Streets & Addresses FAQs

What is the SAM Program and why is the SAM data important?

The Street and Address Maintenance (SAM) Program maintains statewide authoritative street and address point databases to support Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG 9-1-1) and other stakeholder through extensive state and local government partnerships and the use of data maintenance tools. Data products are compliant with National Emergency Number Association (NENA) Standards, are publicly available, and are the source of the NYS enterprise geocoding service.

The SAM data is used in many applications and departments throughout New York State. Providing updates to the SAM Program allows for the NYS Police and local/county public safety offices to have access the most up-to-date addressing information available. In the case of an emergency, every second counts. Having accurate address information easily accessible for dispatchers to send first responders to the correct location could mean the difference between a positive or negative outcome. 

For more information visit, Streets & Addresses.

What is NENA?

The National Emergency Number Association (NENA) promotes the implementation and awareness of 9-1-1, as well as international three-digit emergency communications systems. NENA works with 9-1-1 professionals nationwide, public policy leaders, emergency services and telecommunications industry partners, like-minded public safety associations, and other stakeholder groups to develop and carry out critical programs and initiatives, to facilitate the creation of an IP-based Next Generation 9-1-1 system, and to establish industry leading standards, training, and certifications.

Data products are compliant with NENA Standard for NG9-1-1 GIS Data Model, which supports the NENA Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) Core Services (NGCS) of location validation and routing, for both geospatial call routing or to the appropriate agency for dispatch. This model also defines several GIS data layers (layers) used in local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP) and response agency mapping applications for handling and responding to 9-1-1 calls. 

The data schemas can be downloaded below:

Data Dictionary - Address Points

Data Dictionary - NYS Streets

Some data maintenance partners use our free web-based data editing application, GeoComm Contributor, to update the NYS Address Points and the NYS Streets.  While other counties chose to edit data locally and provide updates on a scheduled basis to the SAM Program.  

For more information regarding data sharing and/or knowledge of incorrect data, please contact Toni Goyer at (518) 408-8569 or [email protected].

NYS Streets Map Service and Feature Service are updated on the second and fourth Friday of each month. Downloads are updated quarterly, see table within the Streets & Addresses page. 

Two map services of the Street and Address Maintenance (SAM) Program Address Points file are available here. The map service named SAM_Address_Points_Symbolized has different symbology for each of the 5 PointType values. The map service named SAM_Address_Points has all points symbolized the same way. 

A feature service of the NYS Address Points file is available statewide or create custom filters to download specific areas. For instructions on how to create a custom filter, see this document:

How to download filtered data on NYS GIS Resource Hub?

The Address Points map service and feature service are updated on the second and fourth Friday of each month. Individual county downloads are updated quarterly, see table within the Streets & Addresses page.

NYC provides the SAM program with quarterly Address Point updates and Weekly street updates. The data for download can be found on the NYC Open Data website. 

Geocoding Help 101 is intended to assist users with connecting to the geocoding service in multiple ways. The more popular methods of interacting with the NYS geocoder and its composite locators are: 

1. ESRI ArcMap
2. ESRI ArcPro
3. QGIS
4. ESRI Rest Service - Single Address, Reverse Geocoding, Batch Geocoding, Comparing Single and Batch Geocoding Operations
5. Python (Jupyter) - Single Address, Batch Geocoding and ArcGIS API for Python
6. JavaScript/html - Single Address and Batch Geocoding
7. NYC Geographic Online Address Translator (GOAT)

For more information visit, Address Geocoder.

Using an Address to identify a location, and using an address to get mail delivered are two different things. Location addresses are at the heart of 9-1-1 systems, while postal addressing is the purview of the US Postal Service. The validation, standardization, underlying reference data, and data standards are different for these two use cases. That said, many times a location address and a postal address are the same. In our IT systems, location addressing, and postal addressing must be accounted for separately.

Address Geocoding and Address Matching are used to determine or estimate an address’s physical location. Postal Address Verification/Validation is the process of checking that an address is recognized and/or deliverable by the United States Postal Service (USPS).

Spatial Location - Address Geocoding

This is the process by which spatial locations are determined for addresses in a database table, a spreadsheet, or entered by a user. Those input records are matched to discrete addresses (i.e. address matching) or street names and address ranges found within spatial reference data sets (e.g. address points and street centerlines). Real-world (x,y) coordinates are assigned to every matched address. These coordinates are derived from the spatial reference data sets. For location addresses in New York, the NYS ITS Geospatial Services maintains the spatial reference data sets in cooperation with all the addressing authorities in the state. NYS ITS Geospatial Services as configured a geocoding service to be quite flexible, accepting addresses which are misspelled, or using an alternate street or place name. When using a geocoder, the user can validate that the address will work to find a location. In this case, a valid address means that the address can be found within the spatial reference data. The user can also standardize the location address by using the official address returned from the spatial reference data set. The National Emergency Numbering Association (NENA) sets the standards for location address reference data.

Postal Address Verification/Validation

This is the process used to check the validity and deliverability of a mailing address. According to the USPS, an address is valid (or mailable) if it is Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) certified, meaning that it exists within the comprehensive list of mailable addresses in their Address Management System. The USPS also provides many other valuable mailing services through their Web Tools API Portal.

Standardized/Normalized

In either use case, it may be beneficial for the addresses to be standardized or normalized. These words are used interchangeably. This process entails the consistent use of abbreviations, correcting spelling, official place name to Zip Code comparison, filling in missing elements of addresses, etc. Location addresses are standardized using NENA compliant reference data. Postal standardization is done using an official guide from the USPS. In IT systems, address verification and standardization should be done at the earliest possible point in a workflow. Regardless of the use, it is preferable to get the address standardized while a person is typing it in the first time.

The SAM data contains many different subaddressing fields, see the below table for the field name and field descriptions:

A primary point can contain a Site and/or Business name. However, if an address point contains the following subaddress fields (Subsite, Structure, Floor, Unit and Location), the address point must be labeled a nonprimary point.

See document for examples on Primary Point/Subaddress Parsing and Placement.

Parsing examples of the new CLDXFv2 Fields:

• Site Examples
  • “Winslow Park and Campground” in “Winslow Park and Campground, Freeport, ME”
  • “Jack Perry Plaza” in “Jack Perry Plaza, College Park, MD” 
  • “Duke University” in “Duke University, Durham, NC”
  • “Tiburon Golf Club” in “Tiburon Golf Club, 2620 Tiburon Drive, Naples, FL”
  • “San Marcos Premium Outlets” in “San Marcos Premium Outlets, 3939 South Interstate 35, San Marcos, TX”
• SubSite Examples
  • “Buckeye Village” in “The Ohio State University, Buckeye Village”
  • “South Cell Phone Lot” in “Orlando Airport, South Cell Phone Lot”
  • “Zimmer Soccer Field” in “Central Park, Zimmer Soccer Field, Lawrence Township NJ”
  • “Parking Lot” in “Parking Lot, 1000 Washington Street, Dorchester”
  • “Tennis Courts” in “Sagamore Resort, Tennis Courts”
• Structure Examples
  • “Fuel Storage Shed” in “100 Cantwell Avenue, Fuel Storage Shed”
  • “Welcome Center” in “Orlando Sanford International Airport, Welcome Center”
  • “Kottman Hall” in “2021 Coffey Road, The Ohio State University, Kottman Hall”
  • Roberto Clemente Bridge