1975: The neighbors organize
When York rewrote its zoning ordinance in 1975, residents of the city's south side organized and stopped key Springdale properties from being rezoned for commercial use. The Springdale Neighborhood Association grew out of that effort.
“A neighborhood is more than a collection of attractive homes on tree-lined streets.” That is how the association’s own history opens its chapter on itself, and it dates the turning point to 1975, when the City of York rewrote its zoning ordinance.
The trend at the time was to rezone residential property for commercial use. Residents saw that if it continued, the city would lose its livable neighborhoods, so the citizens of South York organized and defeated the proposed rezoning of key properties within Springdale. Their South York Neighborhood Association was later dissolved in favor of smaller associations covering areas with more consistent zoning, and the Springdale Neighborhood Association was formed in that reorganization, in 1977.
Zoning has stayed a concern ever since, but the neighbors found that working together was also a pleasure. Membership meetings, block parties, and Halloween get-togethers followed, along with a newsletter. When traffic and safety became worries in the 1980s, the association’s elected representatives started traffic counts and studies and a Neighborhood Watch.
In the late 1990s another traffic study, pursued with the City, brought the traffic circles on Springettsbury Avenue, four-way stops at busy internal intersections, and limits on left turns into Springdale from Rathton Road. It also left small green spaces, at the circles, at Rathton and Springdale Roads, and on the triangle where Merion, Arlington, and Newlin meet, which neighbors plant and tend.
Early in the 2000s Springdale was one of the original members of York’s Alliance of Neighborhood Associations, with association representatives helping to write its bylaws and serving as its officers. In 2001 a formal study of the neighborhood’s history and architecture by Historic York, Inc. led to its listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and plaques on many houses mark it.
The association has always been voluntary, and it is not a homeowners association. It runs on neighbors who show up. Get involved.