the roads get updated when the county does it. some areas update the maps more often, others can take years. our E-911 is updating maps now, last time it was done was 1992!

Sometimes new roads never get put on the maps. One time while working in Pensacola,Fla I got a service call and the dispatcher told me it was a small street off of 9 mile rd just east of K-mart. I drove up and down that section of road about three times and could not locate the side street I was looking for. Finally I stopped at a little store and called the customer to inform them I couldn't find their street. The asked where I was then she laughed and said, "sit tight, i'll be right with you." About 5 minutes later a lady walked up to my pickup and asked if I was the one looking for her street? I said yes and she says, "You see that house with the back of the house facing the parking lot here? Thats my house." Then she says, "You go ahead and drive over and I will grab a couple things here at the store and meet you in about 5 minutes".

I pulled back out on the road and went about 100yds, then turned down a super long driveway which had an L shape at the end and her house faced the driveway. Thats odd I thought, but its no skin off my nose if ppl want there house to face the driveway.

While working on her water heater the lady told me that the builder had originally intended to build a whole development there so they put the road way in and began selling lots. She and her husband had bought the first lot and had their house built but in the mean time the builder had went to prison so they never completed any more houses. Then she told me that when they originally laid out the development the roadway into the development had been deeded to the county as public thoroughfare for the project and in fact the only portion she actually owned was the short L section from her driveway to the long roadway. She said that she and her hubby had made an agreement with the post office to put there mailbox on 9mile road so the postman wouldn't have to pull in and turn around for just one house then she said the county had been trying for years to convince her and her hubby to take possession of the roadway as their driveway, but the had repeatedly refused. I asked why they would refuse and she says, simple, as long as its a county right of way the county has to pave it and maintain it ..LOL

One of the things that map makers do is to have several deliberate minor errors in each map. If someone copies their map directly, they can easily prove copyright infringement. Those errors can be frustrating at times.

Cool story,Lazypup. I worked in and around pensacola/gulf breeze for a few years in the eighties. Small world!

Our local phone book has reproduced an incorrect map for at least twenty years. It shows what would be a lovely area of homes on about six streets -- except that there are no streets; it's a golf course.

Back when the plantation sold off the land behind us, the developer planned a road off the side road our farm is on. It would have run right next to our neighbor's property, up the long side of their 20 acres. The neighbors objected, people bought 20 acre and 30 acre block that would have been the ten house sites on the road and it was never cleared or built.

But the road showed up on the original subdivision plats registered with the county and some map company put it into their county and city maps, including a map book that is commonly used by delivery companies. For years the poor delivery guys would show up in our driveway looking for the back way into that subdivision. I think now the map books have been corrected since it no longer happens.

Alas, when buying a NEW map I look for the copyright date. I cannot' find any made in the 21st century!!!! lol

What kind of map are you talking about? If you are talking about a road shown on the "official map" for your municipality that has not been built, then you may have a problem. In our state, if a possible future road is shown on the "official map" and someone builds a structure on the site of that road, the municipality does not have to compensate the land owner for the structure when it condemns the land to build the road because the land owner had notice that a road could be built in that place in the future and built "at his/her own risk." If you are talking about an "official map" and you are going to build on the site of a currently non-existent road that is shown on the, you should check with an attorney to find out the legal significance of having the road shown on the official map. Or you could also be talking about a road that has been "dedicated" to the public on a plat map but not built, and if that is the case you will need to do a legal proceeding to "vacate" the road, but you will also want to know who owns the land after the road is vacated. And there are lots of other possilbilities too. If the location of the road, existent or nonexistent, affects you in any way, I would contact a lawyer and have him/her figure out the legal ramifications of the road.