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The Town of Lansing, including the Village, is divided by into five Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) Codes, including the ones for Lansing, Ithaca, Locke, Groton, and Freeville.  While most people consider their mailing address to be the same as their actual address, that isn't necessarily the case.  As far as the  United States Postal Service (USPS) is concerned, you only live in Lansing if your ZIP code is 14882.

The largest number, 1,400, of tax parcels in Lansing are assigned the Ithaca ZIP code (14850).  The Lansing ZIP code (14882) follows with 1,130 parcels.  260 are in Groton (13073), 73 in Freeville (13068), and 66 in Locke (13092).  While it might make sense to at least fold Lansing households with Groton, Locke, and Freeville addresses into 14882, Ithaca Postmaster William C. Hrynko, Jr. says doing so would be difficult.  "That is minimal as far as impact on the number of employees," he says.  "The biggest issue would be territorial.  When the ZIP codes came out in 1983, their purpose was basically for efficiency.  It didn't have any boundaries on maps for counties and townships."


Indeed ZIP codes are assigned according to how the USPS thinks mail can be most efficiently delivered, which may not always respect boundaries on a map.  According to Maponics.com, 10% of ZIP codes cross boundaries, including  some that even cross state boundaries.  But the USPS outlines a Boundary Review Process on their Web site in which municipalities or community groups can request changes to ZIP code boundaries.

	What do you think? Click here to take a short poll on whether all of Lansing should have Lansing addresses.

"While the Postal Service must be guided by concerns for service and efficiency, it does appreciate the identity and addressing concerns of local communities," the site explains.  "Therefore, municipal requests to modify authorized last lines of address and/or ZIP Code boundaries in order to provide municipal identity, especially in undeveloped areas, will be considered and every reasonable effort will be made to accommodate them."

Town Supervisor Scott Pinney says that he would support changing the ZIP code to incorporate all of the Town.  And Village Trustees often talk about the challenges they face creating a village identity when there is no walkable village center.  "Some people who live here don't even realize they live in a village," said Trustee Lynn Leopold a few years ago.  "They're totally confused. They say 'Oh I thought this is Ithaca, because that's on my address.'  But we are a village, and try to behave like a village and treat our village residents as if they belong to us."

	Editorial: Where DO I live? I live in Lansing.  However, the United States Postal Service, in its wisdom, has assigned me the Groton ZIP code.  This has caused all manner of problems and annoyances over the years that I never imagined when I moved a mere two miles north from my old Ridge Road home. Read more...

While splitting the town may have made sense to somebody in 1963 when ZIP codes were established, it often leads to confusion in 2008.  With an estimated population of 10,883, does it still make sense to divide the Town of Lansing?  Hrynko says that adding the addresses currently assigned to Groton, Freeville, and Locke wouldn't impact the Ithaca Post office, except in additions to existing carrier routes.  "The normal city and rural routes here are anywhere from 500 to 900 deliveries each," he explains. "It's really not significant when you see 73, 66, or even 260.  It would be no different from adding a new road.  You'd have to have time to submit it to our Address Management System."

But he notes that territorial issues present more serious obstacles.  "The 1,400 that you have in 14850 is city to rural.  Now you're talking about two carriers," he says. 


 He also notes that while the Ithaca and Lansing ZIP codes are within the Western New York district, Groton, Freeville, and Locke fall within the Albany district.  Hrynko says that would pose territorial problems, because while the relatively small numbers of addresses would not affect Ithaca staffing, that they might be large enough to impact jobs in those smaller communities.

"Now you have to go to the unions to find out if they want to give up this predominantly rural territory and give it to the city," he says.  "Then it becomes a union thing, because who wants to give up territory?  Of course they don't want to, because they're losing numbers."

If Lansing were to consolidate its mailing addresses Hrynko says that being split between the two territories would also complicate the Boundary Review Process, possibly requiring that requests be submitted to both district managers.  He also notes that changing the addresses would impact the 911 emergency response system.  In his 20 years as Postmaster in Keuka Park, Geneva, Elmira, and Ithaca Hrynko says he has never seen anyone attempt to change the boundaries of a ZIP code.

Despite the difficulties of getting addresses changed, the most likely path to success would be if Town and Village officials jointly applied for a boundary review.  That would likely require a Town and Village Board votes, as well as input from the Lansing communities.  Hrynko says that some people might not want to change, preferring, for example, and Ithaca address to a Lansing one.  "Some people want the prestige of having a certain ZIP code.  For example Pittsford is a very affluent area," he says.  "People on the outskirts want a Pittsford address for whatever reason.  It gives them a different cache.  I would guess it would be a hard fight."

But with mail to Lansing residents returned when addressed to Lansing, confusion about which town to use when shipping by other carriers like UPS or FedEx, Town and Village identity confusion, Lansing residents who get the Cortland phone book instead of the Ithaca book because they don't have a Lansing address, and myriad other daily problems, it may make sense to try to encompass the whole town in its own ZIP code, or to establish a unique ZIP code for the Town and another for the Village.

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