How to update your Charlotte business, residential addresses as street names change
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Name changes in Charlotte
Righting past wrongs and honoring civil rights heroes: Increasingly, local leaders are examining the history of Charlotte and choosing to rename some streets and buildings, including schools.
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The process of renaming streets and buildings in Charlotte whose names have racist ties continues, with two more streets to be renamed by summer.
The latest streets — Stonewall Street in Uptown and Barringer Drive in west Charlotte — will now bear the names of a historical Second Ward community and a local park, respectively.
While new street names do mean businesses and residents having to navigate a change of address, the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County have set up some systems to lighten the load.
Here’s what to know about street name changes in Charlotte and what businesses and residents will need to do:
Why are Charlotte street names changing?
Monuments and street names associated with “slavery, Confederate veterans, white supremacy or romanticized notions of the antebellum South’” were evaluated after the protests of summer 2020 by the Legacy Commission, made up of community members and historians.
Since the commission’s analysis, multiple street names have changed. Some of the new names honor historical communities and local leaders.
More: Uptown street among the last 2 to be renamed in honor of Charlotte’s Black history
What Charlotte and Mecklenburg County will change for you
If your street name changed, the city and county will notify some agencies and utility providers of your new address for you, including:
Board of Elections
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police and Charlotte Fire Department
Charlotte Water
Charlotte Department of Transportation
Tax Collector/Tax Assessor’s Office
Solid Waste Services
U.S. Postal Service
311 and 911
Spectrum TV/Internet
Bell South and Alltel Carolina
Duke Energy
Piedmont Natural Gas
You also do not need to update your property deed yourself.
What you have to change
You will need to change your address with some government agencies and providers yourself if your street name changes, including:
U.S. Social Security Administration, including Medicare and Medicaid
North Carolina Department of Revenue
IRS
Banks and credit card companies
Magazines, newspapers and other subscription services
Cable and internet providers other than Spectrum
You’ll also need to update your address with TSA PreCheck if you have it and update your driver’s license “when it is up for renewal.”
And business owners will need to update things such as business cards, advertisements, Google listings and directories.
“You may begin updating your street name with your service providers up to
two weeks prior to the effective date of the street name change,” the city says.
Observer reporters Devna Bose and Jonathan Limehouse contributed to the reporting of this story.
This story was originally published April 21, 2022 at 11:54 AM.
