Street Name Changes

Have you ever wanted to change the name of a street? Any Raleigh resident can request a street name change if it's within the City's corporate limits and meets the guidelines below. The Raleigh City Council makes the final decision on whether to approve street name changes.

Guidelines

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If a street name has not been established, a New Street Name Application must be submitted for approval. The new street name must be unique on a countywide basis and cannot duplicate another street name or approximate the phonetic pronunciation of that name within Wake County.

Emergency service response and mail delivery can be affected by duplicate names in different locations. You can check for existing names using the Wake County's Street Name Search tool.

Please consider the following guidelines when selecting your possible road names:

• An individual person’s name is not allowed
• Punctuation is not allowed e.g. periods, hyphens, apostrophes
• Names must be easy to pronounce and should effect a positive connotation
• Limit the entire name to 20 characters in length, due to sign-space limitations

See a full list of naming guidelines in the New Street Name Application

Why should a street name be changed?

• Duplications: Street name duplications may be carryovers from historical street names or may be due to new road construction, or to realignment, a connection of roads that were previously separate, or disconnection of existing roads that previously formed one continuous route.
• Desire of property owners: There may be cases where a street name is desired by adjoining property owners. Unless there is a public purpose to be served, requesting a name change is not encouraged, for it requires a considerable cost to the residents and to service providers such as the City and private utility companies

Application and Approval Process

The street renaming process takes about eight to 10 weeks for requests by residents.

Submit the following required documents to the Planning and Development Customer Service Center:

• Approved New Street Name
• Completed Street Name Change Petition
• Fee payment (see Development Fee Guide)
• A recent property map of the street showing parcel numbers
• A copy of the recorded plat that originally named the street
• A list of property owners who own property that abuts the subject street
• Signatures of fifty percent (50%), plus one of all property owners that abut the subject street

* These steps are contingent upon staff and City Council approval.

Fees

• See Development Fee Guide for specific fees
• The Planning and Development Customer Service Center processes payments
• Payment types include cash, MasterCard, Visa or check made payable to the City of Raleigh

Additional Information

Below are answers to some common questions.

City-Initiated Street Name Changes

If the reason for a street name change is to eliminate or reduce problems associated with a street address or to facilitate emergency service delivery, then the City will initiate and process the street name petition.

If the City is initiating the process and has not received a petition from one or more of the adjoining owners, the Transportation staff will notify all affected property owners and tenants to solicit suggestions for a unique county-wide street name. Upon receipt of the responses, the Transportation staff will review them for duplications, and resurvey the affected property owners and tenants to determine the most acceptable names from among the non-duplicate suggestions.

Once an acceptable name is determined, the Transportation staff will prepare the required information and place the application on an upcoming Raleigh City Council agenda for review and consideration. City Council will adopt or decline to adopt, a resolution of intent to hold a public hearing on the street name change application.

If the Raleigh City Council does adopt a resolution of intent authorizing a public hearing, a notice will be sent to all affected property owners and tenants, and the hearing will be advertised in the legal section of the newspaper. At the public hearing, City Council will either adopt a resolution changing the name and set an effective date or deny the request.

Once the City Council changes a street name, when does it become effective and who does the City notify?

In most cases, the effective date will be either July 1 or January 2 following City Council action. In many instances, after communication with residents and property owners, an effective date agreeable to all parties can be reached. In some instances, the adopted street name change resolution by Raleigh City Council will require a plat with the old and new street names on it to be recorded at the Wake County Register of Deeds.

The City will notify the local utility companies, all City of Raleigh Departments, Wake County Government, North Carolina Department of Transportation -Division of Highways, local utility companies, U.S. Postal Service, residents, and property owners of the street name change and the effective date set by Raleigh City Council in the resolution changing the street name. The individual property owners must notify all other parties. Parties to notify may include the Department of Motor Vehicles, Social Security Administration, banks, and credit card companies, as well as others who may regularly send mail to the previous address.

Pending Street Name Changes

Recent Street Name Changes

SNC-01-2022 Cameron Manor Way to Oberlin Village Drive

The City received a request to change a private street name from Cameron Manor Way to Oberlin Village Drive approved by a majority of property owners and authorized by the HOA February 8, 2022 changing Cameron Manor Way to Oberlin Village Drive. The request was approved. This street name change effects only the street name. All other elements of the address numbering will remain the same, thus Cameron Manor Way will now be Oberlin Village Drive effective April 1, 2022.

If you have any questions regarding the street name change please contact Donetta Powell by calling (919) 996-4054 or send an email message to her at Donetta.Powell@raleighnc.gov .

SNC-02-2021 Denise Drive to Capital Center Drive

The City Council, in their meeting held on September 7, 2021, adopted a Resolution of Intent (2021) 291 to consider changing the name of Denise Drive to Capital Center Drive. As part of the Jones Franklin Road interchange improvements at I-440, NCDOT has constructed an extension of Capital Center Drive that supersedes Denise Drive. As a result of these changes, the City initiated a street name change request to rename Denise Drive to Capital Center Drive from the existing Capital Center Drive to Jones Franklin Road. A public hearing was held on October 19, 2021 whereby Council approved and adopted Resolution No. 2021-309 changing the street name of a section of Denise Drive to Capital Center Drive from the existing Capital Center Drive to Jones Franklin Road.

There were two parcels impacted by this change. Effective January 1, 2022, 5207 Denise Drive will become 5572 Capital Center Drive and 5211 Denise Drive will become 5568 Capital Center Drive.

If you have any questions regarding the street name change please contact Donetta Powell by calling (919) 996-4054 or send an email message to her at Donetta.Powell@raleighnc.gov .