The McConnell neighborhood will soon be adding mailboxes.

It’s finally official: the McConnell neighborhood has overwhelmingly voted in favor of changing its covenants to allow curbside mailboxes.

The vote follows a fall campaign, the latest of many over the years.

“We will start having mail delivery in McConnell as soon as we decide what design to get,” said Lotta Griffin, a member of the neighborhood’s mailbox committee.  “The postmaster is working with us to make the transition as easy as possible.”

Ms. Griffin said 98 percent of McConnell’s 202 households participated in the petition drive, and 82 percent of them voted in favor of curbside mail delivery.

“We only needed 75 percent to pass,” Ms. Griffin added.

When the McConnell neighborhood was established in the early 1990s, the “Declaration of Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions” for its homeowner association had the following restriction in Section 15: “No receptacles for the delivery of mail, newspapers, publications or other similar items shall be placed or maintained on any lot unless directly attached to the dwelling erected on such lot.”

The U.S. Postal Service has long required curbside mailboxes rather than door slots for new developments.  That means Section 15 effectively ruled out mailboxes for McConnell.  The only alternative was renting a box at the Davidson post office, which is a mile down Concord Road.

YEARS OF DEBATE

McConnell residents have argued back and forth about the restriction.  Some found the lack of mailboxes to cause mail delivery snafus and be inconvenient and even bad for the environment (think 202 cars driving to the p.o.)  Others said putting up mailboxes would clutter the streetscape and raise security concerns.

It’s a debate that went on for years.  “I’ve just been through this so many times,” said a skeptical post mistress, Elaine Funderburk, when asked about the petition drive last fall.

Attorneys for Hawthorne Management, the Charlotte company that manages the McConnell Homeowners Association, reviewed the petitions over the winter.  Mailbox committee members said the process took longer than expected because of the need to notarize all signatures and make sure that each household only voted once.

Now that the results are in, the mailbox committee is checking to see how many of those who voted yes actually want a mailbox.  Some voters indicated that they supported the amendment to the covenants, but personally prefer to keep their post office box.

And voting on mailbox matters is not quite over.  In an email to the neighborhood, McConnell Homeowners Association Board President John Griffin said various designs are currently being considered.

“We will give you three different price options and styles to choose from,” he said.