The 11-acre Barnsley Park subdivision on Ooltewah-Ringgold Road in Collegedale is now entering its second phase, delayed by what may seem like an unlikely problem that forced engineers to redo their plans: mailboxes.
At the Oct. 14 Collegedale Planning Commission meeting, the board unanimously approved the final plat proposal for the McCoy Homes Inc. subdivision.
The U.S. Postal Service serves more than 150 million homes and businesses daily. One million new points are added on average each year, according to USPS.
With the federal postal service losing money annually, a 2018 official USPS policy requires grouped or clustered mailbox kiosks in new developments, rather than single-family mailboxes adjoined to each individual house, in order to cut down on costs, said K. Andrew Martin, planning and economic development director for the city of Collegedale.
Over the past year, he said the clustered-mailbox issue has popped up a few times in local projects, but this was one of the first cases where it has caused the developer to lose land originally planned for houses.
Barnsley Park will consist of single and attached homes, townhouses and cottage homes.
Email Sabrina Bodon at sbodon@timesfreepress.com.