Hero School, Festa Italiana, Community Day and Lots of MUSIC

Superheros downtown this weekend, plus the Italian Fest and Community Day. Enjoy.

Friday, August 4, Hero School opens at Theatre Horizon, an interactive play for children and their parents. Performances at 5, 6:15, and 7:30 pm. Only 30 seats per performance. Hero School will run Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through August 27. This weekend's performances Saturday at 10 am, 11:15, 1:30 pm, 2:45. Sunday at 2 pm, 3:15, 5:30 and 6:45. Tickets at this link and FREE tickets are available for Norristown families at this link.

Friday, 5-11 pm in the lot behind the Holy Saviour Club, 436 E Main (park across the street in the church lot). The 3-day San Salvatore Festival begins. Italian pork, beef and sausage sandwiches, fried pizza, tomato pie, beer and birch beer on tap, music, games, rides. Saturday 4-11 pm, Sunday after last mass and procession ends (about 1 pm) until 9 pm.

Saturday, noon-4 pm at 340 E Oak Street. CADCOM's Community Day (raindate Aug 12). FREE food, drinks, snacks, music, activities, vendors and the Famous CADCOM Basketball Tourney. FREE for everyone. For info, contact Heather Lewis at 610-277-6363 x166 or email hlewis@cadcom.org.

Saturday, 6:30-9:30 pm at Diva's Kitchen, 9 W Main. Gospel Night. All You Can Eat Buffet. Music, Singing, Praying. $15.

Saturday, 7-11 pm, Five Saints Distilling (Main and Green). Jazz Night with Jazz 180.

Sunday, 2-5 pm at Elmwood Park Zoo. Free admission for Norristown residents with ID.

Sunday, 2:30 pm at the Centre Theatre. The Rachmaninoff Duo is back with Classical Music in the County Seat. (concert begins at 3 pm). FREE concert.

Sunday, 7 pm at the Elmwood Park Bandshell, Summer Concert Series presents The Winstons (Motown). Bring a chair or blanket to sit on. Concession stand will be open.

Monday, 7-8 pm at Friends Meeting House, Swede and Jacoby (parking lot on Jacoby). Presentation on cooperative homeownership by Cabini (cooperative housing would like an apartment building where, instead of a landlord, all residents would own a share of the property).

Tuesday, 7 pm at Municipal Hall. Planning Commission.

Wednesday, 5:30-7:30 pm at Norristown Library. My Life Montco meets, a group for youth between the ages of 13 and 23 who have had experiences with mental health, substance abuse, foster care and other challenges. No cost. Dinner is provided.

Thursday, 11 am-2:30 pm on East Main in front of the Courthouse. Norristown Farmers Market. Every Thursday through Oct 26. Variety of fruits and vegetables, farm fresh. Watermelons, cantaloupes and more this week.

Next Saturday, Aug 12, Noon-2 pm at the Carver Center. 2nd of Council's Listening Tour meetings, this one on Code Enforcement. Bring a smartphone if you have one or a pen if you don't. They'll be asking the questions, not the other way around. And they probably won't give you much time to think about your opinion on each aspect of codes. But hopefully, there will be time allotted to speak one-on-one with a council person or with someone from the codes department.

Events for Black History Month and More

ALL MONTH (February) at Centre Theater (208 Dekalb) from noon to 8 pm, Black History Museum. Educational Exhibit. By appointment. For more information, call 484-964-4075 or go to www.thelivingground.com.

Saturday, Feb 6 at 4 pm, St. Patrick's Church (Dekalb and Chestnut) welcomes the New Vision Gospel Choir from Philadelphia. They'll perform at afternoon mass to celebrate the contributions of the Black and African American members of the parish in honor of Black History month. Visitors welcome. (I heard them sing last year--they were outstanding.) Soul food dinner afterward in the Parish Hall downstairs.

Saturday, 8:30 pm (doors open 7:30), at Centre Theater (208 Dekalb), Starving Artist Prevention presents Robert Rule in There's A 50% Chance For Everything comedy show. Also performances by Lump Hamilton, Buddy Harris, Marc Staudenmaier. Emceed by Jeff Roser. $20 in advance. $25 at door. Tickets at by phone at 215-906-0919 or 484-809-4216, or at Rule.BrownPaperTickets.com.

Monday, 7 pm at GNPAL, Harding Blvd. GNPAL Track Team's Open House and Registration. Ages 5-18. Light refreshments.

