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12 Planning October 1998
<br /> P L A N N I N G
<br /> r P R A C T I C E
<br /> highway outside of town. The -
<br /> community's donations, �
<br /> which eventually totaled
<br /> $180,000,were turned down by 2 •-440,0".
<br /> ��""
<br /> postal officials. = 4 . _
<br /> i
<br /> Zoning game s i "
<br /> Planner Bill McMinn in Madi , a 1
<br /> son, Connecticut, says he has ?k ,f, ' . ., F*.
<br /> found postal administrators to ,, �° f
<br /> 3
<br /> be "understanding and very -, -:- i.- - 1
<br /> professional"but frustratingly r ,_ i- ' r�1 q- ,�"` -� ". 'j' l 4 ` €J 1`{1
<br /> bureaucratic. Often, he says, 12 r,';',:-'4 --7 '" -'F�^ , , " q s. -".,�4 (,
<br /> it's difficult to reach anyone :it- ��> � > �rac .. i
<br /> rn �
<br /> in the postal hierarchy who 14` r 1:11_ --� 'I w' , ( l 1 a as mkF ig iii-Aili I
<br /> can act on local concerns, not !' "' 1 h •
<br /> = ■ AO k�. ix ;°" '.
<br /> . i 4..1r+;. -}.r1,74"-....3"••-•?. * -` rc n �i : :: �r��i4 �'w`�-:•�'''�`"
<br /> just listen to them. ....•i -....ii--, e• 'ix... y .�,k, Nx , I • - . it ;
<br /> The Postal Service contends �m•41;q ',-' ' �`i i• , 1t 9a( '^'� :1 1 2,41ra s k va& 'ti ti� ail
<br /> that it has a "long-standing l " r• r<•
<br /> policy of complying with local = `� -"_"' ' ' ". SRA
<br /> zoning and land-use ordinances
<br /> Some Postal Facts
<br /> standing Florida water body." office had occupied part of a Chatfield.Now it appears that
<br /> 38,019 post offices Larry Donell Blanchard, an shopping center in the tiny, a new free-standing post of-
<br /> 331 processing plants attorney for the Postal Service, but long-established downtown fice will be built in the village
<br /> 34,588 buildings with 270 wrote to county officials that of the village of Tully (pop. center.
<br /> million square feet "any permit and/or zoning re- 911). "We wanted the post of- A regional planning corn-
<br /> 192,904 delivery vehicles quirements that Leon County fice to stay downtown," says mission turned things around
<br /> 18 million postal boxes may have do not apply to prop- town planning board member in Ball Ground,Georgia,a city
<br /> 630 million pieces of mail erty owned or even leased by Scott Chatfield."What was im- of approximately 1,000 on the
<br /> handled daily the Postal Service." That an- portant to us was that the fringe of suburban Atlanta.There
<br /> 7 million customers served tagonized county officials.Al- economy and the viability of too, the Postal Service wanted
<br /> daily though John Sorenson,federal the village be preserved." to move out of downtown.Citi-
<br /> preservation officer at Postal But the Postal Service insisted zen activist Judson Roberts re-
<br /> Service headquarters,says,"we on a free-standing structure on ports that the city council asked
<br /> do everything we can to com- two acres outside the village, the Atlanta Regional Commis-
<br /> and building codes when it ply with local regulations,"crit- preferably near an Interstate sion to respond because the
<br /> can do so consistent with pru- ics believe that message is ig- 81 interchange. "If the post region has an air pollution prob-
<br /> dent business practices and nored by some who carry out office moves out there,it won't lem, which the council said
<br /> unique postal requirements." postal projects across the na- be too long before the drug would be worsened by addi-
<br /> But critics charge that in some tion. store and the grocery store tional sprawl.After the regional
<br /> cases,the individuals in charge Postal policy "depends on move out there,"says Chatfield. commission entered the well-
<br /> of a building project try to who you talk to, the people Postal officials barely re- publicized fray,postal officials
<br /> override local regulations. who do the production or the sponded to residents'concerns, offered to look for a site down-
<br /> Rep. Blumenauer's office people in community relations," he says, until a group of citi- town.
<br /> points to an example in the says Kevin Pope,Leon County's zens approached Rep. John
<br /> Tallahassee area, where the environmental compliance di- McHugh, an Upstate New New uses
<br /> Postal Service was intent on rector. Yorker who chairs the House When a closing is inevitable,a
<br /> building a 30,000-square-foot Postal Service subcommittee new use may be the answer.
<br /> ility on a ridge near Lake A little clout (part of the Government Re- In Nashville, for instance, the
<br /> kson.That location,accord- It took some political arm-twist- form and Oversight Commit- Art Deco main post office is
<br /> ing to Leon County officials, ing to get the Postal Service to tee) and complained that "we expected to become the Frist
<br /> would have aggravated flood- change its mind about the site were not getting cooperation." Center for the Visual Arts.Two
<br /> ing problems and channeled of a new building in the town Within three weeks,postal of- years ago, a long-closed, di-
<br /> stormwater into the lake,which of Tully, New York, south of ficials "suddenly were willing lapidated 89-year-old post of-
<br /> has been designated an "out- Syracuse. For years, the post to sit down," according to fice building in Willimantic,
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