10 O.C. Communities to Get New ZIP Codes

A few people will be caught by surprise when ZIP Codes for 10 communities in Orange County change July 1.

Residents and businesses in Villa Park, however, will not be among the unprepared.

Fighting for five years to get the U.S. Postal Service to redesignate their ZIP Code so it is different from Orange’s, they’re eagerly anticipating the switch.

“This has been a long time coming,” local pharmacist Jim Brodsky said.

With the current network of ZIP Codes, he said, “mail delivery can be a mess.”

“Some out-of-state packages meant for me were sent back because [the postal service] thought I was in Orange and couldn’t find me. This will make our lives easier. Things got too big, I think.”

The postal service agrees. In an attempt to speed up delivery for a surging amount of mail in the area, Orange County will be divided into three mailing zones, the postal service recently announced.

There will be 34 changes in the county’s more than 120 ZIP Codes, said postal service spokeswoman Terri Bouffiou. Ten ZIP Codes will be created.

Most of the county carries a 926 ZIP Code prefix. But on July 1, residents and businesses in north Orange County will have a 928 prefix, and some mid-county addresses will change to a 927 ZIP Code, Bouffiou said. Neighborhoods in South County will keep the 926 prefix.

The realignment will affect about 317,000 addresses in Villa Park, Brea, Fullerton, Garden Grove, Orange, Placentia, Atwood, Yorba Linda, Tustin and UC Irvine. Old ZIP Codes for those areas will remain usable for at least a year, Bouffiou said.

The new designations, Bouffiou said, are part of a service upgrade that included the building of a second mail processing center in Anaheim last summer to facilitate delivery of the 12.5 million pieces of mail handled in Orange County each day.

In 1990, the number of county sites receiving mail was about 940,000, Bouffiou said. Today, letter carriers make Monday-through-Saturday deliveries to about 1 million residences and businesses in Orange County.

The Anaheim facility, which will handle all areas whose ZIP Codes have been changed, will make it possible to handle an even greater number of deliveries, Bouffiou said.

“It used to be that all mail was easily handled by the Santa Ana facility,” she said. “But we’ve seen the number of mail customers grow phenomenally during the past few years.”

Every day, about 4,000 letters and packages meant for north Orange County still go to the Santa Ana facility for processing, the postal service said, which has caused delays and the occasional foul-up in delivery.

“Once they get used to it, everybody will be much happier with the new ZIP Codes,” Bouffiou said.

Villa Park is already satisfied. Since it was incorporated in 1962, the community of about 6,300 has shared a ZIP Code with its larger and still growing neighbor, Orange.

For years, that has been a thorn in the side of longtime Villa Park residents who remember that their city was formed to stop Orange from annexing their community.

With the redesignation, the communities will have separate ZIP Codes. Villa Park will change from 92661 to 92861; 10 neighborhoods in Orange will be given different ZIP Codes.

“It means a lot to us,” said Bob Bell, a resident since 1974 and a city councilman. “We want our own identity.”

Having a unique ZIP Code, Bell said, can make a large difference to property values in Villa Park, which consists mostly of single-family homes with an average worth ranging from $450,000 to $500,000.

Property appraisers’ prices are often based in part on homes’ ZIP Codes, explained Bell, who is also a real estate broker.

“People pay close attention to ZIP Code information these days,” said city manager Fred Maley. “There are lots of advantages, and we’ll do whatever it takes to make the transition smoothly.”

Not everyone, though, is thrilled about the switch.

Large businesses and frequent mail users in affected areas must eventually change the ZIP Code on their stationery and other materials.

For UC Irvine, that will be a headache, spokeswoman Susan Menning said.

“We are dreading the day,” she said. “It won’t be costly, but it’ll take a lot of coordinating.

“I hope this makes mailing things easier.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

More ZIP

Effective July 1, 34 ZIP Codes throughout Orange County will change, affecting about 317,000 addresses. Most of the ZIPs affected will be those with the 926 prefix, although Irvine’s 927 group will also change. Here are the codes scheduled for change:

*--*

ZIP City/area 92601 Atwood main office 92613 Orange main office 92621 Brea and adjacent unincorporated area 92622 Brea main office 92631 Fullerton 92632 Fullerton 92633 Fullerton 92634 Fullerton main office 92635 Fullerton 92640 Garden Grove 92641 Garden Grove, Stanton 92642 Garden Grove main office 92643 Garden Grove 92644 Garden Grove 92645 Garden Grove 92664 Orange (The City mall) 92665 Orange (including Olive) 92666 Orange (Plaza) 92667 Orange, Villa Park 92668 West Orange, Garden Grove 92669 Orange (including El Modena and Orange Park Acres), unincorporated area 92670 Placentia 92680 Tustin, East Tustin, unincorporated area 92681 Tustin main office 92686 Yorba Linda, unincorporated area 92687 Yorba Linda 92713 Irvine (Harvard station) 92714 Irvine 92715 Irvine 92716 Irvine (UCI finance station) 92717 Irvine (UCI campus) 92718 Irvine, unincorporated area 92720 Irvine, unincorporated area 92730 Irvine (Fluor Corp.)

*--*

Source: U.S. Postal Service