In West Mt. Airy, wrestling over whether to pursue historic designation

Homeowners in the Pelham section of West Mt Airy are passionate about their neighborhood They love its tight-knit feel its history of deliberate and thoughtful racial integration and its distinctive collection of grand turn-of-the-century homes designed by renowned architects Particular residents have been researching and writing about the neighborhood s history for decades and thinking about how to preserve its special look and feel in the face of expansion pressures I love this neighborhood We live in this amazing historic old-house neighborhood explained Colleen Floyd-Carroll whose family spent years restoring their -year-old home on Pelham Road We want to keep it and you know things are changing Fabulous homes are being torn down for vinyl-siding-covered boxes that don t at all fit our neighborhood and won t last The stately Robert M Hogue House built in at Pelham Road in West Mt Airy Emma Lee WHYY Over the past two years West Mt Airy Neighbors WMAN a registered area organization has held a series of meetings on whether to seek official historic designation of Pelham which would ban demolition of historic buildings within the district s boundaries as well as notable alterations to their exteriors The process has unfolded during a period of increased contention over historic preservation in Philadelphia A surge in district designations over the past minimal years is drawing blowback Three fresh designations including one covering apartment buildings in Mt Airy and Germantown are being challenged in court Councilmember Mark Squilla has proposed amendments to the city s Historic Preservation law that would eliminate chosen criteria for designation and could encourage speedy demolition of structures being considered for protection In West Mt Airy residents are now wrestling with chosen of the concerns that critics of district designation have raised such as proposes that it results in higher repair and maintenance costs for homeowners causes gentrification by boosting property values and harms affordability The discussions underscore the lack of robust facts on the long-term effects of designation and the basic fact that historic preservation efforts are necessarily driven by advocates rather than by a neutral arbiter who presents the pros and cons of designation In Pelham that has led to suspicion about the process and concerns that preservation supporters are trying to railroad through the designation Leaders of the designation effort claim that historic preservation is a means of fostering diversity without providing any sources to endorsement this contended Lindsey Adams who is part of a neighborhood group on West Hortter Street Meanwhile we are concerned it s another way to force out families who don t meet a certain social status which is comprehensively antithetical to Mt Airy s history Truly striking diversity Pelham dates to the s when the -acre estate of millionaire drug maker George W Carpenter was sold to the Drexel Company and developed to take advantage of the new Chestnut Hill West rail line Developers Herman Wendell and Willard Smith put talented young architects like Horace Trumbauer and Charles B Keen to work designing various homes in a variety of revival styles including Tudor Jacobean Flemish Italianate Georgian Queen Anne Norman Classical and a range of idiosyncratic hybrid styles according to a history by the late Burt Froom A map of West Mt Airy s Pelham neighborhood Athenaeum of Philadelphia via WMAN The locality was architecturally diverse with twin homes small single homes and huge impressive mansions that catered to both middle-class and wealthy tastes according to a Inquirer article marking Pelham s centennial It s a beautiful and very beloved portion of West Mt Airy and it s home to both gorgeous architecture and a truly striking diversity of income levels and home values explained Adams who bought her home in The neighborhood was also among the first in the U S to be successfully integrated After World War II while various other areas were becoming segregated because of blockbusting and redlining local group and religious leaders discouraged discriminatory housing policies and promoted a unified approach to welcoming people to the neighborhood regardless of race Maintaining that diversity in part by avoiding gentrification is a priority for particular of the residents involved in the historic designation discussions That s a legacy we want to hold up We want to keep it going commented Floyd-Carroll who is not a member of WMAN s historic preservation initiative committee but is involved in designation conversations I m spending a lot of my capacity and time on this thinking about How do we make this work Asking unanswerable questions The three-year-old committee has successfully nominated a number of buildings around Mt Airy for designation by the city s Historical Commission and last year it received a state Keystone grant to pay for the research needed to write a nomination for Pelham WMAN hasn t yet officially decided to pursue the designation and hasn t commissioned an architectural consultant to start working on the application But it has held four meetings this year to explain the process to residents including two attended by Paul Steinke executive director of the nonprofit Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia A West Mt Airy Neighbors lawn sign on Emlen Street is part of an effort to create the Pelham historic district Emma Lee WHYY Adams announced the first two meetings were not well-advertised and specific members of her group only became aware of the initiative in late summer When she then attended a meeting in September and raised her concerns for example that chosen families would not be able to afford home repairs that satisfy Historical Commission guidelines she announced she was treated dismissively by specific committee members The response was you don t know that and you re making this an us versus them she mentioned I was really just trying to get the word out that this might affect people differently and what s going to happen if people can t afford to work on their houses That was very much disliked She commented she s open to the idea of designation but has been turned off by the committee s approach and their inability to answer basic questions What homes are in the district That can t be answered because apparently until the research begins they won t know How will a vote be taken They don t know Will