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AMERICAN PLANNING
AND CIVIC ANNUAL
KH
HRk<*
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m
Dr. J. Horace McFarland
President, American Civic Association, 1904-1925
:
Horace M. Albright
President
American Planning
and
Civic Association
1937-1947
Major General U. S. Grant 3d
U.S.A. Ret.
President
American Planning
and
Civic Association
1947-
Frederic A. Delano
President, American
Civic Association
1925-1935
President
American Planning
and
Civic Association
1935-1937
Harland Bartholomew
V ice-President
American Planning
and
Civic Association
1947-
Tom Wallace
V ice-President
American Planning
and
Civic Association
1944-
•
,
AMERICAN
PLANNING AND CIVIC
ANNUAL
A RECORD OF CIVIC ADVANCE IN THE FIELDS
OF PLANNING, PARKS, HOUSING, NEIGHBORHOOD
IMPROVEMENT AND CONSERVATION OF NATURAL
RESOURCES, INCLUDING ADDRESSES DELIVERED
AT THE GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY CITIZENS PLAN-
NING CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAN PLAN-
NING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION, HELD AT COLUM-
BUS, OHIO, MAY 16-20, 1954 AND SEVERAL AD-
DRESSES DELIVERED AT THE 34th ANNUAL MEET-
ING OF THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STATE
PARKS HELD IN THE STATE OF WASHINGTON,
CONVENING IN SPOKANE AND MEETING AT LAKE
CRESCENT LODGE, SEPTEMBER 12-16, 1954 INCLUD-
ING THE ROLL CALL OF THE STATES.
EDITED BY
HARLEAN JAMES
AMERICAN PLANNING AND
CIVIC ASSOCIATION
901 UNION TRUST BUILDING, WASHINGTON 5, D. C.
1954
rpHE AMERICAN PLANNING AND
1 CIVIC ANNUAL is sent out to all paid
members and subscribers of the AMERI-
CAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSO-
CIATION and the NATIONAL CON-
FERENCE ON STATE PARKS, who
may purchase extra copies for $2 each.
The public may purchase past American
Planning and Civic Annuals and the cur-
rent Annual for $3 each.
A complete set of the American Planning
and Civic Annuals, with the exception of
the 1948-49 volume, which is out of print,
(17 volumes) may be purchased for $30.
Copyright 1955
By American Planning and Civic
Association
Mount Pleasant Press
J. HORACE MCFARLAND Co.
Harrisburg, Pa.
Ref.
AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION
PAST PRESIDENTS
J. HORACE MCFARLAND FREDERIC A. DELANO HORACE M. ALBRIGHT
OFFICERS AND BOARD OF TRUSTEES
HORACE M. ALBRIGHT, New York, N. Y., Chairman of the Board
U. S. GRANT SRD, Washington, D. C, President
HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW, St. Louis, Mo., First Vice-President
TOM WALLACE, Louisville, Ky., Second Vice-President
ROBERT C. GRAHAM, Florida, Third Vice-President
C. F. JACOBSEN, Washington, D. C., Treasurer
HARLEAN JAMES, Washington, D. C, Executive Secretary
FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Marshfield Hills, Mass., Counsel
MRS. DORA A. PADGETT, Washington, D. C., Librarian
RUSSELL VAN NEST BLACK, New Hope, CLYDE NICHOLS, JR., Kansas City, Mo.
Pa. C. McKiM NORTON, New York, N. Y.
DAVID D. BOHANNON, San Mateo, Calif. FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, Palo Alto, Calif.
PAUL CARRINGTON, Dallas, Tex. CHARLES F. PALMER, Atlanta, Ga.
WILLIAM M. COTTON, Dayton, Ohio JOSEPH PRENDERGAST, New York, N. Y.
E. J. CONDON, Chicago, III. LAURANCE S. ROCKEFELLER, New York,
STUART W. CRAMER, JR., Charlotte, N. Y.
N. C. J. WOODALL RODGERS, Dallas, Texas
CARL FEISS, Washington, D. C. ARTHUR RUBLOFF, Chicago, III.
S. HERBERT HARE, Kansas City, Mo. C. MELVIN SHARPE, Washington, D. C.
BYRON HARVEY, JR., Chicago, III. JAMES F. SULZBY, JR., Birmingham, Ala.
KARL KAMRATH, Houston, Texas C. EDGAR VAN CLEEF, JR., Oklahoma City,
HAROLD M. LEWIS, New York, N. Y. Okla.
JOHN GAW MEEM, Santa Fe, N. M. SAMUEL P. WETHERILL, Bryn Mawr, Pa.
HOWARD K. MENHINICK, Atlanta, Ga. CARL I. WHEAT, Menlo Park, Calif.
DELESSEPS S.MORRISON, New OrIeans,La.
ADVISORY COUNCIL
MRS. HENRY A. BARKER, Providence, CHAUNCEY J. HAMLIN, Buffalo, N. Y.
R. I. B. H. KIZER, Spokane, Wash.
HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM, New York City CHARLES F. LEWIS, Pittsburgh, Pa.
HENRY P. CHANDLER, Washington, THOMAS H. MACDONALD, College Station,
D. C. Texas
GILMORE D. CLARK, New York City MRS. JUNIUS S. MORGAN, Princeton, N. J.
JAY N. DARLING, Des Moines, Iowa H. S. OSBORNE, Upper Montclair, N. J.
EARLE S. DRAPER, Bethesda, Md. LAWSON PURDY, Port Washington, N. Y.
Miss H. M. DERMITT, Pittsburgh, Pa. CLIFFORD A. RANDALL, Milwaukee, Wis.
PHILIP H. ELLWOOD, Tucson, Ariz. WILLIAM M. SCHUCHARDT, Arcadia, Calif.
FRANCIS P. FARQUHAR, San Francisco, M. L. WILSON, Chevy Chase, Md.
Calif. BALDWIN M. WOODS, Berkeley, Calif.
HEADQUARTERS
901 Union Trust Building, Washington 5, D. C.
cm imu.) ruouo uwwtt.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STATE PARKS
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
TOM WALLACE, Kentucky, Chairman of the Board
CHARLES DsTuRK, Washington, President
WILLIAM W. WELLS, Louisiana, Vice-President
HERBERT MAIER, California, Vice-President
C. F. JACOBSEN, D. C, Treasurer
HARLEAN JAMES, D. C., Executive Secretary
HORACE M. ALBRIGHT, New York
HOWARD W. BAKER, Nebraska
DR. JOHN R. BRACKEN, Pennsylvania
Miss PEARL CHASE, California
KENNETH R. COUGILL, Indiana
LAURIE D. Cox, New Hampshire
HAROLD J. DYER, Maine
ARTHUR C. ELMER, Michigan
JAMES F. EVANS, New York
V. W. FLICKINGER, Ohio
WILLIAM M. HAY, Georgia
JOSEPH F. KAYLOR, Maryland
HAROLD W. LATHROP, Colorado
EDWARD J. MEEMAN, Tennessee
RAYMOND MITCHELL, Iowa
THOMAS W. MORSE, North Carolina
FRANK D. QUINN, Texas
LEWIS G. SCOGGIN, Florida
JAMES L. SEGREST, Alabama
MRS. M. H. STARKWEATHER, Arizona
BEN H. THOMPSON, D. C.
JOHN W. VANDERZICHT, Washington
HAROLD S. WAGNER, Ohio
HENRY WARD, Kentucky
CONRAD L. WIRTH, D. C.
WALTER WIRTH, Oregon
The two organizations join in the publication of the
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
and the
QUARTERLY, PLANNING AND CIVIC COMMENT
The purpose of the AMERICAN PLANNING AND Civic ASSOCIATION is the education of
the American people to an understanding and appreciation of: local, state, regional and
national planning for the best use of urban and rural land, and of water and other natural
resources; the safeguarding and planned use of local and national parks; the conservation
of natural scenery; the improvement of living conditions and the fostering of wider educa-
tional facilities in schools and colleges in the fields of planning and conservation.
The purpose of the NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STATE PARKS is to inform the public
through a central clearing house of information, publications, conferences and by other
educational means, of the value of state parks, monuments, historic sites and other types
of areas suitable for recreation, study of history and cultural resources through establish-
ment and operation of well balanced state park systems; to the end that every citizen of
the United States shall have easy access to state recreation areas and appreciate their
value; and to encourage adequate state park agencies and programs, including the estab-
lishment of civil service policies and standards of selection, development and adminis-
tration.
vi
CONTENTS
Frontispiece PAGE
Preface ix
THE NATION
The American Planning and Civic Association — After Fifty
Years, What Next? Howard K. Menbinick 1
The Sanctity of National Parks and Monuments
Tom Wallace 11
Panel on Watershed Approach to Water Conservation . . .
Charles G. Paulsen 13
C. V. Youngquisl 19
Bryce C. Browning 21
Roadside Control Mrs. Cyril Fox 26
IN THE STATES
STATE PARKS
Roll Call of the States
Arkansas Gen. Daniel B. Byrd 31
California E. P. Hanson 32
Florida E. M. Hill 34
Georgia A. N. Moye 35
Idaho W. Wilson 36
Indiana K. R. Cougill 37
Iowa W. A. Rush 39
Kentucky Henry Ward 40
Louisville C. G. Johnson 42
Louisiana W. W. Wells 43
Maine H. J. Dyer 45
Maryland James J. Kaylor 45
Michigan A. C. Elmer 46
Minnesota U. W. Hella
Missouri A. Gwinn 48
Montana A. C. Roberts 49
Nebraska George F. Ingalls 50
New York J. F. Evans 50
Ohio . V. W. Flickinger 51
Ohio Historical Society Richard S. Fatig 52
Oklahoma E. E. Allen 53
Oregon C. H. Armstrong 54
Texas Frank D. Quinn 55
Washington J. R. Vanderzicht 56
West Virginia C. J. Johnson 57
Wisconsin C. L. Harrington 57
Wyoming . J. F. Lewis 59
Alaska W. A. Cbipperfield 61
The Relationship Between State Highways and State
Parks Mark Astrup 63
State and Federal Cooperation in Reservoir Development
in the West L. C. Merriam 67
Discussion Matt C. Huppucb 72
vii
viii CONTENTS
Page
Panel in Interpretive Programs in State Parks
Albert Culverwell 73
C. F. Brockman 76
Panel on What Services Should State and National Parks
Provide Frank D. Quinn 78
Arthur C. Elmer 80
Earl P. Hanson 83
Panel on State Parks on the Pacific Coast
Newton B. Drury 85
C. H. Armstrong 86
C. V. Bucklin 89
W. B. Pond 90
A UNIQUE STATE PROGRAM
Plant Ohio Today — for Tomorrow . . . Ray M. White 92
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS
Panel on New Standards for City Development
Charles Blessing 95
Sbelton P. Hubbard 101
Panel on Role of the Citizen in Urban Renewal
James T. Yielding 104
Carl Feiss 105
EriHulbert 112
Organized Dispersal of Urban Population . . Tracy Augur 114
Vital Importance of Mass Transportation . Harley L. Swift 123
Should Parks Be Sacrificed? Tom Wallace 128
Panel on Expressways and the Central Business District . .
David R. Levin 131
L. P. Cookingbam 140
5. R. DeBoer 146
Opportunities for Growth in the Central Business District .
Arthur Rubloff 148
Lincoln Village .• • ' • J*m Fo^Y 156
Zoning Round Table, Flavel Shurtleff, Chairman
Granville Moore, Reporter 158
Columbus at the Mid-Century, as It Looks to a Former
Resident Dr. Edwin S. Burdell 164
Metropolitan Area Government . . . Frederick G. Gardiner 171
The Place of Business and Industry in Metropolitan Plan-
.ning David L. Rike 181
Citizens Responsibility for Civic Planning
The Pittsburgh Story ..... Theodore L. Hazlett, Jr. 186
Panel on Consolidation of City-County Services
Dr. Thomas H. Reed 194
Hugh R. Pomeroy 202
INDEX 209
Preface
IN EXTENDING the invitation to the American Planning and
Civic Association to hold its Fiftieth Anniversary Meeting in Colum-
bus, Governor Frank Lausche pointed out that Ohio, which became a
State in 1803, has been a pioneer hi highway, railroad and water trans-
portation, and that the State specializes in colleges and universities.
Governor Lausche acknowledged pride in the State's Capitol and its
setting, declared that in Ohio there was a growing number of city and
county planning commissions which had made considerable progress,
but the officials and civic leaders in the State recognized the need on
the part of the citizens for more widespread information about the
latest developments in planning and the full possibilities for the future.
Governor Lausche, therefore, on behalf of the State of Ohio and in asso-
ciation with the Mayor of Columbus, the Franklin County Regional
Planning Commission and the Board of the Franklin County Com-
missioners, extended the invitation to the American Planning and Civic
Association to meet in Columbus.
General U. S. Grant 3rd, President of the Civic Association, in ac-
cepting the invitation, stated that during the first half century of the
Civic Association, the effort had been to secure planning and zoning
machinery for communities throughout the country. In the second
half century, he declared, we shall need a broader dissemination of in-
formation about plans and planning in order that our communities
may benefit from the best technical advice.
Director G. F. Clements, of the Franklin County Regional Planning
Commission, called to his assistance James Foley, Director of Infor-
mation of the Peoples Development Company; Trent Sickles, Assistant
to the President, F. R. Lazarus & Co. ; Edward F. Wagner of the Farm
Bureau Insurance Companies, Clyde McBee, Assistant Director of the
Columbus Chamber of Commerce; Richard Husted, Vice-President,
Cye Land Agency; Larry Irvin, Columbus Urban Redevelopment Com-
mission; Ernest H. Stork, Director of the City Planning Commission,
and Richard McGinnis, Chief Planner, Franklin County Regional
Planning Commission.
The keynote address was delivered by Professor Howard Menhinick,
Regents' Professor of City Planning, School of Architecture, Georgia
Institute of Technology. Professor Menhinick was not only familiar
with the work of the Civic Association for a generation, but he had been
in a unique position to take part in and follow the trends of planning
education and practice in the United States. He received his B.S. degree
at Michigan State College in 1923, and MLACP at Harvard University
in 1928. He was Assistant Professor of City Planning in the Graduate
School of City Planning at Harvard University from 1931-36; a member
of the Planning Staff 1937-1940 and Director, Department of Regional
Studies, Tennessee Valley Authority 1940-1951. He was Director,
Headquarters' Planning Staff, United Nations (for site selection) 1946
(on loan from TVA). Since 1951 he has served as Professor of City
Planning at Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a member of the
American Institute of Planners, American Planning and Civic Asso-
ciation, American Society of Planning Officials (Associate), International
City Managers' Association (affiliate). For the latter organization he
prepared the revised edition of "Local Planning Administration," in
1948.
The addresses at the Conference were given by outstanding leaders
in planning, government and business. They are here presented for care-
ful reading and consideration.
The National Conference on State Parks accepted the invitation
of the State Parks and Recreation Commission of the State of ash-
ington to hold its 34th Annual Meeting in the State. The Chairman of
Board, Tom Wallace, the outgoing President, V. W. Flickinger, and the
newly elected President, Charles DeTurk, together with a good rep-
resentation from the entire Board, were all present and participating
in the proceedings. It was at this meeting that the Report of a Com-
mittee appointed by President Flickinger on Suggested Criteria for
Evaluating Areas Proposed for Inclusion in State Park Systems, K. R.
Cougill, Chairman, made its Final Report, which was published in the
December, 1954 PLANNING AND Civic COMMENT, and which has since
been reprinted for wide distribution* to meet unprecedented demands.
Other papers and discussions at the meeting are included in this
ANNUAL, together with Reports from 25 States and Alaska, made by
representatives present at the Meeting.
Most of those attending the Meeting, assembled in Spokane, Wash-
ington and crossed the State to Lake Crescent Lodge in the Olympic
National Park, stopping at Sun Lakes State Park, the Ginkgo Museum,
where they were greeted by Mrs. Ruth Peeler, U. S. Naval Shipyard at
Bremerton, and Squim Bay State Park. Director John R. Vanderzicht
had on hand President Warren and other members of the State Parks
and Recreation Commission and staff, who made the visiting delegates
comfortable and kept them interested.
HARLEAN JAMES, Editor
THE NATION
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION
After Fifty Years, What Next?
HOWARD K. MENHINICK, Regents' Professor of City Planning,
Georgia Institute of Technology
THE late President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University once
depicted the state as a stagecoach with the horses running away.
High up on the front seat a number of eager men are urging the most
contrary advice on the driver whose chief object appears to be to keep
his seat. At the back of the stagecoach an old gentleman with a spy-
glass is carefully surveying the road behind and, on the basis of these
observations, predicting what will happen next to the stagecoach.1
It would be a bold man, indeed, who would scan the developments
of the past fifty years since the organization of the American Civic
Association and, on the basis of that review, attempt to forecast the
nature of our urban communities and of city planning in the years
ahead. The tempo of technologic change has been rapid since 1904,
with the development of the automobile, the airplane, radio and tele-
vision, electronics and nuclear and solar energy. If technology has moved
fast in the past fifty years and if it has produced profound changes in
our urban communities (as it certainly has) to what can we look forward
in the next fifty years? We can certainly look forward to an even more
rapid pace of technologic change that will undoubtedly have even more
profound effects upon our cities and our way of life than have the de-
velopments of the past fifty years.
What was the world like in 1904, when the American Civic Associa-
tion was founded? Who were the civic leaders and what were they talk-
ing and thinking about?
The industrial revolution was well under way. Manufacturing and
unrestricted immigration were bringing people to cities in ever-increasing
numbers. Energy could be transmitted from its water-power or steam-
power source only the distance that could be covered by a complicated
and hazardous system of drive shafts, belts and pulleys. The application
of electricity, with the flexibility in industrial location that its easy
transmission permits, had not yet been realized. Mr. Wilfred Owen
has pointed out that in 1900 more people were engaged in the manu-
facture of horse blankets and windmills than were working in the entire
electric-power and light industry.2 Factory conditions were unsatis-
1 Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Governments and Parties in Continental Europe (New York: The Mac-
millan Co., 1912), I, v-vi.
2WiIfred Owen, "A Mid-Century Look at Resources" (Washington, The Brookings Institution,
1954) p. 8.
2 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
factory. The workers, for the most part, lived crowded together in
miserable slums and tenements near-by. The distance an employee
could live from his place of work was the distance he could walk, bicycle,
or ride in a horse-driven vehicle.
By 1900, the winning of the competition for New York's Central
Park by Frederick Law Olmsted, the establishment of the Boston
Metropolitan Park System under the guidance of Charles Eliot, and
the noteworthy Chicago World's Fair, designed by Daniel Burnham
and his famous collaborators, were matters of history. The "City
Beautiful" movement was in full swing. Charles Mulford Robinson,
of the University of Illinois, was talking and writing extensively on
civic art. Jacob Riis was arousing public indignation over housing
conditions, while Lawrence Veiller was drafting and securing in 1901
the passage of the Tenement House Act.
It was not easy to remedy the intolerable living conditions in cities,
even then, and many people were seeking relief in flight from the city.
In 1898, Ebenezer Howard wrote "Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to
Real Reform", which was republished in 1902 as "Garden Cities of
Tomorrow." As a result of that little book and the further efforts of
Ebenezer Howard, the first English Garden City of Letchworth was
established in 1903, thirty-two miles from London.
Scientific developments that were then in their infancy were destined
to reshape the future of the world in a manner not always clearly fore-
seen by either the scientists or the civic leaders of that day. A writer
for the "Scientific American" in 1900 boldly predicted not only that
"automobilism" was here, to stay but that, in time, the automobile
would surpass the bicycle in popularity. Another scientist took a look
at the field of aeronautics and came up with the observation that it
was a promising development. He warned, however, that the soaring-
plane fellows are not making much progress and that the ones to watch
are the ballonists. Communication by radio had just been accomplished
between two ships at sea, 80 miles apart.1 Marconi predicted that in
the near future the present 86 mile limit of radio telegraphy might be
raised to as much as 150 miles.
Here were emerging technologic developments that were destined to
change the lives of people and the form of cities. The scientists of that
period tried to appraise the social significance of their handiwork and
came to varying conclusions.
In 1899, one writer saw the motor car as an unmixed blessing to man-
kind. Said he:
"The improvement in city conditions by the general adoption of the
motor car can hardly be overestimated. Streets, clean, dustless, and
iThese statements of the year 1900 were presented by Dr. Herschel Cudd, then Director of the
Engineering Experiment Station of Georgia Institute of Technology, at a Planners' Luncheon on
February 25, 1954, sponsored by the Metropolitan Planning Commission of Atlanta.
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 3
odorless, with light rubber-tired vehicles moving swiftly and noiselessly
over their smooth expanse would eliminate a greater part of the nervous-
ness, distraction, and strain of modern metropolitan life."1
Another writer, in 1900, related this same problem of clean streets
to women's fashions, thus illustrating at an early date the interrelated
character of physical and human problems. Said he:
The streets of our great cities are not kept as clean as they should be, and
probably they will not be kept scrupulously clean until automobiles have
entirely replaced horse-drawn vehicles. At the present time a large number of
women sweep through the streets with their skirts and bring with them, wher-
ever they go, the abominable filth which they have taken up which is by courtesy
called "dust". The management of a long gown is a difficult matter, and the
habit has arisen of seizing the upper part of the skirt and holding it in a bunch.
This practice can be commended neither from a physiological nor from an
artistic point of view. Fortunately the short skirt is coming into fashion, and
the medical journals especially commend the sensible walking gown which
is now being quite generally adopted. These skirts will prevent the importation
into private homes of pathogenic microbes.
Thomas A. Edison took a look at aeronautics and reported in 1902:
"In the present state of science, there are no know facts by which one
could predict any commercial future for aerial navigation."
In that same year, another writer made a prophetic statement:
To point to the hurry and stress of modern town life as the cause of half the
ills to which the flesh today is heir has become almost a commonplace . . . We
may imagine future generations perfectly calm among a hundred telephones
and sleeping sweetly though airships whiz among countless electric wires over
their heads and a perpetual night traffic of motor cars hurtles past their bedroom
windows. As yet, it must be sorrowfully confessed, our nervous systems are not
so callous.
One year later, in 1903, the automobile was presenting some of the
problems this writer had anticipated. In that year, the bicycle police
of Washington had speedometers placed on the front forks of their
bicycles. The police were instructed to arrest motor-car drivers if,
when following the automobiles, their bicycle speedometers showed
that a safe speed was being exceeded.
The civic leaders of that day showed less concern, perhaps, than did
the scientists, for the emerging problems brought into being by tech-
nology. Civic leaders were faced with the solution of exisiting problems
already confronting the cities, as are our civic leaders and planners today.
These problems must be dealt with even though, in many cases, tech-
nologic change may remove the problem before a solution for it can be
developed and widely adopted. But I think it is good and necessary
that planners and civic leaders withdraw occasionally from the urgencies
of the day and give some thought to the urgencies of tomorrow.
'This quotation and those that follow are from the Scientific American.
4 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
I can well imagine that at the time of the discovery of gunpowder
there were only a few people who realized or were willing to admit that
the usefulness of the walled city had passed and that from its ashes
would arise a new and better way of urban life. This same lag in the
acceptance and understanding of the probable effects of technologic
change upon cities prevailed in 1904 and I suspect that it still prevails
in 1954.
All this, in brief, was part of the climate in which the American Civic
Association held its first Annual Meeting in 1905. I suggest that we
pause for a few moments at this point to glance back over the road that
has been traveled since then, not primarily in the expectation that it
will shed light on the answer to the question, "What Next?" but rather
that we may indulge briefly in the pleasure of recalling together a few
of the noteworthy landmarks of the journey of the past fifty years and
a few of our good companions.
The theme of the first meeting of the American Civic Association was
"Civic Improvement" and, as we might expect, primary attention was
devoted to eliminating the ugliness of cities, relieving housing congestion
through the introduction of badly needed parks and playgrounds, and
improving working conditions in factories. I am sure we will all wish
we might have been present at that first meeting. One or two of you
were. Dr. J. Horace McFarland, the first President of the American
Civic Association, gave an illustrated lecture on "First Steps in Improve-
ment Work." His talk was concerned in part with civic esthetics as
were a discussion of "Outdoor Art" by the pioneering Cambridge
landscape architect, Warren H. Manning, and a talk on "Improving
Washington" by Charles Moore of Detroit, who later became the
Chairman of the famed McMillan Commission. We may be critical of
the "City Beautiful" movement of 1905 as a superficial approach to the
problems of urban life but our present-day cities stand as mute evidence
of the fact that in our current emphasis upon the engineering and social-
science aspects of planning we have failed to build satisfying beauty
into our cities. This is a shortcoming we should correct.
Parks and playgrounds also came in for a large measure of attention
at that first conference of the American Civic Association. Joseph Lee,
the father of the playground movement in America, spoke on playgrounds
and recreation. Andrew Wright Crawford, of Philadelphia, gave an
illustrated talk on "City Plans and Outer Park Systems" while G. A.
Parker, of Hartford, discussed "City Land Values and Parks." "Factory
Betterment", "The Role of Women and of the Chamber of Commerce
in Civic Improvement," and "The Good Roads Movement and Rural
Improvement" are other subjects that were considered.
At the third annual meeting of the American Civic Association, in
1907, the President reported on the preservation of Niagara Falls and
Harlan Kelsey conducted a roundtable discussion on billboards. How
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 5
long and devious is the road of accomplishment and what great patience
and continuing vigilance are required of the civic leader!
At the fifth annual meeting in 1909, John Nolen talked on "City
Planning and the Civic Spirit," and for many a year thereafter John
Nolen went up and down and across the country proclaiming the coming
of the city planner and preparing many of our earliest comprehensive
city plans — and most important contributions these were at this particu-
lar stage.
In 1910, at the Sixth Annual Convention, Dr. J. Horace McFarland
asked "Are State Parks Worth While?" and the next year, he inquired
"Are National Parks Worth While?" At first blush, I thought to my-
self, as you, perhaps, are thinking to yourself, "Those are silly questions."
But when I look at this year's program and find Tom Wallace asking
what seems to me an equally ridiculous question, "Should Parks be
Sacrificed?" I begin to suspect that Dr. McFarland was asking very
pertinent questions forty-four and forty-three years ago.
I should like to have attended the eighth annual convention of the
American Civic Association in 1912, as some of you did. You who were
there heard Miss Harlean James, the young and attractive Executive
Secretary of the Women's Civic League of Baltimore, give an illustrated
lecture on "Baltimore Back Yards: A Study in Gardens and Garbage."
I understand that at long last something is being done about Baltimore's
backyards and garbage and alleys and slum houses as part of the famed
"Baltimore Plan." We are glad to note that you identified and called
attention to these problems forty-two years ago, Miss James. This
incident, and many similar ones along our journey, make it abundantly
clear that civic improvement is not a suitable occupation for a man
or woman with a "mania for immediacy."
Miss James moved in fast company at that convention in 1912.
With her on the program were the British Ambassador, James Bryce,
the developer of the Country Club District of Kansas City, J. C. Nichols,
Walter D. Moody of Wacker's Manual fame, and B. Antrim Haldeman
of Philadelphia. Succeeding conferences were addressed by men and
women whom we all knew and recall with affection — Charlotte Rum-
bold, Herbert Swan, Charles E. Merriam, Robert Whitten, Elisabeth
M. Herlihy, and John M. Gries, to mention only a few.
In 1909, a Conference on Congestion of Population held in Washing-
ton, D. C., marked the beginning of the National Conference on City
Planning which, after a long history of annual national conferences,
merged with the American Civic Association in 1935 to form the Ameri-
can Planning and Civic Association. The 1909 Conference also marks
the beginning of serious consideration of zoning as a device for limiting
urban congestion.
Eight years later, in 1917, city planning took the first steps to pro-
fessional status with the organization of the American City Planning
6 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Institute, now known as the American Institute of Planners. An or-
ganization with only a handful of members in 1917, it now has a member-
ship of approximately 1200. In 1935 the American Society of Planning
Officials was established, thus completing the present triumvirate of
interrelated planning organizations.
In the period from 1910 to 1920, the automobile began to appear in
large numbers upon our horse-and-buggy streets, which were ill-
adapted to its needs. The solution at first appeared very simple. It
was street widening. The planning literature of the 192 O's is filled with
statistics on the number of miles of streets widened and of the astound-
ing resulting increases in abutting property values. Slowly we learned
that street widening was not the answer to our traffic ills. Now ap-
peared a new professional, the traffic engineer, and we looked to him
to solve the traffic problem with his "stop and go" lights, pavement
markings, and one-way streets. But he didn't solve the problem either.
Then we tried parking meters, and off-street parking requirements in
zoning ordinances. Now we are trying expressways and revitalization
of transit facilities and I feel quite certain that they will not solve the
traffic problem, either.
The automobile has presented particularly acute problems in the
central-business district and I suspect that just as none of the con-
ventional adjustments of the horse-and-buggy streets have met the
needs of the automobile, so none of the conventional solutions of the
problems of the central business district, such as expressways to bring
automobiles in, public parking authorities to provide parking lots and
garages for the automobiles, and improved rapid-transit facilities in the
conventional pattern, will solve these problems either. Something more
radical and far reaching is probably needed and I have an idea that
technologic change of one kind or another may eliminate at least some
of the current problems of the central-business district before they are
solved.
There are some new developments in the immediate offing that may
provide at least temporary relief. The radar and other electronic controls
that have proved so effective in guiding planes may be adapted to the
automobile, particularly at hazardous intersections. Conceivably, as
an automobile approaches a radar-controlled intersection, electronic
equipment could take over the operation of the automobile and guide
it infallibly through the intersection perhaps without even the necessity
of reduced speed!
The movement of people on continuous belts is another promising
development. I understand that such a moving belt may displace the
shuttle trains between the Grand Central Terminal and Times Square
in New York City. If it will work effectively there, it can probably be
made to work on city streets. Perhaps we shall sometime see a compact
central-business district with all vehicular traffic excluded from its
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 7
streets. Passengers may be transported on moving belts quickly and
effortlessly from rapid-transit terminals and automobile-parking lots
at the periphery of the district.
Not only have we not solved the problems of automobile traffic
but we have failed to solve many other problems accentuated by the
automobile, such as suburban migration, the deterioration of the central
city, and the need for metropolitan government. After fifty years,
with the problems of adjustment to the automobile still unsolved, we
are already faced with the even more complicated problems of helicopters,
electronics, and nuclear fission. Well may we ask ourselves at this time,
perhaps with some discouragement, "What Next?"
But before we do so, because it is a heartening thing, let us pause a
moment longer to recall with gratitude Edward M. Bassett, Frank B.
Williams, Lawson Purdy, George B. Ford, and the others who formu-
lated for New York City the first comprehensive zoning ordinance in
the United States, adopted in 1916. Most of us remember clearly the
interminable struggles of zoning in the courts, zoning declared un-
constitutional in State after State, state constitutional amendments,
and finally the famous United States Supreme Court Case of Euclid
Village vs. Ambler Realty Company. Alfred Bettman's brief in the
case will remain a classic for years to come as will our affectionate and
grateful remembrance of its author. I can still see kindly Alfred Bett-
man standing before us and saying, "Tell me what you want to accom-
plish and PII tell you how to do it legally." The gap that is left by the
departure of Alfred Bettman and Edward M. Bassett and by the en-
forced inactivity of Frank B. Williams has not yet been filled. But
they have left us a legacy of a long, hard battle that was fought and won.
Let those who are disheartened by the unfavorable court decisions in
urban redevelopment remember the struggles of zoning and take courage.
I wish that my allotted time and your patience permitted us to more
than mention the model state planning and zoning enabling legislation
prepared by a distinguished group of planners under the auspices of the
United States Department of Commerce, Thomas Adams and the
history-making Regional Survey of New York and Its Environs;
Stephen Mather and the beginnings of the National Park System; the
leaders of the golden age of the Harvard Planning School, Henry Vin-
cent Hubbard, Theodora Kimball Hubbard, Thomas Adams, and
Arthur Comey to whom our profession and many of us as individuals
owe so much; Harcourt A. Morgan and the Tennessee Valley Authority;
Frederic A. Delano and the National Resources Planning Board, which
is so sorely needed today when the times demand sound, long-range
planning of great vision. These leaders and the organizations they served
have left us a rich heritage of memories and accomplishments.
Time marches on, not only in terms of the years that have passed
since 1904 but also in terms of the minutes that have passed since Mr.
8 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Bartholomew turned me loose upon you. The time has now come for us
to turn our eyes from the past that we have known and loved to the
unknown and, in many respects, frightening future that lies ahead.
The years before us will be marked by breath-taking events and
powerful forces that we cannot possibly anticipate this morning, but
it seems perfectly clear that our children and our grandchildren will
have at their disposal power resources from nuclear fission and solar
energy in quantities that we can scarcely comprehend today. As energy
has been the key to the phenomenal progress and the steadily rising
standard of living of the twentieth century, so it will almost certainly
be the key to what happens in the future.
While none of us would be so rash as to try to predict the future form
of our urban living with any degree of precision, the many applications
of abundant power will give our children freedoms of choice far beyond
any we now enjoy. If they choose to live in concentrated urban com-
munities they can build great structures, pile on pile, at almost in-
conceivable heights and densities with artificial light and controlled
climates. Similiarly, if they prefer decentralized living, as most of us do
today, then they will be able to spread themselves thinly over the
countryside — in terms of both living and working places. What are some
of the applications of modern technology that may open opportunities
for the decentralized living that man loves so well?
Electronics of the future will surely make routine thinking and
acting a relatively useless commodity just as the electric motor and the
internal-combustion engine have outmoded human muscular power
and the power of horses and mules. Higher education for larger numbers
of people will become more important than ever before. The increased
leisure time and shorter work weeks that will accompany the release
from routine mental as well as physical chores will make decentralized
living more feasible, more desirable, and indeed, more essential than
it has ever been before. Electronic devices have already resulted in
push-button operation of many factory processes. I am informed that
the factory almost completely operated by electronics will soon be here.
The truck and modern highways and the easy transmission of electric
power freed many factories from their former ties to railroads and power
sources. The new electronics may free many factories from the necessity
of locating near a substantial labor supply. Think what this might mean
in terms of industrial decentralization!
The ever-present threat of atomic bombing is another factor that
may also encourage or even demand a dispersed manner of living.
Already on the drafting boards are multi-motored helicopters of
large carrying capacity, safety, and speed which may well become the
rapid-transit vehicles of the future, extending the hour commuting zone
from a paltry twenty or thirty miles to a distance that is measured in
hundreds of miles. Such vehicles would provide speed, comfort, and
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 9
safety that would enable them to compete successfully with the private
automobile. I recall a cartoon of a number of years ago in Punch,
picturing the sky black with airplanes while along a broad, deserted,
concrete highway trudged a lone farmer with a wheel-barrow load of
manure. The caption was "Somebody Will Always Find a Use for Them."
One can readily imagine a combined telephone and television circuit
that will enable a housewife to remain at home, inspect available dresses
and hats in her favorite shop and make her selection, thus doing away
with the necessity of a trip to a central-business district. Perhaps the
surface transit problem, as we know it will vanish before it is solved!
One research scientist has predicted that a five-gallon container of
fissionable strontium, a comparatively non-dangerous nuclear power
source with a half-life of fifteen years, may be capable of producing all
the energy that is needed to heat and operate a house. Wireless trans-
mission of power — now technically but not economically feasible — and
electricity from solar energy are developments that will greatly facilitate
decentralization. With such power resources, there would be, alas, no
spot in the world on which a man could not build his castle and provide
his own climate, be it on the crest of the highest mountain, in the heart
of the teeming jungle, or in the farthest reaches of the arctic.
Perhaps these ideas are fantastic dreams. The technologic develop-
ments of the future may be very different from the ones we have been
imagining — but of this, I feel quite certain. In the years ahead, the world
will become further dwarfed, the people of the world and their problems
will be brought closer together, the differentiation between what is city
and what is country, which has been gradually disappearing during the
last few decades, will continue to disappear at a greatly accelerated rate.
Even, today, there remains no isolated South Sea island, no uninhabited
polar ice cap, no place in the whole world where a man can escape his
fellow men and the problems of what has become truly "one world."
What does this mean to planners and civic leaders? I think it means a
number of things.
In the world of the future, in which are widely distributed over the
entire face of the globe, our reservations of state and national parks,
forests, and monuments may become the only places in the entire world
in which man can find some measure of solitude and escape from his
fellow beings, the only place of return to the home of his ancestors of
1954 or 1054 (I suspect the difference will fade into insignificance in the
near future.) If we value these natural areas today, how much more will
our children and grandchildren value them tomorrow? Unspoiled
natural areas are one of the most priceless treasures we can give to
generations that are yet unborn. Our vision will be the vision of a
mole if we sacrifice one national park or forest for a mess of dollars or
killowatts or navigation or irrigation. In the years to come, national
parks and forests may well be the preservers of the sanity of a people.
10 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
The time has surely come when all of us should rally behind the Mc-
Farlands, the Wirths, the Delanos, and the Albrights of this country
and forcefully and without question or doubt demand the preservation
and protection of the small amount of our national heritage that re-
mains in our state and national parks and forests and monuments.
I think that the opportunities the future holds for increased decentral-
ization means that the thinking our political scientists are doing on
metropolitan government today is likely to be completely out-of-date
and inapplicable to the situation in which we shall find ourselves in the
comparatively near future — long before the types of metropolitan
government that are now being proposed will be generally accepted and
accomplished. I am not for a moment arguing that we can afford to
ignore the problems that are with us today and will be with us in the
immediate tomorrow. I would only urge that a few impractical dreamers
give some thought to the "practical" problems of the future.
The advance of technology at an accelerating rate means that from
now on we must pay more than lip service to the idea that planning
is a continuing rather than a one-shot enterprise and we must set as our
real goal not a planned city but a planning city. Rethinking, reorienta-
tion, and experimentation in the proper organization and location of
the planning function and in the appropriate role of the planning engi-
neer, the consultant, and most importantly, the citizen, are clearly re-
quired. What was sound and progressive and right in the days of the
U. S. Department of Commerce model planning and zoning enabling
acts may today be as antiquated and backward as the automobile
or airplane of that year. We cannot afford to close our eyes and our
minds to change, despite the fact that change may render obsolete
some of our present ideas, policies, and practices. I am not for a mo-
ment urging that we blindly scrap what has proved valuable in the past
but rather that we test it rigorously and retain only those features
of the past that will equally well meet the changed needs of the present
and the future.
Each of us can formulate his own list of improved planning techniques
and practices that the immediate future will demand. My own list
includes quantitative as well as improved qualitative land-subdivision
controls; more realistic zoning with improved techniques that will
make it possible to substitute the precise surgeon's scalpel for the crude
meat axe that we use today in carving out the land-use pattern of our
cities; and more effective techniques for eliminating the congestion that
is strangling central business districts. Perhaps we can find devices
that will encourage the location in the central business district of those
uses that require a central location for their effective functioning and
will discourage or prohibit the location there of those that can function
equally well elsewhere. More effective urban redevelopment techniques
that will really make it possible to eliminate worn out houses and other
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 11
structures, just as we discard worn out clothing, and secure their re-
placement with new structures and uses, is another urgent need.
High on my list of requirements is the reestablishment of a competent
national planning agency that is so vitally needed if our nation is to
realize the opportunities and avoid the problems and pitfalls that lie
ahead. The unified development of all the resources of our great river
valleys is another challenging need of the future. If national and
regional planning and development are required today and tomorrow
so, I feel sure, is some form of global planning, if the legitimate aspira-
tions of the peoples of the world are to be realized and their resources
developed and if we are all to live together in peace, as we must if we are
to live at all.
I should like to close with the words a scientist spoke in 1900,1 which
I think might well form the keynote of this Golden Anniversary Confer-
ence:
"Ancient and medieval history dealt with bloody wars, limiting
creeds, cunning politics, and the greed of conquest. Modern history
must leave these to a subordinate place, and substitute for them, as of
greater importance, the genius of invention, the elements and agencies
of industrial progress, and the arts of peace; and in so doing it marks the
approaching millenium of happiness, good will and material prosperity
which men have always longed for."
The Sanctity of National Parks and Monuments
TOM WALLACE, Editor Emeritus, Louisville Times, Louisville, Ky.
In 1877 Henry Watterson felt that politicians had entered into a
conspiracy to give the office of President of the United States to Hayes
when he believed it had been won by Tilden. Mr. Watterson proposed
that a mass protest be made in Washington. He asked Kentucky
Democrats to send at least 10,000 unarmed Kentuckians.
His editorial became one of the most famous utterances of an editor
in the history of American journalism. Nearly all he said applies per-
fectly to circumstances of today which affect a great heritage of the
people of the United States.
It is actually more important in 1954 that those Theodore Roosevelt
might have called burglars and second story men — exploiters of several
classes — be kept out of national parks and national monuments than
it was to seat Tilden and prevent the seating of Hayes.
Allowance must be made for the passions that partisan politics breeds;
for the conviction of Democrats that only a Democratic administration
can save the Republic from destruction; the conviction of Republicans
that only a Republican victory can avert calamity
Reported in the Scientific American, September, 1950
12 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Principle is always more important than the price that may be paid
by the public if an evil is done by a political party in the interest of the
chosen champion. The principle that is involved in the question of
whether exploiters shall be turned into solemnly dedicated national
parks is quite as important as the principle that when a man has been
elected to office he shall have the office to which he was elected. It
involves the integrity of government.
Said Mr. Watterson: "The election of Tilden, the existence of the
conspiracy and the names of the conspirators are known today."
He mentioned, among others, the President, the Secretary of the
Interior. "How they are to partition the Government out among them-
selves after they have usurped it belongs to the category of details",
he said, "the organization and the purposes are clear."
How slight the necessary paraphrasing. The dedication of the national
parks, the existence of the conspiracy, objectives of the conspirators, are
known.
"They think that with the Army at their command," continued
Watterson, "they can, by a bold, defiant and lawless policy bring the
Senate to their heels."
Again how simple and how slight the necessary adaption.
The conspirators today think that with Congress at their command
they can by a bold, defiant and lawless policy bring the public to their
heels; that they can march with the plunder in their knapsacks and smiles
upon their lips.
They do not think of Dinosaur alone, or especially. The area of loot
would span the continent.
"Congress", said Watterson, "is a reflector, not a breeder of ideas . . .
it looks to the country."
Here no change of phrase or word is needed to apply to the case
under consideration the argument of the great editor.
"Is there no peaceful remedy", asked Watterson. His answer was,
"I think there is."
"There is the right of petition."
Mr. Watterson said that if the people would exercise their peaceful
right of petition, sending 100,000 petitioners to Washington to present a
memorial in person there would be no usurpation.
Suggesting that Kentucky Democrats send 10,000 men, the editor
said "less than this will be of no avail."
In that penetrant assertion is revealed the student of the simple
psychology of politics.
In his last paragraph my great chief — of later days of course — re-
ferred to the "most dangerous issue that ever menaced the existence of
a free government."
Again the paraphrasing is easy.
The conspirators against the national parks include those who would
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 13
see the heart of Dinosaur traded for regional good will. They include also
those, more numerous and potent, who hunger for the widespread pick-
ings which would follow establishing the precedent that use of parks as
parks is not of primary importance. Already fat, yet of good appetite,
they sit silently, waiting for the feast, as the vultures wait on the Parsee
Towers of Silence in Bombay. Those who wait menace the existence of
all of the national parks.
Congress failed to pass H. R. 4449 which includes in its provisions
Echo Park Dam in Dinosaur National Monument, but new bills will
undoubtedly be introduced into the next Congress.
This is no time for discussion of the wide appeal of national parks;
for appraisal of their various values. To win the battle a Molly Pitcher
rather than a bugler is needed.
If, from among the millions who would protect parks, but who are
unorganized or not so organized that through organization they have
strength, even 10,000 should go to Washington as petitioners, Congress
hardly would pass this Upper Colorado River bill. Or would not pass it
without striking out the provision that would establish the precedent
that the value of national parks as such and laws guarding them need
not be considered seriously.
The petitioners should call at the White House, to find whether they
would be received.
It would be well for them not to waste time at the Department of the
Interior, even if its portals should swing wide in sophisticated welcome.
Capitol Hill, at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue should be
the petitioners* Mecca.
Petitioners who go in squads to be heard by Committees of Congress
do not interest the press or win the sympathy of the country, to which,
as Watterson said, Congress looks.
Panel on Watershed Approach to Conservation
C. G. PAULSEN, Chief Hydraulic Engineer, U. S. Geological Survey,
Washington, D. C.
WATER stringencies and water conflicts are becoming more fre-
quent and more critical. During the summer of 1953, 15 percent
of all persons served by public systems had their use of water curtailed.
The recent drought has served to bring the general pattern of ever in-
creasing demand for water into sharper relief. The greatly increasing
demand for water that reflects our growing industrial strength and our
rising standard of living, also introduced a large measure of conflict
and competition for the available resources. I would like to discuss the
nature of these conflicts and how they concern civic organizations in
dealing with conservation.
14 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
There are two words in the title of my address whose meaning I
would like to review with you just to be sure that we are thinking about
the same things. The word "watershed", borrowed from the geographers,
properly means the boundary line between two drainage basins or the
divide. However, in current practice it is used to mean river basin or
drainage basin and especially to mean those smaller basins suitable as
units of water and land management. My use of the term "watershed"
for this discussion shall be as a hydrologic unit for water accounting.
The catchment area is bounded by natural divides that separate it
water-wise from contiguous areas. Watersheds in this sense are natural
and convenient units for handling water problems. But, like human
beings, they are infinitely varied, and in order to prescribe remedies
or plan for their future health, it is essential to have full knowledge of
the existing physical conditions and a continuing record of the variable
factors that may require changes in the treatment from time to time
and from place to place. The general acceptance of the watershed as the
logical unit for planning and development, both local and regional,
emphasizes the extent to which the water resources constitute a focal
point about which the integrated development and utilization of the
other resources of the region tend to revolve. Such development seeks
not only to derive the optimum potential benefits from the water re-
sources, but to reduce losses by floods and droughts and to improve the
use of other resources, such as soil, range lands, and forests. Wise
planning and successful achievement of the development of the resources
of a watershed has as a prerequisite adequate background knowledge of
the measurable streams and ground-water reservoirs and the variations
in them, of the many climatic factors that may cause them to vary,
adequate coverage of the area by suitable topographic maps, soil maps,
geologic maps, a knowledge of the geologic conditions which affect
both surface-water runoff and ground-water storage, and many other
sorts of information. It is evident that, contrary to some widely accepted
beliefs, the conservation of water is a very complex problem which, be-
cause of the key position of the water resources in our economy, requires
that our current activities and our planning for the future be conducted
in the light of a well-considered appraisal of the factors that affect water
supply.
Defined negatively, the word conservation means the management
of our basic water and land resources so that their yield does not deterio-
rate from year to year. Students of natural resources have shown that
production and development is not always conservation. Production
has as its chief goal the obtaining of the greatest yield for a given amount
of labor and material. Conservation is a more difficult word to describe
in positive terms. It embodies concepts which attempt to join our
noblest desires for the future to the expedience of today. Conservation
must be the essence of planning to guide the development of our land
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 15
and water resources to optimum use. Conservation is, therefore, not
just preservation of wild life, trees, or even protection of scenery.
These are only parts of the whole. Nor should grand schemes for land
and water development be considered as the whole province of conserva-
tion. AH these things may be conservation only to the extent that they
are prompted by the desire to maintain and sustain our natural resources.
Our water resource is renewable, which means that it is continuously
regenerated and purified in the natural process called the hydrologic
cycle. From ocean to the atmosphere, to the land and back to the air by
evaporation or to the ocean in streams, water moves in a never-ending
cycle and thus supports and sustains the living things on earth. Now,
as always, water is a gift of the skies and of the earth. We use water as
we need it as it passes within our reach. And after its temporary service,
it continues its natural course in unending circuit.
Until recent years, water was widely accepted in much the same
way as air and sunshine, a free heritage that fulfills its role without
limit and without beginning or ending. But, to our serious concern,
we are discovering that water is not free and limitless. We are learning
that the limit to the amount of water is a controlling factor in our eco-
nomic development.
Nor is land a limitless resource. Land has little value without
water, either in the humid East or in the arid West. We are apt to lose
sight of this fact while water needs are modest and water is relatively
plentiful, until increasing demand and competition of other uses begin
either to narrow the amount of water that might be available to exploit
a land site, or to increase the amount of land that must be dedicated to
water conservation.
Because use of water is increasing and because limits to the amount
of water are appearing in certain places, competition and conflict
ultimately are developing for the available supply in those places.
Market-place competition is good economic medicine to assure maxi-
mum efficiency in the development of water resources today. But
competition between methods of conservation may result in unwise
conclusions, made without adequate knowledge of the hydrologic
consequences of several alternative plans for conservation, or in plans
by competing groups to achieve development that may not be sound
from the standpoint of conservation. Our aim is to assist in the wise
conservation of water resources by substituting knowledge for illusion
and data for assumption. Competition becomes an issue when supply is
limited. The optimum use of water which in essence is water conserva-
tion and the reduction of waste can be achieved by appreciation of the
hydrologic principles that govern the occurrence of water.
