Nearly two years after a fire shut the only post office in the Santa Cruz Mountains town of Brookdale, Rep. Jimmy Panetta is asking the Postal Service to drop a study that could close it for good and to bring mail service back to the community instead.
For more than a century, the people of Brookdale, a town of about 2,000 in the redwoods of the San Lorenzo Valley, have picked up their mail at a post office in town. They have never had home delivery. Since December 2024, when a fire broke out in an apartment above the post office, they have had neither.
Now the U.S. Postal Service is studying whether to close the Brookdale Post Office permanently, and Rep. Jimmy Panetta, the Carmel Valley Democrat whose Central Coast district includes the town, is pressing the agency to reverse course.
In a Sept. 30 letter to Postmaster General David Steiner, Mr. Panetta asked the agency to “immediately halt” the closure study, look for a new permanent location in Brookdale, explore home delivery and, until then, install cluster mailboxes or another way for residents to pick up mail in town. He also asked Mr. Steiner for a meeting.
The Postal Service says nothing has been decided. “This study is still in process, and no final decision has been made,” Kristina Uppal, a Postal Service spokeswoman, told TPG Online Daily. She said the study was prompted by the condition of the building and the loss of the lease.
How Brookdale lost its post office
The fire in December 2024 started in an apartment above the post office and injured two children and an adult, according to TPG Online Daily. The building was left boarded up. Brookdale has had a postal location since 1902, according to CBS News Bay Area, and its ZIP code, 95007, has relied on post office boxes rather than carrier delivery.
The post office operated in a rented building, and for more than a year the Postal Service told residents that it was waiting for the property owner to make repairs. In a May 19 letter asking the Postal Service’s inspector general, Tammy Hull, to review the agency’s handling of the closure, Mr. Panetta wrote that county records showed the owner, “who is not based in the area,” had “initiated only basic permitting steps before subsequently failing to appear for required site inspection.” He wrote that the agency had “repeatedly deflected questions about the reopening date, referring to the May 1, 2026 reopening promised by the property owner.”
That date passed without the post office reopening. Mr. Panetta had written to postal officials in February asking for a timeline and for temporary service in Brookdale, TPG Online Daily reported. In September, the agency announced the feasibility study on a permanent closure and held a virtual public meeting on Sept. 11.
In his Sept. 30 letter, Mr. Panetta called the decision to consider discontinuing service in Brookdale, “with no alternative services to your existing Brookdale customers,” unreasonable.
“Since the Brookdale Post Office burned down, the people of that community have waited for nearly two years in good faith while the USPS sat on its hands saying that they would reopen the facility,” Mr. Panetta said in a statement quoted by TPG Online Daily. “Then, out of the blue, the USPS made the haphazard decision to study whether it should shut down the post office without providing any postal service in Brookdale.”
What the Postal Service says
Ms. Uppal said customers had been notified of the study and invited to respond through a questionnaire and the public meeting. “The Postal Service is required to invite and consider customer input as a part of the study, and all public meeting and written feedback will be considered before any final determination is made,” she said.
Asked about alternative sites, she said, “When a lease ends or a facility change is being studied, USPS evaluates all available options to continue serving the community without interruption.” She pointed residents to the Boulder Creek Post Office, at 200 Lorenzo St., about 1.46 miles away, and the Ben Lomond Post Office, at 250 Main St., about 1.59 miles away.
Mr. Panetta’s letters argue that those short distances understate the burden in a mountain community where storms and road closures can cut off travel, and where some residents are elderly, disabled or without reliable transportation.
What the closure rules require
The process the Postal Service must follow is set out in federal regulations, 39 C.F.R. 241.3, which govern the closing or consolidation of retail facilities the agency operates.
The rules require 60 days’ public notice of a proposed closure and a chance for customers to comment. Brookdale’s comment period ended Oct. 11, the Press Banner reported. Any final decision to close must be made in writing, with findings on the effect on the community, on the employees and on service, and must be posted at least 60 days before the closing takes effect.
The rules also say that when a lease is ending with no suitable alternate quarters available in the community, a study should begin early enough to allow meaningful public input. The San Lorenzo Valley Post reported that the Postal Service would make its findings public no later than April.
If the agency decides to close the office, any person regularly served by a “Post Office” may appeal to the Postal Regulatory Commission within 30 days of the written decision being posted. The commission has 120 days to rule, and it can only affirm the decision or send it back for further consideration. It cannot rewrite it.
The appeal right carries a caveat that could matter in Brookdale. For appeals involving other types of facilities the Postal Service operates, the regulation says the agency’s general counsel “reserves the right to assert defenses, including the Commission’s lack of jurisdiction over such appeals.” Mr. Panetta’s Sept. 30 letter describes Brookdale’s office as a “contract post office” in a rented facility. The Postal Service’s public statements on the study do not say how the agency classifies the facility for appeal purposes.
The alternatives on the table
Local officials have offered options short of closure. At an Oct. 7 gathering at the Brookdale Lodge, Santa Cruz County Supervisor Monica Martinez said, “If they won’t reestablish a post office, USPS should offer home delivery in Brookdale, like it does in neighboring towns,” the Press Banner reported. The lodge’s manager, Jason Patel, has offered space for a replacement post office, CBS News Bay Area reported.
“The least that the postal service can do is come to us with some options,” Mr. Panetta told CBS News Bay Area. “Be communicative and hopefully work to find a solution.”
Mr. Panetta’s request to the inspector general asked for a review of the agency’s management, communication and decision-making since the fire, whether the delays came from the Postal Service or from problems with the property owner, and whether service could be restored through temporary or alternate facilities. The same letter raised the Almaden Valley post office in San Jose, a Postal Service-owned building that closed after a fire in July 2025 and that the agency told his office it does not plan to reopen until spring 2027. TPG Online Daily reported that questions to the inspector general’s office were referred to the postmaster general’s office.
The Postal Service has not announced a new location or plans for home delivery in Brookdale. Until it does, residents will keep driving down the valley for their mail.
Ingrid Lindqvist covers Northern California’s members of Congress on Capitol Hill, from committee rooms and floor votes to the bills and spending that reach the region, for The Delegation. More from Ingrid Lindqvist
