![\"Neal](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769085435_580_.jpeg\")
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Neal Kruse, center, and Karyl Hall, with the Carmel Preservation Assn., talk to resident Lisa Ferchau about the absence of street addresses at the local farmer\u2019s market on Jan. 11, 2024.<\/p>\n
(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
But this spring, every government building, business and house in the town of 3,200 people will be assigned a number. After decades of debate, city officials this month released a draft map<\/a> of the one-square-mile town with proposed addresses, which could be implemented as soon as May.<\/p>\n The address issue has long been contentious in artsy Carmel-by-the-Sea, where residents once threatened to secede from California if they were forced to number their homes. They argued that the lack of addresses \u2014 along with other quirks, such as having no streetlights or sidewalks in residential areas, leading many to walk at night with flashlights \u2014 added to the vaunted \u201cvillage character.\u201d<\/p>\n But the complaints about missed packages and mail-order medications, as well as trouble setting up banking accounts and utilities, kept piling up. And in the aging community \u2014 where the median age of 69 is nearly double that of the state as a whole \u2014 there have been growing fears about emergency responders being unable to find people in the midst of a crisis. <\/p>\n Plus: The California Fire Code<\/a> requires buildings to have and display addresses. Carmel-by-the-Sea has long been out of legal compliance. <\/p>\n Even the \u201creluctant traditionalists\u201d have mostly come around to the reality that \u201cwe just have to do this,\u201d said Nancy Twomey, a member of the Address Group, a committee of citizens and city officials formed last year to research address implementation. <\/p>\n Changing the century-old system has been a lot of work. The Address Group, Twomey said, has done extensive community outreach and met with city and Monterey County officials, utility companies, U.S. Postal Service representatives, police officers, firefighters and more. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to be sensitive in this work and preparation to those who are holding on to tradition really tightly as well as those who are really looking forward to the convenience that comes with this implementation,\u201d Twomey said. <\/p>\n To strike that balance, residents still will be encouraged to name their homes \u201cbecause that\u2019s a quirky Carmel thing,\u201d said Twomey, who lives in a home dubbed Seashell. (When she moved to Carmel in 2017, Twomey abided by another local tradition: Keeping the name bequeathed to the house by previous owners.) <\/p>\n Hans Lehmann, then 91, collects mail from his Carmel-by-the-Sea post office box in January 2024. He walks to the post office every day, enjoying the chance to run into friends and neighbors.<\/p>\n (Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Twomey said the draft address map released Jan. 13 still must be formally approved by city and county officials. Some quirks, such as how to deal with corner houses that have doors on multiple sides, are still being evaluated, she added. <\/p>\n Carmel-by-the-Sea has no home mail delivery. Locals pick up their parcels at the downtown post office, where, locals say, serendipitous run-ins with neighbors are an essential part of the small-town charm. <\/p>\n Some opposed to addresses worried they would lead to home mail delivery and trigger the closure of the post office. <\/p>\n In a December presentation<\/a> to the City Council, Emily Garay, a city administrative analyst, said the new addresses will not lead to home delivery. Residents will keep their post office box numbers and continue to pick up mail at the post office. <\/p>\n During public comments at that meeting, Karen Ferlito, a former City Council member, said the building numbers were long overdue.<\/p>\n Ferlito said she recently tried to order a watch, and the first two deliveries never arrived. During the third attempt, she said, \u201cmy husband sat at the end of our driveway all day long, with a sign and a flag to show where we lived.\u201d <\/p>\n When she was on the council, she said, one man used to come to \u201cvirtually all of the meetings,\u201d and his request was that \u201che just wants to die peacefully at his house … knowing that someone would find him if he was in trouble.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWith over half of our residents age 65 or older, [and] no streetlamps, our aging population faces unacceptable risk during nighttime emergencies,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can\u2019t wait for tragedy to force our hand.\u201d <\/p>\n Carmel-by-the-Sea has long had its own dispatch center, with workers trained to decipher people\u2019s descriptions of where they live, former Police Chief Paul Tomasi told The Times in 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Hans](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1769085435_720_.jpeg\")
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