At the recent Mid-Century Conference on Resources for the Future,
there were frequent references to the unknowns that still beset attempts
to resolve competition for land and water. Many speakers pointed out
16 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
that there is still inadequate knowledge about the techniques and
measures necessary or desirable for the control of watersheds.
What is the nature of these related and competitive uses of water
as we see them today? First, we know that there is hardly any bene-
ficial use of water that does not, in some way, have attendant adverse
consequences toward other uses, or toward its co-resource, the land.
Consider only one facet of water-resources development — say flood
control. Attempts to store more water in the soil to curb floods and
erosion may deprive downstream users of valuable water and cause
channel clogging and other deterioration. Similarly the benefits of
reservoirs for water storage for water supply or power, are obtained
at the expense of flooding considerable areas of crop land. Much of the
stored water is lost by evaporation from the reservoir surface.
Probably we can get full agreement only on the point that direct
human consumption shall have first priority on the available water.
After this relatively small amount is provided for, there is argument
about the division of the major portion. Water competition has long
been keen in the West, and will increase in the East as the margin of
unused supply is narrowed. Consider, for example, the difference in
approach and the divided opinion as to whether the development of the
Missouri River would or should give priority to the farmers and ranchers
on the headwaters or to the downstream water users, and the disagree-
ments among the States that are interested in the sharing of the water
of the Delaware River. It is pertinent to point out that the area of
disagreement narrowed considerably after firm figures on the amount
of available supply were determined.
Disagreements on different kinds of water use will also provide
another class of contention. We shall experience more frequent argu-
ments between such alternate uses as irrigation, industrial and municipal
supply, recreation, and water power.
We are already familiar with the arguments for alternative methods
of flood control: small dams vs. large dams, upstream land manage-
ment vs. downstream engineering, flood-plain zoning vs. flood protec-
tion, etc. Here again the arguments are heated because the flood plains
are highly valued land and, in any event, the amount of flood protection
that can be obtained is limited by economic and physical factors. Acre
for acre, flood plains produce more food and contain more property than
the lands higher above the streams. How is this use to be adjusted to
the facts of flooding?
We should be warned that irrigation is becoming an increasingly
important factor in the East and may very soon be competing for the
available supply of water. Nearly every summer every area in the East
experiences a dry spell during which soil moisture is seriously depleted
and crop yields suffer. Farmers have learned that irrigation pays off
in larger and more timely harvests. The rapid expansion of supplemental
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 17
irrigation in the East may some day result in more water being used for
irrigation in the East than in the arid West. Unlike many other uses
for water, irrigation is consumptive; that is, a part of the water is
evaporated. This new and consumptive use will foster greater com-
petition between farm and city. We foresee that many eastern States
will need to recognize the new conditions by statute to replace the
Common Law inherited from Great Britain, where, by the way, in-
creasing competition has already forced a change in legal principles.
Another area of competition is represented by the conflicting needs
for water of high quality standards. Cooling water for industry and
large-scale air conditioning requires water of low uniform temperature.
Certain industrial manufacturing plants have rather narrow tolerances
for permissible dissolved mineral matter in their water supply, the
quality of the water for further reuse diminishes but the use of streams
for the discharge and conveyance of municipal and industrial wastes
causes deterioration in the quality of the water supply which will
place a limit on future developments unless corrective measures are
taken.
Still another area of competition lies in the alternative uses of land
in relation to water. Storage of water is a form of land use and it should
be weighed against alternative uses for the land. Dedication of land
as a reservoir site might well be the most productive use of topographic-
ally and geologically suited land. This principle was recognized many
years ago in withdrawing of reservoir sites on the public domain of the
West from entry so that they may be available for possible water storage.
One might conjecture whether it would not be wise to set aside
provisional reservoir sites and withhold them from productive uses on the
possibility that many years hence their use as reservoir sites would be
economically justified. Reservoir sites are themselves a resource, and
together with natural or artificial recharge areas they should be con-
sidered in land-use planning, because without them the use of water
becomes impaired, ultimately reacting to the detriment of the useful-
ness of the land. Development of ground-water reservoirs to the fullest
extent possible can assist considerably in reducing the need for land
surface for reservoir sites.
The watershed approach offers one method for narrowing the areas
of competition and for resolving conflicting uses in the interest of con-
servation. The first step in this attack is to know water. Find out how
much is available, where and when it occurs, and what is its quality. The
watershed is, of course, a logical unit for such hydrologic inventory. The
second part of the watershed account is a catalog of present uses and
needs for water. Comparison of the potential supply with the pattern
of uses will reveal the areas of surplus and the areas of deficiency, which,
I think everyone will agree, is an essential step for conservation planning.
But this isn't all.
18 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Advantage must be taken of the possibilities for bringing together
mutually consistent uses. We are already experiencing a considerable
trend toward multipurpose river-basin development on a large scale; for
example, using systems of reservoirs for power, irrigation supply, and
flood control. Something of the same kind can be applied in the local
watershed, provided water is used with regard to subsequent uses.
Most industrial and municipal uses are not highly consumptive, so
that most of the water withdrawn is returned to the stream or ground
and, except in some coastal areas, becomes available for reuse. Thus,
the total diversion from some streams may exceed the flow by several
fold; the same quantity being reused many times over. I need only call
your attention to the Mahoning Valley which serves the Youngstown
industrial area for an example of conservation reuse of water. Each
reuse of water abstracts some quantity and some quality, and the water
may be reused so long as its chemical and thermal properties are not
impaired, or are maintained at a satisfactory level by dilution as fresh
water is added by tributary sources. Further, a number of the newer
plants of some of the larger water-using industries are being designed
for greater recirculation of used water so that net water intake is reduced.
Another essential factor in watershed conservation is to know what
adjustments in land or water use can be made to improve the quantity
and quality of the net supply. This is a little known area of hydrology
that calls for added research. As yet, we cannot forecast fully the long-
term consequences of land-use modification upon the supply of water.
Except for recurring droughts and water withdrawals, we know from
our records of stream flow and ground-water levels that over the past
50 or 75 years overall average water supply has not diminished. In other
words, so far as is known, there are no discernible adverse long-term
trends in the hydrologic records. Of course, we must be guarded for
the future and the Geological Survey intends to keep informed on this
subject, but there seems to be no cause for alarm that our primary sources
of water will fail us. The problem that really should concern us, is to
determine the basic water facts upon which to plan for a sound program
of use and development of the available resources.
The facts available at this time do not permit us to make depend-
able evaluation of the affect on man's usable water supply of such changes
in land-use as deforestation, farming or urbanization. With respect to
forests, there are several studies that show that trees are heavy users of
water, which has led some economists to argue that forests should be
grown only in water-surplus areas. But there are other studies to show
that forest soils have considerable capacity to take in water and, there-
fore, where geologic conditions are favorable, are considered important
areas of ground-water recharge and flood detention. On the other hand,
we know from experience that forest lands contribute flood water to
major floods that sporadically disrupt our river towns and cities.
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 19
As I mentioned at the beginning of this statement, development
is not necessarily conservation, unless it is consistent with the maximum
long-term use of the resource. For example, within a few decades
numerous and severe water stringencies can develop, not so much be-
cause the Nation-wide supply is inadequate, but because industrial
development may have crystallized in a geographic pattern inconsistent
with the distribution of that supply. There is a sobering finality in river
basin development: once a major construction plan is undertaken little
can be done to change the pattern of water use which it imposes on the
surrounding area. Heavy investment is being made on new dams,
power plants and other works which, when completed, will fix the main
outlines of economic development for decades to come. The main pattern
of water development will be frozen as surely as the pattern of railroad
freight traffic was frozen at the turn of the century.
Although we may not be able to plan for the best land and water
use — because we don't know what is best — we can look toward a sensible
arrangement in accord with water facts as they are impartially deter-
mined. Interests vary between people and, for one person, from one
year and another. No one group of people can determine what is de-
sirable for all, or for all time. Although conflicting interests for the
available land and water resources are bound to develop, it is well to
remember that the issues between proponents of various land and
water uses are more likely to be soundly resolved when the essential
facts are available and the issues openly argued. It is the fact-finder's
job to define the ever- vary ing supply of water as provided by nature
and as conditioned by the changing development, use, and reuse of
the water resources. It is the duty of public-minded bodies like Ameri-
can Planning and Civic Association to direct attention to present diffi-
culties and to future needs so that our resources will not be impaired
because we have employed them wastefully.
C. V. YOUNGQUIST, Chief, Division of Water,
Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Columbus, O.
MY FIELD of thought and effort for many years has been in water;
therefore the subject assigned is of consuming interest. A
difficulty I have experienced in these years is an understanding of the
term "conservation", particularly water conservation. Some time ago
I heard a speaker say "conservation is religion". If we use this synonym
in our assigned topic it comes out "Watershed Approach to Water
Religion."
Searching for a definition of conservation I obtained a recent book
"Resource Conservation" by Professor Wantrup of the University of
California. Professor Wantrup lists a number of commonly accepted
definitions of conservation and their inadequacy.
20 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
First he states that to some, conservation means non-use. He points
out that in the constitution of the State of New York relating to forest
preserves, use is prohibited with consequent difficulty in forest ad-
ministration. Certainly in a flowing resource such as water conserva-
tion cannot mean non-use.
Another definition cited — "conservation is wise use." This definition
is also meaningless unless the adjective "wise" is interpreted. If I own
a hillside forest adjacent to a neighbor's fertile bottom land it may seem
wise to me because of financial or tax reasons to remove the forest. This
action would seem unwise to the bottom-land neighbor whose fields
were devastated by rushing water and sediment because of forest re-
moval.
Conservation has also been defined as "the greatest use to the great-
est number over the greatest length of time." These three objectives
as indicated by Professor Wantrup are usually in conflict with each
other.
An example is a large chemical industry established in Ohio over
50 years ago near the headwaters of the Muskingum River. This plant
produced a valuable basic chemical product from two adjacent worth-
less minerals. A by-product of their operation is a waste which is ex-
tremely damaging to stream water. In the early 1900's when the stream
was little used this industry was no doubt producing from natural re-
sources the greatest good to the greatest number but the time factor
was working against them with increased population and use of water
this industry is now probably causing more damage to the water re-
sources than the chemical wealth it is creating.
Professor Wantrup, being dissatisfied with all common definitions
of conservation proposes one of his own which I quote as follows :
We may then quantitatively define conservation as changes in the time
distribution of use rates of individual resources in which the aggregate weighted
change in use rates is greater than zero.
This semantic discussion is not intended to confuse but to arouse this
panel to greater effort at clarity. For the purpose of discussion I shall
treat the subject as "Watershed Approach to Water Management."
"Management" will mean control and use.
The watershed sets a finite if not always a definite limit on the water
to be controlled or available for use. The water yield of any watershed
may vary widely from one year to the next. While maximum flood
flows of a watershed seem to have no upper limit they do tend to ap-
proach an upper limit. Studies of maximum possible rainfall over
watersheds have lent more confidence in defining that upper limit.
Historic droughts tend to set a lower limit to watershed yields.
The Conservancy District of Ohio recognized that political sub-
divisions cut across natural watersheds and that a means was needed
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 21
to administer water management on a watershed basis. That this
concept was sound is attested by the accomplishment of the Miami and
later the Muskingum conservancy districts.
Texas, in proposed management projects, contemplates diversion
from water surplus areas in the East to water deficient areas in the
West. The watershed-principle of management still applies because
the water yields and water needs must be considered in each watershed.
Pollution control and mitigation can only logically be accomplished
on a watershed basis. The Ohio River Water Sanitation Commission,
Incodel, The Interstate Commission on the Potomac are active ex-
amples of this concept.
Underground water boundaries are almost never coincident with
the boundaries of surface water. However, it appears equally logical
for administration of underground water where present administration
is much more haphazard than for surface water resources. The need
is for geologic and hydrologic data to define the underground watershed
boundaries.
The watershed is the unifying basis for the management of most of
our natural resources. The water resources as defined by watersheds
constitutes a focus on which the integrated development and utilization
of other resources of the watershed tend to converge.
The United States has expanded its agricultural and industrial pro-
duction tremendously to satisfy its expanding population and to aid in
building a free world. Our ability to maintain and increase this pro-
duction will depend on our foresight in controlling and utilizing ef-
fectively our limited water resources. The challenge is here. The most
effective first step to that challenge is recognition that the watershed
is the only approach to real water management.
BRYCE C. BROWNING, Secretary-Treasurer, Muskingum Watershed
Conservatory District, New Philadelphia, O.
THOUSANDS of years ago a wise man said, "Where there is no
vision the people perish." Recorded history gives many examples
of its truth. But the evidence unearthed by the archaeologists is even
more striking. It is a tragic story of civilizations that developed, pros-
pered, and then faded into oblivion. There were many apparent reasons
but basically, it was lack of wisdom. Often it resulted from failure to,
adequately conserve essential water and soil resources.
The critical effects of lack of vision in resource conservation are
more evident today than at any previous time in world history. Every
one seems to recognize it as a major cause of world tensions. But with
all our great concern for the undernourished and underprivileged masses
of the world, America continues a policy of "too little and too late" in
safeguarding her own basic resources. It is a common weakness to
22 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
assume that the rules apply only to the other fellow. We know that
"it can't happen here." But without the vision of Hugh Bennett and
a few other such wise prophets, America might soon be threatened with
critical shortages of essential soil resources. There is great need for
similar leadership in the water field.
In my more than 25 years of association with the conservation move-
ment, there has been a tremendous change in public opinion. Originally,
the only conservation interest of Ohio citizens was in flood control. This
resulted primarily from the great flood of 1913 and its awful destruction
of lives and property. It was the surplus of water, not possible shortages,
that concerned the public.
Today our major concern at both State and National levels is water
shortages, existing and potential. With the exception of a few favored
communities such as those located on the Great Lakes or major rivers,
the problem is already a serious one. Because of water limitations many
communities have apparently reached their maximum expansion, and
countless others are threatened. As a result, it seems possible there
may be more committees and organizations, at local, state and national
levels, devoting themselves to its study, than to any other similar prob-
lems. While this is encouraging there is danger in the resulting confusion
of ideas and remedies.
Cloud seeding, massive pipe lines from major lakes and rivers and
desalting of sea waters may all have possibilities. But, based on present
knowledge and costs, the great majority of communities must approach
the problem on the basis of existing water resources within their respec-
tive watersheds. Population growth and increased per capita water
consumption emphasize the necessity of immediate action. The available
evidence seems to indicate that we should anticipate future need of
every drop of rainfall and proceed immediately with orderly plans for
its eventual storage.
The major problem is where and how to store? If nature had pro-
vided us with sufficient underground storage areas the problem would be
much simpler. There is a desperate need for exact information as to these
underground possibilities. But it seems agreed they will take care of
only a fraction of the total need and that our primary dependence must
be on surface impoundment.
The subject of this panel discussion is "Watershed Approach to
Water Conservation." In my biased opinion there is no other approach.
This is particularly true if we think in terms of complete utilization of
our rainfall. It appears to be the only method that will guarantee an
equitable division among the affected communities and citizens.
The first need in every watershed is for expert engineering study to
determine potential long range water needs and how and where it may
be stored. With the extreme variation in annual rainfall this implies
the necessity of great storage reservoirs. It is here that we begin to
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 23
realize the effects of our lack of vision. Major highways, industries,
utilities and municipal developments are continually taking the areas
needed for water storage. Many of the other suitable ones may be of
such great value for food production as to make their use appear ques-
tionable. The most desirable sites and often the only suitable ones are
already taken. Except as immediate studies are made and suitable
storage sites promptly reserved, the eventual costs may reach astronom-
ical proportions.
If these essential watershed studies are to be made, the next question
is how and by whom shall they be financed? We have just come through
an era of great Federal participation in every field of public service.
As a result both local and state governments have lost much of their
initiative. The present trend is back to the people. While the assistance
of both state and Federal Government appears essential to the solving
of so great a problem, it is suggested that the primary responsibility
for planning should be that of local government. However, state and
Federal subsidies may be necessary to assure prompt action. The
division of construction costs should be based on resulting benefits.
Any careful analysis of the subject will usually indicate substantial
Federal and State benefits from properly designed reservoir develop-
ment. Congress has already provided that the primary responsibility
for flood control is vested in the Federal Government. It is also apparent
that state highways and bridges are major benefactors. Hundreds of
billion of dollars worth of flood projects have already been proposed.
Almost every valley community has one. In many instances, with
only a limited increase in cost, the same dam and reservoir will serve
for both water conservation and flood control. With the tremendous
and continuing increase in our need for valley lands, it appears essential
that no new reservoirs be constructed until this dual use possibility is
determined.
As a direct result of the great flood of 1913, Ohio pioneered in the
establishment of water conservation legislation. After forty years of
testing, its Conservancy Act is still considered to be the foremost law
of its type. It has been generally copied throughout this country and in
other lands. While requiring some modernization, its basic provisions
are sound and have stood the test of time. It provides for local initiative
in organizing watershed projects. It permits State and Federal partici-
pation in planning, construction and administration, with maximum
protection to local interests.
In Ohio the Miami and Muskingum Conservatory Districts are
typical examples of the results that may be attained through watershed
developments. The Muskingum District, being organized almost a
generation later than the Miami, was able to benefit by its experience.
Tremendous changes in the conservation concept had taken place during
this period. As a result the Muskingum was permitted to undertake a
24 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
broader program. The favorable results which it attained would have
been impossible without the leadership and example of the Miami.
While the Muskingum project was designed to provide maximum
benefits to the local people, its major construction cost was assumed
by the Federal and State governments. This resulted primarily from the
employment emergency existing at the time. However, the contribu-
tion of each was originally based on an estimate of the benefits accruing
to it.
With the exception of a $10,000 State grant for survey purposes, all
the costs of the promotion and original planning of the Muskingum
project were paid by the local people. Economy and efficiency were
necessary parts of the program. Because of the high value of main
valley lands and the competition of costly utility, industrial and munici-
pal developments, it was necessary for their engineers to go far up the
tributary streams to find economically practical reservoir sites. Here
it was discovered that, in certain of the areas, much greater storage
was possible than was required for flood protection. It was only neces-
sary to build the dams a little higher and purchase a limited amount of
additional land, in order to create ten permanent lakes with a total
surface area of more than 16,000 acres. Through this pioneering de-
velopment was created an asset of tremendous value at a minimum
of additional cost and with no reduction in essential flood storage.
Created by a Conservancy Court consisting of a Judge from each
of its eighteen counties, the Muskingum District is close to its people.
Its Court appointed, three member Board of Directors has shown a
unique sense of public responsibility. In its desire to do an efficient
job the Board established certain basic policies. Of these, four seem
to have particular significance. They are: (1) That the District would
continue to pay the regular real estate tax on all its lands; (2) That it
would operate on the minimum of tax income; (3) That, to the extent
of its ability, it would develop its facilities so as to provide the maximum
of public benefits; (4) That it would not duplicate the work other
agencies of government — Federal, State, or local — could and would do.
Briefly, the District has paid the regular real estate tax on all its
lands since their acquisition. This now totals nearly $400,000. Since
1939 it has operated without tax income of any kind. It has been sug-
gested that it is the only agency of Government that both pays taxes
and operates without tax income.
In order that maximum benefits might be provided, the Board dedi-
cated to public use a margin of shoreline around each of its ten lakes.
This totals 365 miles. All its islands are also dedicated to public use, and
only twenty percent of its lands, adjoining the shoreline areas, may be
used for commercial recreation purposes.
The policy of not duplicating the work of other agencies is, of course,
primarily responsible for the District's financial success. Limits of time
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 25
prevent a listing of these cooperators. During the development period
there were twenty different ones, and ten are still actively participating
in the program. With the exception of the War Department, which,
under authority of Congress, administers the flood control phases of
the District program, this is all accomplished without additional cost to
the tax payer.
It is said that, "The proof of the pudding is in the eating." A brief
listing of the benefits thus far attained through the Muskingum Develop-
ment might be of interest.
According to the War Department, the flood control benefits already
afforded by the Muskingum project have a value of $20,000,000. This
appears to justify the $48,000,000 investment in it. This is particularly
true when we realize that, during the sixteen years of its operation, there
has been no combination of conditions such as produced the previous
major floods. But, to the majority of people, it is the recreation fa-
cilities afforded by the Muskingum development that have the greatest
value. There are more than six million persons living within a two-hour
drive of its major lake park developments. Each year more than two
and one half million visits are paid to them. According to tables de-
veloped by the National Park Service, this recreation resource already
has a value of more than one million dollars a year and it is still in-
creasing.
Water conservation is the theme of our present discussion. While its
value is difficult to estimate, many authorities suggest that it may be
greater than either the flood control or recreation. New industries are
being attracted to the Valley because of this water resource, and it has
made possible the expansion of its power production facilities. The
general growth of its communities is encouraged by the assured water
supply, and agriculture is benefitted by the promise of water for needed
irrigation purposes.
The combination of benefits from the Muskingum development has
had a decided beneficial effect on the general economy of the Area.
There is a new outlook. Visitors seem particularly aware of it. E. H.
Taylor, Senior Associate Editor of the Country Gentleman Magazine,
and one of America's foremost conservation authorities, recently said:
The Muskingum Conservancy District has an inestimable present and future
value to the people of its area. But its worth to the nation as a whole is perhaps
even larger. It demonstrated the great possibilities of watershed development
and management for the public benefit. At the same time it showed how this
could successfully be accomplished by local initiative, planning, organization,
and responsibility. Thus it became both an inspiration and an example of people
in various other parts of the country. Today the watershed is being accepted
as the practical basis of multi-purpose programs for the conservation and more
beneficial use of our natural resources. It can be said without question that the
most important single contribution to this trend was made by the Muskingum
Conservancy District and those who have so ably managed its development.
26 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
We, who are associated with the Muskingum project, would be the
first to state that Mr. Taylor has been much too kind in his praise. Our
mistakes have been many and great, and the beneficial results came
largely from the friendly interest and wise counsel of many friends and
authorities. The only purpose in quoting him is to indicate the type of
success that may be anticipated in the water resource field through a
watershed approach. The need for watershed activity is great and im-
mediate. Delay may so increase costs as to endanger the program. In
conclusion, it seems proper to repeat, "Where there is no vision the
people perish."
Roadside Control
MRS. CYRIL G. FOX, President, Pennsylvania Roadside Council,
Media, Pa.
A") IN MATRIMONY, there may be cynics in the field of highway
planning to claim that "the first 100 years are the hardest!" But,
speaking as a very interested spectator of the progress in highway-
building during the last quarter of a century, and marveling especially
over the fabulous parkways and expressways which have fanned out
across the nation during the past 15 years, I am inclined to quote an-
other gag-line and say, — "You ain't seen nothing yet!"
You will recall the breath-taking exhibit of General Motors, at the
New York "World's Fair" in 1939, in which Norman Bel Geddes dis-
played his genius in a unique exhibit portraying "The Highways of
Tomorrow". Referred to as "Dream Highways" by a public just emerg-
ing from a horse-and-buggy age, the first pattern for such 4-Iane, limited
access highways was laid down across Pennsylvania by a specially ap-
pointed Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission. October of 1940, — less
than 15 years ago, — marked the grand opening of this first "dream"
highway to the steady stream of traffic which has flowed thru its gates
ever since.
World War II, with the resultant shortages of labor and materials,
checked the wave of highway building temporarily. But public clamor
for more dream highways, plus a demonstrated willingness to pay tolls
to make them possible, produced an accelerated program of highway
building such as the world had never seen.
Today, 55 million motor vehicles are using 3J4 million miles of public
roads and streets, while the building of toll roads goes on around the
clock in the majority of states to supplement this staggering figure.
Some mathematical genius has figured out that today's cars, if bolted
bumper to bumper, would reach to the moon. But no one, apparently,
has yet come up with any suggested resting-place for the 80 million cars
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 27
we are expected to have by 1975! There was an assured and permanent
resting-place for 40,000 users of our present quota, however, last year, —
and there is an uncertain future for the 2 million men, women and
children who escaped with only injuries of varying degrees. The dollar
cost of this toll of death and destruction is estimated at 4 billion dollars,
— if, indeed, human life can be evaluated in dollars. All of which proves
that even "dream highways" must be examined critically, and their
deficiencies given the most careful consideration, lest they turn into a
nightmare of horrors.
We are told by the experts that our present highway problem is
CRITICAL. We are told that 50 billion dollars is a realistic figure for
covering present highway needs and relieving the obvious discrepancy
between the fast-growing number of cars and the inadequate highways
safely to serve them. However, with the present average outlay for
both federal-aid and the aggregate state highway systems a mere 3
billion and 900 million shrunken dollars per year, there is quite a yawn-
ing gap to be considered, with more than passing interest, by the oil
and automotive industries, as well as by the motoring public.
Wishful thinking doesn't produce elastic dollars, unfortunately, so
for some years to come it would appear that you and I must live with
an admittedly wholly inadequate system of highways, continue to waste
our gas and tires while struggling thru the congested traffic which
plagues most urban centers, and continue to risk our lives every time
we step into a car.
But, an old Chinese proverb advises that "When the moon is fullest
it begins to wane; when it is darkest it begins to grow." So, while our
highway picture of the moment may indeed be dark, I think you will
agree that an aroused and decidedly vocal public opinion is causing it
to grow steadily brighter. And quite the brightest aspect, I think, is a
growing realization by highway builders and public alike that controlled
roadside usage along major arteries of travel can and will alleviate traffic
congestion and reduce accidents to an amazing degree. Sufficient factual
information has already been published about the reduced carrying
capacity and highway safety produced by marginal friction and the
unregulated ribbon-slum development which characterizes most of our
major highways to make any further comment here unnecessary. But
supported by facts and figures our Association can very properly assume
the responsibility of evaluating and advising on the most practical and
effective remedial measures and techniques. Then responsibility for the
necessary action and follow-thru may precisely be placed on the ap-
pointed representatives of the public.
Erling D. Solberg, of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, in a
recent report to the Highway Research Board, states that roadside
protection techniques fall into two main classes, namely (1) control
thru acquisition by purchase or condemnation of rights essential to
28 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
roadside development; and (2) control by regulations and restrictions
imposed under the police power, — in short, zoning. Mr. Solberg's ex-
tensive and well-documented report on the use of zoning in various
sections of the country, where this tool was adapted to special needs
and conditions, gives conclusive proof of the value and economy of this
technique in controlling roadside abuses. At the same time he calls
attention to the weakness of zoning by local units of government, where-
in local pressures frequently cause a breakdown of locally imposed and
administered regulations. Since, to date, there has been no highway
zoning at the state level, despite persistent efforts in a number of states
to secure it, (my own state of Pennsylvania included) we have no means
of appraising the real value of a state highway zoning law such as the
American Automobile Association and State Planning Boards have long
advocated.
Opposition to the common-sense instrument of zoning for restoring
order along state highways stems from the concerted efforts of the out-
door advertising fraternity to misinform rural property-owners about
its provisions. Tall tales are circulated by these quick-money boys as
they pack the hearings on proposed zoning ordinances and raise
anguished cries about "attacks on the farmer's 'sacred property rights' ".
The "Principle of Real Property Law", as outlined in the October 1948
issue of Traffic Quarterly, published by the Eno Foundation for Highway
Traffic Control, wholly disproves any such "right" as that claimed
by the billboard interests. This is too little known, unfortunately, even
in interested groups. Legislators and other public officials must have
their attention drawn to the fact that the owner of land cannot legally
sell his right to be seen from the highway to an advertising company,
and that any attempt to advertise anything other than the land itself,
or products sold on such land, is an excess use oj the easement. This well-
established principle has already successfully supported several recent
important court-decisions. As I've said, it must not be overlooked by
those working for the regulation of outdoor advertising abuses.
The Grange, as well as most women's organizations and civic groups
have long been on record against billboards in rural areas. They provide
a powerful nucleus for public information centers on this important
subject.
Robert Moses, in his $25,000 prize-winning essay in the General Motors'
* 'Better Highways Contest", sums up the question neatly when he says:
Any program of highway expansion and improvement, especially one in-
volving new routes and rights of way, which does not face frankly and firmly the
menace of indiscriminate billboard advertising will not have sustained public
approval. Intelligent women in particular have profound convictions on this
subject. Honest public officials of long experience are increasingly fed up with
glib assurance of cooperation from billboard companies and advertisers who have
little regard for either safety or preservation of the landscape. Parkways
are already more or less protected by wide rights of way, state laws, and local
zoning ordinances and easements, but most laws governing new mixed traffic
THE AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ASSOCIATION 29
arteries, including toll roads, have been rigged with weak sign and billboard
provisions or stripped of all such regulations. The billboard companies have
shrewdly sought the aid of farmers and other adjacent owners who seize the
opportunity to pick up a few fast dollars, and of unions engaged in putting up
and painting signs, to defeat regulatory bills and prevent effective administrative
rulings. Since there are many other more promising media, advertisers seem
much less interested in plastering the highway system with appeals for their
wares than the billboard companies claim. In terms of safety and public sup-
port, it is essential to curb the billboard interests from the very start. If every
highway is to become just a gasoline gully, those who live and work nearby and
those who drive for pleasure and with some respect for scenery, are going to be
more and more in favor of putting the new roads somewhere else or drastically
limiting their construction.
Is it too much to hope that General Motors, having paid Mr. Moses
$25,000 for this good advice, will now throw its weight behind a move-
ment to ACT upon it? Leader in the automotive field, and having itself
coined the challenging slogan of "Let's Get Out Of The Highway
Muddle", General Motors could of itself, by example, establish an
acceptable pattern of roadside usage and proper development. Like-
wise any one of "the big 5" in the oil industry. If but a fraction of the
money currently being spent by oil, automobile and tire companies to
advertise the need for MORE highways were spent to advertise the
need to clean up and protect existing highways in order to conserve
their full carrying capacity, our highway problem would be far nearer a
solution.
The National Council of State Garden Clubs, with a membership of
400,000 women concerned with the safety and beauty of our highways,
and in recognition of public sentiment and determination to protect
highway investments, passed a far-sighted Resolution at its recent
Convention in S. C. The Council calls upon the Federal Government
to make adequate highway protection by the States a requirement for
Federal Aid in its highway construction program. This realistic formula
for speeding up essential roadside protective measures should be gently,
yet powerfully, urged upon the Bureau of Public Roads thru other
national organizations who are concerned with our critical highway
problem. It must become a specific requirement, and quickly, for
Federal grants to State for new highway construction. The tax-payer
is entitled to his full dollar's worth of safe highways!
President Eisenhower's recent Highway Safety Conference in
Washington, and the similar State Safety Conferences now being held
thruout the country, all point up the urgent, almost the emergency,
need to come to grips with the highway safety problem at the state and
national levels. The related problem of roadside litter, including bill-
boards, junkyards and other eyesores, should likewise be a responsi-
bility of the State, with both Highway and Police Departments collabor-
ating in curbing the anti-social habits of the nation's Jitterbugs.
30 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Serious consideration of the roadside litter problem is most timely,
since industry itself is mobilizing to curb the careless and disgusting
habits of thoughtless motorists who toss their rubbish from car windows.
Far-sighted industrialists are realizing that valued brand-names on
bottles, cans and cartons, when viewed in the gutter or in assorted piles
of garbage and trash along rural highways, produce bad public relations,
to put it mildly. So, with the inspired name of "Keep America Beauti-
ful", Inc., and joined by the oil and automotive industries, a large
number of related groups are preparing to launch a nation-wide in-
tensive educational campaign designed to focus public attention on the
danger and waste involved in such bad outdoor behavior. Working
closely with the various civic agencies thruout the country which have
been struggling with this problem for many years, this new, well-
organized and intensified effort should quickly produce the result we all
await, — Clean parks and highways. Makes me think of Willie Jones, a
little wizened negro, sitting dejectedly in a Texas Courtroom, awaiting
sentence for petit-larceny. As the clerk intoned "The case of the Great
State of Texas against Willie Jones", Willie rolled his eyes, threw up his
hands and groaned, — "Lordy, Lordy, — what a majority!"
And that, as I see it, is the final answer to our roadside problem and
to "keeping America beautiful." A very sizeable majority of our people
want clean, safe and attractive highways, as numerous surveys have
proved. And that majority is ready to pay for them, as witness the ease
with which toll roads are financed. The relatively small minority which
is responsible for the senseless defacement of our otherwise beautiful
countryside will find itself outlawed, as an informed, articulate public
makes its wishes clear. And so, while a Texas majority is certainly one
to be conjured with, a majority of all good Americans who "want what
they want", and quickly, is invincible!
IN THE STATES
STATE PARKS*
Roll Call of the States
Arkansas. General Daniel B. Byrd, Parks Director, State Parks,
reported :
The principal activity of the current year has been directed toward
improving the physical plant and park facilities. A major part of the
parks buildings, and other facilities date back over a period of some
twenty years, with very little done in the way of repairs and mainte-
nance. A great deal has been accomplished in reconditioning and mod-
ernizing the buildings, water distribution systems, and other properties.
A modern and efficient system of records and bookkeeping has been
installed in the parks office that meets the most exacting requirements of
auditors. Contracts of concessionaires in the parks were revised prior to
the opening of the present season, and rates of lodging and some other
facilities have been revised upward. This had not been done for many
years, and was overdue. The revision in rates and concession contracts
has increased the parks revenue by approximately twenty-five percent.
A progressive program of destroying and eliminating water lilies,
yanca-pin, and algae, is being carried out. These growths had materially
interferred with fishing in the large lakes and had created unpleasant
conditions for swimming. It will take at least another year to rid the
lake waters of undesirable growth.
A complete check of parks property has been made, and records
brought up to date. Inventories were made, and, where needed, re-
placements procured. An experienced abstractor made abstracts, or
the equivalent, for all real property. Surveying and establishing property
lines is progressing, and will be completed in the near future. The im-
portance of this work, and of having complete records available is em-
phasized by the fact that about ten years ago, some valuable parks
property was lost through perfectly legal means. This could and would
have been prevented had adequate records been made and maintained.
Emphasis was placed on the importance of establishing and marking
property lines, when it was found that valuable timber had been, and
was being cut, on parks property, due to the fact that the property
lines had not been definitely established.
Consideration has been given in the past year to the establishment
of a number of new parks, on recently established lakes by the U. S.
Engineers. Actually, no new park has been established. A valuable
addition to one of the existing parks was the donation, by a public
*AII of the reports and papers in the section on State Parks were presented at the 34th Annual
Meeting of the National Conference on State Parks at Lake Crescent Lodge, Olympic National Park,
Port Angeles, Washington, September 12-16, 1954.
31
32 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
spirited citizen, of an airport, adjacent to the park. The construction
of this modern airport is nearing completion, with a runway of more
than 5,000 feet, and a grade of less than one degree, although it is located
on the top of a beautiful mountain. A hard surface road was built along
with the airport, connecting with the principal lateral road in the park.
Tentative plans are now in the making for the issuance of park bonds
for a major development program in two of the existing parks. If
carried out, this will more than double the carrying capacity in each of
the two parks.
No charge is made in Arkansas State Parks for swimming, boating,
camping, or parking. Requests for reservations far exceed the carrying
capacity of our parks. Fifty-one percent of our guests are from our State
and forty-nine percent from other States. There is a noticeable increase
in the popularity of our parks. Park-wise the future outlook is good!
California. Earl P. Hanson, Deputy Chief, Division of Beaches
and Parks, Department of Natural Resources, reported :
The California State Park System continues to expand. Since last
reporting to the National Conference on State Parks, eleven units have
been added to the System, making a total of 141 parks, beaches and
historical monuments. The total area of 558,088 acres has been acquired
at a cost of 35 million dollars and includes improvements valued in
excess of 15 million dollars. Attendance at all units for the past year is
estimated at 45 million visitor days.
During the past fiscal year, ending June 30, the Division expended
$1,074,699 for the construction of state park facilities. The cost of
operations was $2,806,662. Revenues from operations were $380,000.
In the 1954^55 fiscal year, capital outlay expenditures for construction
were cut in half and amount to $519,700. The operating budget was
increased by $3,000, being $2,809,578. Revenues from operations will be
substantially increased to an estimated $578,000. This will result from
the recent increases in all fees for the use of state park facilities. These
increases were put into effect after a staff study was requested by the
State Department of Finance. Overnight camping was increased from
50 cents to $1.00 per night. Trailer court rentals were increased to
$1.50 per night. Daytime use, mainly picnicking, was increased to 35
cents per car per day. This increase is expected to add about $180,000
per year to the Division's income. Total revenues from all sources now
pay about 20 percent of the maintenance and operational costs of the
State Park System.
Personnel increases provided were for new operating park units. At
least six state park areas have been developed or were in the process of
development during the past year. This includes daytime and overnight
use facilities in the spectacularly beautiful Emerald Bay State Park on
Lake Tahoe, the acquisition of which has just been completed.
STATE PARKS 33
The acquisition program still continues with funds provided by the
Legislature of 1945 and during the past year $3,900,230 was expended
for new acquisition. More than two-thirds of this amount was for
recreational parks in the interior of the State. The balance was expended
for state beach acquisitions. Since the 1945 appropriation carries the
matching provision, it cannot be predicted at this time how much will
be spent for the acquisition of new areas. $2,800,000 was spent to
acquire the renowned South Calaveras Grove of Sierra Redwoods. This
was achieved largely through the one million dollar gift of John D.
Rockefeller, Jr., made through the Save-the- Red woods League. Other
gifts through the League and the Calaveras Grove Association, as well
as a previous transfer of corridor lands by the Federal Government,
has made possible this 2,200 acre extension of the Calaveras Big Trees
State Park, which now embraces 5,350 acres of outstanding mixed
forests, including Sierra Redwoods, white pines, yellow pines, white
firs and incense cedars.
An unanticipated gift of 1,612 acres of coastal Redwood lands was
contributed to the State by the Cowell Lime and Cement Company.
To complete the park, Santa Cruz County contributed the 120-acre
county Big Trees Park at Felton, one of the oldest and best known of the
coastal Redwood parks. These two units embracing over 1,700 acres
were recently dedicated as the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.
The Hospital Cove area of Angel Island, a striking landmark in
San Francisco Bay, including 36 acres of land and several structures,
was transferred to the State for historical and recreational purposes
by the General Services Administration of the Federal Government
recently. The State Park Commission has applied for an additional 140
acres, all of which would come to the State without cost, because of its
classification as an historical area by the Federal Government.
The beach acquisition program continues to go forward. Definite
progress is being made in carrying out the most recently adopted master
plan acquisition programs for Santa Cruz and San Mateo Counties.
Several other important acquisition projects have been completed,
foremost of which is the Pueblo de Los Angeles State Historical Monu-
ment which includes the colorful Latin-American Olvera Street. An
operating agreement between the State and the County of Los Angeles
and the City of Los Angeles provides for the management and inter-
pretation of this original site and the picturesque structures of one of the
two first pueblos established by decree in California.
Other important historical properties, particularly in the City of
Monterey, have been added to the State Park System. The Pacific
House, one of the prominent remaining adobe structures in Monterey,
the Soberanes Adobe, whose owner has endeavored to perpetuate its
historic gardens, and the Gutierrez Adobe, all are in keeping with the
zone of historical preservation surrounding the Old Custom House.
34 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Definite progress is being made by the State Division of Highways in
studying an alternate routing of the Redwood Highway to by-pass Hum-
boldt Redwoods State Park. Organized local groups in Humboldt
County now favor such an alternate routing of the highway and the
preservation of the present road as a parkway through the Redwood
groves if this can be accomplished relatively soon. It is conceivable that
the still impounded oil royalties obtained from drilling on state-owned
tidelands can logically be used to offset a portion of the cost of the
by-pass highway. An amount has been included for such purposes in
the Five- Year Program which was formulated to show how the oil
royalties well might be expended when the 70 percent now provided
by California law is returned to the State Park and State Beach Funds.
The State Park Commission has adopted a general policy to guide
and direct the interpretation of the State's rich pioneer background
and subsequent growth. In addition, the Commission has authorized
archaeological studies in cooperation with the University of California
as an aid in determining the course of restoration to be followed at Fort
Ross, site of a Russian colony of the 1820's, and at Sonoma Mission,
last of the now historic Spanish missions to be founded in California.
Additional studies have been conducted, particularly on the part of
the legislative committees with respect to state park concessions, the
distribution of impounded oil royalties, the highway waysides or picnic
areas, and small boat harbors. The State Park Commission recently
adopted a policy which provides for the development of small boat har-
bors, only when such harbors are a part of a large state park develop-
ment and are -considered necessary to the public's enjoyment of the park.
The Commission is also studying a general program involving
the development and operation of river and reservoir areas in con-
nection with the construction of reclamation projects such as the
Folsom and Nimbus dams near Sacramento. This is an entirely new
type of project for the Division of Beaches and Parks to undertake,
and although the Commission has authorized a lease for the Nimbus
area and further negotiations for a lease of the Folsom area, there is
still need for additional study, particularly as to financing. Most reser-
voir projects will require the acquisition of additional lands by the
State, assuredly at a value which has been enhanced by the reservoir
developments. This and the problem of policing vast shorelines, as well
as water surfaces, represent a costly venture on the part of the State,
and unless the oil royalties remain intact, it may be difficult to finance.
Rapid expansion of the California State Park System has presented
problems in planning, administration, and operation, which will require
continuing financial support from the State Legislature which meets in
January.
Florida. Emmet L. Hill, Director, Florida Board of Parks and
STATE PARKS 35
Historic Memorials, reported:
We, of the Florida Park Service, are happy to report that we believe
progress has been made. It has been a year of change from limited
operations to an expansion program. It has been a year of teaching
an organization to build, maintain and repair in conjunction with an
increased operational load. Extensive repairs have been made on exist-
ing structures, and the standards of maintenance and clean up have
been raised.
We have improved and added to existing facilities, constructed new
buildings and opened two new areas with limited facilities to the public.
Attendance in Florida parks has increased from approximately
1,000,000 to 1,400,000 persons. Records are from actual count and
conservative estimates. Revenue has not increased in proportion to
attendance since revenue producing facilities could not be constructed
in time to be in operation the entire year. We are correcting this situa-
tion as rapidly as possible.
The demand for tent and trailer camping has increased greatly.
Facilities for this type of activity are being increased to care for the needs.
Our funds for the 1953-55 biennium are as follows :
Operation and Maintenance $1,009,000
Budgeted from Receipts 260,000
Buildings and Improvements 465,000
$1,734,000
Operation and maintenance funds expended this year $560,000.
Since our funds are released quarterly, we intentionally carried forward
$90,000 in order that we could build up sufficient funds for major repairs
and expenditures in some areas.
Our building program was somewhat hampered at the beginning.
Funds were not released until about September 7, and it was necessary
to employ personnel for the planning and execution of the program. At
the end of the fiscal year we had constructed, or under construction, fa-
cilities in the amount of $280,000, in the planning stage $161,000, with
$96,000 remaining to be acted upon. The program is to be completed
on all facilities under contract by April 1, 1955.
During the past year our Board has had numerous requests for opera-
tions for "Heavy Sands", within certain coastal areas. To date all re-
quests have been refused. Reverter clauses in many deeds have been a
deterrent in the exploitation of the parks.
It is our intent to continue to improve our facilities and service.
Georgia. A. N. Moye, Director, Department of State Parks, State
Division of Conservation, reported:
1. Total Appropriation for Operation & Maintenance $329,000.00
Budgeted from Receipts 105,592.81
Total $434,592.81
36 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
2. Total Appropriation for Capital Improvement $320,752.90
3. Areas Administered:
(a) Developed State Parks 20
4. Total Estimated Attendance 2,795,291
5. Total Receipts:
(b) Budgeted for Expenditure 105,592.81
6. Total Expenditures for Last Fiscal Year:
(a) Operation and Maintenance 328,152.65
(b) Capital Outlay 320,752.90
Total $648,905.55
7. Recreational Facilities Available for:
Hiking, horseback riding, boating, fishing, play-
ground activities, swimming, organized group camp-
ing, camping in vacation cabins, picnicking, scenic
tours, tour of historical markers and museums. Other
facilities not entirely recreational are restaurant and
and overnight facilities.
9. Rates, Fees and Charges:
(a) No general entrance fees, fishing, parking, or picnicking fees.
(b) Swimming 15c and 25c
(c) Special Exhibits 15c and 25c
(d) Boat rentals 25c per hour, $1.00 per day,
No Motors.
(e) Vacation cabins $20.00 to $50.00 per week.
(f) Group Camping 38c per day per person.
(g) Overnight Cabins.. $3.00-$4.00 single, $5.00-$6.00 double.
10. Accomplishments, Major Policy Changes, Outstanding Operational
Techniques, Etc.
Funds for development or improvement were not made available
after July 1, 1953 and expenditures for outlay was a carry over
from previous years appropriation and a large percentage of
miscellaneous receipts. Major accomplishments since that time
include completion of vacation cabins at Amicalola Falls and
Little Ocmulgee State Parks; opening of Unicoi State Park with
day use facilities, lake and organized group camping, opening of
Black Rock Mountain State Park with picnic areas, sanitary
facilities, and opening of Elijah Clark Memorial and Victoria
Bryant State Park with day use facilities; Also purchasing of
Stephens Collins Foster State Park located in the Okefenokee
Swamp and large scale repair and improvement programs at
Hard Labor Creek, Alexander Stephens R D A and Franklin D.
Roosevelt State Parks.
Idaho. Arthur Wilson, State Land Commissioner, reported:
STATE PARKS 37
Idaho is pleased to be represented at this Annual Conference on State
Parks, and it is the only time in many years, if not the first, that Idaho
has sent a delegate to the National Conference. This may be explained
by saying that Idaho is young in its state park experience and program-
ming, except for the maintenance of two or three parks that have been
under state supervision for many years.
I think of Idaho as being a "through" State in that tourists travel
through Idaho to get to the Coast States of Oregon and Washington,
or to the Rocky Mountain and Plains States if traveling from the West.
And being a "through" State we receive and entertain many visitors who
acclaim the beauties of our State, as well as some who decry the lack of
roadstop accommodations. We have made much progress in the last two
years in providing roadstop accommodations and have programmed for
the next biennium to double the present number. We have had a limited
appropriation compared to the need, in our State, but have spread out
the money and services over the entire State. In many instances we have
received local help in providing tables, fireplaces, and supervision, all of
which help to extend the program. Where local effort is put forth, by
civic groups, we find that there is less vandalism than in enterprises that
are wholly supported by state money. We have the same problem as
other States with vandalism in our parks and roadstops, and the ever
current problem of keeping our facilities clean and sanitary.
Our parks are financed by legislative appropriation. The two political
parties have endorsed the idea of advertising Idaho's resources and at-
tractions to the traveling public, so we expect to gain in tourist travel in
the coming years. The idea of selling stamps to raise money for park
improvement has been given some consideration. I believe there are
one or more States that do so at the present time. We have at present
nineteen state parks, picnic areas, recreation resorts, or points of interest,
that are located on some of our beautiful lakes and streams or on high-
ways, the use of which is free to the public, except in the one resort at
Lava Hot Springs where charges are made for use of the bathing pool and
plunges. We have no direct income to our park program except in Hey-
burn Park where cottage sites are leased for an annual rental, which
accrues to the general fund. The rental of cottage sites in other areas
accrues to the endowment funds of the land grants.
Indiana. K. R. Cougill, Director, Division of State Parks, Lands
and Waters, Department of Conservation, reported:
There was a record attendance at Indiana's state parks during the
1953-54 fiscal year. There were 2,117,962 paid admissions to the parks —
an increase of over 11 percent over the previous fiscal year's 1,901,001.
An innovation in Indiana State Park administration took place
this summer with the adoption of a free bed rate for children under
fourteen at the State Park Inns. When accompanied by both parents
38 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
and sleeping in the same room with them, children under fourteen are
charged only for food at the prevailing rate on the American plan. If
two children are accompanied by one parent, the full adult rate is charged
for one of the children, while the other is charged only for food. If
children occupy a separate room from their parents, the full adult rate
is charged for all children in the separate room. Cots, bunk beds, and
folding beds are available to provide extra sleeping accommodations for
children.
The construction of a dam at Versailles State Park was authorized
by the State Budget Committee. The $500,000 project will be financed
from Post War Funds and the Parks' Rotary Fund. The contract for the
project is scheduled to be let at the end of September. Following the
excellent pattern established by other states, particularly Michigan,
prison labor was used in connection with the preliminary work for this
project. The experiment was found to be so successful that the honor
camp will be re-opened this fall at the close of our youth group camping
season.
Since it was felt that the state property at Muscatatuck could be put
to better use for the benefit of a greater number of people if a game farm
were opened there, the Muscatatuck Inn was closed and the building
turned into a fish and game property headquarters. Muscatatuck State
Park is now known as Muscatatuck State Park and Game Farm, and
is under the management of the Fish and Game Division. The public
is no longer charged admission to the premises. In order that the
public should not be deprived of any recreational facilities as a result
of the opening of the game farm, an additional picnic area was con-
structed by the Division of Fish and Game. The only facility no longer
open to the public is the 3-room Inn, which had been unprofitable from
the time of its opening.
In the 1953-54 fiscal year the earned annual income of the state parks
exceeded $1,000,000 for the first time. Since only $812,000 was spent for
operation and maintenance costs, the parks were 117 percent self-
supporting from the standpoint of operation and maintenance costs.
