Mackinac Island Represents Unique Challenge in Addressing Project
By Jessica Delaney

A series of maps are available for viewing in the city council chamber. Along with a map of the whole island, there is also a more detailed map. Featured here is an excerpt of the downtown area, complete with tentative addresses.

For those who have always dreamed of sending a UPS package to Devil’s Kitchen, it theoretically could be done under the Island’s forthcoming addressing system.

Though, most likely, UPS employees wouldn’t care to be carting packages out to scenic landmarks. Even places such as Devil’s Kitchen and Arch Rock have received numbered street addresses, along with every building on the Island, thanks to the work of Lange Enterprises.

When Mackinac Island joined the rest of Mackinac County in its Enhanced 9-1-1 emergency telephone program, the Island was required to provide a comprehensive addressing system for all buildings on the Island. Though the process has taken a long time to complete, it is now nearing the final stages, and later in the fall or early winter, Island residents can look forward to receiving permanent addresses for their homes and businesses.

The action of assigning numbers to buildings is not as easily done as it might appear. According to Mike Lange, who worked directly with the City to come up with addresses, it is an arduous process under the best of circumstances, but working on an Island can prove even more difficult.

Because islands all have a distinct shape, they can rarely work with a county grid system. Streets do not lie directly north and south or east and west, making the addressing of an island a little more difficult.

“There really is no straight road here,” said Mr. Lange. “And there was a unique situation with M-185, which runs a circle around the island.”

The first thing on Mr. Lange’s agenda was to choose a north-south direction. The straightest road on the Island is Cadotte Avenue, so he simply adjusted a grid by a 30 degree angle so that, according to his addressing system, direct north would run along Cadotte Avenue and end up near British Landing. All streets had their directions chosen from that primary line.

Point two was to decide how far apart the numbers would be placed. In a normal, mainland addressing job, 400 numbers would be assigned to a mile. Mr. Lange realized, however, that the island would require something a little different.

“We numbered at 1,600 numbers per mile, to minimize the distance allocated for each numbering job,” said Mr. Lange. “This was done with downtown being heavily populated and by the logistics of the Island. This gave us the maximum numbers while still keeping the addresses at four digits.”

Now, with each road designated either as running east-west or north-south, and a set amount of numbers per mile, it was time to get down to the real job of addressing. Streets began at 1000 at the southeast corner of the Island, near Mission Point, and then run north. Numbers between 1000 and 6000 were assigned to all north-south streets, while east-west streets received numbers above 6000. Because there are not 6,000 buildings on the Island, there is a gap in numbering between the north-south streets and the east-west ones.

There is one exception to this numbering rule, and that is M-185, which has been numbered consecutively all along the road.

“This makes the most sense,” said Mr. Lange, “since it forms a circumference of the Island. It builds from the west site and circumferences the island in a clockwise manner. The first number is at Devil’s Kitchen.”

If Mr. Lange had used the normal grid system to number M-185, he would have had to split the road into two separate segments, running north-south and east-west, but he said that because the street is barely populated, it made more sense to number it consecutively. When M-185 runs into the downtown area, it reverts to Main Street and the normal grid system.

As for actually numbering landmarks, Mr. Lange mentioned that this was also something a little unique to the Island.

“It is and it isn’t normal to address landmarks,” he said. “They almost always have numbers, but the question is how to display them on a map.”

He said that for addressing purposes, it is important to number landmarks. The reason, especially for the island, that addressing is so important is for 9-1-1. If somebody is at one of these references points, it is quicker for a 9-1-1 dispatcher to immediately pick up a location from a cellular phone satellite locator than for the person to describe it to a dispatcher.

Also numbered have been undeveloped parcels throughout the Island. Mr. Lange created points on the parcels, and has numbers available. Vacant corner lots have a number for each street, but the number used will be the one on the street a building faces.

Though at times the process of creating an addressing system for the Island was slow, Mr. Lange said that it is better to go more slowly and make certain that everything is correct. He said that changing addressing after the process is completed is more of a mess than getting it right in the first place.

“Changing addresses is not a way to make friends. Better to have everything correct in the first place,” he said.

Once the numbers are approved this year, he said, they should not have to be changed for any reason.