Monday, 7 pm, Montgomery County Human Services, 1430 Dekalb, Understanding Credit: Free class sponsored by Genesis Housing on understanding credit and credit scores. Obtain a Free Credit Report from Major Credit Bureaus with Scores. Learn How to Improve Your Credit Score. Register online at www.genesishousing.org

Tuesday, 7 pm Municipal Hall, Planning Commission Meeting.

Next Friday, February 12, from noon-8 pm at the Centre Theater (208 Dekalb), Montgomery County Black History Program. Food, vendors, music, poetry, spoken word, exhibits, door prizes and more.

Also next Friday, 2-3 pm at Norristown Public Library. Valentine Fun for grades K-6. Come make a Valentine for someone you love and enjoy some holiday activities. Drop in. 

Events (But Stay Home Instead)

Once again, hardly anything going on this week in town, which is a good thing, because of the snowstorm.  Hopefully most of us will be out and about by Monday (though alleys don't get plowed, so those of us who must park behind our houses will see you in the spring). As for the events below, I'd call ahead to make sure they haven't been cancelled or postponed.


Need a snow day activity? Go to this link and vote for the Montco Happenings you liked best this past year.  Selma Ghost Tours, Riverfest, and Winter Wonderland were all nominated again (weirdly, Winter Wonderland says Worcester. It should be Norristown.) Check out the other categories, too. You can add favorite places or events. Let's put Norristown on the Happenings map.

If you were planning to go to Salsa on Cherry Street Saturday, it's been cancelled due to weather.

Monday from 7-9 pm at Montgomery County Human Services (1430 Dekalb), Free Home Buying Basics class sponsored by Genesis Housing. Learn about realtors, agreements of sale, mortgages, inspections and more. Learn about grant and loan programs for homebuyers.

Tuesday, noon at Casa Bonita, the Norristown Schuylkill Rivertown Action Committee is meeting to discuss art on the trail. If you'd like to be involved, RSVP to Lizzie Hessek at lhessek@pecpa.org. The Rivertown Committee is under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.

Tuesday, 6:30-8:30 pm, The nurses of Mercy Suburban are once again offering a free laundry event at the laundromat in the 800 Block of Dekalb. Free use of washers and dryers for those who need it. Join them for some laundry and conversation.

Tuesday at 7 pm, Zoning Board Hearing at Municipal Hall. Agenda this link. Interestingly, 1529 Dekalb is NOT listed, though I thought they were supposed to take a vote on that (that's the historic Tennis Club building and lot).


ACPPA's Summer Camp Registration is open. This summer's theme is Animal Planet and will encourage campers (ages 3-12) to consider the many ways in which we share this world with other living things and how they inspire us. In addition to intensive creative explorations of visual arts, dance, music, and drama, students will enjoy weekly swimming trips, zoo and aquarium field trips, and visits from special guests. For more information or to register for Animal Planet, visit this link or call the office at 610-277-2270.

Stay home. Enjoy the blizzard from indoors.

Council's Agenda--Leveling The Tennis Club

Tonight starting at 6:30 pm will be a Council Workshop Meeting at Municipal Hall. The full agenda is at this link, but I wanted to touch on one item in particular.

Sarah Peck, the infamous developer of Arbor Heights and Arbor Mews, will do a presentation on her latest project--the demolition of a Norristown architectural landmark, the Ersine Tennis Club building and grounds at 1529 Dekalb, to put up "housing."

Ms. Peck's definition of housing is stacked condos so dense, that if she were allowed to develop every block of town and managed to sell all of her condos, our population would increase twelve fold. Her projects put a powerful strain on the infrastructures of their surrounding neighborhoods--electrical grid, water pressure, roads, etc. They never include the requisite 2 parking spots per unit. When snow comes to the Arbor Mews parking lot this winter, rest assured Mews residents will put their cars on the streets before the storm to avoid being plowed in.

Her proposals totally violate our zoning code, which says that proposed houses must match the existing housing in the neighborhood. If a block has only single houses on it, you can only build single houses there. If it only has twins, you can only build twins, etc. Yet, somehow, she always manages to get zoning approval.

