Traffic engineer Mark Bickerton of Pennoni & Associates shows Lansdale’s borough council a concept for upgrades along “Phase 2” of the borough’s planned East Main Street streetscape project, including new sidewalks, decorative lights and drainage inlets along Main east of Line Street along the frontage of Memorial Park, in 2020. (Credit: screenshot of online meeting)
After years of preparation and delay, mostly due to COVID, our Main Street Streetscape Project is underway! This $3.2 million dollar project is going to help improve and repair critical sidewalk, crosswalk, lighting, and drainage infrastructure that will, ultimately, make our community a better place to live. However, with this improvement comes one negative impact, the removal of many trees on Main Street.
As many of you have noticed, the trees were removed when preparation for our streetscape project began. This was due to the need to upgrade and meet current ADA standards for the sidewalks as improvements were made. Under the ADA laws we do not have to upgrade infrastructure to meet new standards unless planned work is underway. Once the Streetscape project was approved with the intent to improve the sidewalks, the new ADA standards were expected to be met which means the trees had to be removed.
Additionally, based on current best practices to promote urban tree growth, our existing tree pits were too small for the trees previously planted. Their roots were expanding beyond the space dedicated to them. If we left the trees alone their roots would, inevitably, damage the new sidewalk and curbing that is being put in place for the project, decreasing the life of our streetscape investment. Also, it was noted that some of the trees, likely due to the pit being too small, were dying already. It made more sense to cut them down now when we can address the sidewalk space comprehensively through the project.
Obviously, it is not anyone’s preference to remove trees from our community. In fact, we have planted many new trees in our parks and on the bike trail over the last several years to help expand the volume of shaded areas in our community and to just make it a more enjoyable place to call home.
Once the Streetscape project is completed, there is some hope that we may be able to add non-permanent planter boxes for shrubs to help add to the beauty of our downtown area. Obviously, the shrubs do not offer the same value that full grown trees can provide, namely in shade. However, there is a desire to see greenery restored to the area as best we can within the confines of the ADA rules and expectations.
In the coming weeks we are hoping to reengage our engineer about how we can continue to invest in adding shade and new trees to both the borough and Main Street where appropriate. Perhaps there are other planting options that can take advantage of a smaller planting pit (lavender or other honeybee attracting bushes, perhaps). One of the many things that makes our community such a great place to live is our access to green space and nature. I believe there may be multiple ways to approach this challenge and I am excited to see how creative we can be helping to keep our community moving forward together.