$106,500 was invested in capital improvements, with $7,500 going for
land acquisition, $2,000 for preliminary work on the dam at Versailles,
$75,000 for a new bathhouse and parking area at Whitewater State Park,
$5,000 for the sign program at several areas, and $16,500 for miscellane-
ous construction. Inholdings were purchased at Shades, Versailles, and
Kankakee River State Parks.
The biggest capital improvement expenditure was for the bathhouse
at Whitewater State Park which was opened for use during the latter
part of July. The building also houses a concession stand and public rest
rooms. A road leading into the park was also black-topped. This was
the second complete year of operation for our newest of the state parks.
STATE PARKS 39
$1,400,000 will be available for improvements in the coming year,
with $850,000 coming from the Rotary balance of July 1, 1954, $470,000
from Post War funds and $90,000 from specific appropriations.
$1,198,850 will be available for operations, with an estimated $1,000,-
000 coming from earnings, and $198,850 from appropriations.
Proposed plans for next year include the construction of a 270-acre
lake at Versailles State Park; construction of a group camp at Lincoln
State Park; continued effort on the establishment of a new Chain O' Lakes
State Park in northeastern Indiana as a part of the acquisition program;
in-service training for new personnel; and continued development in
new state park properties as funds will permit.
Iowa. Wilbur A. Rush, Chief, Division of Lands and Waters, Iowa
State Conservation Commission, reported:
Work on capital improvements, extensions and development in
Iowa's State Parks have slowed down considerably during the past year.
Of the $236,000.00 spent for this type of work, about one-third of it was
for land purchases. The balance of the expenditures was for relatively
small projects such as water line extensions, water treatment plants,
residence remodeling, emergency repairs to spillways and control
structures, riprapping shorelines, and erosion control work. Because of
legal and financial difficulties, work on Iowa's two newest artificial lake
developments has come to a complete standstill.
Since there was no increase in legislative appropriations for mainte-
nance and operation, expenditures for this phase of the work remains at
approximately the same figure as the previous year, or about $300,000.
The balance of our appropriation goes for support of the forestry pro-
gram and the maintenance of state waters.
Late in June flood waters reaching the highest levels on record on
the Des Moines River innundated parts of DoIIiver Memorial State
Park and Ledges State Park. Some parts of each of these parks will be
unusable for several years as a result. Several other parks throughout
the State were damaged considerably during the same period as a result
of tornadoes and floods. Some financial assistance was received from the
State Contingency Fund to help pay for the clean-up and repair work.
Iowa continues to maintain its leadership in the field of conservation
education mainly through the Iowa Teacher's Conservation Camp
sponsored jointly by the Iowa Conservation Commission, Iowa State
Teacher's College, and the State Department of Public Instruction.
For the fifth consecutive year the Iowa Conservation Commission pro-
vided the facilities of the group camp at Springbrook State Park for
this school. Enrollment increased 37 percent over last year, or a total
of 114 teachers attending this summer's sessions for which Iowa
State Teacher's College offers college credit. Emphasis is on field work
and practical teaching methods. Four hundred and twelve teachers
40 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
are now alumni of this unique college. These teachers have assumed
leadership in conservation education programs in their repective com-
munities, as well as becoming ardent salespeople for this type of an
educational program. Research and a Master's thesis on the effective-
ness of the training offered at the camp was completed in 1954 by a
graduate student at Iowa State Teacher's College. The thesis will soon
be printed by the State Conservation Commission for distribution to
other interested organizations.
Iowa has turned to the medium of television as a means of publicizing
its conservation program. Last spring a series of thirteen fifteen-minute
programs was produced, showing the various phases of the work of the
department. Three of these programs pertained directly to state parks
and water recreation. These programs, filmed and produced in our studios
and areas by our own personnel, were distributed free to all thirteen
television stations within the State which gave us complete coverage of
the entire State. Public reaction to the first series of programs was so
favorable that the second series is now in production.
Park attendance is running slightly ahead of last year. Our records
show greater attendance early in the season due to an extremely mild
and dry spring. The loss of use of some areas during July due to floods
held the midsummer attendance about equal to last year. If fall con-
ditions are as favorable as last year, park attendance in Iowa will reach
very nearly five million visitors. Tent and trailer camping has increased
very sharply, although no appreciable change can be noted in cabin use.
The use of privately owned boats, especially those equipped with out-
board motors, has shown a tremendous increase in the State, and
especially at the artificial lakes within the state parks.
There has been a growing sentiment on the part of the public, en-
couraged by many newspaper editorials and articles, to demand larger
appropriations for state park maintenance. There are encouraging signs
in our State that the general public is awakening to the fact that their
state parks need better financing to prevent complete deterioration of
facilities that have been built during the past three decades. The two
strongest sportsmen's organizations in the state, the Izaak Walton
League of America and the All Iowa Conservation Council, have been
very active during this year, promoting greater interest among members
of the Legislature for larger appropriations for park maintenance. The
outlook for better maintenance appropriations for the coming session
of the State Legislature is brighter than it has been in many years.
Kentucky. Henry Ward, Commissioner of Conservation, reported :
The Kentucky Division of Parks has concentrated during the past
year on bringing closer to completion several parks in which major con-
struction was carried out in past years. In addition, it has been placing
emphasis on rounding out the state system of parks by the acquisition
STATE PARKS 41
of two new areas and the improvement of parks in other areas con-
sidered to be important from a geographic point of view.
The State acquired approximately 1,600 acres from the U. S. Corps
of Engineers at Dewey Lake in eastern Kentucky. This lake is a flood
control reservoir, but it has a conservation pool which provides for a
beautiful lake in a mountain setting. The transfer of land to the State by
the Corps of Engineers included all land available for public use, thereby
assuring the public of continuing protection. Our experiences in working
with the Corps of Engineers on this project and on our state park on Lake
Cumberland in southern Kentucky have been very good.
Kentucky joined with Virginia in authorizing the creation of the
Breaks Interstate Park. Congress last year authorized the two States to
enter into a compact to create this park, and the General Assemblies
last February approved similar acts creating a Breaks Interstate Park
Commission, with three members from each State. The commission is
given authority to acquire land and to take any other steps to develop
the park, which will be located in an area between Elkhorn City, Ken-
tucky, and Haysi, Virginia. Here the headwaters of the Big Sandy break
through the Cumberland mountains from Virginia into Kentucky,
creating a gorge 1,600 feet deep. Representatives of the National Park
Service cooperated in a study of the proposed park, and recommended
its creation as an interstate park. Conservation Commissioner Henry
Ward of Kentucky and Conservation Director, Raymond Long of Vir-
ginia have been named members of the park commission. Its organiza-
tion meeting is to be held Sept. 21.
Major construction during the past year in Kentucky included
building of new lakes and bath houses and beaches at Carter Caves State
Park and Audubon State Park, the erection of a new lodge at Pennyrile
Forest State Park, and the building of 40 new vacation cottages at four
parks.
Major construction also was involved in the relocation of picnic
areas and the building of new parking lots as the result of the construc-
tion of a bridge across the Cumberland River at Cumberland Falls
State Park. This is a low-level bridge with massive arches faced with
native stone. It replaces an antiquated ferry which was never dependable
in providing service, and has greatly enhanced public use of the park.
Public use facilities were expanded in many of the parks as attend-
ance increased. Experience has indicated that provision of water recrea-
tion has resulted in an immediate and large increase in visitation.
Attendance at Kentucky state parks during the past year has been
estimated at 3,500,000. There are no gate admission charges in Ken-
tucky parks, so this is an estimate of visitation.
Receipts from park operations passed $2,000,000 during the year.
These receipts plus a $300,000 appropriation by the General Assembly
are available to the Division of Parks for its operating expenses. An
42 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
additional $1,000,000 has been available during the year for capital out-
lay purposes. This comes not from the General Assembly but from the
State Property and Buildings Commission, which distributes all state
funds for capital improvements.
Kentucky is now contemplating the issuance of $3,500,000 in revenue
bonds to finance the construction of lodges and vacation cottages at
General Butler, Carter Caves, Dewey Lake, Pine Mountain, Lake
Cumberland, Pennyrile Forest and Kentucky Dam Village State Parks.
The objective is to have a minimum of at least a 50-room lodge and 25
vacation cottages in each of these parks.
Operating experiences at other parks have indicated that facilities
providing for housing of at least 200 persons overnight are needed to
assure a business-like operation. Housing and dining facilities in Ken-
tucky state parks are expected to pay their way and to produce a profit
for the maintenance and operation of other facilities which are not self-
sustaining.
Kentucky's experiences continue to indicate that the average va-
cationist coming to our state parks wants a variety of recreation. For
example, Kentucky Dam Village, which actually is a recreation area
with swimming, boating, fishing, golf, tennis and various other sports,
tops all other in attendance and receipts. The parks without recreational
facilities are the lowest on the list in attendance and receipts.
Kentucky feels that the future of its state park system will continue
to be bright if those in charge of its administration will remember that
they are serving the public and not just their own opinions.
LOUISVILLE. Clinton G. Johnson, Director, Otter Creek Park, re-
ported :
The year 1954 began with near disaster at Otter Creek Park. On the
night of January 17 our filter plant burned with a total loss of pumps,
filters and equipment. We were fortunate to be covered by insurance.
By February 7 we had rebuilt and were ready for our new equipment.
The old structure was of wood but the new one is built of concrete blocks
and asbestos lined ceiling so we are really protected now. On April 2
the new filter was in operation, producing more water than the old one
and about 80 percent automatic.
The use of the park, which was about 100,000 last year, has increased
to over 125,000 this year, due to better roads, more facilities and greater
publicity. With our present set-up this is about all we can handle. The
organization camps have been filled to capacity since April 25 and are
booked solid until October 15.
Mayor Andrew Broaddus appointed one new commissioner, Mr. Dann
Byck, for a six year term.
Our one administrative change is the charge of 10 cents per person
for use of our reserved picnic area which is equipped to handle large
groups. The charge is to cover the cost of maintenance.
STATE PARKS 43
Our budget from the city was not reduced. We state in our requests
why we need special items and the budget committee has always given
us a favorable report. We lowered our capital improvement fund this
year. Last year we were able to build two bath houses, two first aid
buildings and two cabins for a total of $18,000.
We believe that any tax-maintained park should be "for the greatest
good for the greatest number in the long run" and through our publicity
program we are destroying the previous impression that the park was
only for organized camps.
We plan to improve greatly our day use areas next year by the
building of shelters, a concession building and more picnic areas.
Louisiana. William W. Wells, Director of State Parks and Recrea-
tion, reported :
Perhaps the most important highlight of the past year was the
successful bout with the State Legislature which met in May. A much
greater recognition of the importance of the state parks in State Govern-
ment was very evident. The fact that the State Parks commission is an
expanding agency of the State Government and will need additional
funds for operation and development, was accepted.
On March 7 our Marksville Prehistoric Indian Park was dedicated.
Dr. Frank Setzler, Head Curator of the Department of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution, was the speaker on this occasion. The Oakley
Plantation House, Audubon Memorial State Park, was dedicated on
March 14 with appropriate dedication ceremonies, headlined by Mr.
John Baker, President of the National Audubon Society.
The activation of the Department of State Civil Service, which was
approved by the previous session of the Legislature, was also a very
significant development in State Government. We feel that this will be
of particular value in setting up standards and especially salary scales
of state park employees.
During the past session of the Legislature, three new areas were
brought into the State Park System, two of which were historic sites.
One is the Mansfield Battle Park located near Mansfield, Louisiana,
the site of a very important Civil War victory for the Confederacy in
which General Banks' Red River campaign came to an end. The second
was the Edward Douglass White Home located in Lafourche Parish on
Bayou Lafourche. This is the home of the first Chief Justice of the
United States Supreme Court from Louisiana. White was also a Justice
of the State Supreme Court. The third area is a recreational fishing area
called Lake Martin located in St. Martin Parish, not far from Long-
fellow-Evangeline Park. It is an area of about 840 acres which will be
developed as a fishing lake.
During the past year, a capital improvement program was carried
out on all the state park areas. It was not a large program, but it did
44 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
result in the development of additional recreation or service facilities on
all of the state parks. Possibly the most important piece of work was
the completion of the group camp at Lake Bistineau State Park and
the development of a major picnic area, also on that park. The operating
appropriation for the park system for the past fiscal year was $248,775.
Also, budgeted from receipts and available for expenditure in the opera-
tion of the park system was $111,690 which was obtained from the
operation of various revenue producing facilities in the park areas.
This gave a total of $360,465 which was used for park operation and
maintenance. $312,500 was appropriated by a special appropriation bill
and made available for a two-year period. The second year of the past
biennium $138,498 was spent in the further development of recreational
facilities on the various state parks.
Most of the worn out and obsolete equipment on the various park
areas will be replaced by new equipment. It is also planned to place all
administrative personnel on the park areas such as rangers and superin-
tendents, in an appropriate state park uniform. $650,000 was made
available; one-third the first fiscal year and two-thirds the second fiscal
year. So for the present fiscal year, a total of $215,000 will be spent on
capital improvements. Included in these funds are swimming pools for
group camp areas, picnic shelters for different areas, major repairs and
extension of utilities.
Plans for a Confederate Museum at the Mansfield Battle Park are
already under way and plans for the development of the Edward Doug-
lass White Home as a Museum have been made. It is significant that
of the $650,000 appropriated for capital improvements, $142,750 was
especially tagged for the development of negro state park areas. This was
not done at the request of the Parks Department, although we had been
trying to get through a special bill for the development of negro areas.
Actually this was an amendment to our original bill and indicated that
the Legislature is seriously considering the effect that the impact of the
Supreme Court ruling will have on state park use as well as other types
of state facilities. As an approach for providing state park facilities for
negroes, a committee of outstanding negroes has been appointed by the
Commission which includes a doctor, a school teacher, a contractor and
a successful business man. Also, a committee of three from the State
Parks and Recreation Commission Board has been appointed to work
out the details of starting the negro facilities and also to work with the
negro committee so that we will be making an approach to the problem
which we feel will be satisfactory to the negroes and at the same time
not involve our present state parks in unsegregated use. We are not
quite positive how these areas will be developed, but it is probable that
a separate part of our larger state parks will be set aside, developed
and reserved for negro use. In other sections of the State where existing
state parks are not large enough to do this, it will be necessary to acquire
STATE PARKS 45
new park areas. We feel that an intelligent approach and an intelligent
and workable plan for providing negro recreational facilities is probably
one of the most important things that we have to work out.
We also expect to concentrate on publicity during the coming year.
Our publicity in past years has been rather weak. Now, we are concen-
trating on doing as many newspaper articles, feature magazine articles
and television shows as we can. Incidentally, we are very well pleased
with the way in which television shows the state park facilities.
Maine. Harold J. Dyer, Director of Parks, reported:
A continuing program of expanding and improving state park fa-
cilities is to be considered by the incoming Legislature. Particular con-
sideration has been given to expanding camping facilities to meet the
rapidly increasing demands for tent campsites in all areas. Plans call
for doubling practically all of the campground facilities.
Two additional gifts of land have been added to Baxter State Park,
increasing the area to 163,000 acres. A popular vacation area in a wilder-
ness setting, the park includes Mt. Katahdin with 50 other mountains
and 60 lakes and ponds.
Interpretation is receiving more emphasis each year with the estab-
lishment of more nature trails, campfire programs and related activities
at the various parks. Plans are being formulated for a self-guided tour
of Fort Knox State Park.
Maryland. James F. Kaylor, Director, Department of Forests and
Parks, reported:
State park activities in Maryland were given a tremendous boost
when the Department of the Interior deeded one-half of the Catoctin
Recreational Demonstration Area to the State. In fact, this transfer of
approximately 4,500 acres increased the park acreage by one hundred
percent. William R. Hall, formerly of the U. S. Corps of Engineers
Recreation Service, was employed during the year as Superintendent of
State Parks. As head of the Division of Parks, his first task is to co-
ordinate the acquisition and development of the Patapsco State Park.
Attendance in all the parks and recreation areas increased some 35 per-
cent to 1,835,200 visitors for the year. It is anticipated that more
visitors will come to our parks since the State is listed as one that is
growing rapidly. The visitors to our parks have accepted the system
charges now in effect in many of the developed properties. The charges
have been confined to services such as parking, reserved picnic or camp-
ing units.
In Patapsco Park, acquisition has progressed very well during the
past year. To date some 2,800 of the 8,000 acres to be purchased have
been acquired in this 35-mile river park. In Gambrill Park additional
lands have completed the park. The development of Patapsco and
46 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Sandy Point Parks continued to receive the largest amount of capital
improvement funds. Construction of basic structures and roads in
these parks cost $305,000. This is slightly more than the $295,000
appropriated by the Legislature for the year. Legislators are becoming
more interested in the State Park System. However, they are looking
into costs of projects and the tendency is to reduce all requests by a
sizeable percentage. They are also telling us to charge for all services in
order that the parks operation may be more nearly self-supporting.
During the year, $79,248 was collected for services rendered in
operation of the parks. All of this money has been budgeted for park
operation and maintenance during the past year. Lack of rainfall in-
creased our costs of protecting park properties from forest fires. We
expect this long-range drought to worry us for another year, if present
predictions are accurate.
Evidently Maryland is not the only State that has problems in
juvenile delinquency. Our plans for the coming year call for the establish-
ment of several youth work camps to use picked boys from state cor-
rectional institutions to build improvements. As you know, we have
been employing prison help from several camps to build picnic shelters,
toilets and water facilities. We have eight project areas available for
such work camps. We expect to cooperate with other state agencies in
establishing and maintaining the camps. The responsibilities of the
Division of Parks will be solely for work projects. The Parole or Correc-
tion Departments will be in charge of the housekeeping phases. It is
anticipated that many improvements can be made by this force account.
Michigan. Arthur C. Elmer, Chief Parks and Recreation Division,
reported :
Park attendance continued to skyrocket — 14 million in 1953 —
seriously overtaxing state park lands and facilities. Up to September 1,
1954, we had more than a million increase in attendance and 15,000
permits to camp. There was a 20 percent increase in camps, mostly
tent campers, each camp paying 50 cents per night plus 20 cents for
electricity if desired.
Land purchases were extremely limited in 1953-1954 since only
$10,000 was available for acquisition.
Major improvements consisted primarily of the modernization of
campgrounds, including extension of electrical systems, water and
sewage, modern toilet, laundry and shower buildings, the remodeling
of bathhouses, construction of staff quarters, extending and improving
parking areas, blacktopping park entrance roads, and similar work.
Conservation-Corrections camps continued to expand to 10 with
the total of some 800 inmates working on park and conservation projects.
Approximately $1,275,000 was available in 1953-1954 for operation
and maintenance of parks, of which $935,000 was for salaries and wages,
STATE PARKS 47
$270,000 for contractual services and $70,000 for equipment. $270,000
was available for construction, remodeling and additions and special
maintenance. The Conservation-Corrections program appropriation
for the fiscal year of 1954-1955 is $268,000.
We have a capital outlay appropriation of $300,000 to start a $5,000,-
000 development in the Sterling State Park in the heart of industrial
Michigan, plus $530,000 for general development. The Department of
Conservation in cooperation with the Civil Service Commission is in
the process of upgrading in classification and salary some of the park
rangers and managers and increasing the number of seasonal employees
to staff our parks adequately under present use conditions.
The land acquisition budget for 1954-1955 has been increased to
$50,000. We submitted to the Legislature a five-year capital outlay
program totaling some $11,000,000 together with $1,000,000 per year
for land acquisition.
We lost one member of the Conservation Commission by death and
another through expiration of appointment. Two replacements were
made by the Governor.
As the result of a tornado more than 10,000 feet of hardwood and
hemlock timber was destroyed in the Porcupine Mountains State Park.
A large majority of the logs and pulp was salvaged by private logging
firms in exchange for private land within the project boundaries, for
roads within the area which the department needed for administration,
and for cash deposited in the State Treasury.
Through the generosity of an anonymous donor a beautiful rustic
chapel was built in virgin pines in the Hartwick Pines State Park.
Minnesota. U. W. Hella, Director Division of State Parks, reported:
Minnesota State Parks in the past year have been undergoing a pro-
gram of rehabilitation financed by a loan of $450,000 from Game and
Fish funds. The loan is to be repaid from the sale of $1 automobile
windshield stickers, required for any automobile entering a state park
and good throughout the entire system over the calendar year in which
the sticker is issued. Of this $265,000 was spent last year. In addition
we have approximately $185,000 a year for general operation. Last
year the sticker act grossed a little over $74,000. Expenses against this
came to about $1,500 and represented a ten-percent commission author-
ized on stickers sold by the County Auditors or their agents, including
sporting goods dealers.
This year we expect to gross about $120,000 and we think that will
increase by twenty percent in the next four or five years because of the
state-park consciousness it has created. What the incoming Legislature
will do in regard to the Act is of course problematical. However, edi-
torial comment has in the main been favorable and very little opposition
has been expressed by individual legislators. The Act will probably be
48 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
amended. In case of large organized picnics where participants do not
otherwise use the park system, we are proposing a daily sticker sold in
minimum lots of 25 at 25 cents each through the secretary of such an
organization. Bulk sale would serve to keep down the administrative
costs. Present administrative costs on the dollar sticker are under ten
percent and in larger areas, such as Itasca, run as low as three and a half
percent.
About our accomplishments on rehabilitation of the state park plant,
about 5,000 gallons of paint and preservatives have been applied,
hundreds of rotted rafter ends were trimmed as well as a multitude of
roofs, floors, screen doors, windows and door stoops repaired. Some of
the rehabilitation must obviously take the form of major remodeling.
Then there were replacements of structures such as bridges destroyed
by flood, buildings destroyed by fire, clean-up of the debris from the
tornado and wind storms in the preceding years of financial drought.
We have also kept pace with the ever-recurring emergencies — two wells
that broke loose to the tune of 1,500 gallons per minute, plus well
failures, plus clean-up of extensive wind storm damage in June which
hit most of the parks in the northern half of the State.
More important, however, in our opinion, is the progress we have
made in planning to bring up to date improvements made through the
cooperation of the National Park Service in the 1930's and we have been
planning for areas added to the system in late years.
Much more in planning needs to be done and we hope that our
Legislature will make it possible to continue this phase of our operation.
On area acquisition, through gift from Mr. H. C. Crosby of Duluth,
we were presented with 3,300 acres of property on the Manitou River
on the spectacular North Shore of Lake Superior. This gift, together
with tax delinquent lands and previously held properties adjoining
Canboise River State Park will give us an area of about 7,000 acres
containing in it four spectacular falls and some of the best speckled
trout fishing on the North shore.
We believe that we are moving ahead and we will continue to do so.
Missouri. For Abner Gwinn, Director of the State Park Board, Hugh
Stephens of Jefferson City, reported:
This past year our state park system has undergone a major ad-
ministrative change. Other than this, Missouri's State Parks have ex-
perienced their largest year of public use.
Missouri Parks were conceived in 1917 and operated administratively
under the State's Fish and Game Department until 1937. Since 1937
and until this year the parks were administered by an ex-officio board
consisting of the Governor, Attorney-General and Director of Con-
servation Commission. Our new board was appointed by the Governor
last fall and is composed of six members. The board is bi-partisan and
STATE PARKS 49
terms of office are arranged to insure a continuity of experienced mem-
bers. Chairmanship of the board has been established on a yearly rotat-
ing schedule and other policy matters also decided on a business basis.
The new law in Missouri provides that all concession contracts
awarded by the Board must be on the basis of advertised jobs, sealed
bids, acceptable bids and qualified bidders along with other limiting
clauses. All such contracts in the past were made on basis of appoint-
ment and negotiation. An overall increase in state business, the award-
ing of favorable contracts and regulation of overnight charges has com-
bined to make this year the largest in state revenues from all operations.
State park revenues for the first time will be earmarked as a state park
fund and this factor will be of considerable influence in establishing
future facilities and operating policies.
A continuing program of maintenance aimed at establishing good
park standards combined with an improvements and betterments pro-
gram aimed at balancing the parks developments has brought each park
and the system into an improved position. There is still need for such a
policy to be continued because of public pressures for improvements,
development and also for additions and expansion of the system.
There is need even now for additions to the system and the board
is giving careful consideration to several proposals and reconsidering
the recommendations of the state plan proposed for Missouri in 1938
by the National Park Service and its own state agencies.
Looking to the future our State is already embarked on a big program
of road improvements that will bring about increased inter and intra
state travel. Private development of recreation areas within the State
continues at a good level. Public interest in establishment of more
public areas and also in preservation of historic sites and buildings is
also strong in Missouri. All of these things together require us to look
ahead and to plan carefully to do a bigger job than ever before.
Montana. Ashley C. Roberts, Director, Park Division, Montana
Highway Commission, reported:
The Montana State Park Commission was originally set up by the
Montana Legislature in 1939. It operated as a separate entity until
the 1953 session. At that time the State Park Commission was abolished
and the duties, powers and activities were transferred to the State
Highway Commission. This action took effect July 1, 1953 and we have
been operating as the Park Division of the State Highway Commission
since that date.
During the past year we have concentrated our activities on enlarg-
ing the parks and providing more facilities. Two new parks were added
to the system making a total of ten parks in Montana available to the
general public.
50 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Montana has undertaken no general acquisition program. The parks
that have been added and are proposed to be added during the coming
year have been donated or are under lease without cost from the Bureau
of Reclamation.
Our biggest need in existing parks is to provide more facilities and
access roads. During the past year we have been unable, in most cases,
to handle the number of people who would like to make use of the parks.
During the current biennium we are operating on a budget of $35,000
per year. This money is appropriated to us by the Legislature. Over
half of this amount is earned by our activities at Lewis and Clark
Cavern State Park where we charge for the trip through the cavern.
We are currently working on three new parks which we intend to
add to the system in 1955. Better roads and more facilities are also
planned for the existing parks. Other park areas will be studied and
added to the system as rapidly as funds will permit. Our request to the
1955 Legislature will be more than doubled over the amount we are
currently receiving.
In general Montana's State Park System is just getting nicely started
and we have a long way to go. We have reason to believe that within
a few years we shall have a system that will be a real credit to this state.
Nebraska. George F. Ingalls, Park Planner for Region Two, National
Park Service, Department of the Interior, reported:
The Nebraska Game, Forestation, and Parks Commission administers
seven state parks which are widely distributed throughout the State
and are supported by legislative tax appropriations. The Commission
likewise administers a much larger number of recreation grounds
which also are widely distributed. These recreation grounds, which
include lands on state lakes used largely for fishing and hunting, are
operated from income derived from the sale of hunting and fishing per-
mits. While there seems not to have been anything especially new as
to state parks during the past year, an important recreation development
was the construction of a state lake in north-central Nebraska in-
volving some 400-500 acres, including water surface and adjoining lands.
Dingle-Johnson funds aided in construction of the dam impounding
the lake.
Under agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation and the National
Park Service, the State, through the Game, Forestation, and Parks
Commission, continued to administer recreation areas on three reser-
voirs constructed by the Bureau. During the past year a similar agree-
ment was consummated whereby the Mirage Flats Irrigation District
administers a recreation area at another Reclamation reservoir.
New York. James F. Evans, Director of State Parks, reported :
With respect to operation, attendance and revenues, New York
STATE PARKS 51
State Parks had a good but not spectacular year in 1954. Attendance
will be equal or slightly higher than 1953. Revenues, because of greater
variety of sources, will increase slightly even though the bathing season
has been poor.
Important capital improvements were completed during the year.
On Long Island, the Cap tree Bridge and Parkway, opening up Captree
State Park and Fire Island, was dedicated in June. Five miles of the
Southern State Parkway, expanded to six lanes, were opened as a toll
section. Both of these improvements were made by the Jones Beach
State Parkway Authority. Other important items completed included
the opening of the Bayard Cutting Arboretum and completion of grad-
ing on the Sunken Meadow Parkway.
Up the Hudson Valley, two sections of parkway were opened, —
thirteen miles of the Palisades Parkway, south of Bear Mountain Bridge,
and a twelve-mile extension of the Taconic Parkway northward into
Columbia County past Lake Taghkanic. Good progress was made on
the rest of the Palisades route and on land acquisition and plans for the
Sprain Parkway in Westchester County. The Anthony Wayne park
development in Bear Mountain— Harriman was nearly completed and a
planning contract let for the development of Lake Taghkanic State
Park.
Elsewhere in the State, newly acquired Evangola State Park on Lake
Erie was partly opened to the public while plans for complete develop-
ment are underway. Further progress was made on the Lake Ontario
State Parkway and important improvements made at a number of up-
state parks, notably Green Lakes, Allegany, Verona Beach, Wellesley
Island and Fair Haven.
Work was continued on the shore protection program at Hamlin
Beach, Fair Haven and Selkirk Shores State Parks.
A development of interest to park authorities was the beginning of
the St. Lawrence Power Project by the State Power Authority, headed
now by Robert Moses, Chairman of the State Council of Parks since
1924.
This date was also recalled in the celebration of the Thirtieth Anni-
versary of the unified State Park System in New York, featured by the
publication of a Thirtieth Anniversary brochure and a proclamation by
Governor Thomas E. Dewey of "State Park Week" August 15 to 21.
Ohio. V. W. Flickinger, Chief — Division of Parks, Ohio Department
of Natural Resources, reported :
During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1954, the Ohio State Park
System entertained over 9,600,000 visitors.
Expenditures as follows:
For maintenance and operation $902,015
52 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
For Capital improvements
Land acquisition 625 acres $35,543
Other capital outlay 770,463 806,007
Total expenditures $1,708,022
For this period we expended 29.15 cents per visitor of which 10.25
cents was for maintenance and operation and 17.9 cents was for capital
improvements. According to the 1953 national average figure just re-
leased of 31 cents per visitor, we were 8.75 cents under on maintenance
and operations and 5.9 cents over on capital improvements, or 2.0 cents
less than average on total.
Accomplishments — 5500 feet of beach, 5.6 miles channel cleaning;
dredged 818,732 cu. yds.; purchased and placed in operation 1 — 12 inch
Hydraulic Suction Dredge; two (2) TD-14 Tractors; built 50 latrines;
parking for 4,809 cars; purchased 1,379 picnic tables; built 15 miles of
road; four (4) residences; 8 service buildings; drilled 33 wells. Under
way 69 housekeeping cabins — completed and purchased equipment for
them; 7 miles of gas, sewer and water systems; new patrol boats and
motors; installed two-way radio for patrol purposes in boats and vehicles;
planted over 88,000 trees and shrubs.
Contemplated Expenditure for 1954-55
Maintenance and operation $950,000
Capital improvements 1,857,557
$2,807,557
which will involve the installation of a hydraulic gate at Rocky Fork,
construction of two dams which will impound 494 acres of water; open
up one mile of beach; complete one Inn; build one group camp dining
hall, enlarge camping facilities in five areas; construct two residences;
build additional roads and parking and acquire additional lands.
OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Dr. Richard S. Fatig, Engineer-Super-
intendent, Division of Properties, reported:
I trust you caught the change in the name of the Society. After 69
years of operation under the name "Ohio State Archaeological and
Historical Society*' the membership voted overwhelming at the last
annual meeting to change the name to "The Ohio Historical Society."
I am sure you will appreciate this change as much as our staff and many
friends have.
During the past year a rehabilitation program has been in progress
on several areas, particularly the log cabin Schoenbrunn Village and the
village of Zoar. This program consisted of repairs to the existing build-
ings and additional restoration work.
The Quaker Meeting House restoration was started and all structural
improvements completed. This project is located in eastern Ohio. The
meeting house is the first Quaker Church west of the Ohio River.
STATE PARKS 53
Another project initiated was the restoration of an old water-powered
mill located in Sandusky County in Northwestern Ohio.
The River Museum area of Campus Martius Museum, Marietta, was
doubled in size by excavating and finishing a room in the basement of
the Museum building.
Extensive improvements were made at Fallen Timbers State Me-
morial near Toledo. These improvements involved the relocation of the
entrance, entrance road and parking area.
Restoration of one blockhouse at Fort Recovery in western Ohio was
started. This project is continuing and will be completed early next
spring.
General improvements have been accomplished in many other areas
by additions of shelter house, fireplaces, toilet facilities, etc.
Total attendance for the historic and archaeological areas ad-
ministered by the Ohio Historical Society as of the year ending June
30, 1954 was 2,117,991.
Funds available for operation were as follows:
STATE APPROPRIATIONS
Salaries and wages $186,397
Maintenance 80,990
Capital improvements 170,200
Total expended $93,857 balance of $76,343 carried over to 1954-
55 operation.
PRIVATE FUNDS
Earned income (concession, rent, etc.) $66,781
Endowments 7,942
Total $74,723
Total available from all sources $512,310
Oklahoma. E. E. Allen, Director, Division of State Parks, reported :
Oklahoma's proposed 5J^ million-dollar self-liquidating bond pro-
gram was the highlight of the year. Through mutual agreement be-
tween the bonding company and the Planning and Resources Board,
this amount was increased from 5J^ million to 7% million, which would
make it possible to add facilities in all of the major parks. The bond
program has been beset by many problems but now seems assured for
the 7J4 million dollars. The State Highway Department is spending
$313,000 this year to pave all main park roads.
The Division of State Parks has added to its staff a land planner and
an office engineer.
For the two-year period 1953-55 the Division of Parks has set
aside the sum of $543,500 for capital improvements in its 5 recreation
areas, 4 memorials and 12 state parks.
54 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
The Oklahoma Planning and Resources Board, Division of State
Parks, acquired by lease from the Federal Government a new state park
area containing 575 acres of land and a 900-acre lake, with 14 cabins,
a lodge and assembly hall, two residences, bathhouse, concession stand,
boat dock storage facilities, and all utility lines and equipment. This
area was acquired at no cost to the State. No funds are available for its
operation until July, 1955.
Oregon. C. H. Armstrong, State Parks Superintendent, reported:
Oregon has had a very successful year in the use of its state parks.
It has now been determined that the usage count will be approximately
5,000,000, which is the highest in the history of the state parks of Oregon.
The overnight camping use has increased materially since its inception
in 1952. The number served in 1952 in the overnight camping program
was 34,000; in 1953 it was 64,000, and this year the number will be
approximately 100,000 by the end of the season.
The budget for 1954 was $1,023,000, of which $555,000 was for
capital outlay; $434,000 for park administration and operation; $34,000
for maintenance of roads and parking areas. The main improvement in
park areas consisted principally in the expansion and addition of fa-
cilities such as the construction of improved type toilets, new electric
and wood stoves where necessary, benches, one new caretaker's cottage,
enlargement of overnight camping areas at four places — Wallowa Lake,
Humbug Mountain, Honeyman and Cape Lookout State Parks. There
were new overnight camping facilities provided at Tumalo in central
Oregon near Bend. The construction of overnight camping facilities
started in 1953 at Honeyman and Cape Lookout has been completed.
The stabilizing of sand dunes by planting of European Beach Grass at
the Nehalem Sand Spit and Cape Lookout has been in progress. We are
spending approximately $12,000 a year on this type of work. Improve-
ment of water sources has been progressing whereby we eliminate the
possibility of contamination, or wells have been drilled providing
potable drinking water. We have found it necessary to replace some of
the old water systems placed during the early thirties by the CCC's;
this has proven expensive.
Insofar as acquisition is concerned, we have acquired 318 acres of
new park land, 147 acres of which were donated by two different parties
and Deschutes County. Provision was made for a new park at Bandon
in Southern Coos County on the Oregon Coast, another at Tumalo
a short distance northwest of Bend in central Oregon, and the comple-
tion of an area at Blue Lake near the summit of the Cascades between
Salem and Bend. These added to our total, make 156 state park areas.
The program for 1955 is expected to be a continuation of the present
year's work.
STATE PARKS 55
Texas. Frank D. Quinn, Chairman, reported for Gordon K. Shearer,
Executive Secretary-Director of the Texas State Parks Board :
Texas State Parks acquired an additional 3,000 acres of recreational
areas during the year with completion of negotiations with the Corps
of Engineers of the U. S. Army for desirable sites on Texoma, Texarkana
and Whitney Reservoirs. In order to carry out a program of develop-
ment through revenue bonds, it was necessary to present authorizing
bills to Congress in order that fee title could be had to limited portions
of these areas. We cannot issue bonds unless land is owned outright.
The year was marked by observance of the tenth anniversary of Big
Bend National Park. This was the occasion for a gathering in the park
last July and exercises at which honorary park ranger commissions were
issued to those active in the acquisition of the 700,000-acre tract as a
state park and its transfer to the National Park Service.
Considerable success has been experienced with a type of camping
shelter installed at Buescher and Balmorhea State Parks. The two parks
are in widely differing types of country and both have found the shelters
in big demand. They are roofed shelters 14 by 20 feet in size with con-
crete floors, six-foot concrete picnic tables with bench, waist-high char-
coal grills and ample space for a cot. They have plug-in electricity and
running cold water for cooking. Patrons use a central rest room with
showers. Despite the cheap rate that is charged for these shelters the
net earning to the parks is about the same as that from more pretentious
cabins. The patrons bring their own bedding and linens and cooking
utensils and all that is needed for a thorough cleaning is to hose them
down. Particular or even finicky people have no hesitancy about using
them though the preceding occupants may have been more careless.
A major undertaking of the year has been rebuilding of the dam at
Huntsville State Park. Constructed by the CCC, the spillway
went out in an unprecedented rainfall in 1940. A new spillway location
is expected to give better results. We hope to have concurrence of the
National Park Service in their State Cooperation Program. This project
is being financed from sale of excess timber selected for cutting by the
Texas Forest Service.
On the theory that there are more swimmers who do not like to dive
than those who do, Tyler's State Park's swimming area was given a
redoing. Old diving boards were replaced with meter and three meter
aluminum boards, but the main stress was put on water amusements.
A large water slide was installed off the diving tower. A small water
slide for children was placed in shallow water. Water ponies were bought,
basket ball goals put up and water basket balls provided. A sand
beach was improved and stocked with attractively colored umbrellas.
In spite of competition offered by new city and county pools, the result
was that July swim receipts at Tyler State Park were $3,515.05 com-
pared with $1,555.75 for July, 1953.
56 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Small lake fertilizing following directions of biologists of the State
Game and Fish Commission is bringing good results for fishermen. Ex-
tensive sampling precedes the treatment. Then lime and such fertilizers
as the biologists prescribe are distributed. A frame resting on three boats
makes distribution easy.
New entrance plans at San Jose Mission, San Antonio, as reported at
last year's conference, now are a reality. A 60-car parking area is pro-
vided by this joint project of the National Park Service, Texas State
Parks Board, Texas Highway Department, the City of San Antonio and
Bexar County, Texas.
Major study is being given to beach development on the Texas coast
of the Gulf of Mexico. Valuable assistance is expected from the an-
nounced research of public beaches on the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of
Mexico Coasts that has been undertaken by the National Park Service.
It is hoped to provide good, accessible public beaches, at desirable
places along the Coastal Highway which will extend from Sabine on
the Louisiana-Texas border to Port Isabel at the south tip of Texas.
Growing use of this route for tours to Mexico heightens the need for
such development. A large sector of the route is along Padre Island. A
series of county park beaches already has been started there following
connection of the island to the mainland by causeways at Corpus Christi
and Port Isabel.
Monthly reports indicate that the slump experienced in 1952 has
been overcome and that a new era of park use has begun. Funds avail-
able will not be known until the State Legislature meets.
We have extremely satisfactory cooperation from the National Park
Service and all State agencies such as : Army Engineers, State Highway
Department, State Forestry Service, State Department of Public
Safety, State Department of Health, Game and Fish Commission, for
all of which we are grateful.
Washington. John R. Vanderzicht, Director, State Parks and
Recreation Commission, reported:
The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission enjoyed
its busiest season in history in 1954. A 25 percent increase in overnight
campers was the highlight of our year.
Many comfort stations were built in our camping areas which in-
cluded hot water showers and laundry trays for the convenience of the
campers. A ten-cent meter for hot water showers was successful and
will be installed in our other overnight areas. The installation of Propane
gas and electric hot plates was continued and installation of Presto log
dispensers is planned for next year. (A Presto log is made of sawdust
compressed under heat and pressure.)
Acquisition of many favorable park sites with emphasis on water
front is going ahead in Washington, with progress being made on the
STATE PARKS 57
proposed 2,000-acre ocean-front park on Long Beach Peninsula, and
acquisition of a mile of water front at Birch Bay on Puget Sound.
A new historical museum was opened at Fort Columbia State Park
near the mouth of the Columbia River and work was started on restora-
tion of Fort Simcoe near Yakima. This work is being done under the
supervision of our historical section.
Two new boat moorages on Puget Sound were constructed, making
a total of ten recreation areas reached only by small boats. A new group
camp was developed at Pacific Beach on the ocean on property leased
from the U. S. Navy. Our recreation division continued to help many
communities in solving local recreation problems.
West Virginia. Carl J. Johnson, Conservation Commission, reported:
In West Virginia we have 19 parks, about half of the vacation type.
We estimated that we had half a million visitors last year; that use is
increasing about 10 percent a year. Our vacation facilities take care of
about 18 percent of the demand. We completed the acquisition and
turned over to the National Park Service the Harpers Ferry National
Monument. Four parks were acquired during the year, two purchased,
one by will and one from the U.S.D.A. For next year a five-million-
dollar bond park-development program has been authorized and will
be directed to improving existing park properties. Blackwater Falls and
Tygart Lake will be changed from day-use areas to vacation parks.
Wisconsin. C. L. Harrington, Superintendent, Forests and Parks
Division, Wisconsin Conservation Department, reported:
The State of Wisconsin has been in the state park business for about
fifty years. The same impulses that activated the establishment of state
parks in other states undoubtedly were responsible for a similar line of
thinking in the Badger State. It seems to me that as the years have
gone by the general demand of the visiting public to state parks is con-
cerned more with broad recreation such as swimming, picnicking and
similar outdoor pursuits than with scenery and the more aesthetic
aspects that were frequently commented upon in the early-day reports
on why state parks should be established. At any rate, we now find our-
selves with 31 state park properties, with an annual day or other type
of visitor use in excess of three million with a state-wide active interest
in such developments and with an inadequate budget to keep up with
what appear to be public demands.
In 1947 the legislature revised the laws relating to the state parks.
This revision provided for a more accurate statement of purpose and for
the definition of responsibility between state agencies concerned with
aspects in this field of work. At the present time a close working arrange-
ment prevails between the State Historical and Archeological Societies,
the State Highway Commission, the University of Wisconsin and the
58 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Conservation Commission in the establishment and operation of the
state parks or related areas affording recreational opportunities. There
is no overlapping or duplication of effort, and budgetary responsibilities
are clearly known to each agency concerned. A practical illustration
of the cooperative understandings that have been developed is the
substantial aid the state parks receive each year in road construction and
maintenance from state highway funds. Historical and archeological
state parks are administered in close association with the State Historical
and Archeological Societies.
Since the beginning of this work in Wisconsin the state park and state
forest programs have been closely associated. I thought it might be of
interest to report that today the state forests in Wisconsin are affording
recreational use to the public in an ever increasing way. It so happens
that in the established state forests the State is the owner of hundreds
of miles of some of the best lake and river frontage in Wisconsin. Citizens
as well as the large number of summer visitors are, in an ever increasing
way, using these water frontages for recreation of the same type that is
customarily afforded in those areas called state parks.
While the larger acreages in the state forests are dedicated to the
timber harvest idea, still there is a constantly increasing acreage re-
moved, either in whole or in part, from forestry operations. Protective
roadside, riverside or lakeside strips, wilderness area dedications, scien-
tific areas, camping and picnic grounds, overlooks and similar specialized
reservations in which timber remains rather than is harvested, more
frequently appear in working plans than ever before. While I appreciate
that this same tendency is going on everywhere and has been going on
for years, and is evident in national forests also, still in a State like
Wisconsin it results in a blending of administrative purpose and opera-
tional need which tends to eliminate the differentiation between state
forests and state parks. If one adds the wide use that the state forests
provide the hunter and fisherman, which in turn affects the free harvest
of timber products more or less, then the similarity of purpose becomes
even more striking. In the state parks of Wisconsin no timber except
dead and down trees is harvested, even though on the larger areas there
are overmature stands, but in the state forests where forestry practices
are fully intended and plans are made accordingly, more and more
these areas are attaining the purpose and use of the state park. In
this way there is a growing idea that the words "state park" are a more
fitting classification term to the state ownership held for park and forest
development. In southeastern Wisconsin the Kettle Moraine State
Forest, which is intended to provide recreational opportunities for the
most heavily populated part of the State, will be chiefly valuable to the
people of the State for just such purposes rather than the forest products
which may ever be realized from the 50,000 acres that eventually will be
state owned in the Kettle Moraine hills. In my opinion this is one of the
STATE PARKS 59
most important influences now in process of evolution in Wisconsin
and will tend to affect all administrative, operational and financial
reckonings of the future.
For the 31 state park areas we operate on a budget of about $500,000
per year. Of this sum $150,000 comes from the general fund, $220,000
from fish and game funds and the balance from state park receipts or
other sources. In addition all park road work is financed from state
highway funds. The budget is such that we are on practically an opera-
tional basis with comparatively little left for capital improvements.
This situation is widely known and appreciated. At the present time a
legislative interim committee is working on a better and more adequate
plan for financing state parks. While all possible methods are being ex-
plored, it is not known as yet just what plan or combination of plans this
special committee will recommend.
In conclusion I wish to report that the public acceptance of and
interest in the state parks of Wisconsin are strong and healthy — the use
of the areas is expanding. The public is way ahead of us in the desire for
state parks. The system now incorporates some of the best in the way
of scenic, historic, or natural wonder places we have in the State. The
spirit of the Conservation Commission and those of us who daily work
at this business in the department is to improve and to try and render
a steadily better public service for the state parks of Wisconsin.
Wyoming. Jack F. Lewis, President, Wyoming State Park's Com-
mission, reported :
The Wyoming State Parks Commission was created by the 1953
Legislature and was composed of three members appointed by the
Governor, namely, Charles M. Smith, Clarence Stumpff, and Jack F.
Lewis, with an appropriation of $12,000.00 for operation and administra-
tion. In the summer of 1953 Mr. Stumpff resigned from the Commission
due to ill health and Gerhard Jacobson of Glendo was appointed.
The primary purpose of the Commission was to negotiate with and
take over from the Federal Government the lands surrounding various
reservoirs in the State of Wyoming and develop these areas for recrea-
tional purposes. It is the Commission's understanding that the theory
of the Legislature was that the development was to be done by private
capital and that the administration costs of said recreational facilities
would eventually become self sufficient, and that the State of Wyoming
was not in a position to appropriate sums of the money for the actual
development of the areas.
The reservoirs within the State of Wyoming, under the jurisdiction
of the Bureau of Reclamation, are under the authority of three separate
regional offices, namely: Billings, Montana; Denver, Colorado; and
Salt Lake City, Utah. We find that there is little or no coordination be-
tween these offices and it is necessary to deal with each office separately.
60 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
We entered into, after considerable negotiation, license agreements
with the Billing's office covering Buffalo Bill, Boysen and Keyhole
reservoirs and with the Denver office covering the Guernsey reservoir.
We have to date no agreement with the Salt Lake office regarding Eden
Valley. There is at present in the process of being approved a memoran-
dum of understanding between the State of Wyoming through its Parks
Commission and the Department of Interior and various Federal
Government agencies relative to administration of these areas. The
Wyoming Game and Fish Commission will also be a signatory since they
are to administer grazing areas adjacent to the reservoirs and areas that
cannot be developed for recreation. We are hopeful that such agreement
will be signed before the first of the year.
The Commission has granted two leases on Boysen Reservoir; one
a large arrangement of boat docks, cabins, cafe, filling station and
eventually swimming facilities on the south portion of the lake. An-
other concession was granted on the north portion for a boat dock, but
application has been made by the operator for expanded services which
will probably be granted to include a public picnic area.
We are now in a position to grant private cabin sites on Buffalo Bill
reservoir and are in the process of granting a lease for a large concession
for boating and other facilities on Buffalo Bill reservoir.
There has been some interest in cabin sites in the Keyhole reservoir
area but no formal applications have been received. We are in the process
of granting a lease to the Boy Scouts of that area for a summer camp.
The Guernsey area is being surveyed for private cabin sites and we are
hopeful that private capital can be induced to develop this area. It is,
however, at a disadvantage; due to the lack of fishing in the reservoir.
We are hopeful that public campgrounds can be developed, particu-
larly at the Buffalo Bill and Boysen areas and that these can be main-
tained as part of the consideration for the leases by the leasees.
We have also granted boating concessions to the Thermopolis Boat
Club on Boysen reservoir and the Big Horn Basin Boat Club on the
Buffalo Bill reservoir. In addition we have granted an agricultural lease
to some land adjacent to the Buffalo Bill reservoir which will improve
the looks of the area in a place that cannot be used for recreation.
We have not hired a full time employee, but anticipate doing so as
soon as a satisfactory person can be retained to do the administrative
work and act in the capacity of promoting development through the use
of private capital. The need for a full time employee has not been re-
quired until recently, but with the increasing activity and granting of
leases the burden is too great for the Commission to handle, particularly
when we must operate from our own places of business scattered over
the State of Wyoming.
