Lansdale Updating Historic Property List, Vetting Comparable Codes

Dan Sokil | The Reporter•

Lansdale resident Jean Fritz reads a list and map of historic properties in Lansdale as listed in the borough’s 2020 comprehensive plan, during the co

Lansdale is looking at neighbors in the area for ideas on how to help encourage historic preservation in town.

Council’s code committee continued talks on the topic last week, with an eye toward similar codes in other municipalities the town could draw from.

"I’m looking at ordinance language, including existing ordinances that are in place” in other towns nearby, said code director Jason Van Dame.

Historic preservation has been a discussion topic since spring, when news broke in May that the now-former Wells Fargo bank branch building at Main Street and Susquehanna Avenue, built in the early 20th century, would close in mid-August.

In late July before that closure, the Lansdale Historical Society called on council to consider several changes, including restrictions on demolition permits and creation of a new historic district, meant to preserve historic buildings. On August 26, LHS led groups of residents on a tour of "Main Street Survivors,” showing historic buildings along Main Street and their current uses, and LHS has continued to post photos on their Facebook page highlighting 1960s revitalization efforts and the buildings that were demolished at that time, alongside then-and-now comparisons of the Wells Fargo and other sites.

In September the Rite Aid pharmacy at Main and Broad streets closed, stirring memories of the Tremont Hotel that stood on that corner from the 1890s to 1997, and that month Van Dame said he was looking into language for a potential historic preservation ordinance, and/or ways to create a downtown district overseen by a historical architectural review board — as residents in adjacent Upper Gwynedd said they thought that corner could be an ideal site for low-income housing.

Talks on a town historic code continued in October, with staff saying they could start by updating a list of historic properties included in a 2020 borough comprehensive plan update.

On Nov. 1, Van Dame gave an update, including that he’s begun looking at similar preservation ordinances including one from Hatboro, a borough that has an historic commission and official Borough Historian that Lansdale could emulate.

"It’s a pretty extensive historic preservation ordinance, and includes everything from demolition protections, the details for how and why a property can be considered to be on the list, how a property can be added to the list or removed from the list, incentives for development of historic properties,” he said.

"The big thing that we’re really looking for is that demolition protection, initially,” Van Dame said.

Staff are also looking at a similar code from Coopersburg that has similar protections, and will work with the town’s solicitor to prepare a draft code the committee can then vet before voting it ahead to council, Van Dame said. Resident Bruce Schwartz asked if any of those codes had been subject to legal challenges, and if the codes would have to be limited to Pennsylvania or could draw from elsewhere, and Van Dame said he’d look into both and report back to the committee.

Talks have also begun between borough staff, the town’s planning commission, the Lansdale Historical Society, and the Montgomery County Planning Commission on updating the historic property list from the 2020 plan.

"They’re working on that list, and they’re going through and evaluating the existing list, as well as potentially recommending any other properties that might want to apply to that list,” Van Dame said.

Resident Jean Fritz asked how many properties are on the list, and Van Dame said the 2020 list contains about 40, but staff and the planning commission have identified more that could be added, and "some that may not really be applicable” and could be removed.

"We’ve been really just considering the commercial properties at this point. And we’ve divided them into commercial and institutional — by institutional, meaning schools, churches, parks, things owned by the municipal government, like this building,” said LHS President Pat Rieker, referring to the borough hall building that was constructed as a post office in the 1930s, renovated into borough offices in the 1980s, and gutted and rebuilt in 2013-15.

What qualifies a property to be considered historical? That’s what the new code will have to spell out, Van Dame said, and he suggested a semantic change could help bring clarity.

"I like to use the term ‘significant’ rather than ‘historical.’ There could be more modern construction that, when you talk about Lansdale, you know it’s there,” he said, before citing one of the town’s most visible examples, the 1950s-era water storage tank near Third Street.

"The water tower is not a significant historical structure, but it is a significant structure that’s very noticeable. Some of the ordinances have, ‘Famous people lived in them,’ and grew up in them, or the architecture of the building, or the age of the building, potentially they were designed by a famous architect, those types of things,” Van Dame said.

One resident who asked not to be identified said she lives in a house that dates back to the early 1900s, and a near neighbor in a similar house recently made a big change that a preservation code could have prevented.

"They just lopped off the whole top of the house, and took away all of its 1900 character. How does that get approved? The whole character of the house is totally lost,” she said.

Van Dame answered that early talks have focused on commercial and institutional properties because of concerns about the downtown vacancies, but a residential code could lead to a program that residents opt into, and provides certain protections once voluntarily applied.

A formal conditional use hearing would give council and the public a chance to give input, and could allow council to set conditions, such as the preservation of a historic façade or walls while the rest of a building is renovated. Rulings from council in such a hearing could be challenged in court, he said, but could also make a property owner think twice before a project.

"That would really make people stop and consider, ‘Is this the right thing to do?’ And it’ll be a public meeting, so there’ll be opportunity for public pressure, to say ‘This needs to be saved, let’s raise some money and buy it.’ That’s the concept behind it,” Van Dame said.

Resident Dominic Frascella added another option to consider: in Phoenixville, he said, that borough removed minimum parking requirements in their downtown business district roughly a decade ago, and saw development thrive since more uses were available to property owners.

"You see a ton of private parking lots that are very under-utilized. A number of historic buildings that are no longer there, that were turned into open pavement (for parking) — just think of what could have been,” he said.

"They removed the minimums from their downtown, and Phoenixville didn’t implode. In fact, some people would say it’s thriving. That could be another lever to pull, to de-incentivize people from tearing down existing historic buildings,” Frascella said.

Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Nov. 15 and the code enforcement committee next meets at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 6, both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.

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