Just two days after Congressman Henry Waxman wrote to Postmaster General Patrick R. Donahoe about the lack of on-site customer parking at the new USPS location at the Santa Monica Carrier Annex, the USPS has responded, saying new parking spots are only a couple of weeks away.
USPS spokesman Richard Maher said the U.S. Postal Service promised customers both onsite and street parking at the new location of the Santa Monica Post Office at 1653 7th Street.
“Forty-four street parking spaces and onsite Bulk Business Mail customer parking spaces were in place when the facility opened last summer,” Maher said. “An additional onsite parking lot for retail customers will be completed soon. Our engineer has determined this new customer lot, which is at the north end of the property, can be configured to accommodate 19 onsite customer parking spaces. The lot should be open within four weeks.”
Maher said handicap parking will remain on the street, as those spaces are closer to the entrance.
“When the new lot opens there will be over 60 customer parking spaces, a vast improvement over parking availability at the old facility on 5th Street,” Maher said.
The U.S. Postal Service relocated the branch from 1248 5th Street to 1653 7th Street so the 5th Street property could be sold. The 5th Street branch closed June 29 and the 7th Street branch opened July 1.
The relocation and building sale is part of a nationwide response by USPS to “reduce costs and operate more efficiently” in the face of dramatic decreases in mail volume and revenue, and other economic factors.