There is an unlimited future in the development of recreational areas
outside of the National Forests and particularly on the various reser-
STATE PARKS 61
voirs in the State of Wyoming. It is eventually going to be a problem
of the Legislature as to whether it will be a full scale development or
whether it will be a minor effort. The demand for recreational facilities
and the activities of the outdoors are showing a tremendous increase
and the demand upon the State for these facilities is sure to come.
The Commission has made some investigation of activities in other
states and tremendous sums of money are spent every year on these
developments and the number of persons who enjoy and use the facilities
make such expenditures justified in most all instances.
The Park Commission's present policy is to go along slowly in the
development and to screen very carefully the persons to whom we entrust
development of certain areas. We are learning the problems and pitfalls
and it is hoped that in the next biennium a marked increase in the
development can be promoted and that the question of whether develop-
ment of recreational areas by private capital can be accomplished or
whether it will be necessary to seek substantial contribution of capital
outlay in the areas by the State Legislature.
Alaska. W. A. Chipperfield, Land Commissioner, reported:
I assure you that it is a pleasure and an honor and enlightening to
attend your annual conference this year and represent Alaska in the
capacity of her first Land Commissioner.
Alaska is perhaps the baby member of the Conference of State Parks.
I believe this is the first annual session of your conferences when Alaska
has been represented. Alaska still is only a territory and "When will it
attain statehood?" is still a $64 question, unanswered. The lack of an
answer is not going to prevent us from looking at our territorial park and
recreation problem. The problems of wayside and roadside accommoda-
tions are already present, they are increasing, they require attention.
I mention that Alaska is perhaps the baby member of your organization.
Do not gain the impression that Alaska has an active territorial park and
recreation division or agency in its government. Such an agency is now
only in its embryonic stage. As yet it has not taken true form. A tiny
seed was sown by the 1953 Legislature when it enacted a law which
created a Territorial Department of Public Lands and the appointment
of a Territorial Land Commissioner. The last section of this enabling
act authorized the Land Commissioner to accept in the name of the
territory gifts of land for park and recreation purposes. Today the
Territorial Department of Lands is a one-man department, Land Com-
missioner and his secretary. Appropriations for the department are
small and there are no funds for development and operation of recrea-
tional facilities. However, I am responsible that this seed receive the
proper moisture and nourishment so that it can sprout and grow and
flourish. This is a challenge that I have accepted for I know that Alaska
is saturated with recreational moisture and vitamins.
62 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Our Alaska park and recreation problems are divided into two parts :
first; acquisition of site and formulation of policy and plans; second;
development, operation and execution of plans. We have the full co-
operation of the National Park Service which has made worth-while
and valuable studies of the park and recreational need of the territory.
We also have the full cooperation of the Bureau of Land Management,
sportsmen, and conservation organizations who have done the same to a
smaller extent. The National Park Service has done much more along
this line than the territory itself has done and their studies and in-
vestigations and reports will be of great value in the formation of the
territory's plan. I want to emphasize that, the territory does not lack
very worth-while cooperation in the first part of our program. Over
150 key sites with potential value for park and recreational use are in
the process of classification or have already been dedicated.
The rate of headway we shall make in the second part of our program
is something that will not be so easy. It takes money to develop, it
takes money to operate, and it takes money to maintain the recreational
facilities. While we have good cooperation in the first part of the pro-
gram, it just about vanishes in the second part. Alaska is not in the fa-
vorable position that many of the states enjoy. Our territorial govern-
ment is thinly spread over a vast area of 375,000,000 acres, one-fifth the
size of the United States. Our park and recreational facilities will be
spread correspondingly thin. Alaska owns no lands from which it can
derive revenue from resources and royalty as do many of the states.
Of the 375,000,000 acres in Alaska at least 372,000,000 acres, over 99
percent are still Federally owned. Less than 1 percent is in private
ownership; less than 1 percent has been surveyed. At the rate the Fed-
eral Government has been making rectangular surveys of land in Alaska
during the past 44 years, it will take 66 decades to complete the surveys.
The solution to the second part of our problem boils down to the
bare, but much overlooked and unconsidered fact, that the Federal
Government owns and controls the land in Alaska. The United States
Congress makes the laws that govern the administration of these lands.
The Congress is composed of members that you elect, hence you are the
ones who have the final control. You are the ones who own the highest
and most majestic peaks of North America; the mysterious Northern
Lights; the Valley of 10,000 Smokes; the volcanoes; the icecaps; the
glaciers and the icebergs; the polar bear and the walrus; the great Alaska
Brown Bear, largest and most vicious of its kind ; streams where hordes
of silver salmon spawn; the largest caribou herds; the biggest moose on
the continent; the only land in your possession with the Midnight
Sun; the longest day; the longest and coldest nights; unlimited wilderness
areas; virgin forests; the Inland Passage and long, deep, and crooked
fjords.
STATE PARKS 63
Alaska has boundless opportunities for recreational development.
This fact is not new. Fifty-five years ago some of the most eminent
scientists of the world recognized Alaska as the Switzerland of America.
This is why I have accepted that challenge to nourish and cultivate
that seed which has been sown. It is a challenge to me, to the territory,
and to the people who own it, and to the governing body who control it.
Relationship Between Highways and Parks
MARK H. ASTRUP, Landscape Engineer,
Oregon State Highway Department
OBVIOUSLY highways furnish the routes by which people reach
parks. Without highways, park areas, which often are isolated from
population centers, would tend to become mausoleums visited only by a
few, and your discussions and variant views on the philosophy of state
parks, their function, value and use would be largely academic. Too,
your problems of acquisition, planning, development and operation
would be correspondingly simplified. Therefore highways, using that
term comprehensively, have a direct as well as a supplementary relation-
ship to parks, whether they be national, state or local, reached by other
than that fast-vanishing mode of transportation commonly known as
"shanks mare".
Having reached the rather apparent conclusion that highways are
supplementary to parks, I racked my brain to no avail to fathom the
subject assigned. Possessing an admittedly limited knowledge of both
parks and highways, I stumbled on the question: Do they have factors
in common? I think they do.
First of all, they both share an analogous problem in planning.
Park organizations commonly prepare master plans, programs of yearly
or longer time of development, and individual project plans. You employ
trained technicians in the various professions to study, formulate and
prepare those plans. Similarly, highway departments follow comparable
techniques and procedures. Possibly due to the rapid increase in trans-
portation demands, the highway engineer or administrator has a more
advantageous position than his park counterpart in observing the
beneficial results of adequate advance planning and, conversely in some
cases, the tragic loss from inadequate planning in highways which
have become obsolescent and require replacement before the physical
plant wears out.
The use of aerial surveys, one tool in highway planning technique,
might well be and I trust is being adapted to planning of large park
areas and extensive parkways. Normally parkways are designed in
basically highway organizations, but a wide range of professions is
employed to study adequately the design of bridges, guard rails, pedes-
64 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
trian foot bridges, headwalls, lighting standards and directional signs.
This corresponds to the design of individual park structures and de-
velopments as in both cases the object is to harmonize and blend man-
made construction with the natural topography and to preserve land-
scape features.
Many aspects of the modern well-designed highway have been
derived from early parkway design. They, too, have parallels in good
park design and development. To illustrate this relationship I would
like to quote the four basic requirements of the complete highway as
set forth in the 1943 "Report of The Highway Research Board Commit-
tee on Roadside Development" —
UTILITY is most important, for unless a highway is serving completely
in a useful capacity, its value is limited. In the broader sense, utility means
service, and as such includes provisions for the handling of all types of traffic,
with adequate safety turnouts, waysides, parking facilities for school and com-
mercial buses, service areas for the distribution of mail, gasoline, milk, and farm
products, as well as elements that result in the enhancement of land values.
SAFETY means orderly movement of vehicular and pedestrian traffic.
The complete highway design should eliminate present and potential traffic
hazards by keeping sight distance open on curves and at intersections^ by
flattening slopes so that traffic may leave the traveled way quickly and safely
in emergencies, and by preventing erosion from forming gullies or deepening
ditches into veritable traps for motor vehicles. These and other hazards may
be avoided by demonstrated roadside development methods.
BEAUTY, an essential part of the complete highway, requires the harmon-
ious integration of engineering, architectural, and landscape techniques. Con-
servation of stream banks, fine trees, weathered rock ledges, and similar natural
features is essential to the attainment of beauty in the finished highway. A
well-located highway with a stream-lined, erosion-proof cross-section, and with
well-designed structures, has pleasing and long-lasting qualities which appeal
to both the landowner and the motoring public.
ECONOMY is the quality of providing maximum vehicular and driver
service combined with safety, design, and pleasing appearance, at relatively low
construction and maintenance costs. Since the unit cost of annual highway
maintenance may be decreased through the integration of the basic principles
of landscape design and practice, it is obvious that developed roadsides are an
economy.
Perhaps, but to a lesser degree, some highway construction methods
have application to park work. I am thinking specifically of the machine
methods that have been adopted in mulching, seeding and fertilizng
highway cut and fill slopes. With the advent of modern earth moving
equipment, permitting the construction of modern roads to ever higher
standards, increasingly larger areas of infertile subsoils have been ex-
posed to wind and water erosion. The problem of control is multiplied
correspondingly in magnitude and is significant to the highway engineer
from aspects of appearance, safety, and cost. In Oregon we have a
truck-mounted tank of 750-gaIIon capacity with an agitator and appro-
priate pumping equipment providing a discharge pressure of 100 pounds.
STATE PARKS 65
Seed and fertilizer are placed in this tank, water added and the resultant
slurry sprayed on cut and fill slopes. This machine, operated by a 2 or
3-man crew, fertilizes and seeds an acre in 10 to 15 minutes. Eminently
satisfactory results have been obtained on slopes to a 1H;1 gradient
with no soil preparation or other practices normally associated with
grass establishment employed. Coincidently, we have practically
abolished the use of "topsoil", a major item of expense. Where necessary,
we have substituted a fertilization program, also applied by mechanized
methods, to maintain satisfactory grass growth.
We have adopted one other means of mechanization — a mulching
machine. Mulching, normally with hay or straw, is of inestimable value
in criticial growth or erosion situations. Mulch in its own right prevents
surface erosion, conserves soil moisture, provides shade for newly
germinated seedlings, reduces freezing and thawing action and adds
organic matter to the soil. We have also found that it extends the season
of seeding and stabilizes and permits the establishment of grasses in
sands where previously only costly vegetative methods had been con-
sidered practicable stabilization means. These practices are instrumental
in controlling erosion and improving the appearance of either park roads
or highways.
Parks are universally recognized as one of the leading agencies in
the conservation and preservation of our natural resources. The re-
lationship of highways to conservation is less generally recognized
and probably more frequently condemned than praised. But highways
can and do play an important part in conservation from aspects of soil,
water, forests, wildlife and landscape features. Highway departments are
one of the largest land holders in any state and the way they husband
and manage that land cannot but affect conditions on innumerable
thousands of acres of adjoining lands. Wider rights of way now being ac-
quired permit improved cross-sections, the retention of desirable trees
and shrubs, a planting space to augment existing vegetation, and a
screen planting of utility lines and other undesirable or conflicting views.
In other words, we can employ better conservation practices and we can
have highways of more pleasing appearance, which leads directly to
another relationship — that of recreation.
According to statistics, never have so many people had as much
leisure time and money to spend as today's population in the United
States. The impact on both highways and parks can be understood when
we learn there were 72 percent more automobiles in 1953 than in 1940,
with a prediction of another 73 percent increase over 1953 by 1975. The
percentage of recreational travel on highways has been variously esti-
mated. There is every indication that is it large and increasing. The
Yellowstone Park Area Tourist Study in 1950, which is another example
of park-highway relationship as it was jointly sponsored by the National
Park Service, the Bureau of Public Roads and the Wyoming State
66 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Highway Department, disclosed that the travel purpose of 90 percent
of car parties was to visit the park or that they were general vacationists.
This high percentage of recreational travel could be expected in that
location, but the disclosure that the average total trip mileage for all
car parties was 3,734 miles and the average length of trip was 18.3 days
definitely shows that America is on the road. Again, couple the fact that
most industry is on a 40-hour week with the increased ownership of auto-
mobiles and you have a condition making possible trips of considerable
distance over a 3-day weekend — an increase in recreational use of our
highways.
Highway departments have recognized the importance of recreational
travel both from its economic value to the community and from the
standpoint of human resources. You know the increases of park attend-
ance. It is far more difficult to know how many Americans gain their
recreation, and what part of their recreation, by merely driving on our
highways and enjoying the landscape therefrom. Thus from the stand-
points of highway safety and increasing the pleasure of highway users,
highway departments are making highway travel more pleasurable.
For these reasons we are paying more attention to the appearance of our
roadsides, we are marking historical and other points of interest, we are
developing viewpoints, cutting out obstructing vegetation to emphasize
scenic views, and establishing turnouts and rest areas where highway
travelers may rest, relax and recuperate from driver fatigue.
Perhaps some of you feel that these measures, particularly rest
areas, compete with park facilities and prerogatives. I think it is un-
fortunate that some of the States call these areas parks. It is significant
that they are called rest areas in the Highway Research Board publica-
tion on this subject. Their objectives, size, development and concept are
premised primarily on highway safety and furnishing of a necessary
driver service. They are enjoyed by thousands of travelers and that fact
bespeaks the promise and the prediction that increasingly higher
standards of construction and maintenance are justified and will be
adopted.
Many highway users, recreation bent, do not have parks as their
objective of travel. In the same manner that some regard state, county,
and municipal parks as being important supplements to prevent over-
crowding and use of national parks, cannot highways be considered as
adjuncts to state parks? Highways will always have a predominant
traffic function and their secondary recreational value should not
undermine or deter an orderly and necessary increase in state park
appropriations for acquisition, development and maintenance. If
numerous people obtain their recreation through highway travel alone,
or by utilizing highways to go fishing, hunting, swimming, skiing, or to
obtain other forms of recreation outside park areas, highways do assist
in relieving the ever-increasing visitor load of state parks and in con-
STATE PARKS 67
serving and preserving their inherent values and natural features. Is
this not a relationship of major importance?
State and Federal Cooperation in Reservoir
Development in the West
LAWRENCE C. MERRIAM, Regional Director,
National Park Service, San Francisco, California
NO ONE can question the axiom that people seek bodies of water
at which, on which, or in which to find recreation. During the
last few years many artificial lakes have been created with the use of
Federal funds in irrigation, power, and flood control projects. There
is an important by-product-recreation, which as yet has not been imple-
mented in the basic reclamation laws but is given recognition in the
Army's flood control Act of 1944 as amended.
Experience has shown that a new reservoir is a prolific fishing area
for several years, and there is no keeping the fishermen off the water
when there are fish to catch. Soon numbers of people visit the area regu-
larly, and no matter what we think about the propriety of their activities,
a lake has been created and the people will be using it.
It could be said "so what?" Let them use the area to their hearts'
content, but what will be the results? Reservoir slums will develop,
improvised unsafe boat launching ramps and docks will appear, gar-
bage, tin cans, bottles, and paper will be strewn about, fire hazards will
be created, and above all, because of the lack of water and sanitary fa-
cilities, a serious health menace will develop. This, of course, will
eventually lead to the contamination of the water in the reservoir. The
best solution is for the community, the State, and the Federal agencies
to meet this problem cooperatively and produce a comprehensive
realistic plan acceptable to all. This makes the recreation use of reser-
voirs by the public an asset to the State rather than a liability.
In the West we have these artificial lakes in the mountains, the
valleys, the desert, and on the plains. Some are far removed from
centers of population while some are relatively close. Roughly, in
Region Four alone, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Cali-
fornia, Nevada, and the Territory of Alaska, there have been constructed
or are being planned by the Bureau of Reclamation over one hundred
and fifty reservoirs and by the Corps of Engineers about fifty reservoirs.
On the face of it, providing adequate recreation facilities for the public
on all these reservoirs appears to be a staggering problem. Of course,
recreation developments on all of these areas cannot be justified be-
cause, particularly in some flood control projects, the excessive draw-
downs of the lake level would ruin the fishing and cause extensive mud
flats during the summer months; also, many are located in terrain which
68 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
is just not suitable for recreation purposes; others may be so far re-
moved from population centers that it would be economically infeasible
to spend public money on developments which would not have a reason-
able patronage.
But where an area is relatively close to an urban center great num-
bers of people take advantage of its recreation facilities. Our experience
at Millerton Lake in California, upstream from Friant Dam, is a case
in point. The National Park Service assumed interim management of
this area in 1945. The number of visitors to the lake has increased each
year. In 1947 the attendance was just under 300,000. However, in each
of the last two years over a half million visitors have come to Millerton
Lake. On the basis of a survey made this past summer and applied to
the year's travel, approximately 509,000 out of a total of 550,000 visitors,
or 92 percent, came from the two counties in which the lake is located.
These people traveled not over thirty miles. Only 4,000 visitors, or less
than eight-tenths of one percent came from out of state. Picnicking is
the popular activity for which the people come to Millerton. Forty per-
cent came for that expressed purpose, but of course enjoyed other ac-
tivities as well, such as swimming and fishing; twenty-one percent came
for boating, many bringing their boats on trailers; and fourteen percent
came especially to fish.
The present thinking is to place reservoir areas in two general classifi-
cations, those of national significance and those of less than national
significance. It stands to reason that very few areas will be considered
of national significance. They not only must have qualifying scenic,
scientific, historical, or archeological values, but they must also possess
sufficient drawing power to interest the people on a continuing nation-
wide basis to visit the area. Areas not possessing this outstanding
qualification must, of course, be classified as of less than national
significance. Under the provision of an inter-bureau agreement between
the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service, the Service
will administer the areas of national significance although they are not
a part of the National Park System by virtue of their artificial nature,
but the basic control remains in the agency responsible for the water
control structure, the Bureau of Reclamation.
Several Acts of Congress have been passed authorizing the National
Park Service to perform cooperative services with state and other
Federal agencies. For example, on June 23, 1936, an Act was approved
which authorized studies of the park, parkway, and recreational area pro-
grams in the United States. It provides for cooperation between the
National Park Service and States and their political subdivisions in
park and recreation matters. There are two other Acts which are of
considerable importance from the standpoint of basic authority. The
first of these is Section 601 of the Economy Act of June 30, 1932; which
provides for inter-Departmental cooperation. It is of particular im-
STATE PARKS 69
portance to the Service in its cooperative activities with the Bureau of
Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers, wherein programs are de-
veloped for recreational use at reservoirs constructed by these two
agencies.
On August 7, 1946, an Act was approved which provides basic
authority for the performance of certain functions and activities by the
Service. It provides for administration, protection, improvement, and
maintenance of areas under the jurisdiction of other agencies of the
Government devoted to recreational use pursuant to cooperative agree-
ments. It authorizes the Service to enter into agreements with the
Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers for reservoir recrea-
tion area operation, as at Lake Mead and Coulee Dam.
The Service has a responsibility to appraise the impact of proposed
water control structures on park and recreation areas, including the
wilderness areas of the mountains. Its recommendations are based on
a careful analysis of each situation. In several instances the recom-
mendation has been made that the area should not be invaded by a
reservoir. The Service takes this responsibility very seriously.
There has been much consideration given over the past few years to
a Federal policy on water control programs. In 1950 the President's
Water Resources Policy Committee issued a report, "A Water Policy
for the American People," which made specific recommendations for the
adoption of policies which would define the extent and limitations of
the Federal Government for a national recreation program in this field.
No legislation has yet been passed by the Congress establishing such a
water resources recreation policy. The Bureau of the Budget has, how-
ever, defined in its Circular A-47 certain principles by which the
Administration will be governed. Among other things this circular
states that "when additional development in the project area, including
access roads, is required in order to make recreational values available
to the public, such modification or development shall be included in
the project proposal only if the States or local governments agree to
repay the full cost thereof." However, Congress has upon occasion
written into the Act authorizing the construction of a specific project
a provision whereby minimum basic recreation facilities are provided
on a non-reimbursable basis. Examples of this are the Dickinson reser-
voir in North Dakota and the Bonny reservoir in eastern Colorado.
The President is, however, now taking positive action toward a
solution of all phases of the water resources problem. He recently
created a "Cabinet Committee on Water Resources" in his Cabinet,
the chairman of which is the Secretary of the Interior. The President
has also authorized the creation of an "Inter-Agency Committee on
Water Resources," a technical committee of professional men from the
various Departments having water development responsibilities.
"Basin-wide Inter-Agency Committees on Water Resources" function
70 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
at the field level. The Secretary of the Interior has established regional
"Field Committees" to coordinate the Department's river basin ac-
tivities between its various Bureaus and with the Basin- wide Inter-
Agency Committees.
After Congress authorizes a project in which an artificial lake will
be created, and the determination has been made that it possesses
potential recreation resources, a master plan or development plan is
needed. This must be a cooperative venture with full agreement between
the State and the Federal agencies involved. If a State signifies its
interest to assume the administration of the area, the Bureau of Recla-
mation may, by law, transfer sufficient funds to the National Park
Service to produce such plans. The problem is not approached with any
preconceived ideas based upon what are known as national park stand-
ards. Rather the policies, standards, and general conceptions of the
State are the guiding influence in any recreation plans prepared by the
Service. A determination is made of the local recreation needs, and an
attempt is made to meet these needs. Sometimes consideration is given
by the State to new ventures in recreation, such as private vacation
cabin sites and competitive sports in the field of sail and outboard
motor boating.
A long time development program is worked out first to provide
minimum basic recreation facilities. This would then be followed over
a period of years by additional development which may be required to
meet the needs of the visitors and which by use has become evident
and a proven necessity. The minimum basic recreation facilities will be
those necessary for the safety and health of the public and the protection
against contamination of the water, such as access roads, sanitary fa-
cilities, and drinking water. Other early considerations for the comfort
and enjoyment of the visitors may include such improvements as
shelters, conservation planting of trees, seeding, picnic areas, and boat
launching ramps.
The Federal Government, of necessity, must control the primary
purpose for which the project is built. The level of the water has to
depend on the requirement for irrigation and power. This often creates
a serious problem for the park and recreation planners. However, it is
fortunate that most reservoirs will be full or nearly so during the normal
vacation period. They usually show the beginning of marked lowering of
water level in late August or September.
Because of this necessary control of water elevation it is required
that the State or political subdivision wishing to take over the recreation
development and program accept a lease from the water control agency
which can be given for a period of years, usually with an option for an
extension of time. The safeguards of both the Federal Government and
the State are clearly stipulated.
STATE PARKS 71
A very desirable arrangement has been worked out in the State of
Nebraska. That State has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with
the Bureau of Reclamation and the National Park Service in which
one of the whereases states in substance, "Nebraska has expressed its
desire to undertake administration of these public recreational develop-
ments." The articles of the agreement outline in detail the responsi-
bilities and procedures which will be followed by each of the three
agencies to the agreement. When a proposal to build a dam is made, the
State is immediately brought into the picture, and its planners have a
voice in all reports and plans that will affect the development of recrea-
tion facilities. The agreement further protects the State from accepting
any reservoir area which it deems unsuitable for recreational develop-
ment. This agreement is an outstanding example of cooperative planning
and action by agencies of the State and Federal agencies.
The Secretary of the Interior is particulary anxious that the co-
operative endeavors between the State and Federal governments be
strengthened, that the State participate even more actively in these
matters which directly affect the people of the State. State operated
recreation programs on Federal reclamation reservoirs are probably one
of the best examples where this policy can be put into effect.
In an address by Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay last
July 4 at the 200th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Fort Neces-
sity, Uniontown, Pennsylvania, he said:
Here, too, we find the State joining with local citizens and the Federal
Government in sharing in the task of preserving this historic shrine. As an
important unit in the State system, Fort Necessity State Park adds to the beauty
and historic significance of the restored fort.
This in my opinion is an ideal arrangement. It demonstrates a clear under-
standing of the necessity for the States and local communities to share with
the Federal Government in the development of our natural resources, whether
the responsibility involves the construction of a giant power dam or the restora-
tion and preservation of an historic area.
Too long — far too long — have the people looked to Washington for solutions
to all their problems . . .
The Park System is prepared to make available its scientific and technical
skills to local groups, to States and cities, to assist any worthwhile local effort
to develop historic areas or to aid in the proper planning and operation of local
park systems.
In conclusion, therefore, it can be said that as a practical matter
the people desire the use of the water and land bordering reservoirs for
recreation purposes; that because the patrons of such areas are invariably
local citizens of the State, the State should give full consideration to
providing the facilities and the leadership for such a recreation pro-
gram; that a state policy expressed in a memorandum agreement is
helpful to both the state and the Federal Government; and that the
Service pledges its full cooperation and assistance to the States in work-
ing out a suitable program which will conform to the State's policies.
72 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Discussion
MATT. C. HUPPUCH, Reservoir Management Officer, Office, Chief of Engineers
THE following, I believe, are the most significant items involved
in the administration of approximately 100 operating projects,
flood control — navigation — multiple purpose reservoirs.
a. Approximately 5 million acres of land acquired for these projects,
either in new water or surrounding such waters, are a significant addition
to the public lands available to the people of the United States. A
41,301,398 attendance for 1953 represents a substantial increase over
the 29,000,000 attendance for 1952. In spite of extreme drought con-
ditions, with attendant low water in areas of the South and Southwest
where many of these projects are located, there are indications that
the 1954 attendance will exceed that of 1953. A number of new and
large multiple purpose projects are going into operation and will likely
be used by large numbers of people for boating, bathing, fishing, camp-
ing, hunting and other recreational activity.
b. Actual attendance at most projects is from 15 to 25 times those
estimated by park planners using formula derived from the 1938 Park
Use Studies. This attendance is not the result of facilities provided for
recreation use but is primarily dependent upon recreational resources
created by the construction of the project. The other and significant
characteristic of this attendance at Corps reservoirs as distinguished
from pre-war State Park attendance is the fact that it is so evenly
distributed over 11 to 12 months of the year and to every day of the
week. In some reservoir areas the highest monthly attendance is other
than July and August, the school vacation period.
c. Over 800 separate leases and licenses have been issued to State,
County and Municipal agencies for public park-recreation use and /or
wildlife management in operating projects of the Corps. These grants
have materially increased the acreage of State Park lands. In many
cases they represent the first concrete step to "the initiation of good
County Parks Departments. Many large and small cities have been
able to round out and enhance their recreation program by such addi-
tions to the water areas available for public recreation use.
d. Over 200 leases have been granted to quasi public agencies for
the establishment of new organized camps on the shores of the new lakes.
The large shore lines of these reservoirs and the public-owned islands
therein afford practically unlimited opportunities for explorer-type
camping in addition to the camping opportunities afforded at public
camp grounds and organized camps on the reservoir areas.
e. Under the New Joint Acquisition Policy of 12 October 1953, the
Federal government will acquire less land for water resource projects
than in the past, but provision will continue to be made in Corps reser-
voir projects for ready public access to the waters of the reservoir and
STATE PARKS 73
for the accommodation of the public coming to it for recreational pur-
poses.
Panel on Interpretive Programs in State Parks
ALBERT CULVERWELL, Historian
State Parks and Recreation Commission, Seattle, Washington
A3 I SEE my function, it is to formulate some sort of a pattern
of development on interpretive programs in state parks and, in
particular, to relate this to historical work. I will leave to my very able
colleagues, the development of any of the points which I introduce.
Possibly they may wish to challenge some of my statements. First then,
my remarks may be related to two questions — What is meant by an
interpretive program and why an interpretive program? In developing
such a program, attention to work of the Washington state parks will
be given for illustrative purposes.
When we speak of an interpretive program we mean in the simplest
of terms, a program which tells a story. That story, of course, must be
accurate and clear enough to be easily understood by the public. From
our experience here in Washington we may better define interpretive
programs. Here we have a four-part development involving archeo-
logical sites, the restoration of historic buildings, museums (of which
we have three) and a miscellaneous category including a roadside
marker program in cooperation with the State Highway Department,
and geological sites.
The work began back in 1949 when an Advisory Board was selected
to recommend the acquisition and preservation of historic sites in the
State of Washington. This board was made up of educators in the field
of history, geology, and forestry, citizens interested in historical work,
and representatives of various historical societies in the state. Here a
moment might be taken to discuss the use of advisory boards in such
work. We have been able to work successfully with such groups and our
state Advisory Board on Historic Sites has worked together and co-
operated with the Commission in the work of acquiring and developing
our historic sites. I believe that the value of such a board is dependent
largely on the type of personnel which compose it. A good board can
act as a liaison between the administrator of an interpretive program
and the public. It may screen requests from local communities and
answer for the policies developed by park personnel. Local people
are more likely to have faith in the decisions of boards representing them
than in a single administrator no matter how much of a specialist he
may be. In this sense the board may protect the technical work of the
administrator. Finally, it can do much to unite public opinion in sup-
port of your program.
74 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
An adequate staff to handle an interpretive program should also be
considered. Actually, the number of persons employed is dependent
largely on the size of your interpretive program. You may have several
historians, an archeologist, a geologist, and a park naturalist, or you
may have only an historian who does the research and supervises the
program utilizing the services of park personnel and private contractors.
The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission found that
the amount of work involved and the need for expediting and centralizing
all historical work necessitated the hiring of a full-time historian. The
historian of a small program will have many responsibilities involving
other areas of study than that of history. I think of the many times in
the past few months that I have been called upon for decisions concerned
with color and design in the development of two museums. Ability to
speak with some authority in the fields of antropology and archeology,
geology, art and architecture in addition to a thorough knowledge of
the state should be considered in the qualifications of an historian. In
this sense, it is understood that the supervisor of such a program must
be trained professionally in more than one area of study.
The research end of the work is very important, especially so during
the acquisition phase. Often we are inclined to take anything that is
given to us. To solve this problem some have adopted the "theme" ap-
proach. Here in Washington, as an illustration, there are several
"themes" that may be exploited. We have a rich Indian background;
the fur traders, with British and American rivalry; a pioneer and mis-
sionary view; and many other periods or "themes" may be found within
our past. Sites should be selected so as to tell the complete story and
the acquisition phase of the work should not stress one "theme" to the
detriment of another. After sites are selected, a complete survey should
be made of each area and a plan for its development made. The value of
planning can never be over-emphasized, for it is costly to venture
"in the dark."
There will be, of course, many problems in any program. Let us
consider here, some that have faced us in Washington. One of our
principal archeological sites is Fort Spokane located nine miles north-
west of Spokane, Washington which some of you visited while in that
city. In 1810 the Northwest Company, a fur trading concern, estab-
lished a small, temporary post in the area. In 1812 Fort Spokane was
built by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company in close proximity
to the Northwest Company's post. After the War of 1812 the North-
west Company took over the Pacific Fur Company's interest in the
northwest. In 1821 the Hudson's Bay Company merged with the latter
company and moved the trading post in 1826 to Fort Colville at Kettle
Falls on the Columbia River. Archeological research determined that
there were three stockades at the site. After the archeological work
was complete the problem of interpretation was very real. How can
STATE PARKS 75
we best show what was found under the soil? The problem was solved by
placing logs on concrete forms approximately 12 inches above the
ground as accurately as possible in positions where evidence of the
stockades were found. These logs were painted three different colors,
each representing a trading company active in control of the site. By
this log painting plan the visitor is able to observe the stockade of each
company and see changes made upon the original Pacific Fur Company
stockade. Where a stockade wall was a part of another company's
fortification, a portion of the log is painted with the color of each com-
pany. A large interpretive sign explains the historical importance of the
site and small signs note points of interest adjacent to and within the
stockades.
At Fort Simcoe (1856-59) located 37 miles from Yakima, we have
many problems in the restoration of the five original fort buildings.
After 1859 the fort became an Indian agency and continued to be used
in that capacity until 1924. We determined to restore the buildings
and area as of the fort period. Four of the buildings of modified colonial
architecture offered some real problems in restoration because of their
construction. For example, the sills of these houses are of hewn timbers;
the outside walls and some of the interior walls are filled between the
studding with brick nogging. To restore the sill the studs and the brick
work resting on the sill had to be removed as well as the board and
batten exterior and boarded interior of the wall. This was not only
difficult work but it also required considerable patience on the part of the
carpenter. I might also add, it is very expensive. This prefaces my
last question — why should we have an interpretive program?
First, I would maintain that such a program should be established
because it pays. You can best talk to legislators in a jargon of dollars
and cents. At our Fort Simcoe during the first three months of this
operation there were more than 21,000 visitors. Trades people in the
area will tell you the popularity of this site has meant dollars and cents
in their pockets. Our Ginkgo Petrified Forest Museum the past four
months has shown an average of over 50,000 visitors each month. Talk
to the people in that area and they speak loudly in their praise of this
attraction.
But let us turn from the Washington experience and look at perhaps
the most ambitious attempt to restore historic buildings in the United
States. I refer to the work at Williamsburg. To support my point that
money can be made from the vast expenditure placed in a restoration
I quote from the last report of the President of Colonial Williamsburg:
More visitors — an estimated 600,000 — were attracted to Williamsburg in
1953 than during any other year in the history of the Restoration . . . By a
conservative estimate, tourists last year spent $8,700,000 in the Williamsburg
community, where a vigorous economy has been built around their accommoda-
tion.
76 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Since 1928, the first year of the Restoration's existence, Williamsburg's
bank deposits have risen from $1,181,297 to $7,322,098. Assessed real estate
valuations have risen from $1,160,770 to $4,995,480, and the number of rental
rooms available to visitors has risen to a total of 1,124 — over 70% of which are
operated by residents of Williamsburg not employed by Colonial Williamsburg.
There is yet another intangible reason for the development of such
a work. It might be termed philosophical. We have heard it said that
"the value of history lies in the perspective it gives us as we take up
the problems of the present." I can't help but think that somewhere
along the line in our striving for success we, as a people, have failed to
make known the true source of our greatness. What is our heritage?
We speak of an "American Way of Life" but we have not specifically
and adequately defined this phrase. Perhaps we can find real meaning
in our past. There is this challenge to interpret our historic areas in
such a way that our people will understand their heritage. Then some
alien philosophies may not be accepted verbatim, but may be tested
with those ideals which our history reveals.
C. FRANK BROCKMAN, Asso. Professor of Forestry,
College of Forestry, University of Washington, Seattle 5, Washington
THE cover of the Saturday Evening Post of September 11, 1954
depicted a scene typical of many picnic areas in state parks. Un-
doubtedly it caused numerous chuckles on the part of many state park
administrators who have to contend with the problems portrayed.
This amusing scene was accompanied by the following editorial com-
ment:
Why are picnic grounds? Isn't it easier to concoct food in a kitchen and
consume it in dining room chairs? Why do two otherwise happy families battle
each other for the last table at the picnic park when both have empty tables at
home? Is there merit in seeking the wide, empty spaces to eat sandwiches and
sand among the multitudes of people? But enough of these silly questions!
Let's start over again. Very well, why are azure lakes? Why is the tonic per-
fume of evergreen woods? Why the charm of rolling away to new places, through
mountains and valleys that roll away to a pale-blue everywhere? And why
is the magic of picking a fresh daisy, and being assured that Joe loves Mary?
Dohonas says in paint that for the same reasons picnics are!
In short, outdoor recreation is many things to many people. Ac-
tivities which appeal to some are a bore to others. This highly per-
sonalized attitude is the source of many problems relative to the ad-
ministration of different types of recreational areas.
If we can accept the definition of recreation as "the pleasurable and
constructive use of leisure time," we should recognize that interpretation
has a major place in the planning and development of public recreational
lands. It is encouraging that reports from so many state park representa-
STATE PARKS 77
tives at the conference indicate growing recognition of the importance
of interpretation as a vital part of their administrative activities. These
administrators should be congratulated on the progress they are making
in development of constructive interpretive programs and in integrating
these into their administrative organization.
The primary objective of state park administration is provision of
maximum public recreational opportunity at the lowest possible cost —
in short, to give the public the greatest value for their recreational dollar.
This cannot be accomplished unless use of outdoor recreational areas is
guided so that generations hence may find, unimpaired, the values
which we enjoy and appreciate today.
Surely there can be no doubt interpretive programs — including
museums, nature trails, and campfire talks, to mention a few related
activities — contribute to the greater enjoyment of park visitors. Fur-
ther, the economic value of such activities has been widely established
and is being more generally recognized. While economic gain to the
administrative agency is indirect, business in surrounding regions profits
directly from any activity which develops public interest in a region
and thus encourages a variety of expenditures over a longer period.
Interpretation admirably serves this purpose.
But good interpretation produces for state park administrators far
greater benefits than public enjoyment or economic gain. For
one thing, it develops greater public understanding of the varied ob-
jectives of different types of recreational areas — national, state, county,
or municipal — each of which serves a specific recreational purpose. If
state parks are fully understood and appreciated by the public who use
and support them, legislators will be more inclined to view necessary
appropriations with favor. Good adequate interpretation contributes
materially to such public understanding.
Here in western Washington the National Park Service is faced with
two knotty problems — proposed ski developments in Mount Rainier
National Park and suggested boundary changes in Olympic National
Park. These controversies offer an example of a lack of proper public
understanding of the purposes of these specific types of recreational
areas. This situation might easily have been avoided had the National
Park Service earlier supported adequate interpretive programs, which
would have emphasized the distinctive service of a national park,
thus differentiating them from other types of recreational lands. State
parks have profited greatly by the leadership of the national parks; let
them also profit by their occasional mistakes!
Another less generally understood advantage derived from a good
interpretive program is development of greater public awareness of the
hazards of an area. Through understanding, the public is made to
recognize the dangers involved in certain recreational lands, and thus
is less apt to engage in hazardous activities which prompt emergencies
78 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
that are not only costly, but destructive to an administrator's peace of
mind. Finally, among many other values, interpretation aids in develop-
ment of an individual's sense of responsibility in the care of recreational
lands, thereby reducing expensive protection and maintenance costs.
In view of the great value of interpretive activities to practical state
park administration, it would seem that every state park system should
have at least one person in the organization whose primary duty would
be to examine, study and develop an interpretive program, and co-
ordinate this with the over-all objectives of the state park administra-
tion. We usually think of interpretation in relation to highly significant
areas only — as in the national parks where it originated. Yet some form
of interpretation has a vital place in every type of an outdoor recreational
area. "Interpretation" to many denotes expensive, elaborate programs.
However, good interpretation need not be concerned with extensive
developments. Actually it may take numerous minor forms — printed
publications for sale or for free distribution, TV and radio programs,
a simple flower display, small signs for the identification and explana-
tion of biological, geological, or historical features of interest, a simple
sign board giving information relative to nearby areas which might
be worth a visit. Actually it is a form of "selling" the interests and the
policies of an area. It bears the same relationship to recreation as does
a window display in a department store to the merchandise inside.
What Services Should State and National Parks
Provide ?
FRANK D. QUINN, Chairman, Texas State Parks Board, Austin, Texas
I CONSIDER it a distinct honor to be invited to participate in this
panel discussion but I doubt that I will be able to come up with
anything new. The National Park Service has always gone all out
to provide the necessary and adequate services not only to the people
of the nation but to the park departments of the cities, the counties, and
the states. No hard and fast dividing line seems practical.
In general, I would think the magnitude of a project would be one
of the determining factors. Take the Big Bend National Park for an
example. The State of Texas could exploit some of its outstanding fea-
tures but it is definitely a National project to preserve in its natural state
a wide area of more then 700,000 acres.
In border states, it is, of course, desirable to have Federal control
and participation in administering areas that have an international
interest such as the Big Bend National Park of Texas, Glacier National
Park along the Canadian boundary and perhaps Falcon on the Rio
Grande.
Then we have the National Historic Sites which are, of course, better
preserved and administered by the National Park Service.
STATE PARKS 79
In May 1952 the National Park Service over the signature of Ronald
F. Lee, Assistant Director, sent all of us a copy of Recommended General
Policy of the Federal Government Relative to Public Recreation which
was adopted by the Federal Inter- Agency Committee on Recreation,
November 5, 1951.
I will not take the time to read this general policy to you but perhaps
it will not be amiss to cite some of the highlights of this report:
The provision of necessary recreational facilities and services requires
national, state, and local effort, both public and private . . .
It is the responsibility of the communities to provide recreation areas,
facilities and services to the people within their political boundaries . . .
The state governments have the responsibility to assist the communities
by enacting adequate enabling laws, and providing advisory services, areas,
and facilities . . .
It is the responsibility of the Federal government to develop and to arrange
for others to develop the recreation resources on federally owned lands and to
cooperate fully with the states and their political sub-divisions without assuming
responsibilities that properly rest with the states.
Speaking personally and for the State of Texas, we have always had
most wonderful cooperation from the National Park Service in every
way. They have supplied technical services, made recreational surveys,
historical surveys, helped us with the selection of new areas, have given
us much practical advice regarding operation of concessions, administra-
tive problems, elimination of cattle grazing and have even loaned us
some of their top experts for which we, of course, were happy to pay
ordinary salaries and expenses within the limit of our budget.
It would be impossible to name all of the individuals who assisted
us through authorization of the National Park Service but at the moment
I can think of Directors Albright, Drury, Demaray, and Wirth, Regional
Directors Maier, Tolson, Tillotson and, of course, associates, McColm,
Cornell, Neasham, Diggs, Sias, Paul Brown and many others. In fact,
I will not try to name all of those grand people connected with the Na-
tional Park Service who have helped us.
There is one important item to be remembered. The National Park
Service will not "barge in" and take charge. The Service prefers to be
invited, and has been a great help, I am sure, to all members of the
National Conference. It is our duty to support them in every way
possible.
The National Park Service has acted as a central clearing house for
information and has worked well with all agencies such as ours, including
the American Institute of Park Executives, American Camping Associa-
tion, Great Lakes Park Training Institute and has always graciously
furnished advisory and consultative assistance to the states upon re-
quest.
80 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
It is a fact that back in 1939 it was a National Park Service repre-
sentative, Mr. Lonnie C. Fuller, now Vice Chairman of the Texas State
Parks Board, who introduced me to the State Parks of Texas, when we
did not own an automobile capable of crossing the State.
So, in my book, the National Park Service has rendered already super
service to the states and to the people of the Nation.
As to services to be provided by State Parks — First I think it is our
specific duty to keep all areas clean and accessible — good maintenance,
with adequate signs and markers, is absolutely essential — clean rest-
rooms are a must — the drinking water should be approved regularly
and constantly by the State Health Department. Every park should
have plenty of picnic areas — and areas for overnight camping. The
larger parks should be provided with cabins, lodges and a place to eat.
When parks are on the water, there should be places provided for fish-
ing, swimming and boating. Concessions should be operated, not
primarily for profit, but for the comfort and convenience of the park
patrons, and the State Park Authorities should see to it that the prices
charged are in line with nearby communities.
Golf courses are an expensive luxury, but we supply a few of them
also with reasonably fair success. These golf courses are usually leased
out to some local club or group, who keep all receipts and assume full
responsibility for maintenance.
In my opinion, it is also the duty of the states to render technical
assistance and advice to towns, cities and counties, as far as manpower
and the budget will permit, in somewhat the same manner as the
National Parks Service renders technical assistance.
ARTHUR C. ELMER, Chief, Parks and Recreation Division,
Michigan Department of Conservation, Lansing, Mich.
Background. The state park system is founded upon Act 218, P. A.
1919, which set up a State Park Commission and provided for the ac-
quisition, preservation and care for public parks for the purposes of
public recreation or for the preservation of natural beauty or historic
association. Act 17, P. A. 1921, created the Department of Conservation
and transferred to the Conservation Commission the powers and duties
of the State Park Commission. (The acts as amended and now in force
are as follows: Act 218, P. A. 1919; Act 17, P. A. 1921.)
Rules and Regulations. It shall be the policy to make and, when
necessary to meet changing conditions, modify rules and regulations
to protect public property, to protect the health and welfare of users
and to provide the maximum degree of enjoyment to the greatest num-
ber of people.
Basis Jor Selection. Sites for state parks shall meet as many as
possible of the following requirements: (a) Lands which will preserve
STATE PARKS 81
historical features, outstanding scenery and areas typical of the land
formations, waters and vegetation of the region, (b) Contain features
which are unique, outstanding, distinctive, notable in the state or
nation, (c) Include scenic and recreational resources and wilderness
and natural areas which are unlikely to be reasonably well preserved
and made available to the public under private ownership, (d) Geo-
graphically distributed, not in direct proportion to population distribu-
tion, but to be reasonably accessible to the people in every part of the
State, (e) Provide, or can be made to provide, a variety of forms of
recreation, (f) Sufficient size to permit adequate development without
crowding, to permit future expansion and to provide a buffer against
encroachments of a nature which will detract from the natural beauty.
Incompatible Uses. Miniature railroads, merry-go-rounds, ferris
wheels, pony rides, miniature pool and golf courses, and similar in-
stallations, are incompatible with the purpose of state parks. It is the
contention of the Department that these features belong in fairs, cir-
cuses and amusement parks — not state parks. Establishment of this
type of development is not permitted.
Concessions. The concession or "park store" has been an institution
in Michigan's state parks for many years. Its only justification is to
provide service to the public. It shall be the policy of the Department
that concessions be operated under terms of a lease to private individuals
or firms. Concessions are awarded on a competitive bid basis to the
highest bidder, except that bids other than the high bid may be ac-
cepted if the ability, integrity and experience of the bidder warrants
such exception, in all parks in which such services are in the public
interest. Approval by the Conservation Commission shall be required
of all concession leases in which the gross receipts for the preceding year
are $2,500 or more.
Acquisition. It shall be the policy of the Department to continue the
consolidation of ownership in southeastern Michigan recreation areas
and other park lands in the state, to acquire new areas in order to pre-
serve scenery, waterfalls or areas of historic interest, to provide additional
lands in or near heavily populated areas for over-all outdoor recreation,
and to that end the Department shall seek means to obtain the funds
necessary to accomplish these objectives. Lands may be acquired by
purchase, exchange and gift.
Lease, Sale, or Exchange of Lands, Minerals and Forest Products from
State Parks. In some of the southeastern Michigan recreation areas,
as well as in state parks such as Porcupine Mountains and Tahquamenon
Falls, valuable resources were acquired along with the land. These re-
sources shall not be exploited at the expense of recreation values, al-
though efficient management may dictate the sale, exchange or lease of
parts of them. The basic policy of the Department is to not dispose of
land, sand, gravel or forest products inside of the established boundaries
82 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
of parks except and until these disposals shall have been studied and a
determination made that they can be disposed of without jeopardy to
the area and then by exchange if possible for recreational lands of equal
value. Public values within the boundaries of established parks shall
not be impaired or vacated by leases, sale or exchange.
Hunting, Fishing and Similar Uses. It shall be the policy of the De-
partment to make park lands serve the widest possible recreational use,
not inconsistent with the primary objectives. Hunting, fishing and
trapping will be permitted wherever it will not endanger life or property
or when not inconsistent with other recreation or conservation uses.
Transfer of Parks to other Agencies of Government. Some of the park
areas now under administration are not of state park caliber or signifi-
cance and should be turned over to counties, cities and villages for ad-
ministration, or abandoned. As a policy, we will continue our efforts to
turn them back to other agencies of government for administration
whenever possible.
Establishment of Fixed Boundaries. In order to fix boundaries for the
purpose of land acquisition, development and maintenance of state
parks, the Commission shall define limits of acquisition and determine
the boundary for each park and recreation area. Changes in boundaries
may be made by the Commission if in the public interest.
Fees and Charges. The Conservation Commission may, after passage
of necessary legislation, initiate and put into effect a schedule of fees
and charges for the use of parks to defray at least part of the cost of
operation and maintenance.
Hotels, etc. It shall be the policy of the Department that construction
of hotels, inns, lodges, motels, tourist cabins, etc., will be left to private
industry. In all cases, operation of such accommodations shall be by
private concessionaires.
Park Names. Geographical, historical or local names will be used in
the naming of state parks. The use of the names of living persons will
not be permitted.
Historical and other markers. In general, plaques containing the names
of donors of land or facilities will be appropriate to be placed in state
parks. Where a group desires to place the name of someone who has
worked diligently for the acquisition and dedication of some particular
area and good evidence can be supplied of such service, a plaque may
be placed indicating that the friends of such an individual wish to
recognize such services. Such instances will be rare. Historical markers
shall be placed only upon submission of authoritative evidence of the
facts and the spot to be commemorated and preferably subject to ap-
proval of the State Historical Commission. The dedication of areas or
objects to the honor and memory of individuals or groups who have
had no significant connection with the parks in which they are pro-
posed will not be approved. All plaques, inscriptions, and monuments
STATE PARKS 83
must have the approval of the Conservation Commission as to design,
wording and placing and their construction and placing shall be under
the general supervision of the Parks Division.
Development Plans. Over-all development plans (master plans) of
each park shall be submitted to the Commission for approval before
construction of a permanent nature is started.
EARL P. HANSON, Deputy Chief, Division of Beaches and Parks,
Department of Natural Resources, State of California, Sacramento, Calif.
ETTLE that we do in providing for the public's enjoyment of our
State and National Parks is as much subject to public demand as
the services we offer. In planning such services we can adhere to the
broad general principle that in State and National parks we are en-
deavoring to provide the visiting public with an experience in outdoor
living and interpretation. Were not the park properties in public owner-
ship, it is quite possible the public would have become deprived of such
opportunities for this experience. The principle expressed is a broad one
and is sufficiently flexible to provide proper services in almost any type
of public park.
