Over the past 10+ years, various townships and cities across Canada and into the United States are adopting “Addressing Bylaws” to help provide their citizens with quicker response times for emergency and maintenance services.
The latest to do so is the City of St. Albert, which passed the “Addressing Bylaw” in May 2017 with a compliance due date of June 2018.
Since this is only one of the countless cities in North America to adopt this mandated change to their property owners, we can only see this as a trend that will spread quickly to positively influence emergency response time.
Nevertheless, this change goes far beyond assisting emergency services! As an added benefit from conducting this change, package delivery and visits from friends or family will easily be able to find your home! Resulting in easier deliveries to you home, no matter who is paying you a visit.
So, what exactly are these Addressing Bylaws, and how might one go about them? We have complied a list to ensure your prepared for these new changes below:
- How to know if you need to adhere to any local bylaws?
The easiest and simplest way to know if there are any current or future bylaws that you need to comply to is to call your local City Hall or Town Hall.
We’re sure they would be happy to discuss any requirements, or send you to their online source for this information.
- What do you need to do in order to comply to the Addressing Bylaws?
Unfortunately, each county, town, city, and municipality, will have different requirements and regulations that need to be considered. However, here are some basic pointers that we’ve found that are relatively consistent (though we still do suggest you look at your specific city requirements as they might be different!):
- The property owner is responsible for making sure that the address number is clearly visible from the street: in day and night, and during weather conditions. Example: Backlit.
- The numbers need to contrast the background colour, the building colour, mailbox or post colour. Example white numbers on black background.
- Individual house numbers should be at least 4-6 inches tall, if displayed on a house or street curb (size requirement is dependent on the setback distance from the curb line).
- If you’re a residential property owners, on a condo board or own a multi-family property, or own/operate a commercial or industrial property, you are required to adhere to specific regulations.
- What to do if you need to adhere to Addressing Bylaws?
Look for house address numbers that adhere to all regulations set forth by your regulatory body (City Council).
Not to sound biased, but our LED backlit house numbers have proven to be compliant to all city bylaws that we’ve come across to date.
- Each number is 8.5inches high and 5.5 inches wide, printed in clean and clear modern text.
- Each number is white on a black background creating as high a contract as possible, and are colour-blind friendly.
- The bright, LED lights are clearly visible from a distance (without disrupting neighbours), and visible in all types of weather that we’ve come across so far.
- Since we use LED backlighting, the address number are low-energy, so it won’t cost a fortune to run day and night.
- Don’t need to adhere to Addressing Bylaws? Great!
Although your area might impose these bylaws soon, you don’t have to worry about the legal requirements just yet. Wahoo!
Having said that, clearly visible backlit LED numbers can reduce emergency response times, increase the chance that your friends and family will find you for that important BBQ, birthday or Holiday event, and increase the chance that your special shipment, online order or Friday night’s pizza/burrito/sushi delivery arrives hassle-free, the first time!
If you are interested in making your house more visible, for whatever reason you may want, feel free to check out our highly recommended LED Backlit house numbers here! Until then, be sure to keep an eye out on your City Council on Addressing Bylaws to make sure your home is compliant.