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Home My WebLink AboutUNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE ASPEN STATON - 34 91 - CORRESPONDENCE - LEGAL COMMUNICATION (3)t City A, cney City of Fort Collins MEMORANDUM DATE: December 3, 1990 TO: Tom Peterson, Director of Planning Sherry Albertson -Clark, Chief Planner Ted Shepard, Senior Planner FROM: W. Paul Eckman, Deputy City Attorney RE: Municipal Zoning Regulations/New Post Office Building ISSUE Can the City regulate, either through standard zoning or through the PUD process, the construction of the new United States Post Office by the Postal Service? POTENTIAL RISK/CONSEQUENCES If the City cannot impose zoning regulations on the United States Postal Service, there is a risk that the Post Office will be built in such a manner as to present incompatibilities with the surrounding neighborhoods. If the City attempts, wrongfully, to regulate the construction of the building, the United States may seek to enjoin the regulation and, if monetary damages are suffered because of delays in construction, the United States may seek damages against the City. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS The City does not have the authority to regulate the United States Postal Service under the zoning code of the City with respect to the construction of the new .Post Office. I would not recommend that the City attempt to regulate that construction through law. I would recommend that the City stress, in its meetings with Postal Service representatives, that it is in the best interest of both the City and the Postal Service to cooperate in the design and construction of the post office building and that, as governmental entities seeking to serve the citizens of the City and the Nation, both the City and the Postal Service should work together toward the common goal of furthering the mutual public interest represented by each. If you think that political pressure through 300 LaPorte Avenue • P. O. Box ;80 • Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 • (303) 221-6520 December 3, 1990 Page 2 elected representatives would serve the City's purposes, I see no legal difficulties in utilizing such political pressure. ANALYSIS The Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the United States Constitution provides: This Constitution and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; . . . shall be the supreme law of the land; . . . and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary not withstanding. As a consequence, land owned or leased by the United States or an agency thereof for purposes authorized by Congress is immunue from and supersedes state and local laws in contravention thereof, unless there is a clear and unambiguous congressional authorization for the imposition of the local law. This is also true of zoning ordinances attempted to be enforced against the federal government by municipalities. See McOuillin, Municipal Corporation, Section 25.16 and Rathkopf, The Law of Zoning and Planning, Vol. 4, Section 53.07. The case law with respect to zoning regulations over the construction of post office buildings comes largely from the state of New Jersey. In Thanet Corporation v. Board of Adjustment of the Township of Princeton, ?SO A.2d 1 (N.J. Super. 1969), the Court announced the rule that the United States government's establishment of a post office facility is immune from the township's zoning ordinance. Similarly, in Crivello v. Board of -Adi'ustment of the Borough of Middlesex, 183—F.—Supp, 826 (U.S. Dist. Ct. for Dist. of N.J. 1960), the Court stated that: If the Postmaster General, pursuant to and in the exercise of the authority vested in him by Congressional enactment, contemplates the erection of a post office on the proposed site, his authority may not be restricted by local ordinance. A resort to the municipal board of adjustment would be unnecessary under such circumstances. There is a tradition in the common law that is perhaps best enunciated by the Court of Appeals in New Jersey in the case of Tim v. Long Branch, 53 A.2d 164 (N.J. App. 1947),.that even though the federal government has the constitutional power to exercise sovereign immunity over local governments, it ought, in the interest of comity, to cooperate with local governments in the December 3, 1990 Page 3 construction of federal facilities. The Tim, supra, case was based, however, upon a specific provision of federal law which required cooperation in the construction of military installations during time of war. That legislation also specifically provided that the federal government need not comply with the precise language of local zoning legislation and that it is not bound to inflexible requirements. Tom, you had raised the argument that since the United States Post Office Department was reorganized into the United States Postal Service, the Postal Service is no longer an official part of the federal government which is able to the claim the benefit of the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, having been "privatized" by the reorganization. I have examined the United States Code Service with respect to the reorganization and have discovered that the reorganization occurred in August of 1970 when the United States Post Office Department was disbanded and transferred into a new organization called the United States Postal Service. The postal policy is set forth in Title 39 of the United States Code Service. In Section 101 of that Title, the Congress stated that: The United States Postal Service shall be operated as a basic and fundamental service provided to the people by the government of the United States, authorized by the Constitution, created by Act of Congress, and supported by the people. The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the. Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. Section 201 of Title 39 provides that: - There is established, as an independent establishment of the executive branch of the government of the United States, the United States Postal Service. I believe that the above -stated provisions of the Postal Reorganization Act manifests the intent of Congress that the United States Postal Service remain under the auspices of the United States government and continue to enjoy the benefits of the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution. Section 101 further provides, in subparagraph (g) thereof, that: In planning and building new postal facilities, the Postal Service shall emphasize the need for facilities and equipment designed to create December 3, 1990 Page 4 desirable working conditions for its officers and employees, a maximum degree of convenience for efficient postal services, proper access to existing and future air and surface transportation facilities, and control of costs to the Postal Service. Other provisions of the Act give the Postal Service the power to construct post office buildings "consistent with reasonable economies of postal operations." See Section 401(6) and Section 403(c). WPE:whm