I've sat in on Sarah Peck's past conversations with Council. She asks for money continually. She expects Norristown and the county to find the money to fund her projects, instead of investing some of her profits like a normal businessperson would. She usually refuses to compromise on design to settle conflicts with the surrounding neighborhood unless she's given even more money. And once when she was speaking to me, not knowing who I was, she actually said Norristown was a soft touch.

At last night's roundtable discussion at the Centre Theater, Buck Jones stood up and asked how developments like Arbor Heights have changed Norristown for the better. No one answered his question. Our economy hasn't improved since Arbor Heights opened. That neighborhood hasn't changed in any fundamental way, other than being more crowded. Her designs certainly don't improve the look of the street much (though the final Arbor Mews design was MUCH better than the proposed warehouse look, but it still doesn't match the rest of the neighborhood).

Now Ms. Peck's proposing to level a landmark. The structure was originally built to be a mansion in 1892, then the Ersine Tennis Club bought it in 1895. Weddings, music concerts and other social events were held there for decades. Tennis was played on lawn courts, the grassy expanse to the left of the building. It was a vital part of Norristown's North End community.

Sure, the building's been empty for a while, but it's still a loss to the architectural character of the borough. The last group to level a landmark--Einstein--at least donated funds toward architectural preservation in Norristown to somewhat compensate for the loss of Montgomery Hospital. I'm guessing Ms. Peck would bawk at such a suggestion. Her M.O. is asking for money, not giving it or anything else to our community.


Last night Bill Caldwell tried once more to convince us that Norristown ought to be considered a city. Thing is, Council doesn't seem to have any intention of updating our sagging infrastructure and solving our parking problems to accommodate the population increase. But they don't even talk about that. How can they approve one overly dense development after another--how can they put our tax money toward it?--when the town as it stands can't handle the extra residents?

Participate in a Council Workshop

Tomorrow night, Council will hold their monthly "workshop" meeting at 6:30 pm in the 1st Floor Conference Room at Municipal Hall.

I haven't had a chance to get to one of these workshop meetings yet, but I talked to Council Prez Bill Caldwell about them a few weeks ago. He says they're to invite discussion about topics concerning the town. Last month they had a discussion about the Carver Center. Unfortunately, the agenda didn't come out in time before the meeting, so a lot of residents who would have liked to participate in that discussion never knew it was going to take place.

Perhaps realizing their error last month, the agenda for tomorrow came out over the weekend. Here are the highlights:

1. A presentation about the PennDOT Markley St. Project.

2. 8 "Action items"--motions that need to be voted on, 3 regarding Police and Fire personnel, 1 agreement with East and West Norriton concerning shared equipment, 1 settlement of the lawsuit about landlords, tenants and police calls, 1 about handicapped parking spots, 1 agreement with PennDOT for Winter Traffic Services (does this mean we get cleared roads?), and a motion to participate in a "joint disposal bid."

3. Items for discussion include Community Development Block Grant projects for 2015, a recommendation for a Fair Housing consultant, the contract for a consultant to prepare the 5-Year Consolidated Plan (needed to get CDBG and other housing grants) and the Annual Action Plan, and a proposed ordinance to approve an intergovermental agreement between our Police Department and the PA Board of Probation and Parole.

There's a Public Comment period near the beginning of the meeting if you want to suggest any other topic for discussion or comment on any of the listed items. If you want to make a comment, before the meeting begins, there's usually a sign-up sheet--list your name and topic and you'll be called on.

You can read the full agenda at http://norristown.org/userfiles/file/council_workshop_aug_19_2014.pdf.

Another Reason to Encourage Homeownership

Twin with shared steps and pent roof. 

The majority of the more than 13,000 housing units in Norristown are twin homes and I'm in one of them. If you own anything except a single home in town, you know that now and then you're going to have to do a repair on a shared portion of the properties. Over the years, our family has shared expenses with the neighbors to replace fences, pave a common walk, repair the valley between our gabled roofs, etc.

I'm fortunate to have good neighbors and that sharing expenses usually isn't a problem. More to the point, though, I'm fortunate that the neighbors in the attached house are homeowners. Another resident on my block rents her house and has huge problems getting her landlord to make any repairs at all.

This morning I talked to the neighbor in the attached twin about replacing our 90 year-old shared roof drain (it's backing up into my front bedroom). The roofer can't work on the shared portion without the neighbor's permission.

I found myself wondering what I'd do if a deadbeat landlord owned the house attached to mine. No doubt I'd have to pay for all the shared repairs myself, but would I or the contractor even be able to get hold of that kind of landlord to get permissions? Especially those landlords who live far out of town, or out of state.