There are a number of limiting factors, however, in meeting the de-
mand of services to the public. Of primary consideration is the purpose
for which the park area was acquired. For instance, an area of historical
importance may not have any great significance to the visiting public
if interpretive services in some form are not provided. Another considera-
tion is the type of area and we would, of course, expect to provide ser-
vices in accordance with the landscape values, historical structures, or
natural recreational features of a park. In the larger parks all three
types of features may occur to varying degrees.
In the case of State and National parks the visitor has come to look
upon these areas as his natural heritage and has sought to crowd all
sorts of activities into his short seasonal visit. For the most part the park
visitor is not content to relax peacefully in a setting of scenic grandeur or
of historical ghostliness. He feels he must keep busy, both mentally
and physically, at all times. New experiences are more inviting to him
in an inspirational setting and old experiences appear to be refreshing
when repeated in a superb landscape. It has been our experience in the
California State Park System that this great activity on the part of the
public, and particularly on the part of the patron paying his first visit
to the park definitely needs some guidance. Nearly all of our public
services involve contact with individual visitors. There is no greater
stepping stone to the visitor's enjoyment of a park area than the original
contact with him when he enters the park. It places the visitor and park
employee on a personal acquaintanceship basis and establishes a system
of communication between the park authority and the general public.
84 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
This involves another consideration and a very important one and
that is the availability of manpower and funds to provide such public
contact services. While we may plan carefully for acquisition, develop-
ment, and maintenance, it is much more difficult to plan for services
that are dependent upon annual appropriations.
It becomes rather a costly thing to provide all of the services required
to keep track of and to control the perambulating public or even to
guide him along his way. We do endeavor through educational programs
to keep him informed as to what he can see or how best he can enjoy a
park area while subtly imploring him not to destroy or impair it for his
further enjoyment or that of future park visitors. We also have to offer
services that will help out if he gets into trouble. For this reason road
and trail patrols are established and safety services are provided.
In addition to the overnight campground facilities provided for the
more "rugged" type of visitor, there are similar accommodations, of
course, ranging from the housekeeping facility to rather deluxe hotel
accommodations. Experience has shown that such services are provided
best by concession. At first sight this appears to be a good way to solve
the problem of expense in connection with these services. If private
enterprise can take them over and furnish an income to the public
agency, then maintenance and operating costs may be reduced while
satisfying the public. Too often the "tail comes to wag the dog," and
income from concession services becomes an end in itself. The service
that was intended to aid the visitor in his enjoyment of the park then
deteriorates into one of exploitation. This is true not only of concession
services, but any other type of service that may be offered to the public
either for purposes of income to the public agency or for public con-
venience.
The family is an integral part of American life. It also is a tightly
budgeted economic unit. This experience in outdoor recreation and inter-
pretation that we would provide, loses its effectiveness when youngsters
constantly pester their parents for between meal snacks, soft drinks, or
rides on miniature entertainment facilities, typical of children's play-
grounds. If families are to enjoy and learn to appreciate outstanding
areas, such as Yosemite Valley, the California Redwoods, and Olympic
National Park, they should be permitted to do so simply and inex-
pensively.
In any event regardless of the services to be offered, we should care-
fully evaluate their degree, caliber, and standard. Unless we can offer a
service to the public that is a credit to the park organization as well as
being popular, it had better not be started in the first place. Even
though services are offered through a concessioner, such as the case of
guide service at the Oregon Cave National Monument, proper training
of the concession employees by the park staff is essential to establishing
and maintaining a high standard. In any event let us not forget the
STATE PARKS 85
primary aim of providing to the public a great outdoor experience of
which they might otherwise have become deprived if we were not the
custodians of the magnificent outdoor areas and significant historical
sites we so proudly administer.
Panel on State Parks on the Pacific Coast
NEWTON B. DRURY, Chief,
Division of Beaches and Parks, Sacramento, Calif.
IT IS gratifying that the National Conference on State Parks is still
going strong. My touch with this organization dates from its be-
ginning, although I was first present at the annual meetings held in San
Francisco and Los Angeles in 1928, under the leadership of Stephen T.
Mather. It was these meetings that gave such impetus to the California
State Park System, which really started that year.
Much has been accomplished since that time, not only by California
but by her sister States of Oregon and Washington. My colleague Earl
Hanson, at the Roll Call of the States, has told you what has been going
on in California during the past year. The people and the Legislature of
our State have been generous with their State Parks — particularly so
since the oil royalty funds, 70 percent of which by law have been ear-
marked for State Park purposes, have been impounded since 1947, and
appropriations have been made from the General Fund. As soon as the
oil royalties have been released, these General Fund appropriations will
be repaid.
For the expenditure of the accumulated oil royalty funds, subject
always to action of our Legislature, we made out two years ago a Five
Year Program, involving over sixty million dollars, for the expansion,
development and rounding out of the California State Park System.
Since the beginning, California's State Park System has been based on a
long-range plan. In most essentials it has been followed surprisingly
well. The $6,000,000 State Park Bond issue of 1928, matched as provided
by law with other than state funds, followed closely the State Park Sur-
vey made by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1927. The appropriation in
1945 of $15,000,000, two-thirds for beach acquisition and one-third for
inland parks, also with the matching provision, is being expended ac-
cording to a pattern that aims at least to bring about a well-rounded
state-wide system, both geographically and as to types of areas.
The beach acquisitions are in accordance with a Master Plan of
Shoreline Development, approved locally and by the State.
A great estate is being built up by California in its State Park Sys-
tem, and we are proud of it. Over one hundred and forty areas make it
up — close to 600,000 acres valued with improvements to nearly $50,-
000,000 and counting 45 million visitor days in 1953. The importance of
86 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
this estate to a billion dollar tourist industry is obvious, but the reasons
for this program go deeper than that. California's landscape is a major
resource. The park concept — the pride in preserving areas of great scenic
beauty like the Avenue of the Giants, the Calaveras Grove, and Lake
Tahoe; in perpetuating sites of historic significance like the Gold Dis-
covery Site, Old Monterey, and Pueblo de Los Angeles; in holding for
public enjoyment much of the State's heritage of outdoor recreation,
notably the more than 100 miles of ocean beaches — this concept is
growing stronger every year in California. During the past few years
the population of the State has been growing at the rate of 5 percent
per annum. The attendance at State Parks has been growing at the rate
of 10 percent.
This Conference is — and in my opinion should be — primarily a pro-
fessional organization. Naturally, much of the discussion deals with
the mechanics of our calling as park administrators. There has been
much valuable interchange of ideas as to means. But in the midst of
this we cannot afford to overlook the ends to which the techniques
contribute. There has been considerable talk about active outdoor recrea-
tion, and the development of park lands to afford it. There has been ad-
vanced the thought that State Parks should all be developed solely to
this end. This does not accord with our experience in California. While
the National Parks, rightly, are looked upon as the supreme examples
of natural beauty on the grand scale (and undoubtedly could better
have been protected in their integrity if this simpler and highest purpose
somehow or other could have been maintained with less diversion of the
energies and dilution of the standards of the Service), State Parks, some
of them, need to be looked upon and administered as scenic and nature
reserves, with active outdoor recreation provided for as a by-product of a
primary purpose, just as in the National Parks, and for that matter in
many parts of the National Forests and even on water development
projects of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Engineers. Point
Lobos, the Anza Desert, Emerald Bay, Mt. San Jacinto, the Redwoods,
Coast and Sierra, are among the California State Parks the dominating
purpose of which is to preserve natural beauty for public enjoyment.
That, after all, is at the heart of the park concept. At any level, the
purpose is to afford an environment of beauty. Although too seldom
mentioned, this is what distinguishes our type of resource management,
makes it unlike any other. The strength and success of our efforts will
be enhanced if we remember it.
C. H. ARMSTRONG, Superintendent,
State Parks Department, Salem, Oregon
I AM speaking for the State Parks of Oregon, which are under the
Oregon State Highway Commission and financed by funds at their
disposal.
STATE PARKS 87
The present parks department is an expansion of the ideas established
by the Oregon State Highway Commission, beginning in the year of
1919. Between 1919 and 1929, the road department acquired certain
areas along the highways which were of special interest to road users.
In these places, some provision was made for day use, but very little.
There were about 46 of these areas acquired throughout the State,
principally in the western part of Oregon. By 1928, the Highway Com-
mission believed that the parks problem was sufficiently large and im-
portant that an agency should be set up to take care of them. They re-
quested and obtained approval from the 1929 Legislature, which pro-
vided a division for that purpose; however, the Highway Commission
was appointed the State Parks Commission. This dual appointment of
the Highway Commission lasted until 1939 when the Legislature chose
to make it a joint responsibility. It has been operated as such ever since.
The Highway Commission, as the Parks Commission, establishes
the policy relative to our operation. It holds the Parks Superintendent
responsible for all phases of the operation of the parks, the Commission
approving the general plan of procedure, the budget and organization.
The funds for the parks organization have always been obtained from
the road users' money, and the Legislature has seen fit to leave the
amount appropriated for the parks to the judgment of the Commission.
However, it did set up certain controls for its guidance. These controls
and guidances are very much the same as those established by the 1929
Legislature; that is, the park areas must be near or adjoining a highway.
They must be of some particular scenic value, or of recreational use; to
preserve typical growths of native trees; shrubs or flowers; or may pro-
vide ways to the rivers or beaches. They may also provide for overnight
camping use. There was no provision made for the restoration of histori-
cal sites or monuments. Therefore, our work is confined to parks and
park areas, which join or are near some of the public highways of the
State, and will furnish some recreational value, primarily to the motoring
public.
This approaches very closely to the thinking now established as
wayside parks, which was without doubt the thinking of the park-
minded people in the early days of the parks of Oregon, and has carried
through to a considerable extent whereby we have developed a great
many small areas. It is the reason that we have so many parks — 156
in number. We do have a few large park areas such as Silver Falls, Cape
Lookout, Ecola, and the Cove Palisades Parks. The largest of these is
Silver Falls of 8,259 acres.
The first Superintendent of State Parks, beginning in 1929, was
my predecessor, Mr. Samuel H. Boardman, now deceased. The in-
structions to him relative to his operation at the beginning, and carried
throughout his term as Park Superintendent covering a period of 21
years, was to establish parks and obtain land of particular scenic and
88 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
recreational value, to obtain extraordinary stands of original growth
trees along the highways and streams. He was to obtain beach areas
and connection strips. I must say he did a wonderful job in this con-
nection. His whole life was wrapped up in this one phase of operation.
Since Mr. Boardman's retirement on July 1, 1950, I have handled
the operation of the state parks. The demands of the Commission and
the public were for a change in thinking and operation relative to the
areas we have. To acquire a few areas, but to develop and put to public
use those which we now possess.
Therefore, the emphasis has been on construction, and to do so we
have built up an organization of approximately 130 persons, including
a staff of an assistant parks superintendent, a planner, landscape archi-
tect, engineers, office force necessary to handle the various phases of the
business, five district supervisors, and the necessary men to handle the
development and operation of the state parks system. We have divided
the state into five districts, with a district supervisor in charge of
each; a foreman in charge of each particular park or group of small parks,
as the case may be, within a reasonable distance of his headquarters.
These foremen report directly to the district supervisor, the supervisor
reporting directly to the assistant state parks superintendent, in all
phases of his work. The engineers perform the usual task of preparing
plans and specifications for contract jobs, both buildings and other park
improvements. The landscape architect lays out and designs certain
phases relative to his particular experience both in the improvements
and the operation of the parks system. The planner is in charge of all
investigation work; he is charged with making the studies relative to
our needs for present and future developments. He also investigates
the proposed park areas and determines whether or not they fit the
established specifications and whether or not a recommendation should
be made to the Commission for their purchase and development. He
makes a thorough study of the present areas and recommends the neces-
sary improvements and additions to take care of the present and future
use of each area. This entails a vast amount of work which includes
anticipating future needs by reason of increased population and probable
change in desires of the public. The planner has made graphs showing the
trends of public use of our parks, not only of the entire park system, but
of each individual park, and has come up with a recommendation that
we should provide for double the number of the present yearly visitors,
or 10,000,000 by 1964. He has made a forecast of the possible use of each
individual park according to its particular trend.
For a great many years, overnight camping was not permitted within
the state parks; however, at the insistence of the public and our Com-
mission, provision was made in 1952 for the first overnight camping
facilities. The use has been large, approximately 100,000 for this year.
The improved camps are designed and laid out in accordance with the
STATE PARKS 89
best thinking and comply with all sanitary regulations and rules. Each
camp will care for 22 to 90 cars with a few provisions for trailers.
Our day use has increased tremendously in the last several years; from
2,100,000 in 1948 to about 5,000,000 this year.
I cannot name all, or give too much detail, but the areas of greatest
development on the coast are Ecola, Cape Lookout, Shore Acres, Hum-
bug Mountain and Azalea State Parks, featuring seascapes, marine and
other coastal animal and bird life, beaches and off-shore rocks.
In the Willamette Valley our most important development is at
Silver Falls, located 28 miles east of Salem. Here in the CCC days, a
Recreation Demonstration Project was constructed wherein provision
was made for approximately 400 youth. Trails of several miles were
constructed through the gorgeous canyon to view 8 of the 14 waterfalls
for which the park is named.
In Central Oregon we have the Cove Palisades Park, featuring the
deep canyons of the Crooked and Deschutes Rivers, as well as a high
cinder butte from which views may be had for miles in every direction.
In far Eastern Oregon we have Wallowa Lake Park nestled in the
Wallowa Mountains at the south end of a large and beautiful lake of
the same name, formed by the receding of a glacier many years ago.
Thousands visit this place annually, many of whom make trips by foot
or horseback to those high Alpine-like mountains to the south.
Oregon has many places of interest which I do not have time to
mention. The State is proud of its park system and the service it is
providing not only for the present, but future generations.
C. V. BUCKLIN, Assistant Director,
Washington State Parks, and Recreation Commission
SINCE the delegates to the Conference had a chance to see some of
Washington's state parks on a cross-state tour, I should like to use
the time allotted to me today to discuss briefly our marine parks or boat
moorages and our park shop operations.
Recognizing the need for public landing and anchorage facilities ad-
jacent to the excellent cruising waters of Puget Sound, the state legisla-
ture enacted a law in 1949 giving the State Parks and Recreation Com-
mission authority to establish small boat moorages. Funds for this
purpose were made available in 1951 and work started immediately on
selection and development of sites. The Commission now has eight sites
developed with docks, floats, and anchor buoys, and has provided
picnic facilities and water supply where obtainable. Three of the marine
parks are in the San Juan Islands, Reid Harbor and Prevost Harbor on
Stuart Island and Fossil Bay on Sucia Island. Of the remaining six, three
are operated in connection with previously existing state parks. All have
been extensively used by the 45,000 cruiser owners on Puget Sound
waters.
90 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
With the rapidly increasing usage of outboard cruisers, new installa-
tions are being added to provide overnight camping with necessary
sanitary facilities. The Commission is now surveying and acquiring sites
for future development as funds for acquisition become available, but it
is difficult to determine the extent of future usage of the marine parks,
as estimates of potential outboard cruiser owners range as high as 150,000
in the next two or three years in the Puget Sound area.
We know, of course, that the idea of a centralized shop for con-
struction of standard items of park equipment is not new, but the success
of our shop operation leads us to feel that we could impart some useful
ideas to the Conference.
Our construction shop is operated with a crew of nine men including
a foreman, sign painter, three carpenters, three laborers, and a truck
driver. The shop produces picnic tables, camp stoves, guard blocks,
signs (both rustic and painted), life guard stands, swim float sections
and many other miscellaneous items as needed. Unit costs of stoves and
tables have been kept low by assembly line methods of construction.
Many items as manufactured by our shops are extremely difficult and
costly to obtain through other sources. Since 1950 the shops have
produced over 3900 tables, 1500 camp stoves and 4500 guard blocks,
as well as many other items. Plans are now being formulated for the
manufacture in the shop of pre-cut park buildings, of cooking shelter and
utility type, with a substantial savings in construction costs anticipated.
WILLIAM B. POND, Supervisor, Recreation Division,
Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission
THE 1947 session of the Washington State Legislature was presented
with two bills, one to reorganize the old State Parks Committee and
the other to establish a State Recreation Commission. After serious
consideration, the legislature reached the conclusion that there was a
close relationship and therefore no advantage to be gained by duplicat-
ing the administrative overhead costs. Thus our present State Park
and Recreation Commission came into being.
According to the above legislative action, the Commission was given
all the powers for acquiring, operating, and maintaining state parks as
had formerly belonged to the State Parks Committee. In addition this
act charged the Commission with the responsibility (a) to make studies
and appraisals of the recreational needs in the state (b) to disseminate
information relative to these needs (c) to cooperate with local, state, and
federal agencies in the promotion of recreational opportunities for the
citizens of Washington State. The act specifically prohibits the Com-
mission from operating any local program.
In order to carry out the provisions of the Act, the Commission has
established a Recreation Division to "help communities help them-
STATE PARKS 91
selves." These communities include 243 incorporated towns and cities
(J^ with less than 1000 population) 39 counties and 37 unincorporated
communities with a heavy density of population. Most of these com-
munities have little technical assistance available but all have an
awareness of and a need for adequate provisions for leisure-time activ-
ities and facilities for their people.
The tax structure in our state hinders local development by public
funds, and yet more than $4,500,000 of public funds were spent by these
groups for parks and recreation in 1953. At least another $500,000
was spent by donated funds for land and improvements in 1953.
It is the Recreation Division's job to "help these communities help
themselves." To do this, we are prepared to offer the following types
of services upon request: (1) Field visits, (2) Consultive service in
facility planning administration, legal aspects, organization, program-
ming and finance, (3) Research projects, (4) Publication and distribu-
tion of research and information materials, (5) Community inventories
and appraisals, (6) Lending library service, (7) Question and answer
service, (8) Cooperation with local, county, state and Federal agencies,
(9) Assistance in conference and institute planning and in-service train-
ing, (10) Assistance to professional recreation, park and camping or-
ganizations, (11) Personnel clearing house service.
The Recreation Division works constantly with various organizations
and groups to promote and stimulate recreation in its broadest sense; as
examples, The Governors Council on Problems of our Aging Population,
Washington Camping Advisory Committee, Washington State Recrea-
tion Council, National Recreation Association, Parent-Teachers Associa-
tions, State Grange, Council for Children and Youth, Bureau of Govern-
mental Research, etc.
Two outstanding examples of the type of cooperation we have re-
ceived are (1) Compilation of Statues Relating to Parks and Recreation
in Washington State with annotations, compiled for us by the Bureau of
Governmental Research of the University of Washington and (2) a much
needed Survey of Camping Needs in the Columbia Basin by Washington
State College under contract from the National Park Service.
In closing, may I say that to me, our combined Park and Recreation
Commission is by far the most economical and satisfactory method for
meeting local needs in Washington State. Although we have a staff
of only three, we have the distinct advantage of having access to all of
the technical staff of the Parks Division including planning, engineering,
landscaping, historical, etc. besides having all of our bookkeeping and
accounting handled by the central office staff.
92 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
A UNIQUE STATE PROGRAM
Plant Ohio Today— for Tomorrow
RAY M. WHITE, Secretary to the Governor of Ohio
*A paper presented at the Golden Anniversary Citizens Planning Conference, APCA, Columbus,
Ohio, May 16, 1954.
MOST people are born conservationists — but too few apply the
practice toward our natural resources, and most people have a
natural instinct to want to restore that which has been destroyed —
but too few are willing to lay aside desire for immediate personal gain
and acknowledge that the very foundation upon which this Nation
was built and prospered is the same foundation upon which our future
economy must stand — or fall.
A building, no matter how beautiful or how tall and spacious, is only
as sound as its foundation — and the principal elements in the foundation
of our economy, past, present and future, are our natural resources.
When I find my mind drifting into a narrow channel which obscures
vision of the problem as a whole, a view which must be taken if remedial
progress is to be made, I awaken to realities by again heeding the sound
advice of Hugh Bennett who so truthfully said, "Each renewable re-
source, whether forest or animal life, whether productive soils or the
water which sustains them, is each dependent upon one or more of the
others — all are dependent upon each other."
What I have just said though on the philosophical side, is neverthe-
less true. My foregoing remarks border on the verge of a criticism I
have repeatedly uttered and that is, that there has been too much
conversation about conservation and not enough action.
Two years ago, in 1952, the knowledge that Ohio's timberlands
were being depleted more rapidly than they were being restored, and
based on a theory that most people really want to help do something
about it — an idea was born. The idea, conceived by Ohio's Governor
Lausche, was like a seed planted in rich soil — the soil being the receptive
minds of the citizenry and their desire to cooperate to help rebuild that
which was being destroyed.
Thus, the "Plant Ohio Today — for Tomorrow" program was born
and it is still growing and will continue to grow.
For many years, Ohio, along with most other States, held a rather
passive attitude toward reforestation, and home and community
beautification by planting of shade and ornamental trees; and about
all Arbor Day meant was a break in school routine when classes were
dismissed for a brief period for a recitation, reading of a poem and
perhaps the planting of a small tree soon to be forgotten and left to
wither and die.
A UNIQUE STATE PROGRAM 93
City schools believed school forests were only for the rural children
living in the wide open spaces, and many rural schools could not see
the trees for the woods.
But, in 1952, Ohio got out of the doldrums and that year reforesta-
tion and community beautification planting rose from about 5 million
to 17 million and, in 1953, Ohio Sesquicentennial year, the total planting
was more than 25 million units and 26 new school forests were estab-
lished. The 1953 program set a national record for which Ohio re-
ceived national recognition.
Here is the Plan of Action. To form a citizen's Plant Ohio Committee,
the Governor called into conference presidents, secretaries or repre-
sentatives of all state-wide business, professional, civic, religious, and
youth organizations. Problems and objectives were informally discussed
and a general pattern agreed upon to be worked out and launched by a
small executive committee of the over-all organization.
Meanwhile, to bring the whole program down to a county or grass
roots level, the Governor appointed to serve as local chairman and
activity coordinator, the county agricultural extension agent in each of
the 88 counties. Following, the representatives of all the state organi-
zations which were represented at the Governor's conference went into
action by alerting all county or local chapters or units requesting their
membership to participate in the Plant Ohio Program within their own
community.
Next step, and again on a local level, the county chairman set up his
county or city task force enlisting the cooperation of the entire citizenry.
To give the program a significant and official boost, the Governor issued
a well timed proclamation calling upon the citizenry of Ohio to actively
support the program.
Meanwhile, the executive committee, cooperating with the Division
of Forestry, Ohio Nurserymen's Association, Ohio Chamber of Com-
merce, Ohio Forestry Association and others, prepared and issued a
comprehensive planting manual for state-wide distribution through
schools and local Plant Ohio Committees.
This manual contained the Governor's proclamation, tips on how,
when, where and what to plant, and a list of commercial nurseries.
Also, were instructions concerning purchase of seedling trees from the
Division of Forestry. Also included in this booklet were suggestions to
assist local organizations in forming their own task forces, outline of
procedures to establish school and community forest and other helpful
hints.
All this took place early in the spring prior to the regular planting
season so by the first of April every county in Ohio was well organized
and ready to go. Meanwhile, through the Governor's office and through
the executive committee, frequent press releases were made to all news-
papers. Some of these were of a general nature pointing to the necessity
94 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
of reforesting Ohio, while others urged community and home beautifica-
tion by planting trees. Special releases were issued high-lighting out-
standing programs planned by various communities. I give much credit
to the over-all success of the Plant Ohio program to the excellent co-
operation by the press, both in their news and editorial columns.
One has but to review the detailed report of the 1953 program to learn
of the magnitude and success realized during Ohio's sesquicentennial
year. Of course, the very fact that 1953 was the 150th anniversary of
Ohio statehood, gave great impetus to the program. This was most
pronounced among the schools of the State, for during the year of 1953,
one-third of the total number of school forests planted in Ohio since
1930 were established. High-lighting both the 1952-53 programs were
numerous forest field days in which groups of counties participated.
At some of these, attendance exceeded several thousand. Farmers
saw demonstrations of proper timber management, operation of tree
planters, and examples of utilization of second grade timber for their
own farms. This type of program, no doubt, will become more popular
as Ohio's Tree Planting Program continues to grow.
The climax of the 1953 program came in November of that year,
when all of the 88 county chairmen were guests at a luncheon held at
Ohio State University and sponsored by cooperative organizations.
At the conclusion of this luncheon, which was addressed by Governor
Lausche, each of the county agents received beautiful personally signed
Certificates of Merit from the Governor.
While Ohio set the new record in 1952 by planting more than 17
million trees, and shattered that record a year later when more than
25 million were planted, there still remains much to be done especially
in view of the fact that disastrous forest fires in Ohio in the fall of 1952
and the spring of 1953 destroyed more trees than were planted in 1953.
The Plant Ohio Program is not just a temporary "shot in the arm,"
it is a program which must continue and must be accelerated.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS
New Standards for City Development
CHARLES A. BLESSING, Director of City Planning, Detroit, Michigan
I AM glad to be here to report to you in some measure on Mayor Cobo's
plans for the future of Detroit and to discuss with you standards
for new city development, as illustrated by the Detroit program.
I believe Detroit is uniquely favored for a vast program of successful
city rebuilding for the following reasons:
1. Detroit has unlimited resources of engineering genius and scientific
know-how. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler organizations typify
this reservoir of industrial talent. These resources are actively interesting
themselves in the future of their city. K. T. Keller, Chairman of the
Board of Chrysler Corporation, has been advising actively in our city
improvement program. Henry Ford recently dedicated the cornerstone
of the magnificent Henry and Edsel Ford Auditorium in our new civic
city center. As you all know, Harlow Curtice, head of General Motors
Corporation, recently sponsored the National Better Highways Com-
petition, which attracted more than 100,000 entries.
2. Detroit industry and commerce is cooperating actively with the
Detroit government, as evidenced by the contribution of industry of
8}/2 million dollars as a gift toward construction of Detroit's new 25
million dollar convention center and auditorium.
3. Detroit is planning for 1980 today, with all of the know-how of
the automobile industry and full support for a broad city planning
program. During the past year our planning staff has been enlarged
from 35 members to more than 55 members. Detroit's General Motors
has in recent months shown the country the automobiles of the future —
ten streamlined models for 1980. For these we may have to wait a few
years more. Even today companies are competing in releasing 1955
styling a year ahead of time. This competition is a frank recognition of
the emergence of a buyer's market in the automobile industry.
4. We in Detroit well appreciate the fact that American cities are
also entering a new competitive era in which industry and employment
must be won and paid for by deeds and not promises. American cities
everywhere are tooling up for this new and challenging competition.
There is a significant parallel between the automobile industry and the
competition which American cities face today. The big three and the
other automobile companies are continually tooling and retooling and
restyling to produce each year new, vastly improved models to serve
the ultimate judge — the buyer. It may be unfortunate that there the
parallel seems to end between the automobile industry and city planning
in America. The dilemma of city planning is that we planners know
how to do better than we are as yet tooled up to do. Only yesterday,
95
96 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Detroit's expressway coordinator stated that Detroit needs 800 million
dollars worth of new expressways. Just as the automobile industry
believes in competition, so Detroit is accepting the challenge of com-
petition from other American cities and from our own suburbs. The
largest suburban shopping center in the world recently dedicated by
the J. L. Hudson Company at Northland Center eight miles from
downtown Detroit has challenged our central business district by pro-
viding 7000 free parking spaces to serve a group of 40 beautifully de-
signed stores in a vast coordinated shopping center. Detroit believes
this form of competition through superior planning and design is good
for Detroit because now we must improve to meet this challenge. We
must plan now for our Detroit 1980 model.
THE BASIC CHALLENGE TO CITY PLANNING — CRITERIA
Why should not Detroit, the home of the automobile, the arsenal of
democracy, plan now and design a city with all of the research findings,
the scientific precision and styling which have gone into the production
of Detroit's latest streamlined automobiles? The answer is that Detroit
is tooling up now to do the vast job — Detroit is taking practical steps
to become the most efficient, most economical, most healthful, and
most beautiful city in the history of the world, drawing upon all of the
resources of our local government, combined with the finest scientific,
technical and engineering genius in the world and the civic leaders as
partners for the job ahead.
NEW STANDARDS FOR CITY DEVELOPMENT
Following a history of city planning beginning in 1919, Detroit
enlarged its planning program 14 years ago and has invested since 1940
nearly 4 million dollars in municipal planning for the future. Detroit's
official Comprehensive City Plan for 1980 contains the specifications
and standards for the huge job to be done and provides the acknowledged
guide for our long range capital improvement program, which already
schedules approximately one billion dollars in planned public improve-
ment projects.
The Detroit comprehensive plan is broad while at the same time
providing a specific framework in many phases of city improvement.
It provides for 155 safe, efficient and attractive residential neighborhoods,
each with a full component of neighborhood services, including schools,
parks and playgrounds, in a joint program of the Board of Education
and the Department of Parks and Recreation. These neighborhoods fit
logically within a framework of expressways and major thoroughfares,
which bound but do not cross the neighborhoods with fast moving
traffic arteries.
The comprehensive plan provides for a system of six major express-
way routes connecting all parts of the metropolitan area with the central
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 97
business district, and with the industrial corridors. The expressway plan
is currently being reviewed in the light of a three-quarter million-dollar
origin-destination survey. The comprehensive plan provides for 16
planned and coordinated residential communities each comprising ap-
proximately ten residential neighborhoods — each community with its
high school and community center and park. The comprehensive plan
provides also for a series of modern industrial district corridors con-
nected by expressways with all sections of the city. Plans are being
rushed for the development of a model industrial waterfront to serve
the vastly increased needs resulting from the recent passage of the
Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway. A keystone in the comprehensive
planning is Detroit's new riverfront civic center which will be both a
governmental administrative center for the region, and a major conven-
tion and exhibition center for Detroit, the automobile industry and
the nation.
To sum up — we are planning a modern city — 1980 style, with all
the beauty of Paris, the efficiency of the General Motors Research
Center, and the Ford Rouge assembly line, and the amenity and con-
venience of Radburn and Greenbelt. While taking care of our current
planning matters from day to day, we in Detroit are tooling up to do
the job that lies ahead. In our planning for the Detroit of 1980 we are
thinking of the lessons of Paris and Washington, Athens and Rome,
Radburn and the Greenbelt towns. We are thinking also of the lessons
to be learned from the new towns of postwar England — the housing
projects of Sweden and Switzerland, and of the model industrial dis-
tricts, such as the Clearing Industrial District of Chicago.
PROGRESS TOWARDS REALIZATION
Our plans are in operation today. Every Friday morning the City
Plan Commission transmits as many as 15 or more city projects or
problems with recommendations thereon to our 9-member Common
Council. In all this, what gives me greatest pleasure is to be able to
report to you that Mayor Cobo backs us up and participates in all our
planning and our dreaming. He visualizes with us the most beautiful
and efficient central business district in any city, a redeveloped water-
front for civic, recreational, residential and harbor uses. He looks for-
ward with us to creating 155 attractive, stable, well-planned residential
neighborhoods, and in a week or two, Mayor Cobo will announce the
appointment of a committee for Detroit in 1980.
DETROIT'S IMMEDIATE PLANS
The following plans are rapidly taking shape as reality:
1. Comprehensive plan for Detroit's 85-miIIion-doIIar riverfront
civic center, including the new 30-miIIion-dolIar city-county building,
and the Veterans' Memorial Building already completed, and the
Henry and Edsel Ford Auditorium.
98 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
2. The 25 million dollar convention and exhibition building which
will have on one floor level a space 400 feet x 700 feet, providing a single
covered area large enough to contain three complete football fields.
This dynamic civic building is placed on stilts over our newest express-
way with a 1200 car parking space on the roof with direct access from
the expressway and with the future possibility of helicopter landing on
the roof. This new civic facility will cost 25 million dollars and will be
bought and paid for on completion three years from now. The funds
derived from an 8J/£ million dollar direct donation from industry in a
three-year program of paying-as-you-go financing from Detroit's current
operating budget. Every effort is being made to provide the finest and
largest convention and auditorium center in the country.
3. We are rapidly nearing completion of 21 miles of the Lodge and
Ford Expressways constructed at a cost of 200 million dollars and we
are currently engaged in a three-quarter-million-dollar metropolitan
area origin-destination survey to determine what other routes shall be
started next.
4. The plan includes a program of redevelopment within our older
boulevard area embracing 18 neighborhoods — the central business
district, and important segments of our industrial pattern.
5. As part of Detroit's urban renewal program the comprehensive
plan includes specific plans for the conservation of 46 older threatened
but still substantial neighborhoods, designated as a result of a thorough
and objective evaluation of housing and population data for each of the
13,000 residential blocks in the city.
6. We have completed a 10 million dollar expansion of our recrea-
tional system, while the comprehensive plan includes recommendations
for 40 million dollars worth of additional local recreation facilities.
7. Also a part of Detroit's development program are the 100-miIIion-
dollar expansion program for water and sewer facilities.
With plans being actively pushed for the Detroit of 1980, we recog-
nize as a basic problem the inventorying of all of Detroit's unsolved
needs. We must understand what are our shortcomings to date. The
following illustrate some aspects of this problem :
1. Of Detroit's 155 residential neighborhoods designated by the
comprehensive city plan, the housing analysis recently completed in-
dicates that 18 of these neighborhoods containing in all 23,000 sub-
standard dwelling units in need of clearance and replacement in a city
characterized by a high percentage of single family homes. The percent-
age of substandard dwelling units in Detroit is the lowest of any large
city in the country. Forty-six of the 155 neighborhoods in Detroit have
been carefully analyzed and a block survey has been made in the field,
to identify more closely the problems that exist and to determine a
program of action under the federal urban renewal program. This leaves
91 residential neighborhoods which are indicated as stable or new growth.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 99
2. Central Detroit has problems typical of many cities but it also
has unique opportunities as indicated by the following statistics: the
central business district contains 800 acres of which 200 acres are cur-
rently vacant, unbuilt-upon land. 320 acres in streets and alleys, and
280 acres of land occupied by buildings, thus receive an amazing per-
centage of 64 percent of total space not occupied by structures in De-
troit's central area. I believe this condition to be almost unique among
the larger cities of America. The severity of Detroit's central area
problem is indicated by the decrease in central area assessments from
380 million dollars in 1930, to 220 million dollars in 1954. This has
represented a decline of 42 percent in assessed valuation during the
past 24 years. As further illustrations, in a 150-acre section of central
Detroit adjacent to the proposed 25 million-dollar convention building,
there is a total assessment of only 20 million dollars for land and im-
provements with a few first class buildings excluded from the figures.
A further example is provided by Detroit's "skid row" — a % mile strip
of Michigan Avenue, extending from Washington Boulevard in the
heart of the city to the new Lodge Expressway. This strip of strategically
located business frontage paid in taxes last year only $31,000. The ex-
tremely rapid decrease in property evaluations from State and Wood-
ward, where the figure is more than $2,500 a foot, to the Lodge Express-
way, less than a mile to the west where the valuation is $3 per foot,
suggests some of the opportunities for broadening the tax base at the
center of the city. Another serious problem in central Detroit is rep-
resented by the estimated shortage of 9,000 parking spaces based on the
present total of 29,000 parking spaces.
NEW STANDARDS IN THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
As American cities approach maturity with population in the central
cities tending to stabilize and as an increasing percentage of the total
city area faces the threatened impact of spreading deterioration, it
becomes increasingly important that city planning procedures be pre-
cise, logical and methodical, rather than arbitrary. Proposed plans
must be clearly documented with detailed reasons for each recommenda-
tion made as a part of the comprehensive city planning. It seems ob-
vious that a billion-dollar-improvement program should rest on objective
and accurate city planning analysis.
Detroit accepts these objectives as general criteria upon which specific
standards are based: (1) Provision of a framework for the efficient
operations of industry and business; (2) Provision of an attractive,
healthful and comfortable home environment for the residents; (3) Pro-
vision of fast, safe, and efficient transportation, including terminal
facilities such as parking facilities and motor freight terminals; (4) A
provision of adequate public services, commensurate with the needs of
the population to be served.
100 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
STANDARDS OF RESEARCH AND DEFINITION
Before applying standards, it is necessary that basic data on the
city be assembled and that statistics be provided to compare with de-
velopment standards which might serve as a measuring stick. Before
we can compare existing conditions with criteria or standards, we must
have quantitative facts about the existing conditions. For example,
we must define the types of residential areas in the city based on analysis
of block and neighborhood environmental data. Detroit follows the
categories of new growth areas, conservation areas, subdivided into
minor improvement, major improvement, and first aid and blighted
areas subject to project scale redevelopments. In all residential neigh-
borhoods it will be necessary to compare and correlate population, land
area, and services required in relation to population and land area, but
the quantity and design of physical facilities throughout the city must
be objectively derived.
Surveys are now being revised showing total property areas in each
land use in the city for 1954 — tax assessments by type of use and by
district, optimum population density, showing the number of families
per acre, in characteristic structure type areas.
Industrial land use standards will include employment density per
acre, parking space per worker, and the general pattern and extent of
transportation services including streets and railway access.
Commercial land use standards will include acreage per dollar volume
done in various categories for the central area, for community shopping
centers, and for neighborhood convenience centers, and for the larger
outlying regional shopping centers. Parking space as required for each
type of center will be determined, as well as the general layout and
design of land areas.
RESIDENT SUBDIVISION DESIGN STANDARDS
Standards have been developed for the amount of recreation space
in each of the 155 residential neighborhoods. Design standards have
been developed for the physical layout of neighborhood units, including
the relation of arterial highways and local access routes to the neighbor-
hood pattern. Safety, convenience and amenity, are the general criteria
for neighborhood development.
QUANTITATIVE STANDARDS FOR CITY DEVELOPMENT
1. American Public Health Association "Standards for Healthful
Housing" embrace both structural conditions within the dwelling and
environmental conditions within the neighborhood.
2. Performance standards for industrial zoning will include lot size
spacing of local service streets, transportation terminal facilities, and
measurements of industrial nuisances on a city-wide basis.
3. Traffic planning standards. The three quarter million dollar origin-
destination survey will bring the latest traffic analysis techniques to a
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 101
study for providing objective standards of cross section design, align-
ment location, and general relationship of expressways and arterial
highways to the land use plan. Standards for off-street parking in re-
lation to revised zoning requirements are also included in current studies.
4. Standards of Public Services. Locally acceptable acreage stand-
ards for recreation areas are included in the comprehensive plan. General
standards for school planning, library planning, and the provision of
public buildings such as police and fire stations, are included. The Public
Works program includes also standards of service for water, sewer,
refuse and garbage collection, and general street maintenance and city
housekeeping. The primary objective of city planning as it is practiced
in Detroit is to develop a practical program for improving the living
and working environment of the city, and all facilities of a recreational,
educational and cultural nature. It is clear that all relationships in city
development stem from the distribution of people on the land in the
city — population density, dwelling types, characteristics of residential
neighborhoods, and also proper consideration for the relation of location
of employment and density of employment to the location of the worker.
Thus a clear basis for the study of the adequacy of urban environment
is to be found in the relationship between population, land area, and
required public services. This relationship must be clearly spelled out in
the comprehensive plan of the city, and it is the essence of the city
planning problem. Detroit has a plan for the future land use of the
city — residential, commercial and industrial, for the transportation
facilities of the city, and for public services of all kinds. Such a plan is
necessary to correct many mistakes made during the past forty years
during which period Detroit grew from a small city of 200,000 to a
great industrial metropolis with 3J^ million people in the region.
Detroit is today studying carefully examples of outstanding civic
design throughout the world. This study rests on the assumption that
not only efficiency and comfort but beauty and amenity are essential
ingredients in the environment which will encourage the helpful and
satisfying urban life of children and adults alike. Detroit believes that
cities must recapture the qualities of the early New England village,
which provide the frame-work for happy living. The challenge is — Can
the American city in its entirety recover for its citizens the amenities
of the small New England village, while at the same time providing all
of the cultural, industrial, and economic opportunities which to date
seem to be dependent upon the metropolis?
Col. SHELTON P. HUBBARD, Director, Department of Housing Improvement and
Slum Prevention, City of New Orleans, Louisiana
FOUR large segments of New Orleans' sprawling slum areas are now
feeling the blows of a blight-fighting program which already has
102 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
made a sizeable dent in the city's estimated 45,000 sub-standard dwell-
ings.
As of June 1, just six months after large-scale inspections began, the
program had succeeded, directly, in bringing over 1,000 dwellings under
rehabilitation. It is expected that, by year's end, 5,000 dwelling units
will be either completely rehabilitated or at least in the process of be-
coming so.
The most remarkable part of the accomplishment, is that the City
hasn't found it necessary to bring a single person to court or to make a
single arrest in order to force compliance with the minimum housing
standards law. The cooperation of property owners has been phenomenal.
Spokesmen for the program, which began last fall, predicted that the
estimated 45,000 sub-standard dwellings within the corporate limits
could be restored to at least the minimum standards for good housing
within nine years.
In operation, New Orleans' housing improvement and slum pre-
vention effort is geared for the job of systematically inspecting, on an
area basis, every part of every structure used for housing. Defects or
deficiencies in plumbing, electrical systems, structural soundness,
sanitation and fire prevention — in short, anything which may be opposed
to the public health, welfare and safety — are brought to the attention
of the owners.
Inspections are thorough in every instance throughout each area, in
order to help guarantee that the whole area will ultimately be upgraded.
Property owners are given every assistance possible in obtaining finan-
cing, legal counsel, technical advice or help in relocating displaced
tenants. Lending agencies are more willing to cooperate since they feel
assured that each home improvement loan they make is for a structure
which will henceforth be located in a "good" neighborhood instead of
in a slum.
Property owners and tenants are carefully educated on their rights
and obligations when rehabilitation is about to begin in their neighbor-
hood. All of the facts that are necessary are given to the owners and
tenants. The educational approach is aimed at solving general and
individual problems as quickly as they develop.
This approach is made first through meetings at which approximately
100 to 200 property owners or tenants listen to speeches, receive literature
and see projected photos of what the program has accomplished else-
where in the city and what is intended in their own neighborhood. Any-
one present may ask questions, and every question gets a sensible,
straightforward answer.
The second approach is through individual hearings held with each
property owner, at which time his individual problems get the personal
attention of experts in the various fields related to housing problems.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 103
Through such a system of education, it is believed, many potential
law suits have been averted.
How is it possible to organize such a program, whose success has been
due mostly to education and service instead of legal enforcement?
The answer is simple. Let the citizens themselves organize and staff
it. The present administration of the City Government leans heavily
on numerous boards and committees of citizens who serve, without
compensation, in an advisory capacity.
The whole New Orleans rehabilitation program, organized during
1953, was conceived and organized by the citizenry. On the basis of a
request for official action against slums, made by the Chamber of
Commerce, Mayor deLesseps S. Morrison appointed a citizens study
committee to start the ball rolling. This group studied conditions here,
had a survey made and visited other cities to see how others were fight-
ing slums.
The committee found that conditions were deplorable. Some 45,000
dwellings were either dilapidated or lacking in inside plumbing, or both,
out of 173,608 in the city. Three out of every ten persons, the committee
estimated, live in substandard houses.
They recommended that the City adopt a Minimum Standards
Ordinance, setting forth all of the requirements in housing necessary
for good living, yet none of the items deemed luxurious by any stretch
of the imagination. For example, that ordinance requires inside plumb-
ing and an inside bathroom with a flush-type toilet and either a tub or
shower, but no hot water.
The City Council adopted the ordinance almost without debate.
The citizens study committee recommended a permanent, new
department of government be set up to carry out enforcement and
educational work in the program.
The necessary laws were passed, the department founded and staffed.
The citizens study committee recommended that a permanent citizens
advisory committee of 28 members be appointed, along with a committee
of city officials, to assist in formulating policy and in coordinating the
work of the new Department of Housing Improvement and Slum
Prevention.
The Mayor appointed, and the City Council approved, these com-
mittees. Most of the members of the study committee found themselves
named to the new permanent group they had recommended.
Today, the members of that 28-man committee serve on numerous
sub-committees which spend long hours, without pay, in the never-
ending job of helping owners and occupants to solve housing problems.
By official count, on June 1, the Department's 17 inspectors had
inspected over 2,000 dwelling units at least once. On a total of 1,116
units, work had either begun or had been completed, and 59 units had
been demolished or were to be demolished.
104 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Not recorded are the untold hundreds of cases of home owners who
are voluntarily repairing their property outside the established re-
habilitation areas. It is estimated that this number is approximately
five times greater than the number under organized rehabilitation.
The whole city-wide effort adds up to a program which will ultimately
improve living standards for New Orleans' 187,500 slum dwellers.
Role of the Citizen in Urban Renewal
JAMES T. YIELDING, Executive Assistant to the Mayor,
In Charge of Urban Redevelopment, Cleveland, Ohio
THE City of Cleveland is very fortunate in having organized twenty
Area Councils whose geographic jurisdiction covers most all of the
city of Cleveland. The Area Councils primary concern is the maintaining
of good standards of living conditions within their area. They are active
in all phases of neighborhood rehabilitation and growth.
Most all of the Area Councils have sub-committees representing
neighborhood groups. Many have started block developments and
garden clubs for the raising of standards of various sections of their area.
The Area Councils are called upon by the Greater Cleveland Clean-up,
Paint-up, Fix-up, and Light-up Committee for their cooperation. The
Committee sets aside one week out of every year for this activity. It is
this type of citizen participation through area organization that can
play a tremendous part in the future of any given urban renewal project.
Since the real meaning of urban renewal includes development of
vacant land, redevelopment of slum and blighted neighborhoods and
rehabilitation of those residential structures that are somewhat below
acceptable standards, it takes promotion by groups such as I have
described above in addition to the laws that have to be enforced to
renew an area.
To gain the cooperation of every business club that is affected
business-wise or investment-wise can be accomplished through our
normal means of communication with the public : speeches, newspapers,
radio and television. In addition to these, Cleveland has a community
workshop sponsored by the Western Reserve University and the Cleve-
land Electric Illuminating Company.
Even when we maintain the best public relations, it can be expected
that some individual or club will offer resistance. In Cleveland's first
urban redevelopment project an attempt was made to organize a com-
munity civic club where a landlord with approximately 150 tenants
assessed each tenant an additional $5 per month to cover the cost of
his legal fees to fight this project. A brief interview with Cleveland's
Prosecuting Attorney changed his mind and the following day the land-
lord was seen returning the $5 that each tenant had given him.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 105
Citizen participation at the local neighborhood level is important.
However, the participation necessary from the business and financial
leaders of the community can offer the catalyst necessary to make a
sound urban renewal project a reality. In Cleveland there has been
formed the Cleveland Development Foundation, subscribed to by the
major business and industrial organizations of Greater Cleveland. They
now have assets in excess of two million dollars and have set up their
basic philosophy to promote, assist, and finance, if necessary, any
worth-while endeavor for the civic betterment of Greater Cleveland.
At this point, the Cleveland Development Foundation is sponsoring
the Garden Valley Urban Renewal Project for the construction of
approximately 1200 new dwelling units as a direct aid in providing
reserve housing to relocate families from our first urban redevelopment
project, Area 1-B. This endeavor of the Cleveland Development Foun-
dation in cooperation with the City of Cleveland Urban Redevelopment
Agency, the Cleveland School Board, Cleveland Transit System,
Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority will strain the imagination
of most civic-minded individuals to appreciate the complexity of ac-
complishments to renew this three-hundred acre project.
The local newspapers, radio and television have been extremely
cooperative by carrying current stories and news of our progress. The
1954 Housing Act recently passed by Congress will offer another great
aid through Federal Housing Administration as to the financing of new
construction. It is our theory that every large urban area should analyze
the cost of run-down and slum property and take advantage of Federal
assistance to clear, re-new, and up-grade those areas that are declared
eligible as a sound business venture.
It is estimated that any funds made available locally can be classed
as a wise investment with 100 percent return in approximately fifteen
years.
May I therefore appeal to all representatives of the American Plan-
ning and Civic Association to analyze their own local problems that
effect the up-grading of their cities through urban renewal and promote
to the greatest extent necessary participation by your citizens and
sponsored by your organization.
CARL FEISS, Chief, Planning and Engineering Branch Division of Slum Clearance
and Urban Redevelopment, Housing and Home Finance Agency. (Now Consultant
on Planning, Architecture and Technical Education, Washington, D. C.)
SOME of you here today may not be familiar with the term urban
renewal. Many terms are being batted around that have confused
all of us. Whatever the words, we can all agree to the over-all objective
of clearing slums, of the planned redevelopment of the cleared areas,
and of the rehabilitation of structures worthy of rehabilitation in areas
which may lend themselves to satisfactory rehabilitation. Also we agree
106 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
to the conservation of areas which can be and are worth preserving
and to the protection of those values in our communities which all of
us know must be maintained if our communities are to survive.
On January 25th this year, President Eisenhower in his message to
Congress transmitting his housing program stated :
I submit herewith measures designed to promote the efforts of our people to
acquire good homes, and to assist our communities to develop wholesome neigh-
T T T • T • ¥ A • I* * T * T" T
borhoods in which American families may live and prosper. . . .
" ^hted areas and to impro
munities, we must eliminate the causes of slums and blight. This is essentially
In order to clear our slums and blighted areas and to improve our com-
a problem for our cities. However, federal assistance is justified for communities
which face up to the problem of neighborhood decay and undertake long-range
programs directed to its prevention. . . .
