New addresses for citizens
The standardisation of addressing across the territory had been in the pipeline for several months. The address database is now ready, and the measure was adopted at the last territorial council meeting. Each building will now have its own number, and streets will be named or, in some cases, renamed.
The Collectivité is required to comply with the law of 21 February 2022, which stipulates that every road open to traffic that is more than 50 metres long and contains more than two buildings must be named. In addition, addresses must be unique, unambiguous and geolocatable, and each building must have a number, whether residential or not.
This work of naming streets and numbering buildings was carried out over a year by the Collectivité's services in collaboration with La Poste. A public meeting was held last October to hear the population's views on name changes or new names.
Of the 526 roads concerned in the territory, 336 roads (or streets) have already been named, but four will have to change their type of road. 61 roads remain to be named and 52 will have to be renamed.
What this means
All individuals whose address referred to a cadastral parcel or lot number will be assigned a street number. As for the new street names, they will break with Saint-Martin tradition, as no family names will be used. Instead, the neighbourhoods will be named after trees, plants, birds or fish. It should be noted, however, that in the event of a change, the old name will still appear on the signs that will soon be installed. The names of private roads still need to be discussed with the co-ownership syndicates.
The citizens concerned will receive an address certificate stating their new official address. It will then be their responsibility to take all the necessary steps to register it with the administrative, public or private services. As for businesses, this raises the question, among others, of the cost of making changes to the registry. This issue was raised by Alain Richardson, but no solution has been found as yet.
This compliance exercise also aims to optimise the Collectivité's tax revenue by providing the information needed to update the land registry and better manage electoral rolls and the census. For citizens, this will facilitate mail delivery, home services and emergency response when necessary.
