Key Peninsula Addressing Update
First, let me continue to offer our apologies for the difficulty many of you have experienced as we transition from the KPN/KPS directionals to NW/SW. We hear your frustrations and I share them. I wanted to offer an explanation and an update.
When the Council passed the addressing change on staff’s recommendation we were told that the effective date of April 1st would be enough time to make sure all the appropriate agencies were notified and ready to transition. Unfortunately County staff received some bad information and while they had informed the Department of Licensing, DOL uses a third party vendor that was not instructed to update as expected.
Most other companies and agencies use DOL information so their own systems aren’t recognizing the new addresses as valid.
So here’s the good news. There is plenty of time before addresses need to be changed. US Postal Service will continue delivering to the old addresses for a year. DOL’s vendor has told us their update will take place by the end of this month. That should be what’s needed for other agencies and businesses to recognize the new addresses as valid.
In the meantime, County staff are reaching out to banks and other businesses on behalf of citizens of Key Peninsula to assist with completing the needed address changes.
The remaining issue is Google. Unfortunately they have been most difficult to deal with. Today we are reaching out to our partners in the state legislature and even US Congress to ask for help encouraging Google to be more responsive.
Other issues we have addressed as follows:
- Website: Created a new FAQ page to address problems identified by constituents: http://www.co.pierce.wa.us/5715/911-Addressing-Frequently-Asked-Question
- Communication with the community: Sent emails to community groups and community contacts with project updates and asked them to share information with their community and joined 2 Key Peninsula Facebook groups to monitor concerns about the project and answer questions.
- Department of Licensing: Worked with Department of Licensing to create an interim solution while they work to update their mapping system. Their system is still not accepting address changes, however they have posted a special banner for Pierce County residents letting them know that they do not have to update their licenses with their new address until after June 1 because of the system problem. DOL is trying to expedite the system update through the state system. We plan to do social media outreach when this problem has been fixed to notify people that they are able to update their licenses.
- Law Enforcement: Announcement to all law enforcement agencies in WA was sent by PC Sheriff about the issue with DOL and requesting that Pierce County residents not be ticketed for not changing their address between now and June 1, when the system is expected to be fixed.
- Spot checks: We are continuing to spot check data on partner websites to ensure addressing is updated.
If you have any questions or concerns please call (253) 798–8575 or pcpalsaddressing@co.pierce.wa.us. We have several staff members monitoring our phone and email to make sure we can get back to people as quickly as possible.
And as a further reminder, here is why the addressing change was necessary:
