The future of readdressing efforts in Jim Thorpe Borough’s “Leisureland” development will be decided this week.

During a workshop Thursday night, council agreed to put the matter on its Nov. 8 agenda after having gone back and forth on the proposal over the past few months.

After successfully readdressing in another private development, Glen Onoko Estates, Jim Thorpe’s planning commission began working on homes in Leisureland.

When residents showed up to a meeting in June voicing objections to the project, however, council pumped the brakes, telling property owners it would “put a pause on the process.”

Planning Commission Chairman Louis Hall said Thursday he considers the readdressing necessary from a safety perspective.

“Right now the issue is that some addresses are repeated, there are odd and even numbers on the same side of the street and there are road names that change on a single stretch of street,” Hall said. “It’s really difficult right now for emergency responders, particularly ambulances, to find an address in that development. Firefighters are one thing. They are looking for smoke. But when someone has a heart attack and you’re trying to find that house, it’s hard.”

The planning commission has been working with the Carbon County Emergency Management Agency, which Hall said fully supports the readdressing efforts.

In June, residents such as John Martino and Mike Paules said they couldn’t see the rationale in changing the addresses and lamented the process of updating that information with employers, insurance companies, etc.

Others said nobody has had a problem finding their residences and didn’t support a change now.

“I understand the people don’t want to change addresses, but when it’s a life-and-death situation, that has to be weighed very highly,” Hall said.

Under the project, several street names would have to change. For example, Onoko Lane, Chapman Street and Alpine Drive are one continuous thoroughfare, and the road needs to have one consistent name.

Hall said the planning commission has no problem yielding to the residents as to what they want the street named.

Elsewhere, there are several different offshoots of Leisure Lane named First through Sixth lanes, which would have to be changed because there are already roads named First through Sixth in the borough.

If the borough decides to leave things the way they are, Hall said, it could open itself up to future litigation.

“When the borough knows the streets are messed up and houses are hard to locate, they could be liable if something happens,” he said.

Should the borough vote to go forward with the readdressing next week, the planning commission would meet with residents to determine what they want the streets in question named, and then submit all information to the postal service in Harrisburg.

From there, the process takes about four months of making sure everything is correct before the official change of addresses takes place.