Connecting Hillsboro Address Project

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Consistent addressing within a city strengthens residents’ sense of community and common identity and promotes better efficiency in delivery of emergency and other services. At present, there are both City and County site and street addressing systems, and two non-Hillsboro zip codes, inside the City limits. In the Hillsboro 2020 Vision and Action Plan, Strategy 5 calls for development of a common “Hillsboro” postal address for every home and business within the boundary of the City

Project Background:

The City of Hillsboro and Washington County have different addressing systems, based on the “point of origin”. The City grid’s point of origin is the intersection of Main Street and First Avenue in downtown Hillsboro. Washington County’s address grid point of origin is the intersection of the historic “Base Line” (which dates from the mid-1800s) and the Willamette River. As a result, the County address grid around, and in some cases inside Hillsboro, includes five-digit site addresses and three-digit street numbers. In certain neighborhoods in the City, such as the southeast and northwest areas which have experienced rapid annexation and development in the last 10 years, older County-addressed residences and some County-numbered roads are now interspersed with new developments and streets addressed and numbered on the City grid. This situation creates confusion for residents and for emergency and non-emergency service providers, as well as making it inconvenient for visitors from outside the neighborhood to locate an address.

Project Scope:

The Connecting Hillsboro Address Project is multiple phase program initiated by the Hillsboro Planning Department, intended to reconcile the differences between the City and the County address grids by establishing a consistent City site address, street name, and zip code addressing system. Over several phases in several areas, County road numbers and site addresses will be replaced by City street numbers and site addresses.

Project Timeline:

The City has already completed implementation of some street name changes in the North Hillsboro Industrial Area (changing former NW 253rd Avenue, NW Sewell Road) to be within the City grid. These sheets were dual signed beginning January 2015 and in January 2017 the old signs will be removed. The City Council approved re-naming of streets within the South Hillsboro Community Plan Area in March 2015, however implementing the new street names is being delayed to 2016 to allow the U.S. Post Office time to analyze potential Zip Code boundary adjustments.

The first phase was approved by the City Council via Resolution No. 2516 on February 16, 2016 and included streets south of NW Evergreen Road, and west of NW Cornelius Pass Road that were not in alignment with the City grid. Phase 2 was approved by the City Council via Resolution No. 2524 on May 3, 2016 and included streets north of NW Evergreen Road, and west of NW Cornelius Pass Road that were not in alignment with the City grid. Implementation schedules for the issuance of new addresses and new street signs going up are noted below in the documents, and each affected property owner and/or resident will receive formal documentation from the City’s Address Coordinator as to what their new address will be.

City staff conducted outreach for Phase 3, the Tanasbourne / AmberGlen area in September 2016, with the Council approving it via Resolution No. 2546 on October 18, 2016. This includes all portions of the City east of Cornelius Pass Road, as well as other streets with naming discrepancies. Implementation is anticipated to begin incrementally in September 2017, with the last subarea beginning their dual signing and addressing in the fall of 2018.

Project Documents