prices increase They don t know she recalled They did say that you re not going to be able to do the cheapest repairs or buy the cheapest door at Home Depot which I mean of module not But actual numbers are just not provided A home on Pelham Road in West Mt Airy s proposed Pelham historic district Emma Lee WHYY WMAN subsequently set up a fourth population meeting in early November to give residents another opportunity to air their concerns and a fifth meeting is planned I strongly supported just having a society conversation so that these questions could come to the table so everyone had an opportunity to voice their opinion and concerns explained preservation committee member Lisa Kolakowsky-Smith who is an architectural historian They re legitimate every person s concern is a legitimate concern Adams and her neighbors also met separately with WMAN executive director Josephine Winter and Floyd-Carroll who pulled together a list of city programs that can help residents affordably maintain their historic homes Morrie Zimmerman an architect who is helping lead WMAN s preservation initiative referred questions about the meetings to Winter Stymied by a lack of facts Steinke mentioned one of the challenges with the designation process is that perhaps of the population including owners of historic homes don t know the city s regulations Particular harbor misconceptions for example that they re going to be forced to paint their house a certain color after designation he noted That may be in part because it s no one s job to educate the residents at large Historical Commission staff and contributors like the WMAN committee members are available to answer questions but they are preservation advocates rather than impartial providers of information Adams described the presentation she saw as being like a sales pitch WMAN invited a preservation supporter from the Powelton Village historic district to speak at a meeting but Adams declared she d be interested in hearing a counter-perspective from homeowners who have struggled to afford repairs or had other poor experiences following designation An elaborate crest adorns the side of a home at Westview Street and Cresheim Road in West Mt Airy Emma Lee WHYY I guess I ll have to try and get somebody to come out from I don t know the anti-Preservation Alliance Steinke quipped I forget where their headquarters is who s on their board but somebody from there would be great I m not going to fulfill that role he announced Winter declared she runs WMAN on behalf of residents and doesn t take a position on designation She noted that she s the organization s only paid employee Assembling a group of people who have had a wide range of experiences with designation would be great but also labor-intensive and perhaps beyond the scope of what we have maximum for she noted But if somebody requested to do that I would absolutely help provide a room and get as several people as I could to attend Another issue is the lack of figures on the effects of historic designation Particular studies around the country have shown that homes in historic districts appreciate in value more briskly than other properties although it s not clear if that s due to designation or other factors Several studies show the opposite effect Restrictions associated with designated homes could deter buyers and truly suppress home values in particular places The historic Fairelawn Manor at Pelham Road in West Mt Airy was built between and Emma Lee WHYY I reliably say what happens to a neighborhood is more influenced by macroeconomic factors jobs nearby schools crime That will dictate more about neighborhood trajectories than whether or not there s any kind of historic regulation Steinke commented There doesn t appear to be any research on how designation affects spending on exterior repairs like replacing doors and windows It s often assumed that short-term costs will be higher because new or replaced building elements have to fit the Historical Commission s guidelines for quality and historic accuracy Historic designation will not invariably allow you to do the cheapest and majority of expedient thing Steinke announced It will recommend more durable materials that will last longer but may cost more Not invariably but sometimes Slate roofs come up as an example or windows constantly Deciding how to decide Then there s the procedural question of how to decide whether to pursue the lengthy and sometimes costly process of researching hundreds of homes assembling archival materials writing a review and going through the Historical Commission review process Anybody can nominate a home or district to be designated including non-residents For districts a registered population organization like WMAN will often organize the effort with the group leaders or a set of members spearheading the work and submitting the nomination In Powelton Village members of the local RCO voted to move ahead with the process but there s no rule requiring a vote A home at the interesction of Pelham Road and West Phil Ellena Street in West Mt Airy is surrounded by large trees Emma Lee WHYY WMAN must now decide essentially how to decide whether to endorse the idea of nomination and hire a consultant Winter announced We have not yet started the process because we don t know if that s what the neighbors really want and West Mount Airy Neighbors as an organization will not move forward in supporting the designation unless we know for sure that the neighbors encouragement it she disclosed We have to talk to the neighbors and they have to help us figure out what does consensus mean to them Winter revealed the WMAN committee might have put the cart before the horse by applying for the Keystone grant before conducting locality engagement Meanwhile Steinke who has observed the evolution of numerous nominations over the years argues the group should just start the process and leave a final decision for later on They re trying to find an elusive consensus whereas other RCOs have had strong consensus in their leadership to go out and write a nomination and then sell it to the public That s what I suggested that Morrie do is write the nomination he reported You know people want to know what the boundaries are That hasn t been decided yet People want to know why it deserves historic district status and the nomination covers that Steinke commented So that s been my suggestion The post In West Mt Airy wrestling over whether to pursue historic designation appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY