Kona resident Lani Martin couldn’t care less about why her street address has six digits, or their corresponding meaning.
Kona resident Lani Martin couldn’t care less about why her street address has six digits, or their corresponding meaning.
“Never thought about it before,” she said Monday at Old Kona Airport Park. “Kind of treated (my street address) like everything else that gets assigned a number in my life. You know, like your driver’s license number, credit card numbers, etc. I don’t know what it means, besides it’s something that belongs to me.”
All Martin cares about is that there’s no sense of disorientation by people visiting her home or making deliveries. Even then, she said, most people, “if they have lived here long enough,” know where to go.
“You don’t usually need a map or a specific address to help you find where to go; You need a person who says, take this street, then right on so and so road, past the avocado tree, and count four houses down to the big house on the left. You know, the one with the black truck parked in front,” she said. “All I know is street addresses are long. Why six numbers?”
What’s in a number? Plenty, when it comes to street addressing.
The plan for a coordinated mapping system on Hawaii Island began in 1931. The function of tax mapping was done at the time by the Territory of Hawaii. The Hawaii Tax Map Key, which went into effect in the 1930s, is used to designate a property’s exact location, said Hans Santiago, tax maps and records supervisor for the county Planning Department.
“The establishment of a uniform and systematic procedure for the assignment of addresses is vital for the health, safety and welfare of the community to provide an effective means of emergency location through the emergency 911 system; expedite postal, utility service, and commercial delivery services; and reduce confusion for people trying to find a residence or business,” states the county code.
The Planning Department director, Bobby Jean Leithead Todd, is responsible for assigning addresses, as well as maintaining official maps and databases of street names and addresses in a system, which enables efficient searches or listing by property owner, address and tax map key. Leithead Todd also determines the appropriate interval unit in determining addresses for buildings in urban and rural areas. She can change an address when it is out of sequence, does not conform to the numbering standards established, is confusing or might delay emergency response.
Hawaii Island is divided into nine zones, each subdivided into nine sections, then plats and parcels. The first two digits of an address, before the hyphen, indicate the zone and its section, Santiago said. For example, Kailua-Kona is 75, Waikoloa 68, Captain Cook 81 and Hawi 55.
The Planning Commission in 1965 decided the Tax Map Key prefixes should be used as a base to number each house and future development along the highways, Santiago said.
“By using the first two prefixes (the zone and section number) of the Tax Map Key for the base number, a systematic number method can be devised for the whole island,” according to a July 28, 1965, letter from then county Planning Commission Acting Director Raymond Suefuji. “However, since the Hilo city proper has existing methods of house numbering, the city area can be omitted from this proposed method.”
Santiago said it was difficult to determine exactly when the county’s street numbering system began.
The two to four numbers, following the hyphen, are based on a distance from a predetermined starting point — usually a road intersection or a highway. The numbers run consecutively, with odd numbers on the left and even numbers on the right as you head away from the starting point, he said.
“The address is derived by measuring the distance along a street and dividing that distance by some equal interval to determine the address for a building,” states the county code. “The number assigned shall be the numbered interval closest to the driveway or front entrance. The interval unit shall be small enough to provide an address to each potential building permitted in the zoning district.”
Addresses are assigned according to the location of the driveway. If the driveway is reconfigured and its location changes, the address could change, Santiago said.
“The address for corner lots shall be the street where the main driveway intersects or where the main entry faces,” states the county code. “If there is no driveway or the structure does not directly face either street, the number should be determined based on the predominate street frontage.”
Also taken into consideration are existing numbering patterns of surrounding streets and directions to keep the consistency. For example, the address range for Hawaii Belt Road begins in Hilo from Waianuenue Avenue and travels northward. Another example is if there are two parallel streets in a subdivision, they may start and end with the same numbers, Santiago said.
Michelle Gray has lived on the island more than eight years. The Kona resident knew exactly what the numbers mean in addresses; it’s something she learned during a real estate class. Gray said she understands how the street numbering system could be confusing to some, particularly those new to the island, but said it does become easier with familiarity. She never had problems with mail deliveries because she has a post office box.
Gray didn’t have any suggestions Monday on how the county could simplify its numbering system. For those people who may never understand the system or simply don’t care and still need help navigating the street maze, she recommended getting a Hawaii Island-specific map book.