Norristown, according to the last census, has a 42% homeownership rate. The majority of our houses are owned by someone who lives elsewhere. We're also a low income town. If a fence between yards blows over, or the ridge between row house roofs crumbles, or a shared storm drain gets clogged, one homeowner might have trouble footing the bill for the entire repair.

I'm not saying all landlords are bad. I know of many good, responsible landlords in town. But we've got too many who don't take care of their rental properties. And this morning I realized that not only will their disheveled houses bring down the neighborhood's property values, but if shared repairs can't be made, the other houses on the block will deteriorate as well.

So, there's another reason to encourage homeownership, or at least encourage responsible landlords. When your house is attached to your neighbor, as the vast majority of ours are, to a certain extent, you're dependent on your neighbor to help keep a roof over your head.

Habitat is Back!

If you're a homeowner, you know that the biggest job is just maintaining your house.Right after you get that roof leak fixed, something goes wrong with the plumbing, or water gets into the basement. You know you should do something about the drafts coming in around the windows and doors. The cracks in the plaster are getting bigger, and the woodwork really ought to be painted again. Et cetera. Et cetera.

But if you're on a low income, home repair and improvement projects are often sidelined so you can feed and clothe your family. In a low income neighborhood, this means many houses on a single street will show the need for care. People riding through think to themselves, "This neighborhood's really going downhill." It doesn't help if you have abandoned properties in the same block.

This is why the proposed plan by Habitat for Humanity of Montgomery County is so good for Norristown. Their project will, over the next 2 years, repair and rehabilitate more than 40 homes on Cherry Street, between Chestnut and Spruce.

If you drive down those blocks of Cherry Street, you realize that this has been the home to Norristown's working class for centuries. The houses are modest, yes, but sturdy, and some have nice architectural features. The street is pleasantly tree-lined and could be downright pretty if the houses just received a little TLC.

Half of our usual class of developers would look at Cherry and say none of the houses could be saved. They'd want to level them all, along with the trees, then throw up cheap wooden housing that wouldn't last 20 years. Or put up another Family Dollar store. They'd leave us with vacant lots. The rest of the developers wouldn't touch the project at all.

Habitat for Humanity's focus is on the neighborhood and the residents. Marianne Lynch, executive director of Montco's Habitat, in a statement to the Times Herald, said, “We are shifting our mission to help homeowners stay in their homes. We are a catalyst for the neighborhood to improve...." In addition, Habitat will try to acquire abandoned properties in the project area, to rehab them and sell them on the open market.

Someone is bound to say I shouldn't compare Habitat to for-profit developers. That's it's comparing apples to oranges. But my point is that the Habitat approach--simply taking what we have and improving it---is more in keeping with the part of Norristown's Comprehensive Plan dealing with preserving our look. Somehow though, when developers come in saying we need modern makeovers in our town, no one will say no to them. 

Habitat in N-town, 2008.

Habitat has helped Norristown out before. Between 1992 and 2011, they did extensive rehabilitation on 21 homes. This new project are lighter repairs, but will effect more blocks. And once the neighborhood starts looking good again, those fixed-up abandoned houses should sell.

I'm happy to say that Council unanimously endorsed the project, and agreed to help in any way they could

Cramped Neighborhoods=Poor Neighborhoods

(Although the developer's caption says Basin, this photo on their website is titled "Dekalb front." To me, this looks like a warehouse.)

I researched the history of one of Norristown's houses for an article I did some years back. It was a brick rowhome in the West End, built by a developer named Jamison in 1885. Jamison was responsible for a lot of the rowhouses built in town at that time.

Currently, the residents of most of these rowhouses are lower income, if not downright poor. Some are lower-middle income, but you'd be hard-pressed to anyone better off in those neighborhoods. Many of the residents rent their houses, and some only rent a one-floor apartment in those small dwellings.

But when I looked up the previous owners of this one house, I found homeowers who were solid middle-class. Some were tradesmen and middle managers, but many were entrepreneurs who owned their own businesses. These were the people Jamison built his houses for. Back then, most of the poor lived in tenement and "company" rooming houses, many down near the river. It was unheard of to build low-income housing. If you were poor, you packed your families into whatever space you could afford.

