Residents upset over having to travel to get their mail

Fran Sills lives in the Verona Walk community in Naples. She’s been there since 2006.

For more than a decade, the way she’s received packages in the mail has remained the same. But now, everything has changed.

“We have to go down to the Goodlette post office and claim that package,” Sills says.

There are 1,920 homes inside the community, which is located in the southern part of Collier County in Lely.

The post office, located off Goodlette-Frank Road, is nearly 14 miles away.

“Packages have always been delivered, and all of a sudden now this regulation appears (and) the packages can’t be delivered,” Sills says.

A USPS supervisor says the change comes from the new HOA as of Jan. 1. They’re enforcing a long-standing rule that doesn’t require the post office to deliver packages if the mailbox is more than half a mile away from the home.

This only applies if the area is designated as “rural”, which is the case for Verona Walk.

“It causes me to think twice about ordering online,” Sills said.

All of the mailboxes for residents are located in a central office—which means most of the neighborhood falls under that half-mile zoning rule.

The USPS supervisor says residents have the option for re-delivery, meaning they can request that the package be brought back, if it’s small enough to fit in a parcel mailbox.

The supervisor also says he’s had to kick out several residents from the post office for threatening employees.