Bill mandating unique ZIP codes for Flanders, Riverside and Northampton passes House

A fourth attempt at passing federal legislation to create unique ZIP codes for the communities of Flanders, Riverside and Northampton is underway.

A bipartisan bill requiring the U.S. Postal Service to designate unique ZIP codes for the three hamlets in the northwest corner of Southampton Town and 27 other communities across the country passed the House of Representatives this week and was delivered to the Senate.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and cosponsored by Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) and a dozen other members of the House, which Boebert introduced on June 14, passed in a voice vote on Dec. 11. 

The fate of the bill now rests with the Senate in the closing days of the 118th Congress. While the second session of the current Congress  officially ends Jan. 3, the Senate has set a target adjournment date of Dec. 20.

Passage of the bill “moves the communities of Riverside, Northampton, and Flanders closer to achieving long-overdue fairness,” LaLota said in a statement emailed Friday. 

“For far too long, residents of these communities have faced unnecessary hardships due to the absence of unique ZIP Codes—resulting in misdelivered mail, delayed medications, and lost packages,” LaLota said.

The three communities all share the Riverhead 11901 ZIP code. Residents there have long complained that this causes confusion and results in delays and lost packages, due to duplication of street names in the hamlets south of the Peconic River with street names in the adjoining Residents of Flanders, Riverside and Northampton have sought unique ZIP codes for their hamlets for decades.

Angela Huneault, president of the Flanders, Riverside and Northampton Community Association was thrilled by the bill’s passage in the House.

“We’re ecstatic, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and hallelujah,” she said in a phone interview today. “We’re happy the congressman has not forgotten about the zip codes,” she said.

She hopes there’s a chance the measure will now pass the Senate before the 118th Congress comes to a close. Huneault said the Long Island director of Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office reached out to her last week and he told her Schumer supports the legislation.

Both former Rep. Tim Bishop (D-Southampton) and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley), LaLota’s immediate predecessors in the First Congressional District, also introduced legislation to require the postal service to assign new, unique ZIP codes to the three hamlets. Bishop introduced a bill in the House early in 2010, but it went nowhere. Zeldin tried for legislation twice. In his first attempt, in 2016, he advocated for a bill introduced by House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Jason Chaffetz that passed the House but died in committee in the Senate. Zeldin’s second attempt, in 2018, like Bishop’s bill eight years earlier, died in committee in the House.

MORE COVERAGE:

• Bill to create new zip code for Flanders, Riverside and Northampton passes U.S. House, goes to Senate

• Zeldin reintroduces bill to assign Flanders-Riverside-Northampton separate zip code

The current bill is the first that includes Flanders, Riverside and Northampton along with a large group of other communities seeking new, unique ZIP codes. Bishop’s 2010 bill and Zeldin’s 2018 bill pertained only to the three Southampton hamlets. Zeldin’s 2016 bill, which passed the House, was an amendment to the Postal Service Reform Act of 2016 and included new ZIP codes for two other communities outside of the tri-hamlet area, one in Florida and another in Nevada.  

Zeldin, in his first year in Congress, tried to convince the postal service to approve unique ZIP codes for the three hamlets. His July 2015 request was rejected by the USPS Long Island District Manager, who told the congressman Riverhead did not meet the postal regulations’ criteria for a ZIP code split. The 11901 ZIP code did not have enough delivery routes or delivery points to support a split pursuant to USPS regulations, the district manager wrote in a Sept. 4, 2015 letter to Zeldin. Zeldin in October appealed to the USPS in Washington, but the appeal did not succeed. He then turned to legislative action in 2016.

MORE COVERAGE:

• Flanders, Riverside, Northampton seek zip code split— 11902, 11903 and 11904 would be served by Riverhead facility

• U.S. Postal Service gives thumbs-down to new zip codes