"Although city hall has the physical address of 662 Monte Verde St., we will continue to pick up our mail from P.O. Box CC at the downtown post office."
Emily Garay, the administrative analyst who did much of the city's research on addresses, said that to the Carmel Pine Cone in late September. It sums up the change better than any announcement. City Hall now has a number. The number doesn't get City Hall's mail, and it won't get yours either.
That's on purpose. Carmel's new addresses tell people where a house is. They were built for 911 dispatchers, county departments, and the systems that check addresses. The city decided early to keep mail delivery out of it. Once you see the address that way, most of the questions on the City's postcard answer themselves.
Four years to put a number on a house
The City Council started researching street addresses on October 4, 2022, four years ago today. It passed a resolution on October 7, 2025, directing staff to build a full program. It adopted the address ordinance on January 13, 2026. Before the vote, a committee of city staff, a councilman, and a few residents spent six months researching the switch. The Pine Cone reported that the final vote drew "applause and cheering."
After the vote, Garay and acting assistant city administrator Marisa Bermudez assigned an address to every building in town. They also worked with Monterey County to load the new system into its departments and make sure it worked for police, fire, and emergency services. The city expected the county's review to take two months. It took twice that.
Acting city administrator Brandon Swanson said part of the delay came from wanting to make "double-triple sure" the switch wouldn't cause problems during emergencies. He gave an example. Say a 911 caller can only remember living on San Carlos two houses south of Eighth, and not the new number, 817 San Carlos St. The dispatcher will still know where the caller is. So the old way of describing a house still works in an emergency, and the new number is a more exact way to say the same thing.
The City's FAQ points to the California Fire Code and Section 502.1 of the California Building Code. Both require buildings to show address identification. In early September the data went to the U.S. Postal Service's address management system, which is used to verify addresses. In the Pine Cone's words, it "will not, however, lead to mail delivery."
What stays the same at the 5th Avenue post office
The City's FAQ is direct about mail. At-home delivery won't be added. P.O. box delivery stays the only kind of standard mail delivery in Carmel. The City says it has "no intention of engaging the USPS for the at-home mail delivery process." No cluster mailboxes are coming. The City has also told USPS it wants the downtown post office on 5th Avenue kept open.
The one new risk is mail sent to your street address. The Pine Cone reported that USPS will treat it as undeliverable and return it to the sender, the same as a letter sent to an old directional address like "Lincoln 3 SE of Third." USPS told the City that the local post office usually tries to catch misaddressed mail and redirect it to a P.O. box for three to six months. Garay said that grace period "is not guaranteed or automatic, as it depends on post office staffing levels and workload."
In practice, the City's advice is to keep giving out your P.O. box for anything that comes by mail. Use the new number where someone needs to find the house itself.
Putting the number up
Wait for the official notice before you install anything. Notices carry the City seal and go to the owner's mailing address on file. The City asks residents not to post a new number until the notice arrives. In September, Swanson said a second postcard would follow about a week after the first so nobody missed it. You can also look up your address on the City's Address Assignment Map.
The City's August 2026 display guidelines set the basics:
- Size: characters at least 4 inches tall, with strokes at least 1/2 inch wide
- Form: numerals or letters, not words, in a color that contrasts with the background and can be read from the street
- Placement: on the front of the house, the entry gate, or a wall facing the street. If the house can't be seen from the road, use a sign at the front of the property.
- Lighting: no backlit panels, neon, flashing, or color-changing lights. Only shielded lighting aimed downward is allowed.
- Multi-unit buildings: the owner tells tenants their address and posts each unit's identifier
Homes in the mapped Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) areas have one more rule. Residential numbers there must be reflective, and the City's WUI map shows which streets are affected.
Your house name sign can stay. The City's FAQ answers "Of course!" and notes that the existing sign rules in the city code still apply. The name and the number can share the gate.
Street names you'll have to get used to
Putting the system into official records turned up some long-standing local habits. Most people call the main north-south road "Junipero Street," and its signs say "Junipero St." at every intersection but one. The original Sanborn maps, city zoning maps, and county assessor maps all call it Junipero Avenue. Swanson told the Pine Cone that nobody can say when or why "Street" took over. The official address of the Carmel Police Department is now 412 Junipero Ave.
North of Fourth Avenue, addresses on San Antonio, Camino Real, and Casanova now include "North." Monte Verde and Carmelo don't. Before the system was adopted, councilman Jeff Baron said at a meeting that nobody who lives near his home on North Camino Real calls it that. The Pine Cone's reply was "Now they'll have to."
The Pine Cone also printed a "quiz" of landmark addresses. A few of them:
| Landmark | New address |
|---|---|
| Carmel City Hall | 662 Monte Verde Street |
| Carmel Police Department | 412 Junipero Avenue |
| Carmel Fire Department | 464 Sixth Avenue |
| Carmel Post Office | 422 Fifth Avenue |
| Harrison Memorial Library | 325 Ocean Avenue |
| Sunset Center | 908 San Carlos Street |
| Forest Theater | 707 Mountain View |
| Carmel Art Association | 555 Dolores Street |
| Devendorf Park | 544 Sixth Avenue |
| La Playa Hotel | 827 Camino Real |
| Hofsas House | 337 San Carlos Street |
The records that do need the new address
Since the number identifies where you live, it belongs on records about your residence, not your mail. Voter registration shows how that works.
Monterey County Elections mailed Carmel residents a postcard marked "ACTION REQUIRED" asking them to update their voter registration. Swanson told the Pine Cone, "The ballot will come to your P.O. box regardless of whether you do anything." In a September 30 email, the City said the update isn't required before Election Day but should still be made. "Use your new street address as your home address and keep your P.O. box as your mailing address." Monterey County Registrar of Voters Gina Martinez urged residents to update "as soon as possible," adding, "There is no reason to wait until Election Day or after."
You can update online at registertovote.ca.gov or on a paper form at libraries, government offices, and the post office. Monterey County Elections answers questions at (831) 796-1499. If you aren't registered yet, the regular deadline for the November 3 election is October 19. Same-day registration is available through November 3.
The timing was tighter than planned. Former councilwoman Paula Hazdovac, who served on the research committee, said the group planned its work to avoid election season. Then the county's data went online in September instead of July, partly because officials wanted to test it carefully for emergency responders.
Utilities are the easier part. The City's address page says you don't need to contact PG&E, Comcast, CalAm Water, or GreenWaste to change your service address "at this time," because the City has already sent them the approved address data. The City also plans a drop-in day where residents can meet utility representatives in person. As of September 25, Swanson said the utilities were hard to schedule all at once and wouldn't guess at a date. For anyone who wants to update now, one resident's call to California American Water at (831) 646-3205 took 12 minutes. As the Pine Cone put it, "there is no need to hurry" to give utilities the new address.
If you look after a Carmel home from out of town, or you're settling a family property, the new street address will start showing up on the paperwork, and that's one more thing to keep track of. The team at Homes by Henson is glad to help you match up the property's records, answer questions about how the new address fits into a sale, and handle the details so you don't have to. When you're ready, book a free home valuation and we'll start from the address on your postcard.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
