SHOWING THE WAY IN SIMI MAP MAKERS OUTPACED BY DEVELOPMENT BOOM.

Byline: Joseph Giordono Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - When Martin Walker moved into one of the first homes in Wood Ranch several years ago, he had trouble getting mail delivered, getting workmen to his house, even having a pizza delivered.

It wasn't until the next year, when his street appeared on updated maps, that things got easier - and pizzerias could find his home.

``Not getting something like a pizza delivered isn't a big deal normally, but it was one of the little things we missed,'' said Walker, a father of two who moved his family to Simi from the San Fernando Valley. ``It's kind of funny, but we even had to go pick up our mail at the post office for a month.''

As Simi Valley continues to add new houses, streets and subdivisions - the U.S. Postal Service reports 500 to 1,000 new addresses in the city each year - map makers face a boom of their own.

``It is such a difficult thing to capture the minutiae of these new streets springing up in these small towns,'' said Jim Welch, vice president and general manager of Thomas Brothers, which produces the popular Thomas Guide maps.

``I suppose it's good for business to keep expanding the maps, but sometimes adding all of those little lines can make you feel a bit crazy.''

The work of transforming a field, farm or forest into a neat group of lines on a map starts with developers.

Developers propose names for new streets that are then vetted by emergency agencies to make sure they are not duplicates, said Van Lorne of the Simi Valley Public Works Department. Next, the City Council reviews the names for aesthetic purposes, making sure they follow a theme.

When a new street is constructed, city map makers add it to existing maps, Building and Safety assigns addresses and the City Council approves.

The finished product is then sent to 14 different agencies - from the police and fire departments to tax assessors and utility companies - said Building and Safety deputy official Homer Croy.

For the U.S. Postal Service, keeping up with the building boom in cities like Simi Valley means sending out a team of its own to chart the new homes on Post Office maps.

``Each local office sends out a supervisor to go to new street sites, do follow up and get details from developers,'' said Valerie Davenport of the USPS Address Management System. ``We combine our own information with topological information from the Census Bureau and update the maps about once a year.''

Once the local office determines a street is safe for mail carriers, the Postal Service adds those addresses to its delivery and pickup lists, regardless of whether the addresses are occupied.

Davenport said areas such as Santa Clarita have a growth rate of 5 percent to 6 percent annually in the number of addresses to which mail is delivered. Updating the Thomas Guide maps begins every April, ready for distribution by August, said Welch. All told, Thomas Brothers cartographers produce approximately 2 million maps a year.

According to Welch, economic high times put more pressure on his mappers. As more developments spring up, and as more streets appear out of nowhere, the updating of each map becomes more of a challenge.

``We work very closely with city planners to get proposed streets and opening dates,'' said Welch. ``We are the gold standard of maps, and we take our position very seriously.''