Our housing deficiencies continue to be serious. Millions of our people still
live in slums. Millions more live in run-down declining neighborhoods. The
National interest demands the elimination of slum conditions and the rehabilita-
tion of declining neighborhoods. Many of our local communities have made
good progress in this work and are eager to make further substantial improve-
ments but are hard put to find the needed resources.
The President's Housing Message was based on the extensive work
of the President's Advisory Committee on Government Housing Policies
and Programs which reported to Mr. Eisenhower, December 1953,
recommending a number of new policies and ideas which are bound to
be significant to every municipality in the United States.
The President's Advisory Committee report is now recognized as a
signal document in the history of the philosophy and theory behind
federal assistance programs to localities on problems of this sort. It
was the concept of the President's Advisory Committee that the attack
on the Nation's slums should be on a bold basis; in which all problems
were studied locally within a "workable program" developed by the
localities themselves.
The Slum Clearance and Urban Redevelopment program as developed
under the Housing Act of 1949, is essentially a local program. It has
been limited by the Housing Act of 1949 to the specific slums and blighted
areas and restricted in breadth on a project planning basis.
It was the concept of the President's Advisory Committee to enlarge
this approach to renewal areas, to provide for cooperative action be-
tween public agencies, local business groups and citizen interest groups,
not only to eradicate slums and blight but to prevent their recurrence.
The President's Advisory Committee stated:
What we hope we are doing is to help the cities help themselves. By clearing
slums, removing blight, and checking the deterioration cycle, cities should be
able to increase municipal revenues at the same time they are reducing the de-
mand for services. In short, we are trying to establish the urban renewal process
on an orderly basis so that over the long pull we will establish healthy cities
with reduced requirements for the Federal aid which we now find mandatory. . .
A piecemeal attack on slums simply will not work — occasional thrusts at
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 107
slum pockets in one section of a city will only push slums to other sections unless
an effective program exists for attacking the entire problem of urban decay.
Programs for slum prevention, for rehabilitation of existing houses and neighbor-
hoods, and for the demolition of wornput structures and areas must advance
along a broad unified front to accomplish the renewal of our towns and cities.
This approach must be vigorously carried out in the localities themselves, and
will require local solutions which vary widely from city to city.
The Committee is impressed with the tremendous interest evident through-
out the country in rehabilitation and neighborhood conservation, as well as the
important corrective effort recently launched in some of our cities.
Further support to this point of view is to be found in a speech be-
fore the Chamber of Commerce at St. Louis on February 24, 1954 by
Albert M. Cole, Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance
Agency. Mr. Cole said:
We have been losing the battle of the slums. Furthermore, what we term the
battle against slums is, in fact, more than that. It is a battle to save our cities,
a fight to rescue the great, vital urban nerve centers of our Nation from spread-
ing paralysis and piecemeal dissolution.
The most distressing aspect of this dilemma, he said "is that it represents,
perhaps more than any one thing, a failure of responsibility by city officials,
civic and business leaders, and citizens themselves to properly and energetically
assume responsibility for the conservation of their civic assets. We didn't have
to have these slums. We could have prevented them. We put laws on the books
to do that — and then failed to enforce them. Housing violations became a big and
profitable business for some owners, who grew rich on human misery and profited
by civic waste and neglect. While the owners grew rich, the cities grew poorer.
They have paid doubly for every slum — through the drying up of tax revenues
from these bankrupt areas and again in the multiplied costs of police, fire, health,
and other municipal expenditures to support these diseased areas.
Let me read you this indictment of past failure made by the members of the
President's Advisory Committee assigned to study the slum problem. In their
report, they said: "Slums do not just happen. They are the product of neglect
by landlords, by tenants, and by all of us who make up the communities in which
slums exist. But above all else, they are the product of neglect by our city gov-
ernments."
This began as a local problem. We have allowed it now to become a national
problem. But it seems to me that its solution must be worked out primarily by
the community itself, where the problem began. We cannot prevent slums, much
less clear them, until we achieve a full measure of official and citizen responsibility
in the local community and replace indifference and neglect with civic alarm and
action. We are, in fact, getting that in many of our cities today. It is to speed
that movement and to give it the Nation's support and help that the Urban
Renewal program has been devised.
The success of this program is a matter of urgent concern to the Nation
and to the Federargovernment. But it should be an even more urgent matter
to the citizens of our American communities. These are your homes, your
businesses, your civic investments that are being neglected, destroyed, and
worn away under the constant grinding action of change and growth.
My final quotation is from a speech given by James W. FoIIin,
Director of Division of Slum Clearance and Urban Redevelopment,
Housing and Home Finance Agency, before the 5th National Business-
108 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
men's Conference on Urban Problems of the Chamber of Commerce of
the United States in San Diego, California, March 5, this year, on
Citizen Participation and Support. Mr. FoIIin said:
The other form of inducement for the rehabilitation of structures will be
enlightened self-interest plus neighborhood pride and self-respect, aided and
encouraged by adequate credit when the property owners need to borrow. How
to stimulate all this is something each city will have to decide for itself. Certain
methods, however, have been found by experience to be useful everywhere.
Mainly they consist of mobilizing for neighborhood improvement the business,
religious, social and other citizens groups already organized in the city and
around the area, and of organizing new ones where needed. Finding and enlist-
ing the energetic support of recognized leaders is, of course, the first thing to do.
This brings me to the aspect of your job wherein the success or failure of
the whole undertaking will be determined. Enlightened self-interest, combined
with a sense of civic responsibility, must be mobilized throughout the city and
its suburbs. Your whole community must understand and ardently desire the
benefits of the big undertaking — desire them ardently enough to work long and
hard until the job is done.
There is good reason to believe that your task in this regard will be far less
difficult than it might have been a few years ago. Something like a ground-swell
of awareness is evident on every hand. National business and professional
organizations with their affiliates in virtually every community and local civic
groups are aroused as never before. Your own Chamber of Commerce groups
may be expected to take the lead as a matter of course. You will have powerful
allies — the Home Builders, the Real Estate Boards, the architects and engineers,
the planners, the women's clubs, the League of Women Voters, the religious
groups, the welfare agencies, and a host of others. In the words of the President's
recent message to Congress, "The knowledge, the skills, the resources, and, most
important, the will to do this job already exists in the Nation. . . . We have the
unlimited resources which grow from the independence, pride, and determination
of the American citizen."
Surely the President is right, and you can start proving it the moment you
get back to your home towns. Three vitally important parts of the big job can
be tackled at once, without waiting for anything or anybody. One is to put steam
behind the planning, both for the community as a whole and for the renewal
areas within it. Another, equally important if not more so, is to see to it that
local codes and ordinances are adequate and adequately enforced. And the third,
though certainly first in importance, is to begin mobilizing for action the re-
sources— mainly the resources of mind and heart — that are to be found in your
communities. If you will do these things, great success will crown your efforts.
I think you can see from these several quotations that your Govern-
ment is sincerely convinced that the job that has to be done has to be
done first of all in a willing community and in a community that wishes
to help itself. There can be no question that the renewal of our cities
can not be accomplished from the top down. The job is one in which
every citizens' organization, in fact one in which every citizen must be
concerned actively. The "ground-swell" mentioned in Mr. FoIIin's
speech is now very evident indeed. There is wide-spread discussion
among a variety of local citizens groups in communities throughout the
country studying, discussing and in some cases arguing about the merits
of various methods of solving the slum and blighted area problems.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 109
There is no question that coordination of interests at any level of
Government and the getting together of citizens to talk over contro-
versial problems with Government is a difficult part of the Democratic
process. There is no set formula that anyone knows of, which provides
for the most successful way in which citizens representing a wide variety
of special interest groups and public officials representing a wide variety
of special responsibility can get together on an easy basis to formulate
policies and programs which can be used widely in the development of
important legislative, financial, social policy, and building programs.
Programs of urban renewal which are now being instituted are going
to be controversial for some time to come. Take, as an example, the
enforcement of housing codes. In order to provide for the protection
against the spread of slum and blight of older sections of our cities we
must develop first substantial building and housing codes. These codes,
among other things, will prevent illegal conversion. They will prevent
undesirable conversion into multi-family uses of older structures which
because of their condition, design, and location are unsuitable for the
purpose intended. Therefore sound policy and practice would mean
the establishment of local codes and ordinances which would prevent
undesirable conversion of such structures and their overcrowding.
It is not so difficult under zoning and housing and building codes
to prevent the overcrowding of land and buildings in new parts of our
cities, but it is difficult to do so in many of our older sections. When our
municipal officials are faced with the responsibility of actually providing
for a decongesting of these older structures and the elimination of over-
occupancy, they may also be faced by irate land-owners and other
citizenry, who feel that the values of their properties or of the source of
tax income to the locality will be seriously affected by such decongestion.
It is at this point, in this example, that neighborhood and citizens'
interest groups really concerned with the best possible program of
neighborhood and city-wide renewal should step in to assist the local
public officials welfare in protecting the interest of the community as a
whole. While the personal welfare of all individuals must be protected
at all times, selfish interests must give way to the general welfare.
Political pressure may seriously handicap those responsible for the safe-
guarding of the general welfare. Relocation problems, also, are serious
in such a program, and must be realistically and fairly faced and re-
solved. But we cannot solve our slums and blighted problems by a timid
approach or by an approach which does not provide the public officials
who are given certain jobs to do with the protection and the support
which they deserve.
I have used this example as one of many possible, to indicate one of
the major roles which the citizens of any community must play in the
development of the urban renewal process. It should be clear to all of
us who are interested in such programs at whatever level of government,
110 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
that no such program is any stronger than the objectives of the people
in the cities themselves.
Also unless the citizens themselves band together and form a com-
munity wide organization, a type badly needed in many of our major
communities and most of our smaller ones, the public official is going
to be impacted constantly by zealous or selfish individuals or by a mul-
titude of special interest groups which will take much of his time. These
can, through their pushing and hauling, create difficulties of adminis-
tration that are hard for him to handle even though a large number of
these interests is favorable toward his operation. Anyone of us in this
room who has served in the position of a public official knows what I'm
talking about when I discuss this question of the multiple impacts from
the multitude of special interest groups. There is no question that every
special interest group has a right to be heard and has a right to pass
judgment.
However, what is badly needed in every community is some kind of
central citizens planning and housing council or committee, whatever
you want to call it, which is going to be the organization which rep-
resents to the maximum degree possible the interests of each of the
individual groups.
We all recognize that it is impossible for all such groups to combine
happily and for any one organization at any one time to represent all
special interests. There will always be a minority report — there will
always be minority action. However, it would seem to me that from
the standpoint of a smooth running local program and a smooth running
educational and development program which the citizens interests
groups are attempting to promote locally, it would be most wise to try
and establish in every one of our localities one of the central organizations
of the type of which I am speaking. Such organizations are functioning
most satisfactorily in many cities such as Cleveland, Cincinnati,
Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York and many others too numerous
to mention.
Urban renewal means a community building and rebuilding program.
It means physical accomplishments developed along the lines of planned
local objectives for community betterment. Let's underline here the
fact that physical results which are invariably behind the renewal pro-
gram must be planned for well in advance, and must be an accepted
part of the objectives of any locality. A city without objectives is a
city without a future — a city without plans is a city which has no mind
of its own.
More and more of our cities in this country are beginning to under-
stand the purpose behind the general plan for the locality as a whole.
They are beginning to understand that you've got to put your ideas
and objectives down on the map — that the map becomes a principal
document of local community policy and that no one can make up the
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 111
locality's mind except the locality itself. It is the local plans locally
arrived at that are the valid plans for city rebuilding.
This, I think, is quite clear in the message of the President and in
the quotations which I have given you earlier in this paper. I want to
reaffirm that it is impossible and improper to do a plan for any locality
anywhere else but in that locality. Each city has such a wide variety
of its own special problems that even that city itself has difficulty in
understanding, let alone the State or Federal Government. The technical
work which must be done and the determinations which have to be
made on which an urban renewal program is to be based must be local
and of a nature which can be understood by the citizens of the com-
munity in which these plans are being developed.
This means that our neighborhood and city-wide citizens organiza-
tions have a major educational job to do. There are not only the re-
sponsibilities of being eternally vigilant to make sure that the public
official is on the right track and to assist him in his particular difficult
task. It is also important that the citizen understand that he has to get
other citizens to understand what the objectives of the various plans are.
The public official also has the responsibility to educate citizens
groups so that the citizens groups in turn can educate other citizens and
acquaint them with the reasons for public improvement bond issues,
the reasons for various types of programs being promoted, the reasons
for certain responsibilities which have been assigned the public officials
and the reasons for newspaper or other campaigns which are directed
toward the improvement of the municipality.
There are many things which the citizens groups can say which the
public officials themselves cannot because of the nature of their offices
and their political positions. It is here that again the citizen's role is
so important. These are serious responsibilities — they are the respon-
sibilities however of the free cities in a free democracy and without
them we cannot survive.
The American Planning and Civic Association has a fine record in
the promotion of and the development of citizens organizations and in
the education of the people through the benefits of sound local planning.
It can be proud of its record during the past 50 years. However, all of
us recognize that there has been too little emphasis anywhere on the
major problem of rebuilding our cities. Perhaps most of us have shied
away from city renewal because of its complexity and its controversial
nature. However, as there is no longer time to temporize, the city has
to face up to a complex reorganizing to join the all-out attack which
must be made on the prevention and elimination of slums.
We never really could afford to let our cities decay — we are well
aware of the tremendous costs of municipal management where slums
have taken over the good portions of our communities. We have not
only the business but the social objectives which must be met in order
112 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
to provide a decent living place and a sound environment for the growth
of our families and our children.
It is essential that all of us meet these enlarged responsibilities with
speed. I would like to urge that as part of the urban renewal program
which is being sponsored by the Federal, State, and local governments
throughout the country that we have a joint sponsorship from our citi-
zens; that we face frankly the problems that we know exist in our
localities; that we use as our motto that no city is better that its worst
slum. It will have to be a big program but it is a big objective. I hope
that everyone of you here will make it a point to become acquainted
with the President's message, the message of the President's Advisory
Committee, and with the programs and policies of your Federal, State
and local government. It is going to require a constant vigilance on
your part because these developments are moving very rapidly.
As a final recommendation I would like to suggest that when you
return home, you help organize an active citizens renewal campaign.
It is important that every citizen in every locality knows about what
local programs are already under way and knows who is responsible
for them, that he knows about the national organizations which are
already interesting themselves in this campaign for the clearance of
slums and blight.
This is the kind of a program which depends upon the fullest use of
democratic action and democratic policy. This is the kind of program
which needs every citizen actively in it. This is the kind of program
which will affect all of our lives from here on out. None of us can afford
not to be directly concerned, not only from the standpoint of our own
special interest but from the standpoint of our responsibility as citizens
to prove to the world that we can rebuild America.
ERI HULBERT, Executive Director, Near West Side Planning Board and
West Central Association, Chicago, III.
THE Near West Side area of Chicago is !7/io square miles, close to
the Loop. It changed from a suburban area in the 1850's and 60's
to an area of modest homes in the 70's, but by 1890 it was an over-
crowded, rapidly deteriorating area of blight.
As an "original area of blight" innumerable experimentations have
taken place there. The first housing studies in the country (in the early
90's) by the Department of Labor were in this area and were published
in "Hull-House Maps and Papers." From that time until 1930, there
was little thought of rebuilding the area; the solutions to the problems
of the people in it were in terms of their moving to better areas as they
became accustomed to urban life, to the English language, and a higher
living standard made possible by improved economic status.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 113
When, in the early 30's, it began to become apparent that worn-out
neighborhoods must be rebuilt, Mr. Ickes (Public Works Administration)
proposed a vast public housing project to house 6,000 families. Two
major problems reduced this proposal to a single public housing project
of 1,000 units — the Jane Addams Houses. These problems were: (1) only
a small proportion of the families moved out were eligible to be re-
housed; and (2) the acquisition of land on so vast a scale was next to
impossible.
In the 40's this same area was considered for the then current panacea
—the acquisition and clearance of land, and redevelopment by private
enterprise.
The only previous problem solved by the land clearance program was
the acquisition of land. The problem of eligibility of families was no
different and three new problems became apparent: (1) Large-scale
clearance involved the destruction of savable homes. (2) The people
cleared out over-crowded adjacent neighborhoods so that the process
of deterioration progressed faster than it was possible to rebuild. (3)
There was no provision for industry, which is part of the community,
and little provision for the amenities which make a residential com-
munity worthwhile.
In 1948 a group of residents on the Near West Side of Chicago raised
at Hull-House the question "What is to happen to our community?"
The residents, the social agencies, the industry and business people
formed the Near West Side Planning Board as a meeting place to debate
the question, to make some decisions and to rejuvenate the community
with the people and the pursuits in the community.
Policies and decisions made in the 6 years which have intervened
add up to the kind of Urban Renewal Program envisaged in the Housing
Act of 1954. The new community-to-be is based on a combination of
types of treatment — rehabilitation, conservation, and clearance and
rebuilding. It is based on a combination of industry, commerce, business
and housing. It is based on different kinds of housing to meet different
family economic requirements. It is based on interrelated stages of
development. It is based on participation in the planning process by
the people who are a part of the community.
Even if there were no such term in the proposed Housing Act of 1954,
the efforts of the Near West Side Planning Board would, in fact, result
in Urban Renewal.
114 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
The Organized Dispersal of the Urban Population
TRACY B. AUGUR, Director, Urban Targets Division, Office of Defense Mobilization
(Now Assistant Director for Urban Planning Assistance, Division of Slum Clearance,
Housing and Home Finance Agency, Washington, D. C.)
A GOLDEN anniversary is a time for looking backward and a time
for looking forward. What is past is prologue — but to what? What
have we learned in the past half century about the art of city living and
in what ways can we apply our knowledge in the half century ahead?
It was a little more than a half century ago that Ebenezer Howard
published the first edition of his book on the organized dispersal of the
urban population, under the title "To-morrow." If the English-speaking
world, and particularly its North American contingent, had been per-
suaded to adopt the open pattern of metropolitan development that he
advocated, there would be little occasion now for Philip Wylie's grim
and graphic novel of the same title, portraying the to-morrow we hope
will never come, when nuclear weapons are loosed on the cities of an
unprepared America.
The attraction of the great cities was very strong; too strong, in the
minds of many, to do anything about. But Ebenezer Howard won his
place in history and his Knighthood by showing that a pattern of met-
ropolitan organization could be evolved that would satisfy the needs of
city life without sacrificing the virtues of the country or begetting the
evils of the slum. To his eternal credit, he pioneered the pilot projects
that proved his point.
The physical pattern that he proposed substituted organized dis-
persion for the disorganized massing of population in metropolitan areas.
In place of continuous expansion and increasing congestion for the
central cities, he proposed diversion of new growth into physically sep-
arate satellite communities 15 to 30 miles or more from the center, but
all connected with one another and with the central city to provide
a metropolis in the form of an open cluster of moderate-sized communities.
Howard's writings contained a certain foreboding of disaster if the
life and strength of modern nations became over-concentrated in big
cities. He did not foretell the atomic age but he did appreciate, ahead
of his time, what the consequences of city congestion would be in the
normal lives of people and nations. And now, a half century later, we
are seeing the beginnings of a dispersal movement aimed belatedly at
overcoming or escaping those consequences.
DISPERSAL HERE TO STAY
This movement, small as its beginnings may be, is here to stay. It
is here to stay for three very good and solid reasons: (1) It satisfies the
growing desire of city people for more spacious living, a desire which
modern technology makes attainable; (2) It offers a necessary escape
from the stifling effects on business and industry of uncontrolled con-
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 115
gestion in large cities; (3) It offers the best hope for national survival in
a world where hostile powers are armed with weapons of mass destruction.
At this point in history the last reason is by all odds the most com-
pelling of the three and it is high time that we faced up to it. In the spring
of 1945, long before most of us had heard of the atom bomb, one of its
developers, Dr. Leo Szilard, wrote a memorandum to the President
noting the danger that came with it. He pointed out: "The weakness
in the position of the United States is in the very high concentration of
its manufacturing capacity and population in cities. This concentration
is so profound that the destruction of the cities may easily mean the
end of our ability to resist."
The weakness to which he referred is brought out in the figures of
the 1950 Census that show two-fifths of the country's entire population
and over half of all those employed in manufacturing concentrated in
the forty largest metropolitan areas. Half of them — a fifth of the Na-
tion's people and over a quarter of those employed in manufacturing —
live in the top five.
The situation has not improved in the nine years since Dr. Szilard
wrote. In fact, it has grown steadily worse as added population, to the
tune of about a million and a half a year, has poured into the Nation's
major cities. The "trend to the suburbs," important as it is, has done
little as yet to ameliorate the situation. The bulk of the population of
the major metropolitan areas continues to live and work within the areas
likely to suffer destruction or heavy damage if their cities are attacked.
What, if anything, can be accomplished by dispersal to make the
urban structure of the United States less vulnerable to the effects of
weapons that measure their lethal radius in miles?
FEWER EGGS TO THE BASKET
Don Quixote suggests one answer — distribute our eggs among a
greater number of baskets. If an enemy ever launches a mass attack on
American cities, his purpose will be not to destroy the cities, per se, but
to destroy the Nation that draws its strength from them. Unless he
believes that he can destroy a decisive percentage of that strength with
the weapons he is able to allot to the job, he is unlikely to attack at all.
If what he considers a decisive percentage is concentrated in a few
score big cities he might conclude that a reasonable number of weapons
successfully delivered through our defenses would accomplish his pur-
pose. He might be willing to accept heavy losses and risk heavy re-
taliation in view of the high reward that would accompany success.
On the other hand, if the percentage of our strength in the big cities
was not big enough to prove decisive and the bulk of it was, instead,
well dispersed among hundreds or thousands of widely separated smaller
places, the cost of a decisive blow would be prohibitive in terms of the
necessary effort and the losses and risks involved.
116 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Dispersal, therefore, is one of the most effective measures that can
be taken to avert the threat of attack. It permits dilution of the target
to the point where attacks are no longer profitable. It reduces the value
of an enemy's potential for mass destruction by depriving him of the
kinds of target needed to make it effective.
Probably the simplest and most expeditious way to employ dis-
persion to meet the defense needs of the country is through a wider
distribution of the Nation's strength among the smaller cities and towns
already established across the length and breadth of the Continent.
Thousands of these communities are in locations safely removed from
major target concentrations and are in position to absorb additional
population and industry without becoming targets themselves.
To a large extent, they already have basic facilities and service
that can be expanded. They have local governments, utilities, churches,
banks, retail shops, and the rest. And they can be found in all parts of
the country, from New England to Southern California. Their use does
not call for any shift of industry or population from North to South or
East to West. It merely implies a shift in emphasis from big to little,
from congestion to dispersion.
The advantages of these small cities from the standpoint of the
Nation's vulnerability are many. They are individually too small to
make profitable targets for transoceanic bombing missions. They can
be found in locations safely removed from the potential damage zones
of more important targets. They are so widely scattered over the Con-
tinental United States that it would be hard to find and hit a sufficient
number of them to make critical inroads on our strength.
Finally, most of them are relatively independent of facilities and
services that might be disrupted by attacks on metropolitan centers.
They are apt to have independent water supplies, independent sources
of food, independent sources of fuel — in short — to have a better-than-
average chance of staying in business if the Nation is subjected to heavy
attack.
DISPERSION DOES NOT MEAN DISORGANIZATION
While it is obvious that a city containing a small share of the Nation's
productive capacity and population makes a less attractive target than
one containing a large share, there may be a question whether the
division of the Nation's strength into many small units might not have
a seriously adverse effect, both initially and over the long pull, on the
operating efficiency of the country's urban structure as a whole.
The answer to that question rests on two considerations: (1) the
way in which the transition is carried out, and, (2) the way in which
the economic activities of the smaller cities are organized, both within
each community and among the group.
If it were a matter of tearing apart the great metropolitan centers
of today and scattering elements of their population and industry to
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 117
outlying communities, the effect might well be disastrous. But such
drastic action is neither practicable nor necessary. Substantial dis-
persion, and probably all that the Nation could undertake in any case,
can be achieved by directing new urban growth into the smaller cities,
without disturbing the productive capacity of the larger ones.
The United States is now growing at a phenomenal rate. Census
estimates place the increase in the current decade at around 25 million
people. On the basis of past trends, 80 percent of them, or 20 million,
will be added to the Nation's standard metropolitan areas and nearly
14 million will settle in the 40 largest ones. Most of the net addition in
population will be located within the potential damage zones of these
areas, despite the growing trend toward the outer suburbs.
If the big cities are to avoid becoming even more attractive targets
than they are now, if they are to avoid getting bigger and becoming
custodians of ever larger percentages of the Nation's strength, population
and facilities in the above magnitudes must be diverted to smaller places.
Assuming that the transition from concentration to dispersion can
be made through the diversion of new growth and without loss to the
productive capacity of the big cities, the question remains whether the
continuing increases in the Nation's over-all capacity can be picked up
in an orderly way by the smaller cities and non-urban areas.
There are slightly more than 4,000 small cities in the United States,
defined for this purpose as urban places of more than 2,500 but less than
50,000 population. Some of them lie so close to the central cities of
metropolitan areas that they partake of their target characteristics.
Some are already approaching the 50,000 mark in population. Others
may be ineligible for consideration for other reasons, but it seems fair
to assume that about 3,000 of them would be acceptable reception points
for industry and population.
If just the fourteen million growth expected in the forty largest
metropolitan areas during the current decade were dispersed among
those three thousand communities it would mean an average addition
to each one of 4,700 people, over and above any growth they might
otherwise experience in their own right. It would mean approximately
one citizen added by 1960 for each two in the community in 1950.
Shifts in population growth from big to little cities must be accom-
panied by shifts of equivalent scope in the building of the urban facilities
they use. An average increase of more than 50 percent in the populations
of the Nation's smaller cities would mean a roughly equivalent increase
in houses, streets, factories, and other elements of city structure.
That is a substantial load to place on the smaller cities. In practice,
it would not fall evenly on all nor would all be equally able to assume
their share, but across the board it presents a major problem in organiza-
tion to take care of that much expansion and to create efficient urban
centers at the same time.
118 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Yet it is doubtful if there is a Letter way to accomplish the dispersal
of the increments in U. S. population which otherwise would increase
the size and vulnerability of the bigger cities and hence of the Nation
at large. Assuming that dispersal on at least that scale is in the public
interest, the most expeditious and orderly way to accomplish it appears
to be through the upbuilding of the cities that already contain a nucleus
of essential facilities and services.
The problem of organization then becomes the familiar one of assur-
ing a quality of community development and government that will
permit the efficient and economical operation of productive enterprises,
and, in the case of some of the larger industrial operations, the related
problem of organizing groups of communities in support of a common
undertaking.
It cannot be said that problems of this kind have been solved satis-
factorily in all of the smaller industrial cities, but past experience shows
that they do not present insuperable obstacles. All in all, the smaller
American cities probably have a better continuous record of efficient
and economical administration than the larger ones.
DISPERSION AND THE METROPOLIS
One of the questions always raised in discussions of dispersion for
defense is the fate of the modern metropolis. Are great cities like New
York, Chicago or San Francisco to be broken up into small pieces and
scattered over the surrounding countryside? Or are they to be regarded
as expendable, in the sense that the Nation will be organized to get
along without them if the need arises?
The sheer magnitude of the problem breeds despair and leads many
to discard the whole idea of dispersion as impracticable. Yet the stark
fact remains that the modern metropolis can be put completely out of
action by a relatively small number of mass-destruction weapons and
that a nation highly dependent on a few score big cities can thus be
rendered helpless overnight. The problem is not one that can be brushed
aside.
Part of the solution to that problem has been mentioned earlier;
namely, the diversion of new growth away from the major metropolitan
centers so that their relative importance in the national economy be-
comes progressively less. For example, taking population as a rough
index of national strength, the forty largest metropolitan centers could
by 1960 be brought down to 34 percent of the national total in place of
the 42 percent they will otherwise represent, simply by keeping them at
their present size. They and the Nation will be less vulnerable if 34
percent of the total strength is so concentrated than if the figure is
42 percent.
If that process is carried far enough and if the economic life of the
Nation outside of metropolitan centers is so organized that it can go on,
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 119
if necessary, without them, the great cities then become much less at-
tractive as targets. Their destruction is no longer a sure course to the
destruction of the Nation and, hence, is unlikely to be attempted.
On the other hand, if the Nation is to continue to enjoy the special
services that big cities perform, services that are essential to both its
material and cultural well-being, an urban structure for the performance
of those services must be devised that is less vulnerable than the mono-
lithic metropolis of today. Even if the current defense program is suc-
cessful in averting war — as is devoutly to be hoped — the contemporary-
style metropolis will continue to be in jeopardy as long as nuclear
weapons remain under the control of hostile nations.
There are two general ways of going about the evolution of less
vulnerable metropolitan forms, both aimed at achieving an open-type,
low-density urban structure that does not offer rewarding targets. One
is to "loosen-up" existing monolithic cities by appropriate direction of
suburban development and in-town re-development. The other is to
lace together clusters of separate small cities so that, as a group, they
can perform the essential functions of the metropolis without being
joined in a single physical mass.
The first is the approach that Ebenezer Howard proposed for the
reformation of London more than a half century ago. Although some
of his methodology appears a bit fantastic to the modern reader, his
essential theme was sound; first, that continued growth of the city be
stopped by channeling the usual increases into surrounding satellite
towns; and, second, that, as the older parts of London were rebuilt, a
great degree of openness should be introduced in place of the old con-
gestion.
Howard and his followers were spurred by the zeal of social reform
and, while they made their mark on London, the structure of the city
was not noticeably affected. The blitz of World War II showed the wisdom
of their teachings and led to adoption of the post-war new towns pro-
gram. Perhaps if the H-bomb had looked in earlier, the effect on Lon-
don's growth would have been greater.
But even with that shadow beside us now, we cannot expect sudden
changes in the form of our existing big cities. The inertia in great mass
is too strong; the processes of change too complex. Barring war, the
big cities of the United States will be with us, pretty much in their
present form, for some time to come.
Yet because of their attractiveness as targets and their vulnera-
bility, they cannot be counted on for continued service if war comes.
Not until the preponderance of the Nation's strength has been shifted
from a condition of concentration to one of dispersion, not until the
Nation is capable of getting along without its concentrated cities if it
has to, can they feel a reasonable degree of safety from attack.
120 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
The alternate method of creating an open-type metropolis is to start
with urban units that are individually small and interlace them with
transportation and communications facilities that enable them to func-
tion as a group. Ten cities of 50,000 or a dozen or more of assorted sizes,
could make a metropolitan cluster of half a million.
Studies made by William Wheaton, Coleman Woodbury, and others
from Project East River indicate that a metropolis of up to two million
people could function efficiently as a cluster of communities located as
much as 15 miles apart, center to center. However, a reappraisal of the
functions of the metropolis might well disclose that the essential functions
could be performed in a city of a much lower total population. Many
activities that now occupy space in metropolitan centers are there by
accident rather than necessity and they and the city might both be
better off if they were elsewhere.
The cluster-type metropolis could take many forms; a more or less
circular grouping; an elongated band; a group with one dominant center
or with several centers serving different functions. The essential features
of its organization, from the physical standpoint, are that the individual
urban units be kept small enough to make unattractive targets, that they
be kept far enough apart to avoid being lumped together for target
purposes and that the interconnecting communications be efficient
enough for the group to operate as a whole in those instances in which
such action is needed; for example, supplying labor for large plants,
supporting high-grade medical facilities, enjoying first-line cultural
attractions, and the like. The social, economic, and political difficulties
of creating such groupings from existing communities are probably no
less than those likely to be encountered in attempting to loosen up the
structure of a presently concentrated metropolis. The principal ad-
vantage in the group method is that an adequate degree of dispersion
is achieved at the outset; in the other method it is achieved only toward
the end of the process and perhaps too late.
Whatever the method, it seems important that any program for the
organized dispersal of the urban population recognize the essentiality
of the big and moderate-sized city in American life. It is well, in the
atomic age, to be a Nation of small cities, but there are many urban
services that no small city can perform by itself. For those services a
mobilization of the strength of several is necessary. In the past that
has been accomplished by expanding small cities into big cities. In the
future, it will be more sensible to accomplish it by combining forces
without physical amalgamation of the communities involved.
DISPERSION BY DIFFUSION
One of the points made in the reports of Project East River is that
the vulnerability of cities can be reduced by lowering the density of
development and of population. Fewer things or fewer people within
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 121
the lethal range of a given weapon make a less profitable target. At
some point, the target becomes so thin that the effort to destroy it is
no longer justified. Safety is found in lack of numbers.
To the dismay of city planners, the requisite diffusion of people
and facilities is apt to be best exemplified in the most disorganized of
urban areas, the fringe or sprawl beyond the rim of the developed urban
center. There a straggling urbanization, mixed with remnants of farm
and forest, produces an over-all density of human settlement too low
to be worth a bombardier's attention* It might be concluded that therein
lay the solution of the dispersal problem, that if the Nation's big cities
sprawled more and concentrated less, all would be well; or, to put it in
more technical terms, if the outer suburbs were held to very low densities
and if the central sections were redeveloped with lower densities there
would be insufficient concentration of activity to justify attack.
That conclusion is not unwarranted. But it is at least questionable
whether, with the very low over-all densities involved, the territory
could be organized for the most efficient and economical performance of
urban functions. It is true that many residential suburbs get along nicely
with very low-density development, depending on private automobiles
for transportation, but they are tributary to more compact urban areas
which serve the people and the activities that could not operate on such
a low-density basis. It is extremely doubtful that a city of a quarter or
half million, all spread out on that basis, could afford the attenuated
street and utility systems, the costly public transportation, the high
delivery charges and all the other costs and difficulties involved in ex-
tending urban services to a scattered clientele.
At any rate, before diffusion outward from the city borders is ac-
cepted as a substitute for dispersion into separate communities, the
economy, efficiency and social desirability of the result would be care-
fully examined. The purpose of disperion is not simply to escape danger-
ous concentration; it is also to create a workable urban organization
that can continue to serve the Nation efficiently and economically.
NEW TOWNS
The emphasis in this discussion of organic dispersal thus far has
been on the use of existing communities, principally as a means of ex-
pediting action. If an industrialist or business entrepeneur is suddenly
moved to disperse is enterprises, the existing cities offer him a place to
go. A large industrial operation can locate in the middle of nowhere —
provided nowhere is not so extensive as to discourage commuting from
somewhere — but few other enterprises can.
The use of existing communities, however, has obvious drawbacks.
They may not be the most appropriate locations for a good dispersal
pattern — an efficient cluster of cities cannot be formed if some of its
components are lacking or in the wrong places. Existing communities,
122 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
moreover, are apt to have ideas of their own on how they want to de-
velop and those ideas may not include industrial expansion or growth
of any kind. Or, in another vein, their ideas of municipal services may
in some cases be so antiquated as to promote immediate conflict between
old and new residents.
Completely new communities have advantages that offset these
drawbacks, but they have their drawbacks too. The assembly of land,
the development of utilities, the settlement of fiscal and governmental
problems all present difficulties even before the construction of buildings
begins. If a new town is to be a private operation it requires strong —
and patient — financial backing. If it is to be a public or public-assisted
operation, new political attitudes and new legislation may be needed to
make it possible.
On the positive side, it may be noted that the Nation's growth re-
quires vast building of all kinds of urban facilities. The twenty million
additional urban residents expected during the present decade will need
— and will get — five or six million new dwellings, thousands of miles of
new streets and water lines and sewers, hundreds of schools, churches,
stores, factories, and all the other components of urban structure re-
quired for their accommodation. These facilities will be built somewhere;
they might as well be brought together in well-planned new cities.
There is, of course, room for both new and old cities in any well-
conceived dispersal effort. There need be no quarrel as to which course
is better, adding to the small cities that we have or starting new, be-
cause both courses will be needed.
THE LINEAL CITY
There are other arrangements of urban structure that meet the basic
dispersal requirement of low over-all density — insufficient population
or material — within the destructive range of any weapon to justify its
use. There is not time to discuss them here. But one of them merits
brief mention. It is the lineal city, a relatively narrow band of urban
development along a main stem of transportation facilities and utilities.
The idea is not new but it has special applicability to the current
problem of defense. A narrow line of city, particularly if it is not a
straight line, makes a more difficult target than a large globular city.
Furthermore, it is an unprofitable target for modern weapons in the
sense that much of their energy is wasted on territory to either side of
the urban band.
The disadvantage of the lineal form comes in the matter of organi-
zation for community life. If a city is too attenuated, it becomes difficult
for people at the extremities to reach any center serving the community
as a whole and their loyalties and interests are apt to be divided. Never-
theless, the lineal city can be a useful form for organized dispersion if
there is sufficient control over development to preserve the efficiency of
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 123
the "main stem" transportation artery and the feeling of community
among its citizens. Uncontrolled, the lineal city can become nothing
more than ribbon development along a highway.
It may be contended that the foregoing discussion of ideal city
forms and the cavalier reversal of long-term population trends, with
only scant mention of the attendant problems, is too much on the ivory-
tower side to be of practical use in the current emergency. Perhaps so.
But the current emergency is itself a product of some ivory-towered
thinking a few years back by a handful of physicists who imagined, of
all things, that they could split the nucleus of the atom and release its
untold energy for human use.
The technical, organizational and financial problems involved in
their endeavor were fabulous beyond belief. But they were solved be-
cause Great Britain and the United States decided that their solution
was essential to the survival of the free world. Many of the methods
employed doubtless were considered impractical and visionary, but
they produced the desired results.
The problems involved in accomplishing well-organized dispersal of
new city growth are big and complex, but they are far from insoluble.
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, and Americans are
notable for their inventiveness. Necessity, in the present instance, is a
rather grim parent, stick in hand. Her admonition is "Get on with the
inventing, there's no time to lose."
But back of here is a door marked "Opportunity," and beyond, a
well-stocked table. There are rewards in store for those who solve the
problems well. Dispersion, in addition to its direct contribution to
national defense, also offers solutions to many other vexacious problems
of urban living. It holds promise of better as well as safer living in the
atomic age.
Vital Importance of Mass Transportation
tion,
COLONEL HARLEY L. SWIFT, President and General Manager,
Harrisburg Railways Company, and Past President of American Transit Associa
Harrisburg, Pa.
IN THE turbulent, roistering growth of city life in America we have
remembered to preserve space for parks and playgrounds; we have
remembered to leave a few trees at the curbs of our large cities and to
retain some beauty in the midst of our skyscraper developments. One
of the dedicated guardians of the preservation of these civic virtues is
the American Planning and Civic Association, to which I have the
great privilege of speaking today.
Let us consider for a moment the foundation of a city — the thing
that creates the need for skyscrapers, office buildings, department stores,
124 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
churches, businesses of all kinds, and the desire for beautification. This
foundation is the multitude of people who go to make up a city. Today
people are so harassed by traffic congestion that I doubt that more than
one in ten ever enjoys the few pastoral or horticultural scenes left to
them, in the form of parks, in the vast vertical growth of concrete and
steel.
We have created magnificent buildings; we have preserved beautiful
parks for relaxation and developed playgrounds for recreation — and at
the same time we have created havoc on our city streets. Too many
people are trying to get down town at the same time in the morning
and these same people try to rush home again in the same hour each
evening.
In the monumental effort that has gone into the planning of our
American Way of Life, one thing has been forgotten. That is travel
convenience for the millions who work, shop, make professional calls,
and seek recreation in the central areas of downtown America.
What good is the wonderful work that this group has performed in
preserving parks, playgrounds, and other open areas where city dwellers
may seek relaxation if daily travel frustrations creep into our sensibilities
and blunt the beauty of civic planning?
A man driving home from work or a woman returning from a shopping
expedition in most of our large cities is probably better prepared for
treatment by a psychiatrist than to enjoy the charm of Mother Nature,
if he or she has been subjected to tooting horns, sirens, and unnerving
traffic tie-ups during an important part of his or her travel time.
So, I suggest to you that we park our parks in the background for a
while and turn our attention to the most serious challenge that the cities
of America face today. This challenge is traffic indigestion, caused by
the over-use of private automobiles down town and recalcitrance on
the part of civic groups, city fathers, and the business and industrial
interests of the community to take any realistic action toward the so-
lution of traffic trauma. The life blood of any city is public transportation.
During the lifetime of most of those present at this meeting, the
automobile age has swept in on us like a wild prairie fire. Today we have
too many automobiles and too little space on city streets.
Americans, generally, are fairly considerate of their fellowman, but
very few of us seem to realize how inconsiderate we are when we drive
our private cars — more frequently than not with ourselves as the only
passenger — into a congested area and take up 80 square feet of street
space for the transportation and movement of just one person.
One bus, capable of carrying 50 to 60 passengers quite comfortably
through the limited street space of any city, takes up the space of ap-
proximately three private automobiles, which national passenger count
averages indicate carry only five persons, or 1.7 persons per car.
A simple analysis of what causes traffic indigestion can be seen in
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 125
the fact that 72 private automobiles, completely filling the four lanes of
the average city block, carry only the equivalent of two bus loads of
passengers — yet two buses take up the street space of only six auto-
mobiles.
When you consider efficient use of street space, you must consider
ways and means of inducing people, either by law or by education (pre-
ferably the latter), to make greater use of public transportation. The
consideration of mass transportation vehicles as the only really efficient
users of street space becomes less idealistic and more practical when you
stop to think that approximately 62 per cent of all those going to and
from work in the downtown area now rely upon public transportation
vehicles.
History shows that the forte of business success in America has been
the recognition of mass or line production as the basis of low cost and
efficiency. For some reason or other in handling or solving the traffic
problem of American cities, businessmen turn from these basic principles
and refuse to use mass production of rides (mass transportation).
If we give consideration to all the facts concerning the movement of
people and goods — the primary reason for streets — we would observe
"The Vital Importance of Mass Transportation".
After years of experience in the transportation field, I believe that
I am talking common sense, but I also recognize that I am vulnerable
to the accusation of representing a self-seeking group — the transit
industry. Let me say in answer to that, that the problem of traffic
indigestion and the desirability of developing more efficient use of street
space, to preserve or improve the central city, have become of increas-
ingly great concern to great retailing organizations, the bankers, the
real estate operators, city planners, civic groups, city administrative
officers, and to others, particularly since 1947.
Your own official publication, Planning and Civic Comment for
March 1953, had a most significant short article entitled "Stop, Look,
and Listen," which touches upon the development of super highways
and expressways, stating —
The automobile has given the opportunity to millions of Americans to enjoy
pleasantly charming parkways winding their way through wooded valleys and
pleasant roadsides. Misused, it may prove an effective instrument to destroy
or damage these amenities which we have fostered so patiently for many years.
With traffic congestion attacking our cities and metropolitan areas like a
pestilence, highway officials seek for relief and look with longing eyes on the
open spaces provided by past generations for parks and parkways which they
would like to convert into high speed arteries for mixed passenger and freight
automobile traffic.
In many cities we are plagued by the pressure to transform winding drives
along picturesque streams into radial routes for high speed arterial trunkways.
There is no justification for commandeering our parkways and turning them
into traffic freeways which, in all fairness should stand upon their own economic
feet.
126 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
We should recognize that there is a definite limit to the volume of traffic
which can be accommodated in our downtown districts, and it might well be
that when we have lost our parks and parkways we shall find that we still have
an intolerable situation — in fact that we have no solution at all. What we need
is better comprehensive planning for all elements in the city plan rather than a
blind effort to pour traffic through parks and parkways into the already con-
gested downtown district.
We are opposed to the invasion of parks and parkways by high speed high-
ways and underground garages because of the incalculable damage to park
values. Many of these schemes are unsound as planning and traffic measures.
I thoroughly agree with the admonition contained at the end of
this article. We should "Stop, Look and Listen." Several cities have
gone bog-wild on building expressways. Los Angeles has spent $10,000,000
a mile to construct an overhead expressway for automobiles. Other
cities are spending gigantic sums of money. The end result is quicker
access to, with more and more traffic congestion in the center of the
town. None of the downtown district street layouts of American cities
is elastic enough to carry off the increased influx of private cars invited
into the business area by expressways. After building monumental and
costly structures, the city fathers have found that the end result is
comparable to attempting to pour a quart of milk into a pint bottle.
It simply cannot be done.
I am startled at the waste of productive land found in both city and
county, in connection with super highways. Los Angeles appalls me.
Downtown Pittsburgh reminds me of nothing so much as London cleaned
up after air raids. My own small city is ruthlessly tearing down not only
usable but used and useful buildings to build a through way; good rich
black Lancaster County farm land, acres of it, now unproductive in
so-called clover leafs ; whole city blocks, in many cities, wasted the same
way with not even a small effort to salvage the portions not used for
roadway. Truly we are a prodigal Nation.
I like New York City's approach to the downtown traffic problem.
In New York they have built their through ways along the perimeter
or edge, rather than through and to the heart of the business district.
New York City intends to preserve and improve the central business
area. That it is succeeding in both is indicated by the fact that over
15 million dollars of new building construction is under way on Man-
hattan Island, with more planned. Seattle is another city in which the
throughway skirts the business area.
In New York and Seattle, in Cleveland, and now in Chicago, the
emphasis is being placed on greater use of public transportation in the
solution of the downtown traffic problem. San Francisco indicates a
trend in that direction. Strangely, the mass transportation facilities
in these cities are publicly owned — owned by the very people (the
taxpayers) demanding throughways and parking areas. With the same
cooperative understanding, the same effect can be had in cities with
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 127
privately owned mass transportation; without it, the time may come
when these cities will have to make the same investment to have mass
transportation as a tool.
Again quoting from your own magazine :
Looking back fifty years, we can measure how far we have come. Modern
city planning and automobiles were unexplored possibilities at the turn of the
century. Zoning was not invented until the end of the second decade. Public
housing and urban redevelopment, which had made a timid entrance in the
third and fourth decades, are now emerging into dynamic forces.
As we look forward to the next fifty years and the 21st Century we must
set new goals for providing adequate environment to suit the needs of our
people. We have changed from a predominantly rural population to an urban
one. Sprawling metropolitan regions (which, like Topsy, just growed) fail to
offer us the living conditions which we demand. There seems to be no good
reason why those who live in cities should suffer from traffic congestion, noisy
and ill-adjusted home neighborhoods, and outmoded business districts which
have resulted from lack of planning, when we can make our cities what we want
them to be if we set ourselves to the task.
These acute observations lead me to believe that you are as eager to
make some progress on the traffic indigestion problem as we of the tran-
sit industry.
Hobart C. Brady, a noted Public Relations Consultant, said in 1950:
The greatest factor involved in mass transportation is the failure of both
public officials and the management of transit companies to fully recognize that:
whereas a mass transportation company is a public utility, it is not a monopoly.
It is not a monopoly because it is competing with the modern automobile, which
is growing in use and improving in design and comfort all the time. The failure
to recognize this intensive competition affects every public transportation
company.
In fact, this oversight has become a political tradition. This tradition is
driving mass transportation systems into states of obsolescence and disrepair
by reason of deferred maintenance and deferred service modernization. Cheap
transit fare is the sacred cow of politics.
When this (the intensely competitive nature of transportation service) is
fully realized, public officials and transit management will be able to do the
things that are essential to enable transit companies to render the quality of
service that is essential to the preservation of central business districts.
The transit company has as much invested in the city as the depart-
ment store. Like a department store, or any merchant or business, the
source of its revenue is people — more people.
Statistics repeatedly show that very few cars parked on the streets
produce any revenue for the merchant. Mr. Kenneth C. Richmond,
Vice- President of the Abraham & Straus Department Store and Chair-
man of the Transit Committee of the New York Retail Dry Goods
Association, speaking in a traffic forum in New York City two weeks
ago said: "If the customers cannot get to the stores, the stores will
have to go to the customers." "Streets exist for the sole business of
getting people and goods where they want to go."
128 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
When a city is faced with an epidemic — infantile paralysis, for
example — we rally as a unit and do something about it, even if it means
curtailing the personal privileges or freedom of some citizens. Today
the epidemic is traffic paralysis, as fatal and crippling to the city as
infantile paralysis is to human beings.
The cure is concentrated doses of mass transportation, plus effective
quarantine and restriction on the use of streets — exactly as the use of
gamma globulin is enforced, areas quarantined, and use of water re-
stricted in the case of an infantile paralysis epidemic.
Statistics and checks from many cities establish that from 50 to 70
percent of all the people who shop in downtown stores, come via public
transportation. Cordon counts have demonstrated that, depending on
the size of the city, from 60 to 80 percent of the office and store per-
sonnel depend on mass transportation to get to and from work.
Crab grass in a lawn stays green for a while, then it takes over, and
chokes out the real permanent, every day, all-year green grass — one
or two crab grass plants to the square foot killing off thousands of blades
of useful grass. Dare I draw a parallel between the automobiles and the
people on the street downtown? Stop and count some day — over 50
percent of the automobiles that move in and out of the business area
have only one person, the driver, in them; the remainder will average
about 1.7 persons per car.
Customers are people on the streets, not vehicles. Mass transporta-
tion is the treatment that brings the most people to the merchant. It
is a cheaper, more effective, more flexible cure for traffic indigestion
and automobilitis than any street widening or off-street parking cure
yet perfected.
Yes, good public transportation is vital to the welfare, growth, and
prosperity of American cities.
