ZIP code war deals blow to regionalism

Chesterfield County is poised to fire the second shot in what is either a regional tax revolt, an assertion of identity or an "Anything but Richmond" movement.

Following Henrico County's lead, Chesterfield is making plans to change the mailing addresses of county homes and businesses that contain "Richmond," "Colonial Heights" or "Petersburg."

Chesterfield, like Henrico, says it is losing tax revenue because of confusion in ZIP codes that include the county and cities. About 45,000 Chesterfield homes or businesses have Richmond addresses; 9,000 have addresses in the Tri-Cities.

Is Chesterfield playing a jurisdictional version of keeping up with the Joneses? Or does this signal a trend by Virginia's suburbs to (further) distance themselves from their urban neighbors?

"Whether it is a trend or not, I can't say," said James Campbell, executive director of the Virginia Association of Counties. "However, it has been an issue for a number of years."

Campbell himself has been affected by the Henrico address change. He lives in Short Pump, an area where the primary address was changed from "Richmond, VA" to "Henrico, VA."

Postal Service spokeswoman Cathy Boulé said Spotsylvania County, which borders Fredericksburg, explored such address changes before sending a letter to the Postal Service last month saying it would not pursue the option.

All this is a symptom of the disease afflicting Virginia: ICS, otherwise known as independent cities status. Unique to Virginia, the disease's symptoms include stunted urban growth, inefficiency, stubborn hoarding of resources and counterproductive competition.

The disease, which targets the urban core but slowly spreads to outlying areas, lays waste to potential and causes a steady rot.

Campbell said such tax confusion is not a problem in most North Carolina locales because of the shared jurisdiction of cities and counties.

He said his organization has been trying to address the address confusion, which mainly involves national retail chains.

"The post office has never been amenable to trying to align ZIP codes with the geographical boundaries of Virginia's jurisdictions," he said.

Boulé said changing addresses is complicated, and aligning ZIP codes to jurisdictions can't be done for reasons involving finance, transportation and mail sorting.

"ZIP codes were never intended to identify communities," she said. "They were always designed for efficient mail-service delivery. Efficient mail delivery is the post office's first and foremost concern."

However valid the grievance of the suburbs, their change-of-address approach does nothing to promote regional coherence.

"I think this continues to aggravate friction between the jurisdictions," Campbell said.

Meanwhile, in, say, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, N.C., schools, police and library services are consolidated in a region that has moved forward instead of engaging in a public identify-crisis and tax-turf battle.

That locale has zipped past us because it doesn't wage war with itself. As long as we insist on doing so, this region will never deliver.
Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or .