An End to ZIP Code No Man’s Lands? : Government: Areas straddling Los Angeles and Ventura counties applaud move in Congress to make the numbers coincide with community boundaries.

The tax bills say Ventura County. But the ZIP code for Oak Park places the suburban enclave squarely in Los Angeles County--meaning higher sales taxes for mail-order purchases and untold confusion for 911 dispatchers.

The residents of the Bull Creek neighborhood in Northridge know the feeling. For 30 years, their ZIP code has placed them, incorrectly, in nearby North Hills.

Now a bill in Congress could bring relief for both communities, forcing the postmaster general to redraw all ZIP codes to coincide with community boundaries.

“This is the most positive step we have had in a battle that has been going on for years and years,” said Chuck Monico, a member of the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council. “Nobody has been willing to take on the post office.”

“It’s our right if we’re Northridge to be Northridge,” said Ledora Reynolds, who has lived in the same house on Petit Avenue in Northridge for nearly a quarter-century.

Since the early 1960s, the small territory between Lassen and Nordhoff streets west of Bull Creek--identified by the city of Los Angeles as Northridge--has been assigned the 91343 ZIP code. It’s a label many of the more than 1,000 affected residents have long rejected.

“We’re not asking for a change,” she said. “We’re just asking for what we’re entitled to.”

For the 15,000 Oak Park residents, getting their own ZIP code is more important than saving their library, scheduled for closure because of county budget cuts, or improving police services, Monico said. “It is more important because there are a lot of hidden costs that people are sick of paying,” Monico said.

The excitement in Oak Park is tempered by only one fact: It is not their congressional representative who has rallied behind the cause. Rep. Howard (Buck) McKeon (R-Santa Clarita) introduced the bill in May after Bull Creek residents said they needed their own ZIP code.

Members of the Oak Park Municipal Council, along with Ventura County Supervisor Frank Schillo, are lining up to support McKeon’s bill and threatening to show their anger at their own representative, Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills), at the ballot box. Oak Park council members will begin circulating petitions this week to show support for McKeon’s bill.

Postal authorities for Southern California say the post office is not in the business of handing out designer ZIP codes.

“All over Southern California and the country there are communities who want ZIP codes for community identity reasons, but ZIP codes are for efficient sortation and delivery of the mail,” said Terri Bouffiou, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service of Southern California.

To change a ZIP code, the post office must change the programming of hundreds of automated mail sorting machines in more than 250 mail sorting centers nationwide. The cost is prohibitive, Bouffiou said.

Although Northridge residents are trying to protect the reputation of their community by distinguishing it from less-affluent North Hills, residents in Oak Park face no such identity crisis. They say their ZIP codes complaints stem from real problems.

Because their ZIP codes cross county lines, they are charged Los Angeles County’s sales tax, which is 1% higher than Ventura County’s. Sometimes their emergency calls are routed through an operator based in Los Angeles County who is unfamiliar with Oak Park streets. Advisory council member Doug Hewitson estimates that he spends roughly $300 to $400 more per year in homeowner and car insurance because he pays Los Angeles County rates.

“This is a dollars-and-sense issue both on the tax rates and the insurance that we pay,” Hewitson said. In addition, Schillo said, Ventura County loses motor vehicle registration revenue to Los Angeles County.

But postal officials say the residents’ claims are unfounded and that it all boils down to wanting to an exclusive ZIP code the likes of Beverly Hills 90210.

*

Times staff writer David E. Brady contributed to this story.