Carmel-by-the-Sea address grid

by Dan Jacobson

Q: What address grid shall Carmel-by-the-Sea CA USA adopt in 2025?

A: The grid that gives, for example:

Q: And what grid is that?

A: It's simply the Monterey County address grid!

Unlike other many counties that have codified their address grid in to law, Monterey County's address grid definition is nowhere to be found, even though it is in use, on many, many houses, from one corner of the county to the other, mainly in unincorporated areas.

Documented or not, I have still managed to figure it out:

East-West streets:

Numbering begins at the westernmost point in the County and proceeds eastward at 1000 numbers per mile (500 per side). Even numbered houses on the south side, odd on the north.

North-South streets:

Numbering begins at the northernmost point in the County and proceeds southward at 1000 numbers per mile. Even on the west, odd on the east.

Q: 25375 is an excruciatingly long number for a small town. Instead, given 600 for 6TH AVE and 700 for 7TH AVE, Carmel City Hall should be 665 MONTE VERDE ST!

A: Ah, but then we encounter 8TH AVE at an unexpectedly short distance from 7TH AVE, warping our grid, throwing simple conversions from address to longitude and latitude out the window, delaying rescue operations. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. There are just too many breaks and jumps in Carmel-by-the-Sea's street pattern. Besides, north of VISTA AVE we would be talking about negative numbers (i.e., prefixing NORTH to street names, even if just for one block.).

The Monterey County address grid on the other hand can't be beat: a regular grid, and it is already in use right up to the edges of the Carmel-by-the-Sea city boundary. No reason to have it abruptly stop there.

Q: I don't like the color, height, placement... of any such future numbers.

A: That's beyond the scope of this article. I'm only talking about the number values themselves here.

Last modified: 2025-06-16 02:43:33 UTC