Should Parks be Sacrificed?
TOM WALLACE, Editor Emeritus, Louisville Times, Louisville, Ky.
I WANT to say that I think that Columbus is the scene of very fine
culture. I base that upon Jerome K. Jerome's statement, "When I
say reasonable men, I mean men who agree with me/' About twenty-
nine years ago I set out on a project in Kentucky and no one in Ken-
tucky agreed with me. That was the effort to save Cumberland Falls.
And when I was being laughed at in the clubs and the hotels, and on
the streets in Louisville my first consolation was editorials from Colum-
bus papers and from both the Columbus papers, reflecting the fact that
people from Columbus had long been going down to see this place and
enjoying it when Kentuckians did not know where it was. I am very
glad to thank Columbus for the help that was given me at that time
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 129
which was invaluable and say that the fight came out all right because
Columbus partly started it.
Now, I want to tell you a little tragedy in my own family, instead
of being reminded of the little story. This is not a merry thing. Some
time ago I went to build a room on to a guest house in my back yard,
because my son had gotten married over in Europe and was coming
home. We wanted to put an extra room on this place; so I looked around
(it was an ancient building) and I found where an old building was
being torn down. I wanted to get some well weathered rock to match
the antiquity of the original building and the antiquity of what I was
going to hitch on to the original building. I went over to Farm Creek,
a stream that flows near my farm, and bought the piers of an old water
gap that had been built in the late 18th century. I hauled all that rock
home. Then I went down to South America and when I came back, the
carpenter, instead of using all the rock to build a foundation up to
where it should have been, had brought the lumber down a foot and a
half to two feet lower than it ought to have been. I was horrified,
and I said, "What did you do that for?" He said, "Well it is cheaper to
use lumber than it is to use rock." Well, I said, "There is the rock and
here is the lumber and I paid for them both and I hired you, what are
you driving at?" When he saw how disappointed I was, he said, "Oh,
don't bother about that, I can paint that so you couldn't tell whether
it was rock or not."
Now that does not seem apropos of anything, but I want to get back
to it as being apropos of things that are happening now to parks and
to things that menace parks. I mean the menace of people who simply
do not understand any more than that poor carpenter and painter
understood. People who have no more taste than that are one of the
greatest menaces to the cause in which all of us are interested. To begin
with, there is an effort at present to break in all along the line on every
type of reservation which was occasioned by a natural scene or created
to preserve a natural scene.
Rock Creek Park in Washington, which is a national park by the
way, is threatened with a six-lane expressway which would dump freight
and passenger vehicles into the middle of Washington into a bottle neck.
It would be a misfortune physically if it were built, and it would destroy
one of the greatest parks in the world. There is no other municipal park
(this is a municipal park in use) I think in the world that is an equal or
surpasses Rock Creek Park. Yet you will find people who are straight
forward, who have no kind of wrong thinking in their mind who cannot
see why a six channel expressway would not be all right in Rock
Creek Park. Well, now I am getting back to this fellow who wanted to
paint rock work on the bottom of the house. There are that kind of
people, and there are plenty of them and they are people who in their
ordinary functioning are quite intelligent.
130 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
I went to the editor of one of the Washington papers and I talked
to him about it and he could see no reason on earth why an expressway
through Rock Creek Park would not be an improvement. He thought
it would be grand. I told him about Roosevelt Island. It is dedicated
to Theodore Roosevelt. It was intended to be forever just like it is,
a wooded island in the Potomac River with no improvements. They want
to put a highway bridge across there with a pier at each end. My friend,
the newspaper editor, who has a degree or two from Yale and possibly
from foreign universities, just could not see any reason why that would
not improve the situation. He could not see how it would hurt anything.
The birds could still fly, the animals could still live in the woods, the
people could still walk in the woods, so what could it hurt? It is very
hard to argue with such people. The only thing you can do is to bludgeon
them.
Now, I am going to tell you why I feel that you can deal with that
by mass action as you could not by any other means. I will give you a
few examples. We had a raid on Cherokee Park in Louisville. When the
argument about Cherokee Park (putting an expressway through the
Park) came up, the owner of my papers was in Asia in the war. The
man in charge said in an editorial conference quite frankly, "I just don't
think that there is anything in this question that is worth our attention."
I had been left alone, and in a little while I had found enough people
who invited me to talk to them to get things cleared up. Then we got
the Louisville Chamber of Commerce into a joint debate. They secured
a man to have a joint debate with me on this question. He was a very
fine man, a very able speaker, a former member of the faculty of Louis-
ville College, a very alert talker, but he did not have any argument. In
a little while he gave up this joint debate business. By that time we
had gotten up a lot of publicity. AH of this publicity was in the papers,
although the papers were not taking any part in it, they gave the news.
In a little while the project was temporarily at least dead. We had
destroyed that effort to invade that park. So that just shows you how
quickly and easily those things may be done.
Such fights have been made many times with regard to Central
Park in New York City. It has been said that if all of the extraneous
projects that have been proposed with seemingly sound argument
behind them, for encroachment in Central Park had gone into that
park, it would now be layers deep with enterprises from the outside.
Now New York City needs that park so much and overuses it to such
an extent, that there is an erosion problem on the meadow lands part
of the park, a very serious problem. That just reflects how much it is
needed. New York ought to have several times that much park land.
Yet it would all have been used for other purposes, three times over,
if these people who could profit in some way or another by getting there
had been able to get in.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 131
Now we have another example of waking up the man in the street,
the Jefferson County forest. Some time ago a company there discovered
that there was some shale in part of that forest that could be strip mined
and he offered $1,300 a month for the privilege of stripping 188 acres
of the 2,000 acre forest (and the whole 2,000 acre forest had not cost
but $1,500 or something like that). Now immediately the court fell
for that and made a contract that would let these strippers in. Much
to my surprise the community forest commissioners all agreed with the
Federal Court. When I found out about it and started some more
agitation, we got it into court, and the Court of Appeals decided that
no other use of that land was legal under the condition in which it
became a park.
One more example, they started to put an atomic bomb plant about
8 or 10 miles east of Louisville in the best residential part of Jefferson
County. I think the gentlemen in Washington who were going to run
this plant thought they would go to the Kentucky Derby and would
like living there. It would ruin the east end of the county. Just a hand-
ful of people had objected to that and again the newspapers took no
recognition of it. They ran no editorials at all. But a handful of people
went up there and raised enough sand to send that plant over to un-
fortunate Ohio. I hope you enjoy it. That is the way those things work.
Make a noise! Get people to know that you can protect your parks.
There is not one of them anywhere in the United States that is not in
the trek of some sort of development for which an argument (that sounds
all right to a great many people) can be made. Where there is a highway
coming through, or when there is an industry or what not — it is easy
to make an argument that will convince a good many people.
Now conservationists can take some refuge, some consolation in the
statement of the great Norwegian dramatist, Ibsen, that the majority
is always wrong. That is true about conservation. It is always a minority
that wants the right thing to be done. If the minority will make enough
fuss, fight enough, squall often enough and loud enough, it can get
somewhere!
Expressways and the Central Business District
DAVID R. LEVIN, Chief, Land Studies Section, Financial and Administrative
Research Branch, Bureau of Public Roads, Washington, D. C.
INTRODUCTION
IT IS A privilege I shall long cherish to participate in this Citizens
Planning Conference on the occasion of its Golden Anniversary. I
salute you for a half century of staunchly urging a planned approach
to urban improvement; of vigorously insisting upon citizen participation
in the urban planning process; of assisting in the conservation of our
132 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
natural resources, and in the preservation of our scenic beauties and our
public parks and historic shrines; and of generally fostering the public
interest in many diverse fields.
It is wholly consistent with your past traditions to examine into and
champion any new development or device that offers promise of better-
ment in the urban way of life. This very session on the expressway and
the city attests to your eagerness to assist the solution of urban trans-
portation difficulties.
In the past, adequate solutions to the urban transportation problem
seem to have been unacceptable; acceptable solutions tended to be
inadequate. Why this should have been so is not easy to answer. Perhaps
because the interplay of better roads and better motor vehicles has set
up a condition of endless progression. Perhaps because year by year,
the definition of an adequate facility that would carry vehicles safely
and efficiently has had to be revised. Perhaps because the eagerness of
the public for better highways has not yet been mobilized effectively.
Perhaps because even the experts still know relatively little about the
ebb and flow of urban life. There may be other reasons too.
It is indeed fitting that we come to grips with an urgent urban trans-
portation problem in a highly urbanized State. As you know, Ohio has
more cities of a population of 25,000 or more than any other State
except California. The 1950 Census of Population indicates that Ohio
has 33 such municipalities and California 36.
INTEGRITY OF CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT
There are some who would write off the central business sections of
our cities as vestigial in the motor vehicle era. Such an appraisal seems
to ignore economic realities. Central business areas were established
because they offered economic efficiencies and social and cultural ad-
vantages characteristic of a nucleated community. With a proper design,
and a restoration of its accessible characteristics the central area can
continue to function effectively, for a long time to come.
Investigations of shopper preferences indicate that downtown lo-
cations still offer advantages to the shopper superior to those in surburban
districts: Better merchandise selection, cheaper prices, and the pos-
sibilities of combining several shopping and business errands. But there
is little ground for complacency, for a greater proportion of retail sales
is taking place in the peripheral areas than in the downtown areas of a
number of municipalities.
This has become evident during a period when the accessibility to
the downtown area in many places has increasingly deteriorated.
Accessibility, as I refer to it here, concerns the capacity of a motorist
or shopper to travel downtown with a minimum friction of space as some
students of the problem identify the ability to travel safely, conven-
iently, and at reasonable cost.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 133
Accessibility also includes the availability of parking accommodations
appropriately priced and within reasonable walking distance of the
major generators of parking demand.
The increasing inadequacy of terminal facilities in downtown areas
is very much in evidence in a number of municipalities. For example, in
1937, there were approximately 12 vehicles per downtown parking space
in San Francisco; in 1948, the number of vehicles competing for that
parking space had increased to 17. In Seattle, there were 14 vehicles
per downtown parking space in 1947; the number increased to 23 in
1952. The same is true of Oakland and Detroit and perhaps many other
cities as well. (Parking as a Factor in Business, Preface and Foreword,
1953, Highway Research Board.)
While there may be other factors present which may complicate an
easy solution to the difficulties confronting the central areas of cities,
improvement in the accessibility characteristics of those central areas
cannot but improve substantially the city's present plight. It is incum-
bent upon entrepreneurs, municipal officials and others interested in
preserving the urban areas as we now know them that effective action
be taken with respect to the timely provision of highway and terminal
facilities of modern design.
Federal-aid Highway Act of 1954. Some assistance in this direction is
now available. The President of the United States has affixed his sig-
nature to what is considered to be a milestone in highway development —
the Federal-aid Highway Act of 1954. (Public Law 350, Chapter 181
(H. R. 8127), 83rd Congress, 2d Session, Approved May 6, 1954.)
Its emphasis on urban transportation is unprecedented. The sum
of $175,000,000 for each of fiscal years 1956 and 1957 is specifically
earmarked for projects on the Federal-aid primary highway system in
urban areas, and for projects on approved extensions of the Federal-aid
secondary system within urban areas. Additionally, portions of
$315,000,000 authorized for each of fiscal years 1956 and 1957 for
projects on the Federal-aid primary highway system can be spent in
cities, to the extent determined by the respective State Highway De-
partments. And also, portions of $175,000,000 authorized for each of
the two fiscal years for the National System of Interstate Highways
will be eligible for expenditure in urban areas, since a portion of that
system consists of urban routes.
Another significantly new provision of the 1954 Act provides that
one-half of the funds authorized for the National System of Interstate
Highways shall be apportioned among the several States in the ratio
which the population of each State bears to the total population; the
other half according to the customary formula applicable to the Federal-
aid primary system. The traditional matching formula of 50-50 has been
changed to 60 percent Federal and 40 percent State, but only with re-
spect to Interstate funds.
134 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Another provision authorizes an expenditure of a quarter of a million
dollars for expediting the interstate planning and coordination of a
continuous Great River Road and appurtenances thereto traversing the
Mississippi Valley from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, in accordance
with the 1951 joint report of the Secretaries of Commerce and Interior
to the Congress. The amount expended under this authorization will
be apportioned among the ten river States in proportion to the amount
allocated by these States for the improvement and extension of existing
sections of this highway project.
Another significant provision authorizes $12,500,000 for each of
fiscal years 1956 and 1957 for the construction, reconstruction and im-
provement of facilities in national parks, monuments, monument ap-
proach roads, and other areas administered by the National Park Ser-
vice; and $11,000,000 for each of fiscal years 1956 and 1957 for the con-
struction, reconstruction, and improvement of authorized parkways.
These authorized funds are made immediately available for contract,
and the Secretary is authorized to incur obligations, approve projects,
and enter into contracts under the authorizations, and his action in so
doing shall be deemed a contractual obligation of the Federal Govern-
ment for the payment of the cost thereof, and such funds shall be deemed
to have been expended when so obligated. This new authority will im-
measurably strengthen and vitalize these worthwhile programs.
The 1954 Federal-aid Highway Act also authorizes consultations
between the Federal Civil Defense Administrator and the Secretary of
Commerce concerning the civil defense aspects of highway development.
The civil defense problem is an urban one, of course.
The 1954 Act also authorizes, in specific language for the first time,
the prosecution of research of all kinds related to the highway problem.
This presumably would include urban transportation research, which
I would like to dwell on for just a moment.
Urban transportation research. A number of circumstances now make
an adequate program of urban transportation research more compelling
than ever before. As I have indicated, the Congress of the United States
has just authorized an expanded highway program that will have a
particular impact in cities. Population expansion, land use changes,
vast housing and public improvement programs, and a host of other
factors characteristic of present metropolitan areas as we now know
them, make it imperative that we learn a great deal more than we
now know about the urban organism and its health and well-being
in terms of transportation. We must admit that in terms of the funda-
mentals, we know pitifully little right now.
In an effort to assist this situation, and pursuant to an authorization
by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences,
the Highway Research Board has designated an ad hoc committee on
urban transportation research to investigate the need for such research
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 135
and indicate an appropriate modus operandi. It is hoped that this effort
will result in the establishment of a permanent body in the Highway
Research Board whose responsibilities it will be to indicate a proper
direction to be taken in urban transportation research; to determine
what universities or other groups could undertake the jobs that need
to be done; to obtain the necessary financing of the projects recom-
mended; to conduct a clearing-house operation and serve as focal point
for all urban transportation research developments; to provide a forum
for objective interchange of ideas; and to assist in other ways that will
promote the well-being of cities.
The goal of this new effort will be to bring all pertinent disciplines
to bear on the urban transportation problem in its broadest connotations.
There is good reason to believe that both industry and government
will support this effort to cast more light on the urban organism, par-
ticularly with respect to its transportation needs.
Urban legal structure. The time has come for us to take a close and
critical look at the legal structure which implements public improvement
programs and regulates private development in our urban areas. Many
of the legal tools we now possess are dull and need sharpening; some of
them are ill-suited today to meet the challenge of new requirements;
and we probably need some new ones, specially designed to do a job.
Let's get more specific: Urban zoning, though fundamentally sound
in its basic principle, needs to be amended and brought up to date, and
particularly, to respond to situations created by the motor vehicle era.
I refer not only to zoning requirements for parking and truck-loading
facilities, but also to reservations for future street development, setbacks,
and similar provisions that anticipate the future.
We need an effective legal mechanism which will permit of integration
of the metropolitan functions in a given urban area, leaving the purely
local functions to the pre-existing constituent municipalities. This is
an urgent necessity, if the parent city and the central business district
as we now know them are to survive.
In terms of the needs, the potential of police power has barely been
tapped. While we are making some progress via the police power in
assisting the several forms of urban transportation, the possibilities are
promising indeed. Much greater public control of the curb is indicated.
The potentiality of designating separate routes of travel for mass transit
vehicles and passenger vehicles should be explored; a precedent already
exists with respect to truck routes in cities.
These are but a few of the possibilities.
Reservation of right-of-way for urban expressways. Another aspect
affecting urban development that is ripe for effective application con-
cerns the reservation of right-of-way for urban expressways. Highway
engineers, planners, defense officials, and many others are pretty well
agreed today that the highway job of greatest urgency is to improve
136 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
the National System of Interstate Highways, at least to tolerable stand-
ards. This system, as you know, is largely expressway in conception.
The need to accomplish this objective is probably of greater urgency in
urban areas than it is anywhere else. Because of the development and
structural character of the urban area, and the relatively lengthy process
involved in the improvement of expressways therein, it is urgent that
the most logical potential arterial routes be protected and reserved
today, for use tomorrow.
If we continue to ignore this compelling necessity, the price we will
have to pay for the needed lands will be high — perhaps more than we
can afford. One way of making sure we have the lands we need for
efficient transportation facilities is to purchase them now, under an
advance financing mechanism.
The plan for the advance financing of street or expressway right-of-
way can be relatively simple: The legislature establishes a revolving
fund out of general state revenues in an amount deemed reasonable for
the purpose. The State Highway Department then purchases outright,
with moneys out of this revolving fund, such lands as are necessary for
important projects which may not get built for some years. Then, as the
projects for which lands have thus been obtained mature and are pro-
grammed for construction in due course, the right-of-way advances are
taken out of the highway funds currently allocated and the revolving
fund is reimbursed to that extent. In other words, the corpus of the
revolving fund is kept intact over the years, and the only cost to the
public is the debt service charge involved.
Lest you think that this scheme is highly theoretical, let me hasten
to tell you that its prototype has already been put into operation suc-
cessfully in one of the most important States in the Nation, California.
In 1952, a $10-miIIion fund for the advance acquisition and protection
of highway right-of-way was authorized by the California Legislature;
the fund was completely exhausted before the year was out. In 1953,
another $20-miIIion fund was made available for this purpose.
In support of this program, California highway officials undertook
detailed studies of the savings that could be effected by advance land
acquisition. It is asserted, on the basis of documented information,
that for every dollar invested today in future highway right-of-way,
savings ranging from ten to thirty dollars will accrue during the next
twelve years. This means that in terms of the entire present authoriza-
tions, savings will be made ranging from $300,000,000 to $900,000,000.
Perhaps in no other segment of highway development are such fantastic
dividends possible!
A somewhat different plan, but based upon the same principle of
anticipating future developments that would increase right-of way
cost manyfold, is the 12-year improvement program authorized last
year by the Maryland legislature. The entire program involves
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 137
$568,000,000 for the construction of 300 miles of new facilities and the
improvement of 3,150 miles of existing highway. The present plan and
basis of operation of the Maryland State Roads Commission is to acquire
all the lands needed for the entire 12-year program in the first four years
of the program. A sounder approach, from an economic point of view,
can hardly be found.
Right-of-way acquisition in advance of actual need for construction
purposes costs money. There are reservation devices, legally justified
under the police power of the State, that involve no expenditure of
public funds, except for the administration of the program.
One such device, of promising potential is the official map procedure.
I recently had the opportunity of investigating the current use of this
mechanism in New York City, particularly in connection with the
Queens Mid-Town Expressway. (The official map procedure is author-
ized by Article 3, Sections 26-39, of the General City Law, Book 20,
McKinney's Consolidated Laws of New York Annotated.) Here is
what I found:
The official map procedure, somewhat simplified, in New York, is
as follows: (1) A map showing a proposed reservation for highway
purposes is submitted to the Board of Estimate of New York City by
the Borough President concerned. In the case of the Queens Mid-Town
Expressway, it was submitted June 25, 1953 — to illustrate the timing
involved ; (2) The map is then referred to the City Planning Commission
and the Director of the Budget; (3) The City Planning Commission
sets a date for a public hearing on the matter. In the case of the above
example, the Commission on August 25, 1953, set September 9, 1953
as the date of the hearing; (4) After the hearing, the City Planning
Commission reports back to the Board of Estimate; (5) The Director
of the Budget also makes his report to the Board of Estimate; (6) If
these reports are favorable, and no opposition develops to the reservation,
the Board of Estimate adopts the map which then becomes the official
map of the city on that particular matter.
I was told by officials of New York City responsible for this program
that in 98 percent of the parcels involved in any reservation under the
official map technique, compliance is automatic or voluntary in the
sense that the owners do not protest the reservation to the point of
involving the administrative and legal machinery. Less than two per-
cent of the cases are formally protested and must go to hearing.
It seems important to know something about the nature of this two
percent, what disposition was made of the cases; the conditions attached
to the granting of exceptions, if any; and in general, what concessions
had to be made to the persistent ones, since the ultimate success of the
device in other cities may depend upon what happens when the pro-
cedure is protested.
138 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Accordingly, in the offices of the Board of Standards and Appeals,
I investigated all protested cases for a typical year. There were a total
of only 38 appeals taken on reservations made during 1950. In eight
of these, the appeals were withdrawn before hearing; in one, the appeal
was dismissed; and hearings were held on 29.
On a lot 100' x 100', located in a residential area, there is a 2-story
frame dwelling; it is desired to erect a 2-car accessory garage on the lot.
The proposed garage area is wholly within the bed of a mapped street,
134th Street. This mapped street has not been cut through north of
Horace Harding Boulevard for a distance of three blocks, including the
owner's area. The owner alleges that there is no present demand that
the street be cut through now.
The Board of Standards and Appeals, under the power vested in it
pursuant to Section 35 of the General City Law, authorized the owner
to build the garage in the bed of the mapped street, as he desires to do,
on the following conditions: (1) That if and when this portion of the
premises is acquired by the City for the construction of 134th Street
that the owner will remove this garage at his own expense and make
no claim except for the value of the land so taken as may be determined
by the court; (2) That in all other respects the proposed garage building
shall comply with all laws, rules and regulations applicable thereto; and
(3) That a certificate of occupancy shall be obtained for the existing
dwelling and the proposed garage when constructed.
After reviewing the cases I have investigated, I find that most of
the appeals granted were conditional grants, generally permitting the
use and construction sought only for the period of time during which
the mapped street in question remains untouched as a mapped street.
The conclusion seems inescapable that the mapped street device as it
is being used in New York City seems a very practical and effective
means of reserving lands for street purposes in urban areas. It is pos-
sible that it could constitute one of the best answers to this problem.
Economic impact of expressways. While the expressway program in
urban areas is gaining momentum in the United States, there are still
some people who are seeking to learn precisely what economic impact
such facilities of modern design will have upon urban land values and
its land-use pattern.
In an attempt to document and evaluate such effects, the Texas
State Highway Department, with the cooperation of the Bureau of
Public Roads, undertook to analyze approximately 2300 bona fide sales
of real estate which took place along the Gulf Freeway and also in sec-
tions of the city completely removed from the influence of this arterial.
All sales for the areas studied in each of three periods — 1939 to 1941,
1945 to 1946 and 1949 to 1951— were included. (A Study of Land Values
and Land Use along the Gulf Freeway, Houston, Texas, 1951, Texas
Highway Department.)
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 139
The mechanics of analysis were consistent with sound technique.
Adjustments were made for changes in the value of the dollar during
the periods in vestigated ; the value of improvements, adjusted for changes
in the construction cost index, were filtered out of the aggregate values ;
and other refinements were made.
The results of this study are amazing. The percentage gain in market
values in the primary areas immediately adjacent to the Gulf Freeway
(where land increased from $0.65 to $1.44 per square foot) was more
than twenty-Jour times as great as in the areas only indirectly accessible
to the freeway, (where land increased from $0.57 to $0.60 per square
foot), and approximately five times as great as in the areas completely
removed from the expressway (where land increased from $0.98 to $1.23
per square foot.) The percentage gain in market values in the secondary
areas, close to the freeway but not right next to it (where land increased
from $0.89 to $1.59 per square foot), was more than fifteen times as
great as the areas only indirectly accessible to the freeway (where land
increased from $0.57 to $0.60 per square foot) and three times as great
as the regions completely removed from the expressway, where land in-
creased from $0.98 to $1.23 per square foot).
The Gulf Freeway land value report contains a host of other, scien-
tifically-derived data. I commend it for your perusal, if you already
have not been exposed to it.
During the last few years, the California Division of Highways has
undertaken a series of studies attempting to measure the impact of
expressways on communities of all kinds; some of these are by-pass
studies ; some are before-and-after appraisals ; and some are comparisons
of what happened along a modern freeway and other comparable ar-
terials of a lesser design. (See issues of California Highways and Public
Works, for May-June 1948 to the present time.)
Incidentally, a top official of the Texas State Highway Department
has recently asserted that if the properties within the zone of influence
of the Gulf Freeway were placed on the tax rolls of the City of Houston
on the basis of their increased value, the increase in revenue to the city
would be sufficient to reimburse the city for its right-of-way contribu-
tion of $3,500,000 in a period of only seven years. ("Expressways," D. C.
Greer, Texas Highways, March 1954.)
In closing, I would take you back to the days of Gallatin, one of
the pioneers in roadbuilding in the United States. In making a plea to
the Congress for improved roads, he said that to make crooked ways
straight and rough ways smooth would be one of the most effectual
means of uniting the human race. Gallatin was right, at least as far as
America is concerned, and his philosophy still applies.
While we have yet a long road to travel in improving urban trans-
portation facilities, I sincerely believe in the capacity of our democratic
institutions to produce action when confronted with an urgent need.
140 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
L. P. COOKINGHAM, City Manager, Kansas City, Missouri
I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
nnRAFFIC congestion and decentralization are two of the most
JL difficult problems facing American cities today. For many years,
people have been debating whether or not well-planned superhighways
will solve traffic problems in metropolitan cities. While these debates
continue, many cities are proceeding with broad and comprehensive
plans and active construction of expressways and limited access highways.
Closely allied to the traffic problem is the threat of decentralization
and its effect upon the value of the central business district in the city
of the future. While it is known that decentralization and congestion
are distinct barriers to the normal functioning of a business district,
there are those who raise the question as to whether expressways can
solve the traffic problem in metropolitan areas.
II. THE PRESENT TRAFFIC PROBLEM
The problem of traffic congestion is not new, but few cities have been
able to provide streets and highways adequate to meet the present-day
needs. Consider the facts in the following table on the national increase
of motor vehicles since 1914:
Vehicle Persons
Year Registration Population Per Vehicle
1914 1,700,000 97,468,000 57.33
1920 8,500,000 105,711,000 12.43
1945 39,500,000 141,183,000 3.57
1954 54,000,000 161,000,000 2.98
Past experience, the present situation, and the estimates of future
traffic volumes make the solution of the traffic congestion problem in
central business areas of greatest concern to every growing community.
If there is doubt about the magnitude of the problem, let us look at
some interesting facts:
A. There are now 54,000,000 registered motor vehicles in the United
States. The estimate for 1970 is 70,000,000 registered vehicles.
B. There are two and one-half times as many vehicles in the United
States as there are in the rest of the world.
C. There are more cars stolen in one year in the United States than
there are cars in all of Soviet Russia. (Not important, but interesting.)
D. On the average, one million vehicle miles are traveled per minute
in the United States. Seventy-three percent of this travel is for work,
and 92 percent for work and shopping.
E. Seventy-six million people will use their cars on vacations in 1954
and will make 112 million trips, with an average of 1,700 miles per trip.
F. The increase in the traffic rate in the last seven years is approxi-
mately 70 percent.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 141
G. Urban traffic congestion is costing New York City more than one
billion dollars annually, according to a survey completed by the Citizens
Traffic Safety Board of that city.
These facts are but a few that could be used to illustrate the present
motor vehicle and traffic situation. The prospect of 70 million cars in
1970 should leave no doubt in the mind of any citizen as to the impor-
tance of avoiding "traffic suicide," which is inevitable if bold plans and
decisive action are not adopted to meet the impact of tomorrow's
increase.
III. THE EXPRESSWAY
Unless we find a way to convince the motor car owner that he should
not bring his car into the central business district, then I am convinced
the expressway is the only acceptable and practical plan for moving the
large volumes of traffic safely and quickly. We all agree that public
transit could do the job if it did not have the competition of the private
automobile, but we also know that the American motorist will not give
up the freedom and flexibility his automobile offers in the way of per-
sonal transportation, even though it costs him much more than public
transportation.
A. Arguments Used Against Expressways. There are those who main-
tain that limited access highways are not the best solution to the met-
tropolitan traffic problem. Some of the arguments advanced are :
1. Expressways and freeways are so expensive that they cannot be
justified except under the most severe conditions.
2. The physical structure of the city as we know it, is outmoded, and
the city of the future will be totally decentralized. Those holding this
view contend that the central business district is decreasing in importance
and that in the future it will not be a major functional part of the city.
3. Expressways and freeways will promote decentralization and
permit "bedroom suburbs" to be located even further away.
4. If freeways and expressways are constructed to serve the central
business district, the congestion will increase rather than decrease.
5. Public transit is the solution to traffic in the central districts.
B. Arguments for Limited Access Highways. I believe that express-
ways are a vital element in preserving the central business district and
can be justified. A few of the reasons for this belief are:
1. It is recognized that as a city or a metropolitan area grows and
as congestion begins to set in, sites outside the central business district
begin to assume a greater value and provide more convenience and ac-
cessibliity for certain activities and services. With this "spread and
sprawl" of the growing city, some business functions may be decentral-
ized to meet immediate local demands. It may be that some of those
who are so greatly concerned about "decentralization" are interpreting
the normal trends of metropolitan growth as the mass movement from
the central business district.
142 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
2. There must be a major highway system to guide this growth and
development and to tie the metropolitan area together.
3. The construction of expressways must be regarded as an invest-
ment in the future of the community, for no large city can hope for a
real future without adequately serving the ever-increasing traffic needs.
4. Suburbs develop and "bedroom" communities grow whether or
not expressways are there to provide them with safe and fast access to
the city.
5. Expressways near the central business district will not increase
traffic congestion provided they are in close proximity to the district
so that an adequate parking plan can be developed in conjunction with
them. (Traffic studies for the report, "Expressways — Greater Kansas
City," indicate that approximately 40 percent of all traffic in Kansas
City's central business district is not in that area by choice, but that it
must cross or pass through to reach its desired destination.)
6. From the apparent trend in public transportation passenger
counts, the number of riders is decreasing from year to year. (The public
transit system in Kansas City experienced a loss of 5}^ million revenue
passengers in 1953 over 1952, an over-all decrease of 6^2 percent. The
number of revenue passengers in 1953 was 61% million less than in 1946,
an over-all decrease of 47 percent during that 7-year period.) It would
appear that the only way to increase the number of transit riders would
be to outlaw or restrict the use of automobiles through the legislative
process.
IV. THE CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT
A. Decentralization. — Although decentralization of metropolitan areas
is an established fact, it is also true that certain functions will not find
sufficient patronage to exist in any location other than the central
business district and will not lend themselves to any other location.
This district is the core of operations — the nerve center — of the city
and the metropolitan area. Suburbs exist only as satellites of the down-
town area, and could not survive if their citizens could not depend on
the jobs they have in the central city. Suburban shopping centers in
most cases are dependent on the branches of the large department
stores with their greater inventories and more highly developed service
facilities.
B. Characteristics oj the Central Business District. — The downtown
area is the focal point of public transportation. It has many skilled
professions, most of the hotels, theatres, and large department stores,
with more extensive services and a greater variety of choice for shoppers.
These cannot possibly be duplicated in the smaller centers. It has cen-
tral distributing agencies; it is the center of financial operations; and
it is the location for the offices of many national or international or-
ganizations. These are a few of the reasons why I believe that the central
business district is here to stay, that it is a valuable area, and that it
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 143
should be served by the best traffic service that can be made available.
The service includes both public and private transportation.
C. Recent Study at Ohio State University. In a study conducted by
Ohio State University, it is reported that between 1940 and 1950 suburbs
gained a little more than 4 percent of the total trade in the metropolitan
areas, and that in 1950 the downtown areas still accounted for approxi-
mately 90 percent of the total of all retail trade. This report lists as
attractions in the downtown district: lower prices, larger selection of
items, greater variety of goods and services, and the psychological
element, such as the adventure of downtown shopping and new experi-
ences encountered. This, I am sure, is the answer to financing the ex-
pressways and freeways which are now necessary to serve our metro-
politan centers but which it appears cannot be provided on any other
basis than by specific charges for their use. In this same study, it is
also reported that 90 percent of the persons responding to questionnaires
claimed that parking was difficult in the downtown areas; 81 percent
complained of traffic difficulties; and 71 percent were conscious of the
cost of parking. However, only 9 percent of the persons interviewed found
these conditions important enough to keep them away from the downtown
shopping districts. This study was conducted in the city in which we
are meeting today at the suggestion of the National Research Council,
and has been repeated in Houston and in Seattle to check the methods
used and the results obtained.
D. Decentralization Trends in Kansas City. It is important that each
city observe the trends of decentralization and, when necessary, take
steps to preserve the usefulness of the central business district. A recent
survey in Kansas City indicates that over the past four years the net
gain in rentable office space in the central business district exceeds by a
substantial amount the space lost to outlying districts and to locations
outside the city. Assessed valuations in the central business district,
which comprises only one-half of 1 percent of the total area of the city,
account for 15.2 percent of the total valuations of the entire city. In
the face of the development and expansion of many local shopping
districts in the past 10 years, this ratio has not declined. In Kansas
City, 40 percent of all traffic in the metropolitan area is destined to the
central business district. Expressways are making it possible for this
traffic to conveniently enter and leave the central business district.
Expressways are connecting the several neighborhoods of the city and
helping to channel the trade and commerce to the central business
district. Expressways are guiding the growth of the city so that the
population is more in geographical balance with the central district.
V. KANSAS CITY'S DECISION
In Kansas City, the policy has been determined. Expressways are
being constructed, and the central business district is being preserved.
144 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
The basis for the decision may be outlined as follows :
(A) A live and prosperous central business district is the most val-
uable privately owned asset any city can have; (B) A well-planned
expressway system, complete with parking facilities and an efficient use
of connecting and supporting major thoroughfares, will provide traffic
relief in and around the central business district; (C) A carefully planned
system of freeways and expressways will make the central business
district accessible and convenient, and will place it in a position where it
can compete successfully with outlying shopping centers.
VI. KANSAS CITY'S PLAN
A. Master Plan oj Expressways. — A report called "Expressways —
Greater Kansas City" is the basic engineering report which lays out,
describes, and supports the need for a system of limited access highways
in Greater Kansas City. This report, published in 1951, recommends a
system of routes which, when completed, will embrace approximately
35 miles of modern expressways and is now estimated to cost $150,000,000.
B. Progress of the Plan. — One segment of this plan was completed in
1950 at a cost of 7J^ million dollars, and in 1952 an agreement was
reached with the Missouri Highway Department to construct approxi-
mately one-half of this comprehensive system within the next 10 years.
An important crosstown expressway and a new bridge over the Missouri
River, with freeway connections to the northerly city limits, are now
under construction. The cost of this phase of the traffic relief program
will be in excess of 35 million dollars, to be financed largely by tolls.
In addition, a second bridge over the Missouri River from downtown
Kansas City to the Municipal Airport, with a connection to a new
International Airport, at an estimated cost of 13 million dollars will be
placed under construction in the latter part of this year. This bridge and
expressway connections will also be financed by the collection of nominal
tolls, and will bring Municipal Airport within five minutes of the central
business district and the International Airport within 18 minutes.
C. Off-Street Parking. — A comprehensive expressway system will
not achieve its fullest usefulness without storage facilities for the auto-
mobiles once they have reached the central business district. To supple-
ment private parking facilities, the city is building an underground
parking garage with space for 1,200 motor cars at a cost of 4 million
dollars. The reason for underground construction is purely aesthetic,
as it is located opposite the Municipal Auditorium and the surface will
be developed as a park to provide a more adequate setting for the
Auditorium. The project is being financed with revenue bonds to be
retired solely from parking revenues.
Another vehicle terminal with 1,800 car spaces is being build on the
northerly edge of the downtown district as an urban redevelopment
project. The site, now occupied by somewhat dilapidated and substand-
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 145
ard dwellings, will be cleared, and ground-level and modern multi-level
parking facilities will be constructed by private capital on this site.
If the experience of the city in these two developments proves success-
ful, and there is no doubt that it will, and if private parking facilities
do not keep pace with the need, the city will provide additional off-street
parking space through urban redevelopment projects or by revenue
bond projects, or both.
VII. WHAT ABOUT THE COST?
The cost of a system of expressways and limited access highways in
urban centers is almost beyond comprehension, at least by municipal
standards of financing. The estimated cost on Kansas City is three
times the present general obligation debt, and the facilities are needed
now. Does this mean that cities are not going to be able to provide
these modern expressways? I think not. By the general acceptance of
turnpikes and other toll projects, the motorist is announcing his willing-
ness to pay for the use of modern expressways. Those who are not willing
to pay the cost can still use the less adequate facilities, which are all
that can be provided by the revenues available to states and municipali-
ties for street and highway construction. By the payment of a use fee,
the motorist is finding the modern facility safer, faster, and, in many
cases, less expensive than the antiquated road, and gradually his re-
sistence to the toll charge is lessened. In the years immediately ahead,
I predict the demand for these expressways, which can be used by the
payment of a nominal fee, will become so great that the reluctance of
public officials to provide toll facilities will give way to the demand of
the motorist who is willing to pay the toll.
VIII. CONCLUSIONS
From this limited discussion, it is my conclusion that: (A) The cen-
tral business district is the nerve center of trade, transportation, and
economic activity in the metropolitan area, and it must be preserved;
(B) A strong central business district has accumulated more natural
"built-in" advantages over the years than any one of our many suburban
centers could hope to incorporate; (C) The central business district is
a most vital element in the city's structure, and what takes place therein
has a distinct influence on development in all other parts of the city;
(D) The expressway appears to be the only practical solution to our
difficult traffic problems and, if properly designed, can serve the central
business district and the metropolitan area to the advantage of both.
It must be remembered that highways of the metropolitan area are the
basic skeleton and framework upon which to plan growth and orderly
development.
I should like to point out that most progressive American cities have
decided that their central business districts are important and they
146 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
will continue to be important, and that freeways and expressways are
the best means discovered so far to solve the traffic problem and to protect
and preserve the area.
S. R. DE BOER, Consultant Planner, Denver, Colo.
I FEEL honored and pleased to participate in this fifty-year celebration
of the American Planning and Civic Association. As I look back over
these many years I can think of no group which has contributed more
to the protection of American culture and its amenities and to the
efficiency and livability of American cities. The Association's steady
management, never failing vigilance and courage have saved many
valuable monuments for the people of the North American continent.
Its publications have been a guide to the problems of civic affairs.
More than two decades ago the students of city design realized the
need for clear and unobstructed arteries to lead from the central areas
of cities to the country and to other cities. It was at this time that the
term freeway was coined. The city designs of this period showed the
earliest lines of express traffic ways.
Together with these freeways these early city plans indicated the
need for decentralization of our central areas. Even at the time of the
model T Ford it became apparent that a time of utter confusion and
crowding of these districts by traffic would confront us. These early
plans were bold; many people called them visionary, a word which in
the days of atom power has lost its meaning. Lack of sufficient vision,
not too much vision is the bane of today's society.
Like the plans of Hitler in western Europe these early city designs
did not consider the aftermath of decentralization, nor the after effects
of fast freeways. Students of city designs were conscious of them but
popular understanding could not follow that far. Today we are con-
fronted with the fear that these two new developments will destroy the
central shopping area and with it the heart of a city. It is my opinion
that the heart of a city is as important to the life of a city as the human
heart is to the human body.
A re-evaluation of the problems of the central shopping district is
long overdue in most cities. It must be accomplished by a re-evaluation
of the effect of the expressway on the central district as well as on all
other sections of the city.
The movement for better planning of cities owes much to the high-
way engineers, who have cut their lines through the American country-
side into the very center of the cities. In spite of their early plans cities
did not assume leadership in this work but often have done hardly more
than tolerate the work of highway builders.
These new expressways, and the ever increasing overload and con-
fusion of traffic in the heart of cities have forced a business decentraliza-
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 147
tion which is steadily gaining momentum and seriously affects the make-
up of the central district besides creating new confusion in traffic in
outlying districts.
It is well that we analyze the basic principles involved in city design.
In the first place, the purpose of highway building is to create channels
by which traffic can move from one population center to another along
the shortest and fastest possible route. In this respect we must recognize
the change from similar highways of a few years ago when business
frontage was a major consideration and rights-of-way were limited on
account of this.
The expressway as a means to move traffic in an efficient way from
one point to another is not necessarily limited to the movement of
traffic in one city. A city can be of such minor importance that the
expressway can ignore it and it can be so important that it cannot hurt
it. In the great majority of cases, however, the expressway will have to
serve first of all the traffic flowing to and from a city. This being the
case, it must directly feed into the traffic moving into and around the
central district or have connections with it which flow in and out of it
in a very easy way.
Since the expressway becomes an unbroken barrier in the city's
street plan, it is well for it to follow existing breaks in the plan such as
those caused by rivers, mountains, lakes, etc. Railroads have long fol-
lowed this policy.
The movement of traffic from one population center to another
naturally focuses on the two centers of the cities involved. Traffic is a
means to an end and not a final goal. The goal must be the effective
operation of a city and a region. Most of the traffic must get to the heart
of the city. Even a greatly increased decentralization will not eliminate
the need for traffic to reach the very heart of the town. In many cities
the highway line can bypass the central district but unless it is carefully
planned, it does this at the cost of shifting the city's most valuable
property. We now realize that the moving automobile is not the most
important factor in business, but that the parked automobile is of far
greater importance. We, therefore, reach the theoretical idea that
automobiles must reach into the heart of the city but when they reach
a certain point, which would be within walking distance of the very
center of the shopping district, there must be space to leave the auto-
mobile. The awakening of our citizens to the need for off-street parking
has done more, and is doing more, toward protecting the downtown
district from deterioration and to keep it as the heart of the city, than
anything else.
Many of these matters seem to me nothing but problems of planning,
which I hope and believe means thinking. Our city designs must be
restudied, first in the light of the changes in the central districts and,
second, in the light of the effects of freeways on the other districts and
148 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
the problems they cause in housing, educational and recreational
layouts.
I should like to enumerate briefly some of the design items in this
respect which must be analyzed by the cities of today.
As item one I would place the need for a theoretical pattern which
cities can build to, though not follow slavishly. Something which a
councilman can understand.
As item two I mention the need for intensive studies of the central
district, in regard to land use in order that non-conforming land uses
can be eliminated vigorously and logical uses encouraged, especially
space for off-street parking.
The third item, simultaneous with the others, it seems to me would
be a study of the traffic arteries and how they should bypass or go
through the central districts. Such plans must take in a new study of
circular boulevards, effects of bypassing outside of the city and use of
already existing breaks in the city design caused by rivers and other
objects for the expressway. For existing cities these circular bypass
roads may have to take on the shape of rectangles.
The fourth item I would make a study of the maximum size city to be
built on a site and the possibility of rings of secondary cities. It is now
known that from the standpoint of economic operation a city can be
too big as well as too small.
As a fifth item I should like to consider the possibility of separating
the main city from its ring of secondary towns by a belt of green land,
farms, golf courses, parks, institutional grounds.
Opportunities for Growth in the Central Business
District
ARTHUR RUBLOFF, Chicago, III.
WHILE the problems relating to Opportunities for Growth in the
Central Business District, are complex — they can be solved. Prin-
cipally, the job requires interest and determination on the part of those
who have, or can be made to have, sufficient civic pride in backing a
well conceived plan or program toward the betterment and improvement
of the central core of our cities, which in effect makes possible the growth
potential desired.
There are two groups to be considered. The first group is made up of
that small segment of men in industry or business who control the
capital and the power that goes with it. The second group consists of
the local governmental authorities which represent the taxpayers.
The combined forces of business, which control capital and have the
power, and our political bodies which represent the taxpayers, have it
within their means to further the possibilities for growth in the central
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 149
business districts, provided they are properly coordinated and have the
desire and will to do so. I am not overlooking the necessity for the need
of money to further any program in connection with growth or better-
ment— but money can be acquired providing a well conceived plan is
developed and those who have the most at stake can be brought into
play as a team.
There is no substitution for the implementation of our civic pride
as it relates to not only the central core of our cities, but all communities.
Anything that any of us can do along constructive lines toward the
betterment of our cities should be considered a selfish privilege. The
resultant gains inure to our respective benefits — whether as private
citizens or businessmen.
Unfortunately, the fact is that too few either have the interest or
care to give the time. Sadly enough, unless the leaders of our respective
cities continue to take an active part and substantial interest in com-
munity problems, which has to do with their growth potentials, the
repercussions can be severe. One of the most unfortunate problems
with which we are confronted is the overdevelopment of commercial real
estate relating principally to shopping centers.
In many instances we have built without regard to proper planning
or judgment, and as a consequence many areas are already over-stored.
As I have said many times, and continue to say, generally speaking we
do not need more stores. Actually, our need is for better stores. The fact
remains there is just so much spendable income in the country as a whole
or as it may apply to any given municipality or locale. More stores,
whether individual or grouped to form shopping centers or strip develop-
ments, competitive to already established business areas, obviously
will tap the spendable income supporting these business sections. The
end result is a division of sales which will ultimately support neither.
I am a firm believer in the proper development of regional shopping
centers or for that matter strip developments, providing: (1) There is
an absolute proven need for the facility; (2) There is sufficient spendable
income in the area to support it; (3) These types of developments do not
compete ruinously with our already established business areas.
Upon these conditions I have continually advocated and encouraged
the proper development as well as redevelopment of all types of com-
mercial property.
Hardly a day passes that new shopping center developments are not
announced in cities all over America. It has reached a point where
almost anyone who owns a piece of acreage located good or bad, comes
to the conclusion that they ought to build a shopping center. Home
builders — whether they build 300 homes or 1,000 homes, immediately
set aside vacant land, feeling they need to augment their building pro-
gram by including either strip developments or shopping centers. De-
spite the fact that Chicago and its environs is perhaps the most difficult
150 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
city in which to build retail shopping centers or strip developments,
there are in the conversational or planning stage some 25 or 30. In
North Kansas City, Missouri, having a very limited trading area, there
are three planned within 1J/2 miles of each other and of the central
business district. There are several planned in Indianapolis, and Louis-
ville; 15 in Detroit, and I understand here in Columbus you have 5
shopping centers already built. On the Eastern Seaboard they are
being built so rapidly and so closly competitive to one another that
only time will prove the tragedy. The foregoing is but to mention a few.
With spendable income and employment at its highest level in the
history of our country, the demand for living facilities both rental and
self-owned, increased to such proportions that it necessitated an exodus
to the peripheral outlying suburban areas of our various cities, only
because here land was available at low cost in acreage or large parcels
suitable for mass or custom construction of homes. Building was made
possible by easy financing, readily obtained through F.H.A., Savings
and Loan Associations, and other sources. As the building boom con-
tinued in these outlying areas, so did construction of commercial prop-
erties follow. At first consisting of so-called small strip developments
of six or more stores and then increasing in size and proportion to what
are now considered to be major regional shopping developments with
parking facilities, without regard in many instance, to points I have
already made — the proven spendable income of the community and
need for the facility, or to the competitiveness of already established
business centers.
Today, throughout the country, there are thousands of so-called
shopping centers in the planning or building stage. There is absolutely
no question that we have reached an overdevelopment of commercial
real estate. If the trend continues, which it appears to be doing, it will
destroy the value of millions of dollars of real estate through the de-
moralization of many of our established business areas. This over-
expansion obviously could bring about the foreclosure of large segments
of commercial real estate of inestimable value.
Growth in our Central Business Districts is predicated on those
changes or improvements which are required or necessitated with the
changing of our times. Most of our cities are old in concept. They were
conceived without proper planning and were not built with an eye to
the future. As a consequence they started to decay almost as soon as
they began. In addition to the usual obsolescence that unfortunately
thrives in all of our cities, the automobile and transportation are the
two biggest factors in affecting the growth of our central business areas,
because we have been slow to provide adequate highways or rapid forms
of transportation from our peripheral areas to the inner core. Also, we
lack sufficient parking facilities properly to accommodate the auto-
mobile. This, likewise, has further induced decentralization.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 151
While our downtown areas have been on the decay, suburbia, as I
have pointed out, has grown at the fastest pace experienced in the his-
tory of our country. We are seeing this transition take place to the det-
riment of already established business areas — not necessarily because
suburbia offers all attractions that may be desired for proper living, but
rather because many of our old residential sections and the areas ad-
jacent to our central business districts have decayed even more rapidly
than the central business sections themselves. As a consequence, many
of our business areas downtown are encircled by a ring of blight. As
time passes, we find more blighted areas surrounding, choking, and de-
grading more of our business sections today than at any time heretofore.
Up to a point the movement to the suburban or peripheral areas of
our cities is healthy, for it reflects growth in our urban population — an
expansion of our natural resources, and a furtherance of the new way of
our American Life. If the movement to suburbia is one of natural growth
in population and not because of inadequate housing, unhealthy and
uneconomic work shops and so-called obsolete commercial areas within
the city, or because of so-called vehicular congestion, obsolete trans-
portation and lack of parking facilities, the movement is satisfactory.
If, on the other hand, the movement of population from the central
core of our cities carries with it a movement of capital and merchants,
the movement is not only distinctively unhealthy but tremendously
damaging and the full impact of the repercussions has yet to be felt.
