The Harper's Choice village board wants a post office opened at the village center for the convenience of nearby residents and to increase business at the 23-year-old retail and office plaza, which has some vacancies and is showing its age.
In making its request to Columbia's postmaster last month, the board cited the surrounding population of nearly 20,000, the proximity of Florence Bain Senior Center and the development of River Hill, an adjacent village.
"When Columbia was set up, it was unfortunate they didn't think to have a post office in each center," said Darlind Davis, chairwoman of the Harper's Choice village board, which plans a petition to show support for the idea. "Now that it's so populated, it's almost necessary."
None of Columbia's eight village centers has a post office operated by the U.S. Postal Service, although Oakland Mills village runs its own walk-up window in the village center's meeting house under a contract with the Postal Service.
Harper's Choice residents complain that they have to travel too far to get to the main Columbia post office in Owen Brown village on the east side of town, or to the large post office in Clarksville to the west.
The postal service also operates a small branch office in the American City Building in Columbia's Town Center. But parking there is limited, and the branch mostly caters to area businesses, Ms. Davis said.
"One thing it would provide is much better customer service to Columbia," said Ms. Davis of a branch in Harper's Choice. "It would be nice if we had it at this time of year."
Added Wendy Tzuker, Harper's Choice's village manager: "We feel [a post office] would revive the shopping center and help bring people here."
Columbia Postmaster Alfred Fowler said the proposal is at a very early stage and that the Postal Service is waiting for more detailed information from the Harper's Choice board to justify opening a new branch. "Basically it's a matter of customer service," he said. "If we can justify the needs and means of putting one there, we'll do it."
He warned, however, that even if the Postal Service approves the idea, it could be a year or longer before a branch would open in Harper's Choice.
The proposal already has the support of Columbia Management Inc. (CMI), a Rouse Co. subsidiary that manages Columbia village shopping centers.
The management company has offered to lease the Postal Service about 1,000 square feet of space, said Frederick Paine, CMI's general manager of Columbia village centers.
"We're looking forward to making something happen," he said. "It would be a great traffic generator and it's something needed in that area."
The company is making improvements to the village center in response to concerns by the village board and residents about lighting, security, cleanliness and vacancies at the village center, the third village center to open in Columbia.
Mr. Paine said CMI has doubled its security presence at the center for the last three months and is considering improved lighting.