Residents who have different ZIP codes also have difficulty accessing municipal city services because of their IDs have non-Ocoee addresses, according to Mayor Rusty Johnson, who pointed that out last year in a Sept. 3 letter to former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.  

The ZIP code tangle traces to 2009 when Phase Two and Phase Three of the Rose Hill subdivision voted to annex into Ocoee. Wilsen said that while the Rose Hill residents became official Ocoee citizens, receiving full police, fire and sanitation services, their 32818 ZIP code remained stubbornly linked to Orlando. (Rose Hill Phase One did not annex into Ocoee and has experienced no issues.)

There were repeated attempts to secure a single ZIP code for Rose Hill Phases Two and Three with local and federal U.S. Postal Service officials. But the USPS maintained in a Dec. 18, 2009, letter to the city, obtained by VoxPopuli, that it “would not be efficient for postal operations” nor “fiscally responsible for us to incur costs for adjusting ZIP Code boundaries for the approximately 300 deliveries in your request.” 

In 2011, the USPS put a dollar figure to those costs, explaining in a Jan. 18 letter to the city, obtained by VoxPopuli, that it would cost $32,516.79 in the first year to change the ZIP code for the Rose Hill residents. But the cost would drop to $11,223 per year over the next five years. 

ZIP codes are determined by the post office that handles mail delivery, not municipal boundaries, and in a May 21, 2010, letter to the city the USPS stated that it “cannot reasonably be expected to adjust ZIP code boundaries with every occurrence of annexation.” 

It wasn’t just Rose Hill, however. That situation clued city officials that there were other residents in the city with the same problem. 

“Within the past few years, the post office has decided that the new developments on the north end of the city and well within our city limits and adjacent to Ocoee zip codes will be delivered out of the Apopka Office and now we have a number of businesses and residents with an Apopka address,” Rumer told VoxPopuli in an email.

But every 10 years, the USPS conducts ZIP code reviews. Last year, Johnson sought one such review from Postmaster General DeJoy. In that September letter, Johnson requested a review of the city’s growth and development during the past decade to determine if the city would qualify for increased postal deliveries, and he noted that more than 5,000 new addresses had been added since 2011. Once again, Johnson asked that the city be united under a single ZIP code. 

There was no response, according to Assistant City Manager Michael Rumer.

Wilsen said Ocoee’s effort for a single ZIP code is about more than mail delivery; it’s about identity and a persistent effort to give residents the full sense of belonging to the community they already live in.

“When you have an Ocoee address, you belong to that community,” she said. “They are within our community. They just want the address to go with it.”

As efforts continue, Wilsen urges residents to speak up, stay engaged and make their voices heard — particularly with state and federal legislators. 

“Their voices are very important for us. I think that when we get further along and we see where this bill is going, I feel it very important for our residents to contact legislators,” Wilsen said. “Our legislators need to know what their constituents want and value.”