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Last Updated: Jun 12, 2009 - 6:03:42 PM |
Could Chesterfield residents be seeing a change in zip codes any time soon? It’s hard to say for sure. Though the county is looking at a few zip code modification proposals, implementation of those proposals could be at least six months away.
Currently, eight Chesterfield zip codes have mailing address names that are more closely associated with other communities: 23224, 23225, 23234, 23235, 23236, and 23237 are Richmond addresses; 23803 is a Petersburg address; and 23834 is a Colonial Heights address. In total, those eight zip codes cover an area of over 50,000 residential addresses and over 4,200 commercial addresses.
A number of problems have been identified with the current zip code setup. Many residents and businesses are concerned about community identity issues, believing that Chesterfield’s identity is often confused with neighboring communities. Rebecca Dickson, Chesterfield County deputy administrator, explains, “The Chesterfield County Airport, for example, is located in Richmond.” Other examples of community identity issues include the Chesterfield Towne Center, CJW Medical Center, and the Richmond Kickers.
In addition to confusion over community identity, misleading zip codes can lead to customer service issues, as citizens are confused as to where to pay taxes or register cars; can be a burden on the county, as staff must spend time and resources to ensure that Chesterfield receives its fair share of revenue; and may lead to a delay in alarm response times.
Perhaps one of the largest concerns, however, is revenue loss. In a recent presentation, Chesterfield County officials explained, “In Virginia, [a] full 5% [is] collected at the point of sale and submitted to the State. Then on a monthly basis, the 1% local option tax is remitted to localities where the taxes were submitted.”
However, due to misleading mailing addresses, sales that take place in areas with Richmond, Petersburg, or Colonial Heights zip codes can easily have their taxes re-routed to the wrong locality – meaning that Chesterfield is losing between $1.5 million and $2 million per year on sales tax alone, according to one estimate.
Of the eight zip codes affected, Chesterfield County is examining proposals for four of them, including 23834 and 23237.
For 23834, according to a county presentation, one proposal is to “redraw the boundaries of the 23836 zip code, shifting only the Chesterfield County postal customers in the 23834 zip code into 23836, which would allow Chesterfield County businesses and residents previously into the 23834 zip code to use Chester, Virginia as their mailing address name.” For 23237, the presentation adds, there are two options: redraw the code’s boundary to incorporate it into the Chester post office, allowing businesses and residents the ability to use Chester as their mailing address; or changing the mailing address name from Richmond to a unique identifier that is neither Chesterfield nor Chester.
“The point we’re at now is that we’d like to go to members of the community and local businesses and get a sense of the totality of the issues first,” Dickson says. “We’d like to hear what everyone thinks about these changes. We need to get the community input first and then, if the Board of Supervisors decides to pursue the changes, make the request to the post office. We’re really early in the process.”
Once the county concludes getting community input, Dickson says, the next step is to go to the Board of Supervisors for approval. “Then we’d submit it to the post office, probably in late winter or early spring next year,” she says. “Once we make the request of the post office, they’ll make the decision of whether or not they’re willing to make the changes. It could take at least six months, so we’re talking some time from now.”
If the modifications were to be implemented, Dickson predicts that many of the biggest issues facing the county would be resolved. “I think improving community identity would be both a short- and long-term positive impact,” she says. “Certainly our customer service issues would be improved; and I think we’d also see some improvement in our revenue allocation and the accuracy of it.”
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