500,000 in County to Get New ZIP Codes

The U.S. Postal Service will introduce new ZIP codes for about 500,000 San Diego County residents living south of Interstate 8 outside San Diego city limits, Postal Service spokesman Ken Boyd said Wednesday.

The new ZIP codes, which should be introduced early next year, will have a 919 prefix, a code never used before anywhere.

The city of San Diego will remain covered almost entirely by ZIPs with 921 prefixes, and the part of the county north of I-8 will continue to have 920 prefixes. Those two ZIP prefixes are the only ones now in use in the county.

ZIP is an acronym for Zoning Improvement Plan.

The only residents and businesses affected will be those in South County and San Ysidro, which will change to a 92173 ZIP code. Many post-office box holders throughout the county have already received new ZIPs.

Boyd said, in what he termed “a very rough guess,” that about 500,000 people will be affected.

The change comes as postal officials are trying to streamline service in the county with automated sorting systems, machines that read ZIP codes and sort mail without human operators.

Introduction of a new ZIP code was inevitable because of the rise in the area’s population, Boyd said.

He said the postal service wants to have a second sorting plant operating by the end of 1993. Bids on that structure, to be located off Interstate 15 near Carmel Mountain Road, are scheduled to be taken in about a year. A sorting depot on Midway Drive near Lindbergh Field now handles mail for the entire county.

According to Mike Cannone, postal service communications manager in San Diego, two things could happen once both plants are operating. The Midway Drive facility might sort just city mail and the new plant county mail.

Or, the new plant might sort all mail coming into the county, while the Midway Drive plant would handle all mail going out of the county, which would make the best use of its proximity to the airport, Cannone said.

The Postal Service will begin its official by-mail notification of the ZIP code change to residents and businesses within four weeks, Boyd said.

In San Ysidro, a community protest erupted two weeks ago after Postal Service letters to post-office box holders there mistakenly stated that the community’s postal designation would be changed from San Ysidro to San Diego.

San Ysidro is one of two communities within the city of San Diego that does not already have a 921 prefix. The Postal Service meant to inform them that their their ZIP, not their city designation, would change.

“The mistake was made by someone who didn’t realize the sensitivity of the issue,” Boyd said. “No wonder they were all up in arms.” The people will get letters within a week alerting them to the mistake.

The ZIP code for street addresses in the heavily Latino community will change from 92073 to 92173, and post office boxes will be 92143.

The only locale within the city of San Diego that will not have a 921 prefix is La Jolla, which will retain its 92037 ZIP for street addresses.

Cannone said two things make La Jolla different--the fact that it has its own postmaster, which San Ysidro does not, and its proximity to the other 920 prefix locations.

San Ysidro, on the other hand, will be wedged between 919 and 921 prefixes.

“ZIP codes are assigned because of the political realities and the operational needs at the time,” Cannone said.

He said Coronado will retain its 921 prefix.