One resident in a new North Georgia subdivision has found that getting mail delivered to his door is more difficult than he thought.
John Tucker moved into his home in the Idlerock subdivision, located in the northern part of Flintstone, Georgia, between Chattanooga Valley Road and Georgia Highway 193, in July.
At first, because he lived in a brand-new home, Tucker had to have his mail and packages sent to his daughter's house one street over.
But as the weeks went by, the U.S. Postal Service still hadn't registered his house, and Google Maps and other tools wouldn't pull up his home on navigation systems.
Then Tucker learned a new U.S. Postal Service policy states that in new subdivisions with more than seven homes, mail will not be delivered directly to mailboxes. Instead, the subdivisions must have a cluster of mailboxes.
"This is the weirdest thing I have ever heard of," Tucker said.
Tucker said he and some of his neighbors are frustrated with the fact they have to pay regular prices for postage but do not get the same service as customers one block over.
One afternoon, Tucker said, he saw a postal service driver drop off mail across the street and, instead of delivering his mail, turn around and continue down the street the other way.
"I saw him go one street west of us," he said. "He turned around at our street. I can't get over this."
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Tucker has reached out Jennifer Fontanilla, the local postmaster at the Flintstone Post Office, who essentially has her hands tied in the matter. The Flintstone Post Office falls under the jurisdiction of the Chattanooga and Hamilton County Postal Service.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Postal Service's communications department in Lexington, Kentucky, said the postal service has "a responsibility to provide service in a fiscally responsible manner" and that with more than 1 million new delivery points added to its network each year, "centralized delivery allows for the most efficient method of delivery."
"It has long been the policy for homeowners or developers to request and receive advance approval of the delivery location and mode of delivery from the local postmaster or designee," reads a statement from Susan Wright with the postal service.
In these cases, Wright said, the postal service actively notifies municipalities and their planning agencies, who are then supposed to reach out to developers before building begins.
Tucker now has to drive to the post office two or three times a week to pick up his mail.
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A similar situation stalled the 11-acre Barnsley Park subdivision on Ooltewah-Ringgold Road in Collegedale.
That project was delayed earlier this year because the developer had to add the grouped or clustered mailbox kiosks required by the postal service in new developments.
K. Andrew Martin, planning and economic development director for the city of Collegedale, said the clusters are built instead of single-family mailboxes for each individual house in order to cut down on costs.
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 in which it has caused a local developer to lose land originally planned for houses.
In Flintstone, Tucker's subdivision has space for a maximum of 30 homes, and three of the seven homes already built are occupied. Tucker said his neighbors also have been frustrated with the post office's policy.
The developer of the subdivision, Catoosa County Commission Chairman Steve Henry, said he was informed that he'd need to build a cluster box after he was finished building the subdivision.
"They said it has been a rule for a while, but they didn't share that with us," Henry said.
For now, the new residents of Idlerock will continue to make their way to the post office to pick up their mail.
Contact Patrick Filbin at pfilbin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6476. Follow him on Twitter @PatrickFilbin.