Island’s Street Address Ordinance, Maps Close to Completion
By Ryan Schlehuber

Christmas shoppers from Mackinac Island should put address numbers on their wish list this year as the city gets closer to completing its address implementation project.

City Council, at its regular meeting Wednesday, November 10, approved an ordinance for street names and numbering of buildings and adopted a street numbering map that assigns numbers to each of the Island’s buildings and potential buildings and is needed for Mackinac County’s Enhanced 9-1-1 program.

One glitch is that the street numbering map that was adopted is not finished yet, so nobody knows what their address will be. Council waits for Michael Lange of Lange Enterprises in Wisconsin to finish the building number map before citizens can post their new address numbers on buildings.

Mr. Lange is also re-addressing Moran Township, part of a two-part contract with Mackinac County.

While the adopted ordinance took immediate effect, Council hopes that all residences, businesses, and historic buildings on Mackinac Island will be moving toward addresses by June 15.

The City’s ordinance committee is comprised of Mayor Margaret Doud, Aldermen Michael Hart, Frank Bloswick, and Armand “Smi” Horn.

In a related note, Mr. Horn said in September that the Mackinac County Equalization Department is 99.9 percent finished with a master street and trail map that will incorporate the address numbers and be used for the Enhanced 9-1-1 program. The map will eventually contain layers of information so that various aspects, like buildings, utilities, bicycle trails, streets, and even zoning districts, can be pulled out or printed together.

“We’re looking to create a zoning master map, as well, and that may mean we may have to make changes in our zoning,” said Mr. Horn after the September meeting. “The map will provide us with definitive boundaries. We can avoid arguments that a person thinks he is living in a historic district when he really is living in a residential one.”

Address numbers are required for the 9-1-1 emergency dispatch system so fire and police agencies can easily locate structures. Locations are now described by reference to landmarks or other clues.

Under the ordinance, the numbers will have to be at least two inches high and face the street, but other considerations, like styles, whether curb or post numbers will be permitted, and how numbers will be displayed on historical buildings need to be discussed.

The ordinance states: “Owners of principle buildings shall place and maintain the correct street number upon the front of each principle building or at street main entrance as required; said number to face the street and be adjacent to main entrance in such a position as to be plainly visible from the street, and to be not less than two inches in height.”

Also remaining to be discussed is whether the Mackinac Island State Park Commission will comply or has to comply with the ordinance and whether historic cottages on land leased from the state will have to comply. Mayor Doud said she will be discussing the issue with Mackinac State Historic Parks Director Phil Porter.

State Park officials and some private historic home owners are concerned that numbers will compromise the historic nature of the buildings, even though other signs, such as historical markers, building names, and privacy notices already deface many of them.