Developer, mayor respond to USPS mail service issues for Dothan residents

Several homeowners in the Charleston Mills subdivision are upset they aren’t receiving mail at their addresses and are caught in the middle of a dispute between U.S.P.S. and Stone Martin Builders.

The Postal Service recently started enforcing the use of cluster box units (CBUs) as the preferred method of delivery, with rare exception, for all new residential and commercial developments. A representative recently said U.S.P.S. is waiting on Stone Martin Builders to install a CBU on its development to provide mail delivery to its residents.

“While I understand how the blame is getting passed on to us, we did not have control over this situation,” Stone Martin Builders Chief Financial Officer Nick Howard said.

Although the U.S.P.S. published guidance that CBUs were the “preferred method of delivery” in 2017, the Postal Service only started selectively enforcing the guidance as a mandate a few years ago.

Howard said his office did not receive notice of the requirement until October 2020, when the developer was already actively building houses and the engineered design for all of Charleston Mills had been completed two years prior.

“The postmasters’ notice that they were implementing the cluster mailboxes was incredibly late considering we would have to incorporate the location of the cluster mailbox in our engineered design for the subdivision,” Howard said.

The Home Builders Association of Alabama has been advocating against the enforcement of CBUs for some time because of potential safety concerns, inconvenience for homeowners, and the undue burden on developers.

“The key thing to me is this is a thing being forced upon the citizens who have had no input whatsoever. That’s just not right,” HBA member and Dothan Mayor Mark Saliba said. “They’re not paying attention to our elected leaders who go to represent us on that level.”

Saliba said the issue is actually between tax-paying citizens and U.S.P.S, a quasi-governmental authority.

“As a mayor, that bothers me because I don’t believe majority of our people want their mail in a cluster box,” Saliba said.

Saliba said there are a lot of details to work out about the guidance concerning CBUs as they can pose issues for residents and hurdles for home builders: senior citizens and disabled persons may not be able to walk a long way or drive a car to get their mail and developers or homeowners associations could be responsible for installing driveways, lighting, parking spaces, and sidewalks.

The HBA fears the burden of those costs will shift to developers, who may have to give up multiple lots – intended for new homes – in large developments to make space for a mandated CBU and appurtenances, according to Saliba.

Kevin Mills, a resident of Charleston Mills subdivision, said he and his neighbors were still not receiving mail at their addresses on Friday. Instead, they are paying for a P.O. Box in Midland City to retrieve their mail three times a week.

Stone Martin Builders is still appealing the decision with U.S.P.S. officials, according to Howard, and hopes to have a resolution soon.

He said there’s still a chance to restore curbside mail delivery, so that is its main focus at the moment.

“If they happen to decline for some reason, our next step will be to confirm specs and location with the postmaster to install the cluster mail box. Our intention is to restore the mail service one way or another,” Howard said.