Residents to help preserve street trees
Columbia Avenue homeowners to take over maintenance
LANSDALE >> An agreement is in the works that could keep a block of a Lansdale street green for the foreseeable future.
Council could vote this week to put on paper an agreement to preserve three trees on the 800 block of Columbia Avenue.
“The trees were slated to be removed as part of a project, but residents are asking that they remain,” said councilman Rich DiGregorio.
“Staff have reviewed the tree issue, and are recommending approval of this agreement to save the trees. And the curb along the stretch with the trees will be slightly modified to prevent damage to the roots,” he said.
On that block, those trees stand dozens of feet tall, casting shade over several houses and on construction equipment stationed in the street for a repaving project. During a visit last week, Pat Gillen, owner of one of the two houses the trees in question stand in front of, said he’s been caring for the trees since moving to the street in 1988, paying for trims every few years.
“Can you imagine this block, without these trees? With how much shade they put here?” he said.
Gillen and other neighbors said the last major resurfacing work on the street was done roughly 20 years ago, in the late 1990s, and that he plans to shift his stretch of sidewalk a foot or two back from the curb to avoid conflict with the trees. He estimates the sycamore trees in question, two in front of his house and a third in front of a neighbor, are between 100 and 200 years old, and said he’s heard that sycamores can live to as old as 600 if undamaged and cared for — and could cost up to $20,000 to remove.
As contractors have begun preliminary work on the road paving, he added, crews have recently been working on utility lines below the roadway ahead of surface-level work.
“The other day, they hit a gas main here, and shut down — and the guys were all sitting here, under the tree.”
The draft agreement shifting maintenance responsibly for the three trees was discussed by council’s code enforcement committee on July 7, and voted ahead for approval by full council on July 21, according to DiGregorio and borough Director of Community Development Jason Van Dame.
“The agreement is basically indemnifying the borough for construction, and documenting that the property owners will take responsibility for the future maintenance of the trees, tree removal, any damage the trees cause to the upcoming improvements there — the sidewalks,” Van Dame said.
“The solicitor felt that with this agreement in place, we could make those modifications (to the sidewalk routes), so the borough could save the trees,” he said.
Councilman Leon Angelichio said he was glad to see lessons learned from a similar tree tangle on a road paving project just blocks away in 2016.
“I recall a few years ago, when there was work done on Perkiomen (Avenue), a lot of the root systems were cut, and it seems, one at a time, those old-growth trees are just dying off, which is a shame,” he said. “I’m glad somebody took the time and effort to want to hang on to some old trees.”
And councilman BJ Breish agreed, adding thanks for the homeowners for working with the borough: “They’re beautiful trees, and I’m glad we’re hopefully able to come to an agreement to allow them to stay.”
Lansdale’s borough council next meets at 7 p.m. tonight, July 21, at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.