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Current post offices. North City, in the center of the map
will be closed December 31, 2017 |
By Diane Hettrick
Greg Shelton, from the U.S. Postal Service Real Estate division in Colorado, held a meeting on Monday evening at Shoreline City Hall to inform patrons of the plans for the North City Post Office functions.
As you may recall, the North City Post Office is on land the Federal postal service leased from a private owner. The private owner sold the land to new owners, who are developing the property and building an apartment building on the site. The area is zoned Commercial Business. (
see previous article)
The Good News:
- No employee will lose their job. The work still needs to be done - it will just be done in a different location. They will probably be inconvenienced during the process and parking may be a challenge.
- Postal box holders will be able to keep their addresses and get their mail.
- Residential customers will not notice any difference in mail delivery.
- They have the capability to move the entire North City operation in one day and be up and running the next.
The Bad News:
- They have to vacate the current premises at NE 175th and 15th NE in North City on December 31, 2017.
- They have no prospects for a new site.
- They absolutely cannot stay past December 31. The building will be demolished right after the first of the year.
- They cannot lease space in the new building. They asked.
They need space for both retail operations and carriers. Retail refers to the postal boxes and the counter. "Carriers" refers to the employees who sort and deliver the mail and their vehicles.
They would need 19,648 sq ft for everything, with parking for customers, employees, and the carrier vans. Retail alone would be 4,329 sq ft with parking for about 25. Carrier only would be 15,785 sq ft with parking for about 125.
There are a lot of ideas under consideration.
- Move to one or two temporary locations while continuing to search for a permanent location.
- Lease some space for the postal boxes to sit in large units like those used in apartment buildings.
- Lease some space to set up a drive-through for blue collection bins.
- Direct people to the existing blue bins around the city.
- Direct people to other post offices to drop off their mail.
They are open to leasing or buying property. They are pretty desperate for ideas and welcome input from the community. If you know of possible locations, mail them to:
U.S. Postal Service
Attn: Greg Shelton - Shoreline
200 E. Kentucky Ave
Denver CO 80209-9950
Monday is a start of a 30 day comment period, which would go to the same address.
Shelton is working with CBRE and went out looking at property on Monday. Some possibilities - the former Office Depot in Mountlake Terrace just off Ballinger Way. There is some empty space in Ballinger Village. Gateway Plaza has a large available space previously occupied by a liquor store and a handbag store; however the parking is already full there. Parkwood Plaza, 15200 Aurora, has space but it's very close to the Bitter Lake post office. The current police station on 185th is a real possibility, but it won't be available until May.
Aurora Square was on the list but crossed off because Sears has leased the space. However, there are other spaces in that complex and a lot of parking and loading docks.
Shelton said that perhaps the North (Brugger's Bog) maintenance yard could be used to park carriers.
Other ideas that were rejected:
- No, you can't use the church property on 15th NE. North City Water District is in full swing planning for that site.
- You might be able to negotiate with the water district for use of their old maintenance facility but it's too small for them, so would not be big enough for the post office.
- Fircrest belongs the the state. DSHS has their own ideas for the property.
- The open land by the Blue Bridges is already in the permitting process.
Shelton seemed unaware that there was another city in the 98155 zip code and had not contacted the City of Lake Forest Park, but said he would.
They will send notices to Shoreline Area News for publication to let people know where to pick up their mail.
Members of the audience had a variety of concerns. A business owner said he had to have uninterrupted access to his postal box. An employee of the state public health lab next to Fircrest was concerned about mailing and receiving their samples for newborn testing. A snowbird said she was leaving town in December and having the post office hold her mail until April. "How will I know where to pick it up?" (I gave her my card).
Rep. Pramila Jayapal's representative was there to see if there was anything her office could do to help. Shoreline City Manager Debbie Tarry was there.
This looks to be a long process. Watch this space.
Updated 10-25-17 with more Bad News points
Correction: the reference was to the North Maintenance Yard, not the Hamlin Park yard
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