VILLA PARK : Survey Seeks Views on ZIP Code Change

After more than a decade of trying to secede from the city of Orange’s ZIP code, Villa Park will finally get its own number, pending the results of a survey that residents will be receiving within weeks.

City Council members this week requested that the U.S. Postal Service conduct the survey so that residents could have a chance to voice their opinion on the ZIP code change. It is expected that a majority of the people who live in Villa Park will favor the new number, city officials said.

Postal officials said the city would have a new ZIP code belonging solely to Villa Park on July 1, 1994, if residents say they want it.

“I do think we need to stand alone,” Councilman John Frackelton said. “We would like the recognition as a city unto ourselves.”

Since Villa Park incorporated in 1962, it has been sharing the 92667 ZIP code with Orange. Two years ago, the postmaster in Santa Ana denied the city’s request for a new ZIP code. That decision was appealed and overturned on the federal level in April, 1992, City Manager Fred Maley said.

City officials said Villa Park, the least populated city in the county with 6,300 residents, has been fighting to have its own identity for years. Now the city has a good chance of doing so, Maley said.

Researchers who compile information based on ZIP codes have often misrepresented Villa Park, causing confusion, Maley said. The city is unique because of its high-income residents and its single-family houses that cost an average of $600,000. Few businesses operate in the city, and there are no hotels, churches or apartment buildings.