taxes are important to know – and we need an address to figure this all out.
In a ‘Game of “Whose on 1st”, we called the local utilities; we were told we needed a physical address before they could verify power for this will confirm an approved building site and that proper paperwork was submitted. The utility company suggested we contact the local post office to receive a physical address. From there, the post office referred us to the local township to file for a driveway entrance and for verification that the property exists – but in reality, the local governments create the address not the post offices. So then we called the local town, who directed us to the highway department, who then redirected us to the “county” highway department, and huzzah we made it to step one!
The road frontage along the property is maintained by the county, so it makes sense that the County Highway Department is the first of many steps towards attaining an address. The county requires the land owner to submit for a driveway permit for county road right-of-way and completes a physical inspection of the proposed site to ensure the following:
- No existing utilities interference
- Clear line of site and visibility for oncoming traffic
- Proper drainage and possible need for culvert or grading
- Overall topography supports planned site
- Adjacency to intersections and other driveways
In our case, to get the County Highway Department’s approval, they requested we clear a few trees and complete a slight grading to the west of the proposed entrance to allow for better visibility around the existing curve of the road. With a permit approved contingent on the clearing, we were ready to move to the next step to attaining an address – another much longer step in our journey…a forester.
Tenir Bon House 