Lesser of Two Evils

Tonight is the monthly Zoning Board Hearing at Municipal Hall at 7 pm. Nothing really earth-shattering on the agenda, but one of the items had me thinking how often Norristown has a choice of options, none of which are really good for our community.

In this case, at 672 Kohn Street, our choice is between an abandoned neighborhood bar and too many apartments in too small of a house.

The landlord, Santiago Ramos who lives outside of Norristown on North Whitehall Road in West Norriton, wants to convert the vacant downstairs bar of the house to a 3-bedroom, 2 bath apartment. The house already has 2 other apartments on the 2nd and 3rd floor. (Looking at the photo, you can imagine how small the 3rd floor apartment must be.) The apartments, as far as I can tell, are accessed by fire escapes at the rear (see the photo below).

Mr. Ramos is the new owner (as of April). You can tell from the photos that the old owner didn't take great care of the property, from the uneven bricks under the 3rd floor windows, to the odd pointing job next to the door, to the crumbling sidewalk and blacktop at the back. I would hope Mr. Ramos would fix up the building a bit and make it look nicer.

Though my point today is simply to look at the uses of the property. Neighborhood bars, since "Cheers" was on TV, have been romanticized a bit, but the reality is, especially in neighborhoods where there's no buffer zone between the bar and the closest houses, is that most people wouldn't move in next to a bar. Unless they're extremely well-kept, their presence lowers the property values. All the more so if they look like as rundown as 672 Kohn St. Where we could use an extra bar and more nightlife is downtown near the theaters.

But in Norristown, so many of our small rowhouses are already triplex or larger multi-family dwellings. Our parking is maxed out. Trash, when that many families live on top of each other, is so big a problem that the alleys are filled with it 7 days a week. Sometimes our streets, too.

On that block of Kohn Street, no matter what time of day, parking spots are filled up. Kohn is one-way toward the river, so you have to go around several blocks to get back to the 700 block of Kohn to look for parking there. Oak Street seems to only have parking on one side in that block.

In the photo of the rear of 672 Kohn, you can see that there's room for only about 2 parking spots behind the building. With 3 units inside, the requisite amount the owner must provide is supposed to be 6 spaces. So that would be another variance.

But, still, assuming Mr. Ramos fixes the place up and that his rentors are responsible people, an occupied apartment is probably better than a bar, and far better than anything vacant.

So, a choice of two evils. Which seems to be the norm in these situations.

Why Norristown Floods

(AND HOW OUR PLANNING COMMISSION COULD MAKE IT WORSE).
During this morning's storm, 10 inches of water swept along and over the curbs of my street. I assume Elmwood Park flooded--Stony Creek always does in this kind of weather.

Norristown was built on hills, with two creeks--Stony and Saw Mill Run--at the bottom. Much of the hill between the 2 streams is paved and developed. Rainwater is only absorbed by lawns and gardens. So when we get a torrential downpour, much of the rain that falls on that hill drains down the side streets from Dekalb to each creek.

I got to thinking about that proposed development at 1202 Dekalb, where 24 housing units with no yards would replace 2/3 of an acre of grass and trees. I wondered how much rainwater that parcel now absorbed.

I found a formula online: Every 1000 square feet of grass absorbs about 600 gallons per one-inch rainfall. The parcel at 1202 Dekalb is over 29,000 sq. ft. That's about 18,000 gallons of runoff per one-inch of rain.

The storm this morning lasted over 2 hours. I don't know the official measure yet, but I'd guess we had about 2 inches of rain. That means, if the houses at 1202 Dekalb had already been built, 36,000 extra gallons of water would have drained down the hill into one of our creeks. Or into the basements of residences along the way.

Remember the house on Penn St. that collapsed earlier this year? Saw Mill Run goes underground in that area. Before the dam on Fornance was built, East Penn, Main and Lafayette Sts. flooded in every big storm. The houses down there always have basement flooding problems. A wet season was enough to undermine the foundation of one house this time. Keep paving uphill from there, and you'll have more collapses.

Ironically, Norristown's website has a page about Storm Water Management. Here's a quote: "Direct all downspouts away from pervious surfaces and onto lawns." (The word "pervious" is actually not correct here, but we'll assume they mean "nonabsorbent.")  Here's another quote: "Rain Gardens or Grassy Swales: These specially designed gardens can be planted with native vegetation to provide an area for rainwater to collect and soak into the ground. Stormwater from rooftop drains and pavement areas can be directed to these vegetated areas."  Except that, lately, zoning variances are doing away with lawns and vegetation.

And so, another plea for people to show up to the Planning Commission meeting tonight. (Municipal Hall, 7 pm).  If you let the rain keep you away, the next flood could be on your property. Even if you live at the top of the hill, they'll use your tax money to fix the damage.