New Street Names for Homes Annexed into Oxford Area Now in Effect

By Alyssa Schnugg

News editor

alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

About 800 Oxford residents now have brand new addresses.

In 2019, after the city’s annexation of about 12 square miles, the city began working to assign street names instead of County Road numbers for both public and private streets that were annexed into the city.

“We were delayed due to COVID, mandated redistricting following annexation, and election cycles that prevented us from making changes,” said City Engineer Reanna Mayoral. “We are working to get these changes out now while all of the windows of opportunity remain open.”

The new addresses are in effect now and people can begin using them immediately. The U.S. Post Office has requested that people complete the change of address process within three months, which would be by the end of January.

“It is my understanding that the USPS address system will have both addresses linked together for some time, which helps ensure delivery,” Mayoral said.

The new addresses are assigned based on current standards for E911 and will improve response times by eliminating confusion. There are a number of “A”, “B”, “C” addresses in the annexed areas that were created when additional houses or businesses were built on the property but there was not a new number available.

“We are eliminating that issue by assigning larger numbers with a gap between addresses that is based on the measurement between driveway locations, per E911 standards, rather than simply increasing the address by “2” for each driveway,” Mayoral said.

For the majority of the streets, this city is using the “old” county road names to replace the county road number. For example, CR 178  is being changed back to Hurricane Lane, CR 2057 is being changed to Skyline Drive and CR 162 is being changed to Anderson Road.

“We are renumbering houses in the Rollingwood Subdivision to eliminate confusion and duplicate addresses.,” Mayoral said. “We actually received a number of calls from residents in Rollingwood requesting new addresses after annexation due to how difficult it was for emergency responders, or guests, to find their homes.”

Mayoral said the city has been working closely with the Oxford branch office of the USPS to make the transition as seamless as possible.

Some businesses, like Amazon, will have both addresses on package labels for a while. The city has already worked with major local utility companies – electric, water, gas – to have the changes made on behalf of the customers. Cell phone and internet companies will still need to be contacted.

The city is providing several pages of information with each notification letter being sent out this week to answer basic questions and provide useful contact information, such as AT&T or the Social Security Office, and a “checklist” to help people think about other areas that they may need to change their address is also included.