Minnesota/Cities and towns/Main

Overview / History

As of April 2018, Minnesota will begin to adopt national standards for primary segment city names. This is to maintain consistency on the map and provide the best experience for users searching rural addresses.

In Minnesota, when one incorporated city ends, another city or township will begin. Those living outside city limits in township areas may describe where they live by its actual township ("The Smiths live in Dahlgren Township over by the golf course") but in reality, this part of the vernacular doesn't have much bearing on how we drivers search for, navigate to, or provide directions for an actual address. ("It's at the Smith's house on 12034 Dahlgren Rd in Carver).

Previous statewide guidance included some version of using the township name in the "City" field on the primary segment where corporate city limits ended, either as "[Township Name] Twp" or, simply, "[Township Name]" (""Dahlgren Twp"" or ""Dahlgren,"" as an example). Postal cities may have been added as additional alternates to applicable segments, but may not have been consistently addressed.

Adding City Names to Segments in MN

In an effort to provide a consistent experience, clean labeling in the editor, and better ease of navigation for drivers, Minnesota will be adopting a standard similar to the rest of the Plains Region and much of the rest of the US:

• Inside city limits: use the actual city name on the primary segment name.
• Outside city limits: check [no city] on the primary segment name. Add the postal city with the primary road name and any additional alternates as alternates. For example:
  • Primary: Main St W, [no city]
  • Alt 1: Main St W, Carver
  • Delete/ Do Not Use: Main St W, Dahlgren Twp
  • Delete/ Do Not Use: Main St W, Dahlgren Township
  • Delete/ Do Not Use: Main St W, Greater Dahlgren Area

Correcting Errors / Removing Old Cities

If we see an error with a city, town, or township name, DO NOT correct the issue in the map itself. Correcting it in the map either will give you errors when you attempt or it will smudge cities. Even if you update every street in the township, the incorrect city name will still exist and will show both names on the live map.

If you see an issue, Report It and we will submit a report to fix the city name. Keep in mind that this is a very time-consuming process and averagely takes 2-3 months to show correctly on the editing map and another 1-2 months after that before the live map will see it.

Report Incorrect City Data