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January 18, 2016 Letter to Mayor Kenney

From: Lynn's mail [mailto:LynnLandes@earthlink.net]
Sent: Monday, January 18, 2016 9:33 AM
To: 'James.Kenney@phila.gov'
Cc: 'Mark.Squilla@phila.gov'; 'Donald.Carlton@phila.gov'; 'Jon.Farnham@phila.gov'
Subject: Restoration Issues for Philly's Historic Small Streets

Dear Mayor Kenney:  Philadelphia has had a Historic Street District ‘restoration program’ since 1999, but many residents who live on those streets have yet to benefit from this program.  They have waited long enough for safe – walkable - streets. We would appreciate your support on their behalf.  The Philadelphia Society of Small Streets (PSSS) is dedicated to the preservation and proper restoration of Philly’s historic small streets. We host both a meetup group and website.  We have several issues that we work on with Councilman Mark Squilla, the Streets Department, and the Historical Commission.  Councilman Squilla has been very accessible and vigilant in this effort.  And the Streets Department and Historical Commission have been responsive to many of our concerns.  However, serious issues persist.

Briefly, we would like city officials to do the following:

• Give priority on first restoring historic streets that are lined with historic homes in the historic districts, starting in Old City and Center City, then radiate outward, rather than select back alleys, new construction, and remote locations, which unfortunately has occurred in the past.  
• Require developers to restore onsite historic streets as part of their approval process by the city.
• Remove the concrete foundation under Camac "The Wood" Street, (so that the street can drain properly), plus experiment with more water resistant tree species for the wood blocks.
• Use "modified aggregate" for street foundations, not “concrete foundations and mortar”, which presents a myriad of serious problems for property owners.
• Put an end to "Plumbers' Patches" on historic streets. Historic pavers are designed to be picked up and placed back down again. Currently, contractors can fill their ditches on historic streets with asphalt, leaving behind numerous unsafe and unsightly patches.

We have more detailed information below and on our website: www.SmallStreetsPhilly.org.  We greatly appreciate anything you can do to make our historic small streets, safe and attractive, for the residents who live on them and the visitors who use them. Thank you for your attention.

Lynn and Cliff Landes, founders
The Philadelphia Society of Small Streets (PSSS)
http://www.smallstreetsphilly.org/
http://www.meetup.com/The-Philadelphia-Society-of-Small-Streets-PSSS/
217 S. Jessup Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
lynnlandes@earthlink.net
215-629-3553

cc: PSSS membership

TOP 3 PSSS PROPOSALS

1. RESTORATION PRIORITY:

• Place priority on (the city) first restoring historic streets that are lined with historic homes in the historic districts starting in Old City and Center City, then radiate outward, rather than select back alleys, new construction, and remote locations (which occurred as the result of a 2014 survey).  
• Developers should be required to restore onsite historic streets as part of the approval process by the city

2. PREFERRED CONSTRUCTION DESIGN:

• The Streets Department should adopt something similar to the Netherland's model (see http://tiger-stone.com/) of 15 inches of pulverized concrete (although we prefer "modified aggregate") and on top, 2-6 inches of sand of good quality, not like the sand on a beach, (we prefer "screening"), rather than the Streets Dept current standard of an 8-12 inch concrete base and mortar.
• The spacing between the bricks and stones should be tightly set, and in some cases, stone pavers should be ground smooth in order to make walking and biking safe and easy. 

The case AGAINST the Streets Department's current "concrete foundation & mortar" requirement for historic streets, includes the following:

• a concrete foundation makes it extremely difficult to access underground utilities and can cause damage by vibration to nearby underground utilities, adjacent buildings, and historic structures during removal by jackhammer, backhoes, etc.
• after excavation, concrete chunks generally get thrown back into plumbers ditches, thereby creating future subsidence problems
• concrete conceals any "subsidence" issues until they become catastrophic
• it prevents road surface permeability for rainwater
• creates wet conditions, particularly harmful for wood and brick pavers, as well as stone
• directs water toward buildings and basements
• increases storm water run-off
• mortar between pavers, rather than tightly-fitted pavers, can make walking or biking very difficult
• Camac Street, The Wood Street, between Walnut and Locust is completely rotting away due to concrete foundation under a sand layer, as well as the type of wood.  Black locust, Osage Orange, or another water-tolerant species of tree should be used or at least experimented with.  See our special Wood Streets webpage

3. PLUMBERS PATCHES:  These patches are an unnecessary waste of the city's time, money, and effort.  Historic pavers are designed to be picked up and placed back down again. Currently, contractors can fill their ditches on historic streets with asphalt, leaving behind numerous unsafe and unsightly patches for the city to repair. Contractors who dig into city streets should be required to put the street back as they found it (historic or not).  This is more easily done on historic streets if contractors don't have to drill through a concrete foundation.

UPDATE 1/15/16 (Unfortunately, the following program still allows for plumbers patches).  MAY 2014: GOOD NEWS! One of our main goals is to stop unsightly "plumbers patches". A pilot program to allow homeowners to contract historic street restorations through their plumbing contractors will run from July to December 2014.  Residents will save $450 on their permits. Previously, plumbers felt that they had to pour an asphalt or concrete patch. Homeowners had to wait years for the city to get around to restoring the patch, which rarely occurred. Now, homeowners have the option to contract for the restoration work to be done immediately.  So, congratulations to everyone. We think that this is a good first step toward putting an end to unsightly "plumbers patches", and it wouldn't have happened without your support. Thank you!  Now we need to put an end to ‘plumbers patches’ permanently.  They are blighting our community and wasting taxpayers dollars. What's the point of restoring a historic street if the very next week a contractor can pour a plumbers patch, as happened with the newly restored 200 block of Warnock Street in 2012!

• See link: http://www.philadelphiastreets.com/highways/historic-streets/historic-streets-plumbers-ditch-restoration-pilot/ (Pilot was to end Dec 2014)
• See Plan Philly article: http://planphilly.com/eyesonthestreet/2014/05/20/historic-street-repair-pilot-program-starts-in-july