Jun 28, 2017 By Harry Funk 3 min read

While the population of the area served by the Venetia Post Office has grown substantially in recent decades, the building, itself, has remained in the same place and at the same size. That situation is about to change.

Richard Hancock, a real estate specialist with the U.S. Postal Service, attended Peters Township Council’s June 26 meeting to discuss plans for a new, substantially larger post office.

“We need approximately 4,000 square feet of space for our current operational and future operational needs,” Hancock explained. “The current location is approximately 1,100 square feet.”

For postal customers who are used to doing business at 712 Venetia Road, Hancock gave some good news.

“We want to be as close to where we’ve been as possible,” he said, but on the other hand: “In this instance, what we need doesn’t currently exist.”

Although commercial opportunities are constrained in the immediate vicinity, Postal Service representatives have been talking with owners of property at 498 Venetia Road, next to the self-explanatory U-Store-It, about space in a development that’s in the works.

“It would not be a postal-owned building,” Hancock said. “We’re not buying anything. We’re not building anything. We would simply be part of that development. We would be leasing space, either in that location or if somebody else has another location.”

Ed Zuk, township planning director, said that the property as referenced is in the Venetia Road Mixed-Use Corridor zoning district.

“That district accommodates a post office,” he said, as would be the case under new zoning under consideration for that part of the township.

Meanwhile, the Postal Service continues to seek other possible sites.

“We’re all ears,” Hancock told council. “We haven’t made any final decisions.”

He said that the process is in its early stages, and input is encouraged.

“There is a 30-day-minimum comment-and-appeal period that allows anybody in local government, anybody in the public, to say, ‘Please, don’t move our post office,’ and why,” he explained. “All those comments can come directly to me, and then I facilitate those to postal management. Postal management will make a decision on whether or not to move forward with the post office relocation project based off of our operational needs, our economic needs and public feedback.”

As far as answering questions about a timeline for the project, Hancock said it’s still too soon to tell.

“I hate doing that, because then people yell at me. I would say approximately a year, depending on a lot of things.”

Hancock can be reached at 336-665-2848 or richard.a.hancock2@usps.gov. His address is in care of the U.S. Postal Service, P.O. Box 27497, Greensboro, N.C. 27498-1103.