City Sidewalks and Driveway Aprons

Maintenance: Responsibility of owner of adjacent property*
Composition: Concrete mix per city code, no reinforcing steel, natural color, light broom finish
Tooling: Must match original pattern - CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE PAGE ON CORRECT TOOLING PATTERN

Curb/gutter maintenance: Responsibility of owner of adjacent property - Grant program described below rarely includes curb/gutters.
Composition: Concrete, natural color, broom finish
Curb address numerals: A permit is required from the City of San Jose for painting house addresses on a curb face. The permit will provide guidelines for paint type, numeral size/form, and foreground/background colors. Solicitors must possess this permit to provide the service. Those who leave a note and return another day to see if you accepted their offer to paint the curb have a history of not giving any identifying information. Businesses are required to identify themselves with contact and license information and therefore, a solicitor who will not provide this information is operating illegally.

* The City of San Jose has a grant program to reimburse eligible property owners for the cost of sidewalk repairs. In order to be an eligible property owner, your property must be an owner-occupied, single-family residential unit. Grant amounts are based upon an inspection and estimated repair costs. All grants are subject to available funding.

For more information on when repairs are required, how much grant money is available, and other details, click HERE.

Parking Rules for Palm Haven: Click HERE for info.

Click HERE to view the actual code for other related items.

History:
Developer, Eaton, Vestal, & Herschbach, opened Palm Haven in 1913 with a high level of street and streetscape improvements. This included Macadamized streets, curbing, wide parkways planted with Mexican Fan Palms, and generously sized sidewalks. All this including the plaza in the center of Palm Haven and pillars and Wait Station for the trolley line.

The sidewalks were installed five (5) feet wide with a special control-joint tooling. The tooling was carried out in detail to the street corners and was called "novel" at the time they were installed in 1913. The photo of 791 Riverside Drive shows how the tooling detail was carried out in a perfect radius around the corner and over the curb wall to the surface of the street.
WHY THE EMPHASIS ON SOMETHING AS MUNDANE AS SIDEWALK TOOLING?
As described elsewhere in this site, Palm Haven was a "Residence Park". The whole focus of the Residence Park concept was in the beautification and integrity of the streetscape. It is the one thing that unifies the neighborhood regardless of the many sizes and styles of homes built in it. Research on other Residence Parks remaining today show the same attention to detail on sidewalks. In some cases, the sidewalks not only received special tooling but also inlaid tiles and/or faux tile work with tinting to give the effect of brick borders.

No driveway aprons were installed when Palm Haven opened because houses were to be built by purchasers of lots in Palm Haven. Once a plan was approved, the driveway apron was installed accordingly. This explains why some driveways come very close to some of the palm trees in the parkways today. True to the Residence Park philosophy, the plantings and beautification of the streetscape took top priority. The integrity of the streetscape depended on the regular spacing of the palm trees so the driveway placement was secondary.

Riverside Drive was part of the original Palm Haven development (originally called Riverside Avenue). However, part of the sidewalk on the North side of Riverside Drive from Bird Avenue to just past Plaza Drive is five (5) feet wide but carriers a simpler box pattern of control-joints. This simple box pattern can also be found on parts of the South side of Riverside Drive from Bird to Plaza as well.  The lots on Riverside were the least expensive and least desirable at the time which may explain why few sold before all of those above the 635 address were purchased en masse. San Jose attorney, Ralph McComish who lived at 1023 Bird Avenue and Stanley Halstead held them for later development. McComish died from complications after a freak accident on Christmas Day in 1924 while delivering gifts to the needy. (Read the article and final tribute.) Shortly thereafter, Riverside Park was opened and the remaining lots on Riverside Drive developed with it. The sidewalk joint pattern changes signify where Riverside Drive was developed in 1924.