December 17, 2007
By SUE RYAN
News staff writer

Groundwork has already begun in Odell on the new distribution center for the Hood River Post Office.

Postmaster Kevin Branson said 15 carrier routes and distribution work will switch to the new facility but the retail counter will remain open at the downtown Hood River location.

“It’s all internal, it won’t affect customers,” Branson said.

The facility won’t replace the Odell Post Office, either, because it will be solely for internal use and have no commercial counter.

The new site is located on Lower Mill Road behind Cardinal Glass and expected to be open by the end of April. Branson said while the post office has looked for land for four to five years, the agency could not find anything suitable in Hood River.

“When we did the solicitation, we received five to six bids but we had to discard them for size or environmental issues or being too far out,” Branson said.

The post office needed a facility on a lot large enough to accommodate truck traffic and be easily accessible to the freeway. Those needs ruled out many parcels in Hood River. Branson said other land that was closer to Hood River that he thought might solicit the federal contract chose not to pursue it.

“There was some I thought might bid on it but when the time came they didn’t weigh in,” he said.

The issue of not being able to locate land within Hood River’s Urban Growth Area for development is broader than just the post office’s search for a new site.

“It’s a perfect example,” said Bill Fashing, Hood River County’s Economic Development Director.

Fashing just finished more than a year’s work with a committee on an Employment Lands. Oregon requires, through its Department of Land Conservation and Development, for each city to have a 20-year land supply.

Hood River is short — by 146 acres — to meet needs until the year 2027. The committee came up with an estimate of 260 acres with 114 acres currently available within the Urban Growth Area for employment purposes. Many of those parcels are less than one acre in size.

Too small in size was one factor behind the Hood River Post office’s decision to locate the distribution center in Odell. Branson said while the post office has been able to use the three floors of its current building, locating carrier routes upstairs and in the basement has been inefficient.

The agency also needs more room up front. Branson said as Hood River grows, so does the demand for post office boxes and retail postal services. He said the front would be remodeled and post office boxes built into the former distribution area along with another counter added upfront.

“We’ll also be adding to those carrier routes at Odell, we need more than 14 to service Hood River,” Branson said.

The mail for the Upper Hood River Valley and Mosier comes out of The Dalles and Cascade Locks out of Portland. While the post office is one example of Hood River’s needs, Fashing said the employment lands shortage presents challenges also for the port and county.

“It’s stressing everyone with the cost of land,” Fashing said. “When you artificially restrict an area, couple that with housing demands then there is an increase in land values that is more than what the market here can bear.”

Because the Scenic Area restricts growth east and west, the study lists that southward development will be the most likely.