ONLEY, Va. - For many visiting the small post office in Onley, Va., parking in the lot next door, owned by Onley Baptist Church, had been commonplace.
Recently, however, barriers went up blocking access to the lot. This has caused confusion and frustration among patrons of the post office.
"The Post Office is very small," said Onley resident Arlene Evans. "There's traffic that goes on this block on Coastal Blvd is unbearable. There's just been numerous arguments in the parking lot because people don't know where to park."
Neighbors were frustrated with the lack of warning about the changes, which suddenly occurred on Memorial Day weekend.
"They should have at least contacted the Town Council as well as the Mayor and the Post Office to say listen, this is what we're going to do, we don't want parking here," Evans said.
But Pastor John Burr of Onley Baptist Church, owner of the property, says the post office and town were notified months in advance that changes would be coming to the property.
"We went to the Post Office itself and let them know that in the near future we were either going to rent or sell the building, and they decided not to do anything," Burr said. "Mayor Hart and the Town actually looked at that also for a town office and decided against that as well."
In early June, the church began leasing the property to Up and Out, a Pennsylvania youth ministry that is planning to build a youth center. Up and Out was responsible for putting up the barriers.
"They're going to be doing some renovations, number one, and it's hard to get in and out," Burr said. "Number two, when they start the youth center, it's going to be important to keep the youth safe from all the people passing through the parking lot."
Burr, though, did sympathize with post office patrons about the sudden erection of the barriers, and believed Up and Out should have provided more notice.
"We want to be good neighbors," Burr said. "We want to make sure people know. And I think after the fact they went to the Post Office. It would have been better if there were more notice, I agree with that."
Neighbors are just hopeful that mutually beneficial changes and agreements can be made and reached soon.
"Maybe put up one way in, one way out, put up white lines to show these are parking spots, this is where you can park, this is where you can't park," Evans said.
Mayor Matt Hall says that he believes a "prescriptive easement" has been formed on the property, which would allow post office customers to continue using the parking area on the church property.
According to attorney Joseph V. Sherman, this would require the town to "to file [a] claim in Circuit Court and prove the facts necessary to obtain a court order confirming the right to use another person’s private property for parking."
