The City and residents have long expressed significant concerns regarding the Postal Service’s plan to build a roughly 350,000-square-foot regional mail distribution center near homes, a religious facility, teen center, preschool, proposed affordable senior housing development and other vulnerable uses.

Citing the economy’s impact on the U.S. Postal Service’s finances, the Postal Service told the City it will not move ahead with plans to build a massive mail processing center in town.

In a Feb. 27 letter addressed to Mayor Donald Garcia, the Postal Service said that a nationwide freeze on capital spending has been instituted, nixing its plans ‘to proceed with the postal facility in Aliso Viejo or issue the Record of Decision on the Environmental Impact Statement at this time.’

Reports that the Postal Service is facing massive deficits that could force it to cut one day of mail delivery had City officials hopeful the Postal Service would scrap its plans to build a much-contested massive-mail processing center in town. The City and residents have long vehemently expressed concerns regarding the Postal Service’s plan to build a roughly 350,000-square-foot regional mail distribution center near homes, a religious facility, teen center, preschool, proposed affordable senior housing development and other vulnerable uses between 2A and 6 Liberty.

On Monday, city officials were elated but still cautious and reluctant about the Postal Service’s decision to not move forward. During the city’s drawn-out battle to stop the USPS from moving forward with its plans, city officials were told certain things by Postal Service staff that turned out to be false.

‘We were cautiously optimistic when we heard that the Postmaster General was calling for a suspension of capital projects due to the economic disaster the Postal Service found itself in, as it reported several billion dollars of losses over the past year alone,’ said Council Member Carmen Cave. ‘However, we were soon told that the Aliso Viejo project was ‘critical to the operations’ of the Postal Service. This announcement just validates our perception based upon our experience with the Postal Service and the way they have not been totally upfront with city staff or the people of Aliso Viejo.’