As the middle-class homeowners in the rowhomes expanded their families, or got raises and promotions at work, they moved to the newer, bigger, twin houses being built on streets farther west, and in parts of the North End. Their kids and grandkids moved to single houses, then outside of town.

Meanwhile, the rowhomes held their value through about 1910 (and the price went up a few thousand). Then, except for a spike because of the high inflation right before the Depression, they fell in value. Jamison sold the house I studied for a price amounting to about $54,000 in today's dollars. By 1955, the sale price was (in today dollars) $38,000.

The lesson of history is, the smaller a house is, and the more cramped a neighborhood is, the more likely people will move out, into a bigger dwelling with more land. The faster the turnover, the faster the house loses its value. This makes the neighborhood eventually lose value as well, until the only people willing to live there are low income.

So let's consider the "stacked townhomes" proposal for 1202 Dekalb Street that goes before the Planning Commission tonight. These are actually condos, which will be sold at market rate. On the street I researched, Jamison built 23 houses on 1.34 acres. Sarah Peck is proposing 24 houses on half the amount of land. Twice as small, twice as close to the neighbors, as your typical Norristown rowhome. That means, even though the housing units are being built for middle-income residents, those owners aren't likely to stay long. They aren't meant to, really. These are first-time homeowner dwellings.

But the faster the turnover, the faster the condos will lose their value. There are other factors, of course. If the style of the houses makes them look outdated quickly, if the building quality is such that they look worn and dingy very fast, or need repair constantly, this kind of high-density development could bring down the value of the neighborhood in as little as 10 or 20 years.

If history is an accurate classroom, "stacked townhomes" at 1202 Dekalb and at Dekalb and Elm will likely be slums in 50 to 70 years. If the houses last that long. Norristonians at the Tricentennial will look at these blocks and wonder what we were thinking.

We need to demand an end to "stacked" housing in Norristown.

Fun and Games at Muni Hall

Need a social life this week? One of these gatherings at Municipal Hall this week might fit the bill:

Tonight at 6 pm: A public hearing for 2014 projects to be funded by Community Development Block Grants. The criteria are that projects must benefit low/moderate income neighborhoods, involving the employment of those with low/moderate income, must eliminate slum and blight, and must meet an urgent community development need. These projects could be really good for Norristown. Or they could simply involve developers hawking ill-conceived, low-income housing as they try to make a fast buck off of public grants. You'll never know if you stay home. Until they build ugly high-rise apartments in your back yard.

Tomorrow (Tuesday), from 7-10 pm: Planning Commission hearings concerning a variety of projects, including our old friend, the 24 houses on 2/3 acre debacle at 1202 Dekalb. This will probably be the public's last chance to object to this horrible development, because you know objecting at next week's Council meeting will do no good.  But also on the agenda is a plan for 44 through 50 East Main Street to be consolidated into a single lot. One would assume the plan is to knock down the existing buildings to put up something big. The existing buildings are one story and kind of ugly, so no great loss, but I'd be interested to hear what's planned, given all the talk of grand and glorious 15-story structures at the latest zoning workshops. I can't make this one, so someone fill me in.

Thursday, from 11 am to 2 pm: Question and Answer session regarding the proposed zoning changes. Wouldn't you rather skip lunch at work just for the chance to ask things like, why is the county running these zoning meetings instead of Jayne Musonye, Norristown's Director of Planning? And is the reason why you don't want extra parking behind businesses so that Council can put more parking meters all the way up Dekalb? Things like that. If I have time, I may go for the whole session, just to listen and write down people's questions, then post them here in the blog. Can't make it because of work? I'm guessing they're counting on that.

So there you go, come to one or all three. Bring your friends.

What Good Is Zoning When...

First of all: Don't forget the Zoning Workshop tonight at Hancock Fire Co. (Airy between Haws and Stanbridge), 6-8 pm.

They've changed the proposed zoning map. R1 (light yellow) stays the same, that is, single-family homes on large lots. R2 (bright yellow) now encompasses the old R2 and R3--pretty much every other kind of housing except apartment houses: single-homes, twins, duplexes, rowhomes, regardless of whether the occupants own or rent.

