Calabasas Addresses Need for Own ZIP Code

A group of Calabasas residents, flush with success in their campaign to become a city, are now trying to persuade the Postal Service to recognize their new identity.

Mail going to more than 920 homes in the newly incorporated city of 27,000 people must currently be addressed to the community of Woodland Hills, with a city of Los Angeles ZIP code of 91364, or it risks being delayed or lost. They have petitioned the post office to switch their ZIP code to 91302, used in an adjacent area of Calabasas, and to be designated as Calabasas.

“We all worked hard to become the city of Calabasas,” said City Councilman Marvin Lopata, one of those whose mail must be addressed to Woodland Hills. “Why can’t we use the name on our mail?”

Those behind the campaign said their wishes go beyond community pride. They said the change could prevent critical delays in receiving assistance in fires or medical emergencies.

Residents who live in the 91364 area said that when they call 911, dispatchers mistakenly send Los Angeles city firefighters and paramedics. But when the city emergency units arrive, they must summon county crews because they are outside their jurisdiction, said Wendy Brockman, an activist spearheading the campaign.

“This happened as late as last June,” Brockman said, when residents called to report a grass fire. “The city Fire Department came and they couldn’t do a thing for us. We watched the fire trucks have to sit around because it was a county fire, not a city fire. This has been an ongoing problem.”

A spokesman for the Los Angeles City Fire Department said he was not familiar with the incident. However, he said, if city firefighters or paramedics arrive at the scene of an emergency, department policy calls for them to provide assistance, even if they are outside city limits.

“If we show up on-scene and there is a fire, a visible fire within their reach, they are going to aggressively attack the fire,” spokesman Mike Raden said. “At that point, it is not an issue of a boundary line.”

But Raden said if city fire crews realize they have left the city limits before arriving at a fire scene, they may radio to ask for county crews. At that point, he said, the city firefighters use their discretion about whether to continue or turn back.

Residents say that they believe the confusion would be eliminated if they had Calabasas ZIP codes, which do not include any of the city of Los Angeles.

Neighborhood leaders originally made their request last June, but postal officials chose to await the outcome of the cityhood campaign before deciding.

Now that incorporation is a reality, postal officials say they plan to poll the community to determine the level of support.

“If in fact many of the people want it to go that way, and it is feasible internally, of course we will go that way,” said Anne Moore, manager of the post office’s address programs support division. Moore said the change probably could not take place until next year.

In the interim, she said, residents in the affected area should continue to use Woodland Hills so they do not risk delays. Moore said mail handlers and the post office’s computerized mail sorting machines may return as undeliverable letters bearing the name Calabasas.

Paradoxically, the neighborhood was designated as Calabasas by the post office for many years, but that was changed at a developer’s request 25 years ago, Moore said.

According to Lopata, “the developer could not sell houses in Calabasas. It was not desirable. So he got the post office to switch it to Woodland Hills.”