Residents Favor Own ZIP Code, Poll Shows

The results are in on a survey by Rep. Brad Sherman that asked Oak Park residents whether they would like their own ZIP Code, and the answer appears to be an overwhelming “Yes!”

More than 1,000 of the 4,700 surveys sent to Oak Park households were returned, according to Larry Horner, a former Thousand Oaks mayor who is heading up Sherman’s Conejo Valley office.

And judging from the 300 or so surveys he had read Tuesday, Horner said most residents would like a ZIP Code of their own.

As a second option, Horner said, respondents indicated that they would much rather share the 91362 ZIP Code with the North Ranch section of Thousand Oaks as an alternative solution to their decades-old gripe.

Oak Park is an unincorporated Ventura County community of about 15,000 residents that now shares the 91301 ZIP Code with the Agoura Hills area of Los Angeles County.

Horner said either he or Sherman, a Democrat whose district includes parts of eastern Ventura County, plans to meet in coming weeks with County Supervisor Frank Schillo, who has long advocated a separate ZIP Code for Oak Park, and the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council to determine how to proceed.

Oak Park residents complain that being lumped with a Los Angeles County ZIP Code has created a confusing situation where they are mistakenly charged higher sales taxes and suffer from other mix-ups, such as delays on emergency service calls.

Postal officials have repeatedly refused to grant Oak Park a separate ZIP Code, arguing, among other things, that the area is too small.