Council pauses November advisory vote, directs working group to explore AMS-compatible addresses

The Carmel-by-the-Sea City Council on April 1 declined to move ahead with the previously planned advisory vote on street addressing for November 2025, instead directing staff and a newly convened citizen working group to develop address options, examine implementation tasks and report back to council.

Council heard a nearly three-hour public discussion and a staff briefing that summarized research into how a standardized address system would interact with the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), emergency response, GPS findability and local practice. Emily Garay, the city’s administrative analyst, reviewed the staff findings: the USPS said a citywide addressing change would not, in itself, trigger conversion from centralized PO-box delivery to home delivery, and the USPS would remain the authoritative source for address verification. Garay also noted the California fire code requires street identification that is visible from the street and that municipal code language currently in the city code is inconsistent with state building and fire codes.

Council member…