The mail processing facility on Franklin Parkway in the Valencia Commerce Center would remain in operation after the U.S. Postal Service shuts down more than half of its processing facilities nationwide next year.

The Postal  Service announced Thursday it is targeting 252 of its 487 mail processing and distribution facilities for closure or consolidation beginning in February or March of 2012, including 15 in California.

The move, which would eliminate 35,000 of the Postal Service’s 559,000 jobs, is designed to cut expenses by $3 billion and is part of a larger plan to shave $20 billion in costs by 2015.

Other major components of that plan are the elimination of Saturday mail delivery, which would require congressional approval; a delivery expectation of 2-3 days for first-class mail instead of the current 1-3 days; either a divorce from federal health care requirements or the lifting of a requirement to pre-fund $5.5 billion annually for retiree health benefits; and the recovery of $6.9 billion the Postal Service says it overpaid to the federal retirement system.

“Maintaining a vast national infrastructure is no longer realistic” when demand for first-class mail service – the agency’s bread and butter – has fallen 25 percent in the past five years, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in a statement.

During that time, the Postal Service has cut costs by $12 billion by eliminating 110,000 staff positions through attrition, and by closing 186 of the 673 processing facilities it operated in 2006.

California facilities now being studied for consolidation or closure include Bakersfield, Burlingame, Eureka, Industry, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Modesto, Pasadena, two in Petaluma, Redding, San Bernardino, San Diego, Stockton and Van Nuys.

A self-supporting government enterprise, the Postal Service is overseen by congress but receives no tax dollars for operations, relying instead on the sale of its postage, products and services to cover costs.