All About Municipal Addressing

Municipal addressing in the City of London encompasses issues relating to street naming and re-naming; and street numbering and re-numbering. Guideline documents used to assist in municipal addressing include the City's street-naming guidelines and the City's By-law B-1 for the naming of highways and the numbering of buildings and lots. The Application for Municipal Number Re-assignment form is available as a pdf file.

Street Naming Guidelines

The Street Naming Guidelines for the City of London summarizes the topics relating to the Street Index, Reserve Street List, Veteran Street Names, Street Name Heritage, Municipal Addressing Advisory Group; Renaming Streets After Businesses and provides an overview of requirements for street name submissions, conflicts, repetition, continuity and characteristics. For a complete copy of the guidelines please contact the Development Approvals Business Unit (DABU) by or phone (519-930-3500).

Street Index
The Development Planning Division of DABU creates and maintains the Official Street Index for the City of London which consists of existing City public and private street names and proposed/reserved street names. The Division exchanges up-to-date street indices with abutting municipalities to avoid street name duplication.

Reserve Street List
The Development Planning Division of DABU maintains a list of pre-approved names on a reserve list which applicants and planning staff can draw upon for new streets or for re-naming. The Development Planning Division welcomes suggestions from the public for new street names.

Veteran Street Names
The City encourages the naming of streets after city residents who lost their lives in action while serving for the Armed Forces or the City Police, Fire Departments or Emergency Measures services; City of London Employees, Council and Committee members who have served the City for a period of 25 years or more, and are retired and/or deceased; and recipients of the Mayor's Honour list. Applicants are encouraged to draw upon a list of such names maintained by the Development Planning Division of DABU, in their submissions for street name approval. The street name identification signs (design and sample) are depicted with a poppy symbol or City logo in memory of the individual. For new plans of subdivision which contain 5 or more new streets at least one street must be named after a name on the streets of Honour list.

Municipal Addressing Advisory Group (M.A.A.G.)
Representatives from the Building and Development Planning Divisions, City Clerk's Office and Environmental Review Division, and Emergency Service providers (Fire, Police and Ambulance) receive suggested street names for consideration. M.A.A.G.'s purpose is to review and recommend for approval street names for new public and sanctioned private streets in the City of London; to review and recommend for approval all proposed street re-naming; and when necessary, municipal numbering and unit numbering issues.

Street Name Submission
Public street name proposals, as part of the plan of subdivision process, are reviewed and submitted to the M.A.A.G. following draft approval of the plan of subdivision. Proposed draft plan of subdivisions submitted for review (prior to draft approval) are required to identify all new proposed streets as "Street 'A' ", "Street 'B' " ..., with the exception of streets which are continuations of existing streets. The applicant consults with the Development Planning Division regarding the acceptability of proposed street names during the course of the draft plan of subdivision review.

The naming of roadways and drive ways within a complex is not supported. should free-hold lots be created or exist, the roadway providing access to those free-hold lots will be considered and named as a sanctioned Private Road.

Private Road street name proposals, as part of the site plan approval process, are submitted to the Development Planning Division for approval. Private Road street name signs are identified by the addition of the word "PVT." directly on the street sign or the word "Private" on a separate sign directly below or attached to the street sign.

Street Name Conflict
Proposed street names are reviewed to avoid street name duplication on a city-wide basis, including duplication with abutting municipalities, or which sound similar or have similar spelling or have similar pronunciation. Duplication is defined as a) streets having the same name, b) streets having the same parent name and different suffixes and are not located in the same geographical area, or physically connected, or c) are homonyms.

Proposed street names are reviewed to avoid names which could be difficult to pronounce or spell.

Street Name Repetition
Street name repetition is discouraged; however, partial repetition of street names have been considered for extenuating circumstances and up to a maximum of two derivatives of the same street name. Different suffixes are used for minor streets (cul-de-sacs) running from a parent street (i.e., Teraview Court and Teraview Place running from the parent street Teraview Road). In a situation where a cul-de-sac is connected to a parent street and they both have the same street name, the municipal numbers assigned to these streets are required to be sequential with each other to reduce the potential for errors/duplications in reporting and/or recording locations.

Crescent configured streets are encouraged not to have the same name as the parent street that it is connected to due to inability to assign municipal numbers sequentially.

Street Name Continuity
Generally, a continual street shall have one name only throughout its entire length. However, if a street name change is unavoidable, the change must occur at a full intersection and not mid block.

A major street (arterial, primary collector or secondary collector) shall not intersect another major street more than once.

Phased development resulting in temporary gaps between streets which may ultimately be connected and named as a continuous street, shall be given a different name. However, a clause shall be included in the development/subdivision agreement, requiring the developer re-name one of the given streets at such time as the separated roads are proposed to be connected, at the developer's cost. It is the developer's responsibility to inform future property owners on the new street that there is a possibility that their street name may change.

Where it is determined that road sections having the same name are interrupted by a permanent gap and will not be linked in the future, consideration is given to re-naming one portion of the street.

Street Name Heritage
The Development Planning Division encourages heritage components in street names for new development and promotes the preservation of street name heritage for existing communities and streets.

Street Name Characteristics
New street names shall not exceed a maximum of 26 characters in total - including any spaces between each element of the street name. The elements include:

• the street name (maximum 15 characters including spaces);

• street suffix (maximum 7 characters when abbreviated); and,

• street directional suffix (maximum 2 characters when abbreviated). Street directional suffixes are generally applied to streets based on their geographic location to the Thames River.

Street Naming Procedures

Renaming Streets After Businesses
Naming of public streets that could be construed as advertising for a particular business should be avoided. Notwithstanding, Council may consider renaming a street after a business where:

a) the proposed street name does not conflict with other street names in the City and adjoining municipalities;
b) the proposed name has a strong historic link with the City;
c) the business proposing the street name change employs a significant number of workers;
d) the proposed street name change must be supported by 100% of all businesses and property owners addressed from the street; and,
e) the applicant is responsible for all costs incurred as a result of the street renaming.