If they really do block-by-block zoning, and don't allow anything to be built that doesn't exist on a block already, even, as they assured us, on each particular lot (that is, you wouldn't be able to build rowhouses where there were twins), these changes would be all we'd need. Though, if I lived in one of those single homes across from Rittenhouse, or over on Stanbridge or Buttonwood or Markley below Roberts, I'd have to wonder why the homes on Coolidge Blvd. get R1 protection and my block doesn't. Especially since one of those R1 blocks includes, at Markley and Freedley, 3 rowhomes, plus another apartment and a luncheonette attached to the corner house.

But today, before heading into the workshop, let's look at new construction around town. Remember those quotes from the Comprehensive Plan on my blog yesterday?  How new construction should blend in with neighboring buildings?

There's a fairly new house at Airy and Hamilton. No way could you say it blends in with the neighborhood.

The style is pure suburbia. The light yellow siding makes it stick out like a jaundiced thumb. Still, the worst feature of this house is how close it's set to its neighbor. The side yard is half the width of side yards on the rest of the block. The new house completely blocks off the southwest wall (sunniest and breeziest exposure) of the next house on Hamiton (I wouldn't think this would make the neighbor feel very neighborly). The placement of this house, and the look of it, went against the zoning, so why was it allowed?

The photo at the right are new houses on Dekalb and Elm Sts.  They blend in very well to the existing houses and I applaud that--all new houses in Norristown could take a lesson from the architectural style used here. They're also "green" construction, which is excellent. And by being low-cost, they encourage homeownership, which we need more of in town. 

The problem with these homes is, there's 12 of them, crammed into 2 lots that originally held 4 houses. They're called "stacked" townhomes, which to me sounds like a fancy name for duplex or condo. There's nowhere near enough parking for that many residents. Our zoning people say they're against packing more houses into existing spaces, yet that's just what they allowed here.

The developer, Sarah Peck of Progressive Housing Ventures, just received a variance for a similar project further up Dekalb at Basin St. The plan there is for 24 housing units on just 2/3 acre. If you live in a typical Norristown twin, try imagining 4 or 5 houses, with at least one car apiece, on your lot, and you get the ratio..

As you can see from the photo, on the block where this new development is planned, there's one set of historic twin houses. So much for block-by-block zoning.

Yes, this development means more affordable homeownership, and I assume we'll see green construction and matching achitecture like the others (we had better), but doesn't it become a quality of life issue when you pack residents in like sardines? You can't assume only single people will move in. Where will kids play with no yards? Where will extra cars go, especially when we get snow? (How unlikely is it, in Norristown, that someone will eventually get shot over a parking spot?)

The neighbors protested this development, yet they were willing to negotiate. (See Times Herald article.) They asked if the number of units could be halved, or at least reduced. They signed petitions. They tried to be heard. Council ignored them.

As I mentioned yesterday, the Comprehensive Plan talks about "infill" development. Are these the kinds of developments they mean? The Zoning people assured us at the last meeting that this could never happen, yet the variances they've been granting seems to show that they'll rubber stamp anything. And Council seems willing to embrace every developer that comes along, and continues to ignore the taxpayers.

So, what good is zoning?

Short on Plot

Looking for a little light beach reading this summer? Then don't read the Norristown Comprehensive Plan.

On the up-side, it's only 122 pages, with lots of photos, a definite improvement over the plan it replaced, which was a "War and Peace" wannabe taking up five volumes. But as books go, it's not exactly a page-turner.

The thing is, though, all Norristown residents ought to know what's in the plan, because the new zoning map is meant, supposedly, to bring this plan into compliance.  So before the first workshop tomorrow night (6 pm at Hancock Fire Company on Airy), let me equip you with a few quotes out of the plan.

"New construction should respect the existing scale and mass of existing buildings. For residential infill development, structures should mimic the scale and mass of adjacent homes on the block." 

"New construction should pay attention to setbacks, architectural style, materials, color, parking arrangement, and landscaping. Consistency with existing structures will help to better complement the existing character." 

"New construction should pay attention to setbacks, architectural style, materials, color, parking arrangement, and landscaping. Consistency with existing structures will help to better complement the existing character." 

"Both rehabilitation of old buildings and new construction should respect the predominant heights with the town and to adjacent properties. Two and three-story buildings should continue to dominate, with a minimum height of 20 feet." 

"The exterior materials used in a building's design create impressions of both the individual building and the image of Norristown as a community. The use of high-quality materials and neutral colors are encouraged to ensure compatibility with adjoining buildings and the neighborhood." 

