The lot at 2201-17 E. York St. is cracked and patchy, with grass sprouting out of the crumbling blacktop. It was once the site of the Horatio B. Hackett School – before the building burned down in 1969 and the school moved across the street. Nowadays, it hosts little more than cars and the occasional washer tournament.

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But this quiet patch of land, located along the border of Fishtown and East Kensington, has sparked contentious debate among neighbors as the School District of Philadelphia prepares to build a new rain garden. Many are eager to see the stormwater management project, championed by the Friends of Hackett School booster group, come to life. Others feel slighted by the school district, and say tearing up the blacktop will endanger public health. 

Though the fight has come to a head over the past year, the foundation was laid well over a decade ago, when the Philadelphia Water Department and school district announced a green infrastructure upgrade.

Greening the Hackett School lot

The stormwater management project at Hackett School was originally conceived as a piece of the PWD’s Green City, Clean Waters program, a 25-year initiative to stem the volume of stormwater entering Philly sewers and reduce pollution in the process. State and federal regulations require the city to decrease its stormwater pollution by 85% by 2036 – and parks, streets, sidewalks, city facilities, commercial land and schools are all part of the plan to reach that goal.

A new project at Hackett School was announced in 2014. PWD promised to transform the asphalt schoolyard into a “lush green space with benefits for students, the neighboring communities and the environment.” The plans called for new trees, an outdoor classroom and a rain garden of non-invasive, native plants that would collect rainwater runoff from nearby streets.

“We have such a large blacktop and we’re close to the river, so it’s an obvious spot for a rain garden,” said Abby Guido, president of the board of Friends of Hackett. “… The purpose of rain gardens is that this is going to help us process water, so the polluted water does not go directly into our river and into our water supply.”

The COVID-19 pandemic and other factors delayed the project several times, she said. It sat dormant for years, until a $1.68 million grant from the water department got the ball rolling again. That money was earmarked in December 2022 for the following fiscal year. Friends of Hackett launched an additional fundraising effort in January 2024.

“I live across the street from it, and it would be a game changer for us,” said Bryan Satalino, a father of two students at Hackett School. “It would be great for my kids. They’re over there all the time. My son plays soccer over there. My daughter’s going over there to play in the jungle gyms and to meet with friends. And so this would be an opportunity to have some green space in the neighborhood that just doesn’t have enough of it.”

Though much of the proposal is concentrated on the school’s playground, it also encompasses the lot at 2201-17 E York St. This would be the site of the project’s bioswale. These structures are similar to rain gardens in that they capture stormwater with a bed of native plants, but they’re typically larger and more intricate, with a greater capacity to collect and filter runoff. This particular bioswale would include a stormwater storage trench, installed beneath the ground. 

It would also eliminate parking spots that neighbors have unofficially used for decades. When those neighbors learned of the plans later in 2024, they were furious.

Cars and contamination

Mike Lang has lived across the street from Hackett School his entire life. He was a baby, he says, when the 1969 fire burned down the original school building and families including his had to evacuate the area. The community and school have had an unspoken understanding about the parking spots since his parents used them, he claims. In return, he had long led cleanup efforts to rid the lot of needles, trash and overgrown weeds. He also holds a washer tournament in the space each year to raise money for Prevention Point and other organizations tackling the drug crisis in Kensington. The competition was organized in memory of his son Mikey, who died of a heroin overdose at the age of 29.

Lang had never heard of the stormwater project until a teacher mentioned it to him last year. When he realized it would eliminate parking, he began talking to his neighbors and looking up the specs online to “find out what the heck’s going on.” Later that summer, signs went up warning drivers not to park in the lot. When some residents did, their cars were towed away.

“They didn’t inform people,” Lang said. “It’s amazing that nobody on the block where the work is going to be happening was ever notified what was going on. If we didn’t find out the way we did, we still probably wouldn’t have known until the day that they showed up and started towing vehicles.”

The school district disputes this characterization — the “school community” initiated the project, a spokesperson said, and Hackett School and Friends of Hackett have posted updates along the way — but Lang and others got a forum in October 2024, when a community meeting convened at the school. Both Lang and Guido say it went poorly. The situation stagnated until the debate shifted gears. 

Shawn Kearney, another resident opposed to the plans, noticed someone bagging soil samples from the lot. After researching proper collection methods, he decided to gather his own samples and send them off for testing at Penn State University’s agricultural analytical services laboratory. The results showed high levels of multiple chemicals, including lead. The soil had a lead reading of 347.59 parts per million, well over the 200 ppm screening level recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

“You have a contaminated lot,” Kearney said. “How about fixing that rather than opening up the soil and creating dust and possibly poisoning neighborhood homes? Why don’t you fix your contaminated soil first?”

The school district does not dispute the soil’s contamination. A spokesperson said the district’s own testing, contracted through the Kleinfelder firm, found “elevated” concentrations of benzo(a)pyrene, benzo(b)fluoranthene and lead. All of them were above Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection standards. 

“A plan has been developed to remove the urban fill impacted soils from the site in conjunction with the stormwater improvement project,” Christina Clark, a communications officer for the school district, continued via email. “The soil will be properly disposed of as regulated fill at a permitted facility in accordance with PADEP guidelines. Clean fill will be imported, as needed, to replace the contaminated soils that are removed.”

Kearney and Lang, who say they were never informed of these plans, remain skeptical of the mitigation efforts. The project’s boosters, on the other hand, argue the school district’s response is appropriate – and the panic overblown. Soil in urban areas, particularly former factory hubs, tends to carry greater lead concentrations. Guido experienced this firsthand when her daughter tested high for lead, an issue she says most of her friends in the neighborhood have faced. After a doctor advised her family to take off their shoes when they entered their home, her daughter’s levels improved.

She and Satalino both see a bitter sort of irony in their neighbors criticizing a stormwater management project over environmental concerns. 

“I walk by that lot every day, and if there’s a missing car, you’ve got oil stains all over the place,” Satalino said. “I mean, come on now, it’s like a straw man argument to say that, oh, well, the lead content is a worry now.”

The school district plans to begin construction on the project in September. Once complete, Hackett School will have a new playground and the neighborhood a new stormwater management system. Until then, the lot will remain in its current state, decaying and with a bit more debris. Lang has stopped picking it up.

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