Post Office for Birch Bay

Birch Bay Post Office from way back when.

This is a presentation of Mickey Masdeo. He would like a US Post Office at Birch Bay. You may make comments at the bottom of this page.

Post from May 14
Hi,
I got some good news today.  I went to the County and talked with a land use planner. She went and showed me that lot# 1 at 4519 Birch Bay Lynden Road was 1.22 acres, which happens to be the exact save lot size as the Ferndale post office.
Based on the general use categories, she said that the lot coverage maximum is 30% which for the lot # 1 would mean 53,143 square feet maximum.
She said that that part of the regulations would allow a huge amount of space for a building and I need to discuss any restrictions, etc. with Larry who works next to her and I  will do that after I visit Ferndale and Blaine planning departments to find out the square footage of their existing post offices and Ferndale certainly would be the best comparable based on their population and Birch Bay’s.
So, after gathering this information, the next step is how to buy the lot # 1 or negotiate with the owner to build a post office  and after getting some sort of draft proposal go back to USPS via Suzan Delbene’s office and submit the proposal to regional USPS including closing Custer post office which serves a Custer population of 367 or transfer their service over to Blaine to partially replace Birch Bay’s departure.
So, when you have time maybe run by some scenarios with the owner with a long term lease arrangement which would be a possible anchor tenant and also for his or her benefit of the remaining lots he can or you can assert that doing this will definitely attract many people to other retail stores on the other lots and for sure there will be many, many people visiting the new BB post office daily.
That is it for now and I think leasing may benefit the owner and us Birch Bay residents unless we can do a two way or three way land swap.
Regards,
Micky

Original Post Hi,
My latest project has started and it is obtaining a new post office for Birch Bay.  I have been in contact with Suzan DelBene’s office for several months and they have contacted USPS several times.
I have formed a tentative draft of how to approach this matter and would appreciate any and all comments and suggestions from any or all of you since you have extensive experience in local real estate and have dealt with developers as well as a solution my involve use or inclusion of a developer.
I have a specific property in mind as a possible site . Next week I will pursue finding out what County department I need to get information regarding the land and structure sizes of the Ferndale and Blaine post offices and also find out the allowed use of the land site I have in mind.  If you know what County department I should contact next week for this information, please let me know.  I will also be contacting Steve Oliver, County Treasurer, whom I know personally for the same information.
I will now follow up my email with an email reply from Patrick Alesse, owner of the CShop, who I am relying on as my “historian”

I have been and will be working this project through Suzan DelBene’s office who are working directly with the USPS regional staff currently.
Here are some options on how to buy a land site at no cost to the USPS.  Please review and comments as I am pulling these options out of thin air.

• Complete a land swap between the owner of a land site suitable for a new post office in Birch Bay once I have sufficient information as to the minimum lot size and allowable structure square footage needed for the post office.  I think a straight swap involving the Federal land to be used and the potential and current land owner may not be workable and bringing in a third party to complete a land swap may be a better option and that is where your knowledge and expertise will be vauable.
• Set as a primary option and three party land swap with your inputs on how to accomplish this.
• Another possible option is to bring in a developer at the outset and involve him/her right away from the beginning.

This right now is what options I can  think of and ask you to bring your thoughts into play now.  My plan is to prepare a draft proposal for Siuzan DelBene’s office to present to the USPS. I would really appreciate any and all of your suggestions to include in a draft proposal as I think we will want to include a list of “endorsers”  when submitting the proposal to DelBene’s office.
My desire to incorporate Birch Bay seems lacking a person to lead this process and if we became a city we have a better and good chance to get a new post office but I think proceeding this way maybe the best and more immediate way to get a post office as Birch Bay’s census population per the 2010 census as a DCP  (Designated Census Place) was over 8400 and far exceeds Blaine’s population and is only surpassed by cities of Bellingham, Ferndale and Lynden.  I prefer not to wait until the 2020 census is completed as than information may not be available until 2021.
I realize how busy all of you are and hope you can provide me with a response next week so I can utilize your comments and suggestions as Suzan DelBene’s office has agreed to meet with me on this matter and plan of having Patrick Alesse go with me.

Thanks in advance for you assistance in this matter.
Best regards,
Mickey Masdeo