Sounds great, doesn't it? It allows for new construction without compromising our town style.  In tomorrow's blog, I'm going to talk about how all these guidelines are already being ignored, and why that makes the scariest word in those quotes "infill."

But now, more about the plan. The most offensive part of it, I thought, was chapter 4, which talks about land use and shows examples of new construction that would work here.  I agreed with the first example, which showed Gothic style houses in Lantern Hill, Doylestown (photo at top).

The other examples, though, were high-rises of 4 stories or more in Dallas, Hoboken, and Berkeley. Someone please tell me why we have to go to cities that far away for examples. Those places have nothing in common with Norristown. In particular, they're all far larger in population than we are. Every example given would violate the guidelines above. We don't need highrises in Norristown. Here, someone would find an excuse to approve them for Section 8 housing.

Instead, here are my own examples of the kinds of new construction Norristown ought to consider. The examples were all found in southeastern PA and fit our existing architecture.

Rowhomes in Kennett Square, PA. Not unlike what we already have and the bricks would blend in. The only jarring notes, I think, would be those high steps--a lower stoop would be better.

Providence Town Center in Collegeville. This shopping center is built to look like a downtown (though sits out in the middle of nowhere). Still, the building styles would fit into Norristown's downtown (to fill in vacant lots). You could add a story to accommodate apartments or offices and they'd still fit in nicely.

If you want to glance over the town plan, go to http://norristown.org/userfiles/file/NorristownCompPlan_July2010.pdf

You can skip to page 25 to get the meat of it.

Zoning Workshop Report

Here's my report on last night's Zoning Workshop.

First, despite hearing over and over how no one knew the public was going to show up, yet how everyone was glad we had, I got the distinct impression we weren't welcome. We were told that this meeting was for the planning people to explain to council members about the proposals so "they could help present it to the public."  In my mind, that translates to the later workshops being only presentations of a finished plan, with no intention of listening to public comment and making appropriate changes before the vote.

By the way, hardly any council members showed up, so I'm not sure what the meeting would have accomplished without the public there. The best questions of the evening were voiced by my fellow citizens.

Still, I'm going to be fair and reserve final judgement until after I see the proposed zoning district definitions in print, which we were assured would happen before the next workshop (which may or may not be August 1st--stay tuned).

WHAT I LIKED

We were told that zoning would be done on a block-by-block basis. Nothing could be built on your block that wasn't already on your block. If you have a block of single houses, no one could come in, knock down two houses and build rowhouses or twins or an apartment building, regardless of your zoning district. You can go the other way--demolish a twin and build a single house--but you supposedly can't increase the number of units or families on any one block. Houses can't be converted to multiple family dwellings. Existing multiple family houses will be grandfathered in, but if those dwellings are abandoned or condemned, or the owner repeatedly fails to pay taxes or other fees, Norristown Planning can resell it with the stipulation that the number of units in the house be reduced to what's appropriate for the neighborhood.

If a prior zoning variance created a dwelling that was not in keeping with the character of the block, that sort of dwelling could not be built again. For instance, if an apartment house was built in a block filled with twins and singles, another apartment house could not be built there.

Developers can, of course, apply for zoning variances, but we were assured that in order for a variance to be approved, the developer had to show a legitimate hardship and that cases would be dealt with strictly, to protect each neighborhood.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE (or possibly didn't understand)

As I pointed out the other day, many R1-A districts will become R-2 or R-3. We were told that R-2 basically replaces the old R1-A (that isn't supposed to allow rowhouses), and the old R-2 becomes the new R-3 (which does allow rowhouses and duplexes). I asked, "If zoning is done on a block-to-block basis, why do we need separate residential districts at all?" I got no answer.

When asked why the R1-A areas on the West End and over near Arch and Johnson Hwy would become R2, while most of the 3rd District's R1-A zone would become R-3, we were told the houses in the R2 zones were all singles and twins. I pointed out many blocks in the North End were also singles and twins. I pointed at the map to show that the R2 zones contained row homes, and that many North End blocks had lots bigger than those in the proposed R2 zones, I was told I was wrong, or ignored altogether.

Here are some photos. You judge.




Rowhouses in a proposed R2 zone in the West End.






Area near Rittenhouse. Primarily single homes with a smattering of twins, some on large lots. If you go up and down Pine and Locust, you find more of the same. Powell St. has all twins. Yet this is all slated to be R3 zoning.






