This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

City Council Votes Down Address Changes

City Council rescinded a 1991 resolution which allowed address changes in a 3-2 vote Tuesday night.

The Arcadia City Council voted to rescind a 1991 resolution which allowed for homeowners to change the street number of their address for a fee. The motion was passed 3 to 2 at Tuesday night's City Council meeting with Mayor Gary Kovacic and Mayor Pro-Tem Bob Harbicht voting against it.

The issue emerged as one of the biggest in town as some Arcadia residents have reportedly faced difficulties in the real estate market due to the fact that in Mandarin As a result, Asian buyers in the market for a new home tend to avoid buying houses that have the number four in the address.

Imy Dulake, a real estate agent with 25 years experience in Arcadia, pushed for the Council to reinstate the address changing policy which allowed residents to change one number of their address for a fee.

“Multiple number fours are bad luck to many agent buyers…I really feel that it is only fair for citizens to have this option to get fair market value,” said Dulake, who has been recently featured in a Los Angeles Times article covering this very subject.

In the article, it was noted that, prior to the change, she convinced a resident with an address number of 444 to change it to 448. Eight is considered a number of prosperity in Asian cultures.

“In many high rise buildings and hotels, there is no floor 13. This is the same concept,” she said. Dulake also pointed out that President Ronald Reagan changed his address at one point as it contained a 666, which in the bible is considered the “Number of the Beast.”

Find out what's happening in Arcadiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Harbicht shared Dulake's sentiments.

“There are people that are being financially harmed by having this number [4]. And for them to come in and pay the [costs] to get the last digit changed from a four to a six could have the potential to save them from taking a financial bath of tens of thousands of dollars,” Harbicht said. “We are here to serve the public. If we can do this simple thing and help these people who are unfortunate enough to be the victims of this superstition…why wouldn’t we?”

Find out what's happening in Arcadiawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Council Member Roger Chandler, though, voiced concerns on how address changes would affect police and fire department response time as they rely on 911 and Google Maps for directions.

“Certain fire departments…rely on Google [Maps] to find out where they are going…I just don’t think there is real evidence to show that this is a real detriment to people,” Chandler said.

The old city policy allowing address changes was eliminated five years ago due to costs, staff time allotted and the increase of the number of persons who wanted to change their addresses for a variety of reasons. The Council never voted to rescind it though, giving Tuesday night's vote a stinging finality for those who supported reinstating address changes.

Before the vote, Assistant City Manager Jason Kruckenberg along with Community Development Administrator Jim Kasama and Building Official Don Stockham came up with a figure of approximately $1,237.26 as a fee to charge for address changes. The figures included payment of staff that would be involved, office materials and vehicle costs.

Both Mayor Kovacic and Council Member Mickey Segal felt the cost presented for the application fee was low considering the confusion and difficulties the address changes can create for the City Staff.  

In the end, the costs did not matter as the motion--made by Council Member Chandler--to rescind the original resolution passed by the narrowest of margins.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Arcadia