The block above Freedley and Astor is R2, despite having rowhomes. The big single houses below Freedley, all the way down Harding (along with some twins) are all labeled R3. I think, no matter where you live in Norristown, we can agree that future development across from Elmwood Park should NEVER be zoned for rowhomes, or even smaller, narrower houses. It would not only ruin the character of the park, but a higher population density there would make parking for events impossible.

The whole presentation was given by John Cover of the Montgomery County Planning Commission. By his comments, he was more than a mere advisor in this project. Possibly he even led it. I'm not certain, but I don't think he lives in town.  He seemed like a nice, knowledgable man, but as he talked, he got the names of  several streets wrong. So why is the County, and someone who isn't a resident and doesn't seem to know Norristown, deciding our land use for us?

Which brings me to what I especially didn't like. This whole process, we were told, was done by making a database of every property in Norristown, using Courthouse records. They did some spot-checking using aerial photography, but apparently, no one actually went out and studied the neighborhoods in person. Our neighborhoods, like our residents, have unique character and function. You ought to get to know them personally before deciding their fate.

Norristown Zoning 101

Come to the Zoning Workshops
Wed., July 10, 2013, 6 pm
Municipal Hall, 235 E. Airy St.

Subsequent dates:
· Thursday Aug 1st 2013 at 6 p.m - County Human Services Building, 1430 Dekalb St
· Thursday Aug 8th 2013 at 6 p.m – Hancock Fire Company, 820 W. Airy St.
· Thursday Aug 29st 2013 at 6 p.m – Municipal Hall, 235 E. Airy St.
 
Here's why you should go:

Above is the current zoning map for Norristown. The workshops are to explain proposed zoning changes. Now, I'd agree that the current zoning is a bit out-of-date. For instance, our "healthcare" district (in purple) is now our "abandoned building" district. Our "town center" district (light blue--what logical people call "downtown," because it's not in the center, but downhill from most of the rest of town) could now more properly be labeled our "empty lots" district.

Most of the proposed changes relate to the shades of yellow and orange, our primary residential districts. You can access the whole list of zoning codes here, but here's the gist:

Lightest yellow, R-A = "single-family detached dwellings on large lots. This district is intended to preserve the unique character of these areas, to protect and enhance neighborhood qualities and to ensure that future development will blend well with existing structures."

Bright yellow, R-1 = "single-family detached dwellings... intended to protect, stabilize, conserve and enhance neighborhood qualities and that will ensure that future development, in both new and rehabilitated structures, will blend well with the existing neighborhood character." (You'll note as the lots get smaller, "unique character" is no longer a concern).

Light yellow, R-1A = basically the same as R-1, but allows for semi-detached single-family dwellings. Since I live in an R-1A district, I can attest that whoever made up this map never visited the neighborhoods. We have many row homes as well as semi-detached, and the occasional detached. But, at least the vast majority are still single family.

Orange, R-2 = "single- and two-family dwellings", with the same clause about protecting neighborhood character. The single dwellings can be attached but not more than a row of 8 houses, and must have "vehicular access to the rear of homes."  The two-family homes are supposed to be detached, and originally designed for two families.

Apartment buildings go in the brown areas. Multi-family houses go in the olive green areas.

At this point, if you live in Norristown, you're thinking that these definitions have no foundation in reality.  For one thing, the multi-family dwellings somehow escaped their confines and spread out through the other districts. In some cases, out-of-town landlords came in and split up houses illegally, but many of these landlords were given zoning variances and the blessing of whomever was in Council at the time. In many cases, like the ugly block apartment building 2 blocks from me, "existing neighborhood character" be damned.

Here's the map of proposed zoning changes:

R-A is now called R-1, but their "unique character" seems to remain undisturbed. The major changes are that most other residential areas are now orange, labeled R-3. They want to combine most of the old "districts" into one homogenous glob. And from the definitions above, it's safe to assume that the higher the number of your zoning, the more population they want to cram into those spaces, with all the parking, trash, noise and slum-landlord problems that come with it. Not to mention a decrease in property value.

Council president Gary Simpson told a group of Norristonians that "most of the housing is a mixed bag." I got the impression that he only sees housing on paper and doesn't understand the unique character of each neighborhood. Maybe he hasn't spent enough time in each one.

So think about what you want your neighborhood to become, then come to one of the Zoning Workshops. After that, make sure you tell all 7 members of Council your opinions.