Our cities represent an investment of capital and labor of many billions
of dollars, and obviously if the movement to suburbia continues at its
present pace, it will simply mean that we can look forward to ghost
towns and an economic collapse that would be impossible to reconcile.
Please remember the central core of our cities carries the largest
share of the tax burdens of the residential areas they serve. They are
the very heart of our cities. These heavy taxpaying areas must be con-
served, rehabilitated and improved by public and private interests
working hand in hand.
The principal obstacle in developing a coordinated plan for the
improvement for the growth of our cities as well as the removal of
blight is the diversification of ownerships. It is difficult to acquire suf-
ficiently large areas of land in which to do a first rate planning job.
True, we have the power of eminent domain, but the costs involved,
and the time consumed, lead to many problems. In many states the
laws vary, and should be amended to meet our changing times.
While on the surface it appears to be incredible, it is difficult to
make those who have large investments in our downtown areas believe
that whatever they do toward solidifying and improving our central
cores, automatically works to their respective interests. Too many have
taken it for granted that our cities are aged, outmoded, obsolete, de-
teriorated, and laden with blight, without giving proper consideration
152 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
to a cure-all for some of these ills. As a consequence, some believe that
the simplest and easiest way out is to move to the peripheral or suburban
areas where they say they can build better, cheaper, and easier, with
ample parking facilities, and of course, by so doing, they feel they also
by-pass the obstacles of congestion. These are not the facts, however.
Congestion is not necessarily eliminated by locating in suburbia. As
vehicular traffic increases, the problems of congestion are also increased —
wherever you go.
This is where we must bring our forces together and come to the
realization that if we do not coordinate our efforts to stop the move-
ment, it will be practically suicidal. Obviously, then, what we must
do is to improve our cities, and I repeat — the job can be done.
The builders, the architects, the entrepreneurs, the real estate pro-
fession, the city planners or plan commissions, financial interests of our
municipalities and local and national governmental bodies, must work
together if we are to save our cities. This has been proven in Pittsburgh
as well as other cities throughout the country, and we are further prov-
ing it in Chicago.
An excellent illustration is what the Chicago Land Clearance Com-
mission is doing in the way of urban redevelopment. The Chicago
Land Clearance Commission was first organized in 1947, working under
the Blighted Area Redevelopment Act of 1947 to help private enterprise
revitalize our city. Mayor Martin H. Kennelly appointed a group of
outstanding citizens to form the Housing Action Committee. This
Committee sponsored and secured the legislation to make this program
possible. By early 1949 our Commission had begun its first major re-
development of assembling a severely blighted area of over 100 acres
in close proximity to our Loop, which was sold to the New York Life
Insurance Company, which is sponsoring this project. A total of 2,000
units was planned, including parks, schools, underground garage and
other public facilities. This project is well on the way toward completion.
The 725 individual parcels which comprise this area were acquired by
the Commission. The 3,200 families who formerly lived in this slum area
were relocated. In all, 733 buildings were demolished. This, then, is
an example of what the pool of private enterprise and municipal authori-
ties as a team can do in the revitalization of our cities.
The Commission has expanded its program to include many other
types of redevelopment. However, no more fitting example can be
brought to your attention than the Commission's Redevelopment Pro-
gram in cooperation with our Chicago Plan Commission relating to the
63rd and Halsted Street Business area, ten miles southwest of our Loop,
which generates the highest volume of business outside of our downtown
area, approximating $150,000,000 per annum. The plan outlines the
following: (1) Construction of a one-way traffic perimeter around the
district, using existing streets as far as possible; (2) Routing all private
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 153
vehicles into the traffic perimeter (none would enter the district itself) ;
(3) Route all mass transit vehicles through the center of the district,
either at grade or at subway; (4) Acquire and clear all residential build-
ings and other non-conforming or obsolete structures inside the peri-
meter; (5) Eliminate all local streets inside the perimeter; (6) Provide
parking and service facilities on cleared and vacated street areas. A
huge parking plan for this area is already under way and will be com-
pleted shortly; (7) Narrow the streets through the center of the district
to one lane for public transportation, with cutouts for loading points,
and the widening of existing sidewalks to create more ample pedestrian
thorofares; (8) Remodel the rear of commercial buildings for greater
service efficiency and to give attractive facades facing the parking lots
contiguous thereto; (9) Plan simple coordinated architectural treatment
throughout the center; (10) Initiate a cooperative organization of land
and business interests inside the perimeter to coordinate the develop-
ment, architectural style, maintenance and continued public improve-
ments.
It is estimated that this entire revitalization program will be com-
pleted for approximately $10,000,000 — an infinitesimal fraction of the
total cost or value of existing land and buildings, estimated in the
hundreds of millions.
As a further illustration of what can be done in connection with the
revitalization of our cities is a plan that I originated and sponsored in
Chicago in 1947, for North Michigan Avenue and environs. Motivated
entirely by my desire to make a civic contribution to Chicago, I pro-
moted what is known as North Michigan Avenue's "Magnificent Mile,"
a $200,000,000 revitalization program sponsored and advanced entirely
by private funds and initiative.
In cooperation with John Root, head of the architectural firm of
Holabird & Root & Burgee, we prepared an outstanding plan and
redesigned the entire area. I was so intrigued with its potentials that
I spent $50,000 initially of my own funds to begin the program and
advance the plan. I then called together 250 of our top civic leaders
at a luncheon and presented to Chicago my plan for the "Magnificent
Mile" as a civic contribution toward its betterment. Huge murals on
a black velvet background and a scale model were presented to this
group, outlining the plan. To say that I made a dramatic presentation
to this group is an understatement. They were inspired and thrilled —
anxious for the plan to move ahead.
The name "Magnificent Mile" was coined by the Public Relations
Counsellors whom I employed so as to better identify that portion of
North Michigan Avenue keynoting the plan, approximating eleven
blocks in length, beginning with the Wrigley Building and the Tribune
Tower on the south, and ending with Oak Street or the Drake Hotel
on the north. The area encompassing the entire plan to which we refer
154 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
is bounded on the north by North Avenue, on the south by the Chicago
River, Lake Michigan on the east and Wells Street on the west — an
area approximately one and one-half square miles.
The "Magnificent Mile" may be compared to Fifth Avenue in
New York and the Champs Ellysses in Paris. It is the fashion and
luxury Avenue of the mid-west.
I was successful in committing approximately $35,000,000 of private
funds to the key elements of the plan which started the ball rolling,
and to date about $90,000,000 of private funds have been expended
toward this revitalization program. In another eighteen months we
will have most of our parking problems solved with the inclusion of
nine public parking facilities spread throughout the area. We have
just completed one of the most beautiful systems of lighting to be found
in any city anywhere. If any of you should ever have occasion to drive
down the Magnificent Mile I am sure you will agree with me that it is
exciting. We spent approximately $100,000 to plant trees along the
"Magnificent Mile," to add character and beauty to the avenue. Fur-
ther landscaping and parks are planned. There is no substitution for
parks, landscaping and plenty of light and air as it relates to the better-
ment of any area.
The plan was approved by the Chicago Plan Commission and re-
ceived wide public acclaim throughout the country. The public accept-
ance in Chicago was wonderful. This only proves that people are anxious
to see our cities improved and will want to remain in them if they are
provided with proper living conveniences and public facilities.
Not entirely without dissension, however, did my plan succeed.
There was a small group of jealous individuals who did everything
they could to block it. I was accused by them of making a vast personal
fortune and received many abuses for my efforts, but these few at long
last have disappeared over the horizon and now all is serene and smooth.
With the presentation of the Plan to Chicago, an organization was
formed now known as the Greater North Michigan Avenue Association,
made up of approximately 400 members comprising all of the prominent
property owners, merchants, home owners and residents in the area,
who, together, are doing an outstanding job in bringing the program
to its ultimate realization. Membership dues approximate about $85,000
per annum.
I make this illustration to you not to seek any credit or acclaim for
myself, but merely to convince you that the job of revitalizing our
cities, which is the fundamental basic element of opportunity for growth,
is by no means impossible. If we can harness the talents of men such
as you who are our city planners, government bodies and financial in-
terests as a team with an "I WILL" spirit, and a desire, we can ac-
complish a job in which each and every one of us has not only a stake,
but can benefit greatly.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 155
I know of no group which is better qualified to further the growth
of our American cities than you men who head the various Plan Com-
missions of the cities you represent. If you wish to see the intensified
redevelopment of the heart of our cities which make this country great,
including new super highway systems which offer better transportation
direct to central points, ample parking facilities, and the redevelopment
of our blighted areas with proper land uses, all in accordance with a
well considered comprehensive master plan, implemented by rigid
building and zoning regulations, then you can play your part by con-
vincing half a dozen or more of your prominent citizens to take the
lead in cooperation with your municipal governing bodies. You can
make a strong effort toward discouraging unwarranted commercial
development and the building of shopping centers by refusing to grant
rezoning where the need is not warranted. This, in itself, would be one
of the greatest contributions that you can make to your respective
cities.
I am absolutely convinced that private capital, with governmental
assistance can improve as well as rebuild our cities by removing blight,
congestion and obsolescence if we can work as a team just as private
capital, private initiative and that great American force known as
"competition" originally built up a strong America — so can these forces
eliminate the ravages wrought by age and swiftly changing economical,
technical, and sociological conditions. They need only be shown the
way — they cannot do it by themselves, nor should they be expected
to. As City Planners, I know of no one more capable of playing an
important role in this direction.
In conclusion, may I repeat that private capital needs your help in
its efforts toward saving American cities from creeping paralysis. A
strong America can do much to bring about a better day for a troubled
world. A strong America depends on sound economy, and a sound
economy is based on proper urban redevelopment. Armed with the
proper tools and the coordination of proper team work, private enter-
prise— with your help — can and will build a better America.
EDITOR'S NOTE.— Mr. Rubloff then introduced Mr. Nathan Van Orsdol,
a member of the well known firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, architects for
the Fort Dearborn project, who has given practically his complete time and effort
to handling the tremendous detail involved. Mr. Van Orsdol presented graphically
in exhibits and slides a pictorial account of what is planned for the Fort Dearborn
area, an excellent example, declared Mr. Rubloff, pi the type of effort required to
further the growth of and anchor our American cities.
156 AMERICAN^PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Lincoln Village
JIM FOLEY, Public Relations Department,
Peoples Development Co., Columbus, O.
THE dream of every city planner in the country is becoming a reality
in Central Ohio on a high plain west of Columbus. On land which,
until recently, grew food, a whole city is growing. It is actually a city
"planned from scratch."
Called Lincoln Village, the community is being built by the Peoples
Development Company, a real estate development subsidiary of the
Farm Bureau Mutual Automobile Insurance Company whose home
office is in Columbus.
While the insurance firm operates in the populous states along the
eastern seaboard, after a thorough survey it found ideal conditions for
the "model city" development in its own back yard.
Columbus has been a boom town. It had a population increase of
over 38 percent since 1940. One of the fastest growing cities in the
country, it swooshed ahead of Cleveland, Cincinnati, and other large
midwestern communities in rate of growth.
The farm folk who migrated to the capitol city, along with industry,
at the outset of World War II, never went home. A large reservoir of
trained labor was ready for the tapping, by peace-time industry. A
bonanza of new firms moved in to absorb it.
People and industry continued to gravitate to Central Ohio and
it was this situation which helped to bring about the decision to build
the planned community in the Columbus area.
There was another potent factor, too. Most of the 142,355 people
who came into Franklin County between 1930 and 1950 settled in
Columbus' north end or in the area on the east side. The south and
west segments were nearly dormant. The gods who watch over civic
planners smiled on the drawing boards of the Lincoln Village engineers.
West of Columbus, almost adjoining the city, were 1170 acres of raw
land which had made up a large part of one huge farm.
In the Spring of 1952, negotiations were begun and soon the Peoples
Development Company had acquired 1170 acres of land ideally suited
for the development of an entire community. The following months
were devoted to specifics and to solving the complex problems which
go with street and highway layouts, utility negotiations, and land
planning.
On April 16, 1953, a tall, slim, New Englander, Murray Danforth
Lincoln, President of the Farm Bureau Insurance Companies and the
"father" of Lincoln Village, climbed atop a giant earth mover and
posed for photographers at the ground breaking ceremony.
By this time, it had been determined that some 550 acres of land
would be devoted to industrial development, that the first housing
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 157
area would contain 325 acres of single homes and apartment units and
65 acres of shopping and commercial facilities, and that the second
residential area would be 230 acres in size.
Physically, the property can be spoken of as containing four general
areas. It is bisected by U. S. Route 40 which extends from New Jersey
to California.
The industrial area which lies on the north side of the highway is
236 acres in size and is serviced by the main line of the Pennsylvania
Railroad. The 314 acres which make up the south industrial site are
intersected by the New York Central Railroad.
The location of the community 550 miles from New York and 316
miles from Chicago and the rail and truck facilities immediately avail-
able, prompted Peoples Development to adopt the slogan "Locate
Your Business Half a Day From Half The U.S.A." Industry seems
to be convinced of the feasibility.
General Motors' post war Ternstedt plant is a Lincoln Village neigh-
bor. It hires some 5,000 employees who make hardware for G-M.
The Westinghouse Electric Corporation, another Lincoln Village
neighbor, is putting the final touches on the largest factory it has ever
built. Home refrigerators have begun to roll off the lines and employ-
ment is around the 2,000 figure with a potential of 6,000 to 7,000.
Peoples Development is working with the Company to recruit engineer-
ing specialists from other Westinghouse plants by providing "fringe"
benefits.
Five industrial sites have already been sold in the "model city"
and construction has begun on two facilities.
In an effort to keep pace with the industrial development, building
is being rushed in the initial housing area. About 100 single homes
are under construction with scores more planned for the 1954 building
season. The developers have laid out lots for 864 single homes and
several hundred apartment units in this section. The famous John W.
Galbreath organization, now in the process of developing Manhattan's
newest skyscraper, "150 E. 42nd," have been given exclusive residential
sales rights and the sale of homes has already begun.
In order to prevent the "peas in a pod" look, architecture is being
varied from Contemporary to Colonial and materials include frame
and masonry. One, one-and-a-half and two story houses are being
built. Prices range from $12,250 to $34,000.
In the street layouts, the conventional pattern of small rectangular
blocks has been abandoned. Instead, spacings will be three or four
times the usual distance. The emphasis upon "king size" blocks will
reduce the number of intersections to a minimum. The widest street
in the Village is a 62 foot boulevard running along the shopping center.
Thoroughfares will be 36 feet wide ranging down to 26 feet. In the
housing areas, the streets are being curved, thus discouraging speeding.
158 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Lots vary in size and corner sites are being laid out in such a manner
as to eliminate "blind" intersections. Parks and playgrounds within
the community are being nestled in areas where traffic safety can be
provided. Public walk-ways will be built to eliminate long walks to
school where the "king size" blocks would work hardships.
In the "from scratch" planning, it has been possible to locate the
shopping center where it can easily be reached from all of the residential
sector. Lincoln Village will also bring to the midwest, one of the first
super deluxe mall type shopping centers. The firm of Gamble, Pownall
& Gilroy of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, designers of the famous Sunrise
Shopping Center in that city, are drawing the plans. Target date for
the opening of the first stores in the center is Easter, 1955. Engineers
hope to complete the entire community by 1960.
Carl R. Frye, Vice- President and General Manager of the Peoples
Development Company maintains that Lincoln Village will be the ul-
timate in Twentieth Century living. Says Frye, "With few exceptions,
the American cities of today are made-over relics of another day. The
nucleus of almost every community is a deteriorated core. In Lincoln
Village we have had an opportunity to start with a fresh seed, and we
feel that the fruit of our efforts will be a community truly planned
from its birth."
Zoning Round Table
FIRST SESSION — MAY 19, 1954
PANEL: Chairman: Flavel Shurtleff, Counsel, American Planning and Civic
Association.
MEMBERS: Carl Feiss, National Capital Planning Commission, Washington, D. C.
Hugh Pomeroy, Director, Department of Planning of Westchester
County, White Plains, N. Y.
R. B. Garrabrant, Secretary, Industrial Council of Urban Land Institute,
Washington, D. C.
Albert E. Redman, Director, Industrial Development Department of the
Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Columbus, Ohio.
Ladislas Segoe, Planning Consultant, Cincinnati, Ohio.
REPORTER: Granville W. Moore, General Manager, Greater Dallas Planning Council,
Dallas, Texas.
AS IS always the case in any conference in which Flavel Shurtleff
is a participant, the Zoning Round Table session opened with
evidence of eagerness and interest and was accordingly treated with
timely and challenging remarks by Mr. Shurtleff to whom we are deeply
indebted for his able service in presiding over both sessions.
Opening with the assertion "Zoning is the sovereign power of gov-
ernment," the temper of the meeting was immediately established by
the Chairman when he stated that the discussions would deal with the
regulatory powers exercised by government in zoning. Contrary to
the usual premise that zoning came into being under the health, welfare
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 159
and moral clause, Mr. Shurtleff declared the session open for discussion
by asking the question "are we now zoning strictly as to the original
purpose or should we give more credence to zoning as a community
benefit in the larger aspect?"
Mr. Carl Feiss recited a recent Supreme Court ruling which has
moved up from the lower court wherein residences previously barred
by zoning were approved in industrial areas. The decision was not
considered as being a case for establishing precedent but nonetheless
was interesting inasmuch as the decision was made on its peculiar
merits. This reference coincides with the theory of zoning for the com-
munity benefit.
Mr. Redman inquired as to the practicability of including in zoning
ordinances specific requirements as to site planning. After comment by
Mr. Garrabrant that area design for land use was primarily the objective
of zoning and reciting conditions of an ordinance recently enacted by
Courtland, New York wherein the ordinance provided that "it may
require site plans on its own initiative," Mr. Segoe took the position
that site planning should only apply to areas already zoned. It was
the consensus of the panel that peculiar circumstances might justify
"site plans" after zoning had been established. However, it was pointed
out that in the absence of statutory delegation, the question obviously
arose — is a planning board competent to pass on site plans? It was
further developed by Mr. Segoe that in his opinion, site planning legally
could only be made by contractual arrangement. It was Mr. Garra-
brant's opinion that such an interpretation could not be valid inasmuch
as police power cannot be contracted.
Mr. Eastwood of Dade County, Florida, stated that the Dade County
Planning Commission had been using "site planning" for three years.
However, for any aggrieved person, recourse was open to him through
a five-man Board of Appeals appointed by the Governor.
The question 'of the use of zoning to obtain dispersal was presented
to the panel. Mr. Redman was of the conviction that zoning per se would
not be effective, pointing out that the profit motive, and not zoning
would determine location regardless of the desirability of dispersal.
Mr. Garrabrant voiced the opinion that initially zoning is a negative
device and to be effective, should be in the form of implementation
of planning and should be wisely used in supporting industry in motion
— dispersal notwithstanding. The Chairman submitted the problem
now prevalent among many small towns anxious to obtain industry.
In many cases these smaller cities are zoning large areas for industry.
The problem, therefore, is, if industry is not obtained what happens
meanwhile? He was quick to point out the simple device of zoning
alone does not persuade plants or other forms of industry to choose sites.
Mr. Segoe requested permission to refer back to zoning as a device
for effecting dispersal and pointed out instances where zoning can be
160 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
effective in population dispersal as to certain types of plants such as
manufacturing fireworks, shells and ammunition, etc.
Mr. R. S. Fredericks of Memphis, after revealing specific hardship
cases brought before the Board of Adjustment and more particularly
having reference to very small operations in residential areas such as
beauty parlors and after hours doctor's offices, submitted to the panel
the question "shall residential areas zoned as such be kept strictly
residential?"
Mr. Pomeroy generalized by answering "that if the area is clean as
to residential uses, it should be so kept but was of the opinion that
borderline cases where there was a sharp distinction between the pure
residential area and questionable areas of conformance, in the interest
of community benefit, such variations might be practical." The Chair-
man added an admonition that it should be distinctly understood
initially that any request for variance should actually be an undue
hardship case and particularly one of a special nature before the Board
of Adjustment should even consider. At this point Mr. Eastwood
projected the thought that Boards of Adjustments should be allowed
to handle only area variances and not specific cases. At this juncture,
Mr. Garrabrant very wisely observed that any zoning ordinance must
spell out distinctly the specific authority of the Board of Adjustment
removing any essence of vagueness.
To the question pertaining to apartment uses in areas re-zoned for
airports, particularly where areas have been recently annexed, the panel
was in unanimous agreement with Mr. Garrabrant that it became a
legal question as to vested right. However, the questioner was advised
that a number of States required their zoning ordinances to provide a
limited time for conformance and further that any proposed construc-
tion must have shown evidence of the start of actual construction prior
to the effective date of re-zoning. The Chairman interposed to venture
the opinion from a legal point of view that "if no permit had been issued
prior to the effective date of the re-zoned airport area, then no right
existed."
Mr. George Smeatb, Salt Lake City, stated that in his area they had
been accustomed to filing zoning ordinances with the County Recorder
inasmuch as they had both city and county zoning by districts. Protests
had been made by property owners claiming ignorance of the existing
zoning ordinances. He asked specifically, "how can you legally inform
the public as to existing zoning ordinances?" The Chairman suggested
that the more common procedure was by official publication in the legally
designated local press whereas some cities required printed circulars to
be distributed under an official plan. The Chairman reminded the
questioner that the aspect of official publication should be amply
covered by the City Charter and/or the method of public notice be
made a part of the zoning ordinance.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 161
Mr. Francis A. Pitkin, additionally noted that Pennsylvania for-
merly required the recording of all zoning ordinances by filing them
with the Recorder of Deeds.
Mr. C. C. Robinson, of the Northern Virginia Regional Planning
Commission, asked "where does zoning stop and where does special use
begin?"
Mr. Pomeroy advocated ordinances spelling out details listing specific
uses permitted and likewise those to be decided by a Board of Adjust-
ment. Chairman Shurtleff added additional emphasis to the answer
by an emphatic statement that "any zoning ordinance that was not
clear should be repealed in order to remove any semblance of vagueness
and then re-enact the ordinance carefully delineating the permitted
uses and clearly stating the zoning of authority vested in the Board of
Adjustments." The entire panel was unanimous in this recommendation.
SECOND SESSION — MAY 20, 1954
PANEL: Chairman: Flavel Shurtleff, Counsel, American Planning and Civic
Association.
MEMBERS: Albert E. Redman, Director, Industrial Development Department of the
Ohio Chamber of Commerce, Columbus, Ohio.
R. B. Garrabrant, Secretary, Industrial Council of Urban Land Institute,
Washington, D. C.
Ladislas Segoe, Planning Consultant, Cincinnati, Ohio.
REPORTER: Granville W. Moore, General Manager, Greater Dallas Planning Council,
Dallas, Texas.
THE second morning session of the Zoning Round Table operated
generally in the sphere of zoning for industry. Chairman Shurtleff
reviewed briefly the recent Connecticut case wherein the State Supreme
Court ruled that barring residential use in areas exclusively zoned for
industry was unconstitutional where no present industrial use had been
established even though it had been previously zoned for industry.
His additional comment was that perhaps we were, in some instances,
going too far if, in long range zoning, prohibitive uses were named. He
suggested that a better plan would be to leave open for special excep-
tions before a Board of Adjustment. It was also his opinion that the
courts would look upon zoning with more favor if our ordinances would
recognize rights of land ownership use as being preserved and certainly
it would not imply confiscation by setting out prohibitive uses in long-
range zoning. The question was asked: "How to make long range
zoning stick?" Blocking out large areas for defense plants could in-
volve complications. Mr. Bromm, Milwaukee, stated "The county has
zoning authority but does not exclude residential uses in industrially
zoned areas. Now, the problem is that these areas have been annexed
to the City of Milwaukee which does have residential restriction." He
further stated that in order to preserve large tracts for possible indus-
trial expansion, there might be a provision made for naming agriculture
as a land use prior to any specific need for industry. It was Mr. Segoe's
162 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
opinion that the zoning ordinance should be drafted with sufficient
flexibility to accommodate local economy and the benefits to the local
citizenship since in the final analysis, these conditions would more or
less control. He offered the practicability of leaving the area open and
applying the new theory of site plans.
Mr. Redman was convinced' that we must change our concept of
zoning which heretofore has been "any area not fit for residential use
give to industry." He voiced his conviction, based upon both practical
and human experience, that zoning should provide comparable protection
to industry against the encroachments of land use. He emphasized that
when subsequent industrial expansion fails to find sufficient area in
which to expand, often, there is jeopardized not only the investment to
plant facilities but an actual impairment of the value of the plant site.
He recommended that performance standards as to filling the needs of
the community also should have consideration. The Chairman noted
that his attention has been called to cities needing an increase in the
tax base local administrations which were inclined to place industry
anywhere it wanted to go.
Mr. Pitkin inquired of Mr. Redman as to the available sources from
which adequate information might be obtained to serve as a guide in
setting up performance standards. Mr. Redman replied that the National
Industrial Zoning Committee was to publish soon a booklet setting
forth the factors by which these standards might be determined.
Mr. Garrabrant informed the conference that the Urban Land In-
stitute had recently developed a set of standards which involved a
town near Baltimore, Maryland. It included such things as set-back
limits, fire hazard, grade levels, odor, vibration and smoke pollution.
He recited circumstances in another city in Michigan. Mr. Ed Heisel-
berg, Director of Planning, Annapolis, Maryland was mentioned as
another source.
Mr.Segoe was of the opinion that objectionable features would have
to be determined and translated into some practical formula.
Mr. Redman suggested that probably a more practical plan outside
the realm of zoning would be to steer available land having an industrial
potential into strong ownership such as railroads, local industrial cor-
porations and other local interests.
Mr. Segoe noted that many local utilities are being urged to expand
local holdings for future industrial use. This procedure in those cities
interested in the search for industry provides an ideal opportunity for
locally financed corporations in the buying and holding of sites for in-
dustrial use.
Mr. H. E. Todd, Industrial Agent for the B & O Railroad, declared
that in one week his office received many requests for industrial sites
and none of the requirements coincided. This led to the question "what
is an industrial site?"
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 163
Mr. Todd said that in Indiana no large tracts were initially zoned
but followed a rule that if 100 acres or more were needed by a recognized
and responsibile group, experience had proven that the area would be
most likely zoned according to actual intended use.
Mr. Redman, having studied industrial requirements, summarized
recent requests which indicated that the trend was toward increased
needs for larger industrial sites, due to the growing influence of the cam-
paign for dispersal of productive potentials; the efficiency of one story
plant operations affording straight line production and the increasing
industrialization brought about through the increasing number of
technological developments.
Mr. Shurtleff told of an experience in a Connecticut town where large
areas were zoned residential has now changed its mind by attempting
to convert a good many sections into industrially zoned areas. As a
result of this experience, the implication would be to leave these areas
open and permit industry together with local interests to pick out a
site and then prepare an appropriate site plan. He then asked the ques-
tion "is that a good plan for industry and is this a good approach?"
Mr. Segoe replied that analyses of one survey attempting to answer
this question showed that a ratio of 7 out of 9 plants preferred areas
already zoned.
Mr. Tom Wallace presented a challenging question to the panel,
asking "what is to be done about air pollution and how can it be cor-
rected and still attract industry?" His question was double barrelled
in that he immediately followed with a related query "should you de-
pend on local or state laws?"
Mr. Segoe offered the suggestion that whatever attempt might be
made toward control, if not specifically spelled out, could very easily
become a political football. Apparently, control in the hands of local
committees using some standard or basic formula appeared to be best.
Ohio was cited as an example of having a state law giving cities juris-
diction with respect to zoning in areas adjacent to the corporate limits
and extending outward to a total distance of 3 miles.
Chairman Shurtleff concurred in this general analysis, particularly
recommending the use of local zoning ordinances rather than any rigid
state law.
Mr. Howard C. Miller, Los Angeles, submitted for forum discussion
problems now existing in Orange County (California). The case in
point involved what appeared to be overzealousness on the part of
zoning commissions whereby large areas had either been zoned for
agriculture or residential use to the exclusion of industry with the ap-
parent purpose of attracting large-scale residential subdivisions. Ex-
perience has now shown that these areas from the viewpoint of a tax-
base find themselves as poor as the proverbial Job's turkey. Accordingly,
these communities are now turning toward solicitation of industry
164 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
necessary to support the expanded population and find themselves in
the midst of a serious conflict as between the original zoning and the
need for industry.
Mr. Garrabrant referred to a study conducted by the Urban Land
Institute involving San Mateo County, California. In brief, it was
pointed out that the solution to Mr. Miller's question could not be
answered solely by zoning. Instead, after adequate studies have been
made, a comprehensive plan of development should be adopted using
the element of zoning as a tool in accomplishing the program.
Mr. Segoe added that a very effective plan had been used in Toronto
in attempting to generalize the ratio of industry to residential by using
the approximation of 40% of the area for industry and 60% for resi-
dential. However, he emphasized that this plan primarily was used in
advance planning wherein areas were being set aside for future develop-
ment. Reference also was made to the advisability of local government
seeking industry as a municipal responsibility.
Mr. Redman, while in general agreement with statements of other
members of the panel, strongly urged an impartial and factual tax
study be made and included in the final determination.
The question was posed "Can we not design land use patterns at the
State level?" The panel was unanimous in what was almost a spon-
taneous reply "that in their opinion such a plan was not practical and
would of necessity disregard the element of a democratic principle
wherein the local community, being thoroughly conversant with the
desires of its citizenship and the problems involved, was best qualified
for determining land use patterns."
The Zoning Round Table, thus, very appropriately closed its final
session on the note that "the health, morals, welfare and the economic
progress of a community, making it both a productive as well as a de-
sirable city or county, could be best achieved through intelligent action
of the citizens at the local level."
Columbus at the Mid- Century as it Looks to a
Former Resident
DR. EDWIN S. BURDELL, President of The Cooper Union, New York, N. Y.;
formerly Assistant Secretary of the State Savings Bank & Trust Company, Columbus
I DO NOT pose as an expert or professional city planner, but by
accident of birth in this booming metropolis, I am bold to comment
on Columbus as it looks to me today.
To reinforce my claim to having been a part of this community,
may I say that my father was born in 1856 in a frame house on the site
of the Deshler Hotel and I was born in 1898 on Linwood Avenue — then
the first house in a lonely subdivision opened up by my father at the
wrong time — the depression of 1893.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 165
Columbus has been aware only in a general way and only sporadically
of its manifest destiny. Looking back into the record, I found that the
City Council in 1904 authorized Mayor Jeffery to appoint a Park Com-
mission of 18 members with George W. Lattimer as chairman. This
Commission in 1906 engaged a group of Eastern experts who published
a city plan for Columbus in 1908 when the population was about 175,000.
They missed their prediction of 500,000 in 1934 by 200,000; for it ac-
tually was about 300,000 in that year and even in 1950 the population
of the city proper was 376,000. However, the metropolitan population
is now 513,000, so you have reached to all intents and purposes the
prediction of 45 years ago.
Again a personal reference: I received my graduate degree just
twenty years ago at Ohio State University and moved to Cambridge,
Massachusetts. However, I returned several times a year to visit my
father, William F. Burdell, who died in 1945 after having lived to the
ripe age of 88 years. I lived in Columbus during the boom in the 20's
and during the bust in the 30's. I have watched Columbus become the
center of a metropolitan community. Its political, industrial, and
cultural influences extend now well beyond its corporation line to the
farthest corners of Franklin County.
The impact of the expansion of the city into the county has brought
up the controversial subject of annexation, of county planning and
zoning, county building codes and inspection, water supply, and high-
way access.
I understand that water supply and traffic are now your major
problems. I well remember when the Griggs Dam was built in 1905 and
the O'Shaughnessy Dam in 1925, and an adequate water supply was
assured for Columbus for all time. But you have added the Delaware
Dam on the Olentangy and are building a dam on the Big Walnut.
Perhaps someday you will be tapping Lake Erie as Los Angeles taps
the water sources in northern California and Arizona.
Some of your public buildings are out-moded and many of them
inadequate. I can remember various renovations of the old Court House
and even after building a million-and-a-half-dollar annex you have
another bond issue coming up for still another remodeling of the old
building. Memorial Hall, long since out-moded, soon will be supple-
mented with the Veterans Auditorium. The State Fair grounds after
many threats to its present location will be extended by 50 acres and
improved by new and modern exhibition buildings. With its new Coli-
seum additional facilities will become available for the entertainment of
visitors. Columbus' claim as the Convention City will be unassailable
and it will be a formidable rival of Atlantic City and Chicago.
Being a capital city, however, you have certain other unmet needs.
Additional office space is or will be needed as the functions of the state
government grow. The monumental buildings erected on Front Street
166 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
in 1933 will have to be supplemented by more utilitarian structures.
And for every new office worker and visitor on state business you will
have to provide additional parking space. Don't forget that.
I am glad to hear that there is some active interest in moving the
State penitentiary out of the City. That area can then be redeveloped.
Having been chairman of the Franklin County Red Cross at the time
of the terrible Easter Monday Fire, I, as head of the relief measures
set up by the Red Cross at the scene of the fire and at the Fair Grounds,
know what awful conditions exist in a century-old plant built to house
less than half of the present number of prisoners and under conditions
more reminiscent of Andersonville Prison of Civil War days than of
modern penal institutions.
Other public installations, such as the huge Army Reserve Depot,
one of the largest in the world, may have been mistakenly located on
such an important street as East Broad Street and may have to be moved
to less valuable land. Old Columbus Barracks, now Fort Hayes, remains
about the same as I knew it years ago, but the Corps Area Headquarters
had to move to Chicago, perhaps because there was no room for expansion.
Lockbourne Air Base has attained front rank in our air defense and
being several miles out of town to the south probably can expand to
meet future needs. However, your present municipal airport has long
since outgrown present air traffic and will stifle improved service unless
plans and money are made available in the very near future.
The planners of 1908 correctly forecast Columbus as an educational
and religious center of the Nation. Everything I hear of recent develop-
ments certainly bears this out. The many new local churches are matched
by the national effort of several Protestant groups in projecting "The
Temple of Good Will" costing several million dollars to be erected on
property already purchased north of the present Federal Building.
Expansion of Capital University to the east and Otterbein at Wester-
ville attests to the vigor of privately supported higher education in the
near presence of a colossal state university. The jewel of the education-
al galaxy of the Middle West is, of course, The Ohio State University.
While the citizens of the State, through the Legislature, have sup-
ported it nobly, the credit must go to the president, Howard L. Bevis,
one of America's outstanding educational administrators. His leader-
ship within the State, however, has been one of the most important
factors in maintaining the supremacy of this institution at Columbus
over the half dozen other publicly supported colleges throughout the
State. His power of persuasion to combine both operating and capital
budgets has saved taxpayers millions and has assured them of a state
system of higher education with less duplication and competition than
any with which I am familiar.
The tremendous growth of colleges and universities since World
War II has left Ohio State with a fairly stabilized enrollment of 18,000
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 167
students as against 12,000 students when I left it 20 years ago, but in
the early 1960's when the great postwar increase in population will be
felt, the University will have to meet the new influx of freshmen. Such
current additions to facilities as the medical center, the Field House,
the new Music Hall on North High Street, and additional dormitories,
impress me greatly as to the vitality of the educational growth in pub-
licly supported institutions.
The commercial and industrial growth of Columbus, of course, is
an integral and important part of the picture. The opening of a great
airplane plant here during the last war, branch plants of such world-wide
manufacturing concerns as Westinghouse and General Motors, and a
distribution center of Sears-Roebuck attest to the wholesomeness of
private business in this area.
But to guide and condition this phenomenal growth, Columbus
must have a well-considered plan of development. Spasmodic and
intermittent planning sprees will not do it. Fear of city and county
planning as straight jackets and inhibitors of private initiative just
isn't borne out by experience in other communities. Compromises with
good planning have cost Americans billions of dollars since 1908. To
dismiss planning as unworkable because the impact of such inventions
as the motor car and the airplane weren't foreseeable 50 years ago is
nonsense. And I will attempt to show that even though the five experts
brought here in 1908 saw "as in a glass darkly" they also foresaw with
amazing prescience the difficulties that Columbus would face if it did
not do something about its streets, its parks, and its civic center.
Columbus is fortunate in having just now popular support for de-
veloping a master plan for the city and for the county. Let me say I was
very favorably impressed with the Annual Report for 1953, issued in
January 1954, by the Franklin County Regional Planning Commission
and for the enthusiastic support in an editorial in the Ohio State Journal
on April 17.
Let me go back to 1908 when I was 19 years old, and comment on
the cogency of the statements with respect to the present-day problem
you are facing. The Commission that wrote the 1908 report asked the
important question — What sort of a city is it for whose future we have
to plan? They came up with an answer as significant today as it was
then. They recognized Columbus as a capital city which they said calls
for "spectacular effectiveness" in its planning; as an industrial city which
requires facilitation of commerce as well as provision for recreation of
workers — an interesting comment for first decade of the century; as
an educational city calling for an atmosphere of "restfulness, beauty,
and refinement."
The Commission minced no words, however; they found no tangible
recognition of this three-fold destiny, no civic center plan, a rigid grid-
iron pattern of streets, and little provision for parks and playgrounds.
168 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
The Commission made several recommendations that are worth
noting. They pointed out first of all that Columbus, as a capital city,
required a civic center with the existing classic State House as the focal
point. A mall was to be cut through from the State House to the Scioto
River in the middle of the blocks between Broad and State Streets with
hotels and office buildings on the street frontages and (as the English
say) letting onto the Mall. The City Hall was to be located in the
East End of the axis in the middle of the block bounded by Broad and
State, Fourth and Third Streets, and flanked by an auditorium, a Post
Office, an Art Museum, and perhaps a Governor's residence. The western
end of this grand scheme was to be an armory on the site presently
occupied by the Central High School.
While this scheme was never implemented as such, the very fact that
a challenge had been thrown down to the citizens of Columbus prob-
ably eventually led to another sort of civic center along the Scioto River
and on sites less expensive to acquire and I must say it is one of the finest
in this country. Columbus' development of its riverfront compares
favorably with the efforts of Paris and Amsterdam.
Certainly the widening and deepening of the Scioto River at its
horseshoe bend through the heart of the City was a monumental achieve-
ment and due in part to the activities of Frank L. Packard, as spokes-
man for the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He
was ably supported by my father's close friends, Robert F. Wolfe and
Billy Ireland. Both the Journal and the Dispatch, being locally owned
and operated then as now, have always made the improvement of the
city a major concern.
The 1908 study came to grips with the same street problems that I
found in your 1953 county planning study, 45 years later. Even in
1908 the gridiron pattern of streets and the Maltese cross of city growth
along North and South High Streets and East and West Broad Streets,
imposed a burdensome rectangularity. As a solution, it was recom-
mended that a "girdle" parkway be cut through at a three-mile radius
from the State House roughly intersecting Franklin Park on the east,
the University on the north, the mental hospitals on the west, and the
steel mills on the south.
No doubt the additional suggestion that new streets should follow
the contours of the land and consider prevailing winds and sun exposure
sounded pretty strange in those days. But one quaint description of the
intersection of the radials to the circumferential was an amazing fore-
cast of the modern clover leaf; "streets leading to them (the intersec-
tions) should end in the shape of turbine paddles to keep traffic moving
in the same direction, if there is ever likely to be danger of street con-
gestion or much cross traffic."
The 1953 report of the Franklin County Regional Planning Com-
mission reports that one of its first long-range accomplishments was the
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 169
background research studies for and design of the preliminary plan of
expressways published the year before and notes that the first part of
this system, the Spring Sandusky Street Interchange, is already under
construction.
Your traffic congestion is typical of the motor age and of the vain
attempt to solve it by merely street widening, off-street parking, and
vehicular throughways. This leads me to speculate on the rivalry be-
tween rail and rubber. Thirty years ago I would have discussed the
rivalry between rail and third rail. I saw the Scioto Valley Traction
come in in 1904 and go' out in 1924 — one of the speediest cases of tech-
nological obsolescence in modern times! You remember how it thundered
up the city streets from South Parsons Avenue and with ten or a dozen
twistings and turnings reached its terminus at Third and Rich Streets.
Or recall the CD & M thundering down North High Street and twisting
and turning on half a dozen streets until it recrossed High Street again
to reach its station on West Gay Street. Even the 1908 survey viewed
the inter-urban with alarm, but failed to see in that view its early demise.
The interurban trolley raises a series of questions still new in city planning
that cry aloud for correct solution. It has become a freight carrier as well as a
passenger; the cars have increased enormously in weight and in size; it carries
mails; the cars attain a rate of speed that, coupled with their weight, gives to
them the momentum of tremendous projectiles. Shall this new system of trans-
portation be classed with the steam roads, to be relegated to a private right of
way; can it remain in a class with city street cars?
Cleveland seems to have answered this challenge and put its rapid
transit system in a right of way of its own and in my opinion points
the way to the only real solution of urban transit, i.e. a well thought-out
and balanced transit system of rail and highway.
Every American city faces a basic decision as to how much the area
will depend on rubber tired vehicles and how much on rails. Of course,
the ideal system would be to have available to every traveler a swift
commodius means of transportation at a price he felt was fair. Instead,
he finds in the metropolitan areas of the United States a vast uncoor-
dinated jumble of slow, old-fashioned, unreliable, expensive rail com-
mutation, which dumps him in the heart of the city from which place
he must enter overcrowded local bus and subway facilities so that the
journey to work, which may be only twenty or thirty miles, takes one
or two hours, involves several changes, and becomes a nightmare both
morning and night. The struggle gets so intolerable that the worker in
desperation drives his car in town perhaps if he lives near New York
City over some of Mr. Moses' splendid parkways, but throttles down to
a crawl at bottlenecks of bridges and tunnels. He arrives on Manhattan
to find hundreds of miles of city streets pre-empted on both sides by
parked cars 24 hours a day. Under such conditions, business deliveries
choke the streets and buses are continually being delayed. The person
170 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
who operates an automobile but can't afford to — or won't — use a parking
lot is favored over the vast majority who must depend upon public
vehicles operating on the streets. Thousands of these parked cars, each
requiring 300 square feet per car, come from outside the City via the
various subsidized transportation facilities, and as more highways are
built, so more cars enter the City further to choke the streets.
As the New York Regional Plan Association pointed out in a recent
report, one of the effects of the failure to make a comparable investment
in railroad access to the city has been enormously to increase the number
of vehicles that cause congestion in Manhattan's streets and use these
streets as mass parking fields. This situation is brought to your atten-
tion because the basic factors, if not their magnitude, are common to
all American cities. Columbus must not fail to recognize, in meeting
its destiny of an 830,000 population by 1980, that the rivalry between
rail and rubber must cease and that the situation calls for a mid-century
solution with mid-century resources, not with those thought adequate
in 1925 when the traction lines went out and the rubber tired vehicles
found existing streets quite adequate. Perhaps a north-south, east-west,
and circumferential rapid transit line in its own right of way and with
appropriate bus feeders of its own is your best bet. You can't go on
enticing private passenger cars into Broad and High unless you are pre-
pared to build several layers of subterranean parking lots under the
State House yard, the way they have done under Union Square in San
Francisco. In New York City auto borne passengers doubled in 5 years.
You may reach that point, and be forced as New York has, to consider
stopping private cars at the entrances to the City and transporting the
passengers by public rail or bus into the business district.
So let me review briefly and come to a conclusion. My first idea is
that the manifest destiny of Columbus is to be the headquarters of
government of this great State, to be an important rail and industrial
crossroads of this properous mid-west region, and to be the center of
higher education, research, and culture.
My second idea is that the rivalry between rail and rubber must be
reconciled. Paradoxical as it may seem, speedways, parkways, every
step you take to facilitate private vehicular traffic into the heart of the
city will defeat your objective of reducing congestion unless you provide
off-street parking for every vehicle that approaches within a half-mile
of the State House. You must equate the cost of making provision for
such individual privileges on rubber tires against the cost of public
rapid transit on steel rails.
My third idea and last one is the most difficult to discuss because it
is in the realm of esthetics and that is a subject usually left to the long-
haired philosophers. But I shall be one of those fools who rush in where
angels fear to tread!
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 171
We have gotten beyond the time when we thought belching smoke-
stacks, streets filled with telegraph wires and power lines were signs of
progress. Paved streets and curbs have replaced cobblestones and muddy
gutters. But monotony of design of buildings has given rise to a new
blatancy of electric signs and bizzarre efforts to attract attention. Grid-
iron patterns of streets create drab and depressing business and residen-
tial areas. Roadside signs reduce the suburban fringe to tattered slums.
Outmoded over-sized dwellings in the central part of the city degenerate
into either overcrowded dilapidated rooming houses or into places of
business with garrish fronts such as phony log cabin veneers. Shade
trees along former residential streets are cut down at waist height and
allowed to rot.
The 1908 Report declared:
It is of small importance whether the residents of Arlington or BuIIitt Park
(Bexley to you latecomers) contribute to taxation or not, though they gain
their livelihood in Columbus and share in the benefit of all city improvements,
but it is a matter of great importance whether any smaller community shall be
allowed to disfigure the outskirts of the city. Happily this menace is not yet
apparent, but it will come if a cooperative policy is not adopted in all matters
of public improvement.
Certainly those gentlemen in 1908 were doing some pretty good
crystal ball gazing in foreshadowing the need for the Franklin County
Regional Planning Commission.
I would like to close with a phrase of Sir Henry Wotton, a 17th cen-
tury English architect, who translating a statement by Vitruvius, said
that buildings, and I believe this applies to cities as well, should be
practical, durable, structurally, and pleasing in appearance. In this
quaint Elizabethan phraseology, he listed these indispensable character-
istics of good building as "commoditie, firmness, and delight." May the
builders of Columbus during the second half of the 20th century hold
these same virtues high in their planning.
Metropolitan Toronto
FREDERICK G. GARDINER, Q.C., Chairman of the Council
of Metropolitan Toronto, Toronto, Canada
AT THE turn of the century Sir Wilfrid Laurier who was our prime
minister, predicted that the twentieth century would belong to
Canada. That prediction did not meet with universal acceptance on
both sides of the international border but despite two wars and a de-
pression which almost shattered the foundations of our economic system
we are now seeing convincing evidence that Laurier's prophetic state-
ment may be realized.
In Canada we are the beneficiaries of tremendous water power and
forest resources in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec; our Prairie
172 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
Provinces still constitute one of the world's most important bread-
baskets; we are the number one producer of pulp and paper; we have
discovered oil in Alberta, Saskatchewan and now in Manitoba; lead,
zinc and uranium have been found in many places across the breadth
of our country; we have the largest nickel mine anywhere; and in the
making what may be the second largest. New iron mines have been
discovered at Steep Rock in Ontario and in Labrador. They will be
ready to replace the declining inventory of the Messabi Range on the
south side of Lake Superior which for years has fed many of your steel
mills; and coming closer to home we are watching an unprecedented
construction of factories over a thousand-mile waterfront from Windsor
opposite Detroit down to Quebec City along the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Nothing has equalled our present expansion except that which oc-
curred in your country during and since World War II. Your amazing
growth, however, was accomplished by 150 million people as compared
with our 15 million all of whom could be comfortably accommodated
in the single State of New York. Not only has the economic development
of our two countries followed a similar pattern but our forms of govern-
ment have also. Our Federal Governments are responsible for those
matters which the architects of our constitutions considered would
be best administered on a national basis. Your States and our provinces
are charged with the administration of those matters which are con-
sidered to be best handled on a more local basis and the creation and
regulation of municipalities is within the jurisdiction of your States
and our provinces.
I make these observations about Canada and the United States
and the similarity of our development as the municipal problems which
demanded a solution in Toronto are almost precisely the same as those
which confront every metropolitan city in North America.
The expansion of our large cities had a common cause. During the
two great wars a tremendous immigration of people took place into
every large industrial city to swell our production lines as the United
States and Canada became the arsenal for the preservation of democracy.
In Canada our examples were: Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Windsor,
Winnipeg and Vancouver. In the United States the same thing occurred
in Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and all
your large industrial cities.
We expected after the war that the situation would reverse itself
and that the tremendous influx of people into our cities would be fol-
lowed by a corresponding exodus. The exodus never occurred. Instead
the population continued to increase at an accelerated rate until our
central cities became filled and the population spilled over the borders
to create a whole series of suburban municipalties.
In the Toronto area we had an additional and special contributing
factor. In 1909, 1910 and 1912 the City of Toronto annexed three large
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 173
towns which almost encircled the city. They were the towns of East
Toronto, West Toronto and North Toronto. These three major annexa-
tions took place in a relatively short time and gave rise to extensive
administrative difficulties during the reorganization of the expanded
municipality. The city taxpayers contended that after each such an-
nexation they paid $2 for each $1 paid by the taxpayer in the annexed
area to bring the municipal services up to the standard which prevailed
in the city. The City Fathers came to the conclusion that there would
be no more annexations. If that decision had been of temporary duration
it would not have made much difference in the long run but the decision
was as final as it was unfortunate. It failed to recognize that time marches
on and that you cannot stand in the way of progress.
Bordering the city were three large townships, Scarborough, York
and Etobicoke. Each was developing rapidly. As the parts of these
townships became urbanized they should have been annexed by the
city from time to time in a normal and retail way to provide an orderly
expansion of the city. But the die was cast and for forty years no fur-
ther annexations took place.
Meanwhile the people living in the suburban areas desiring a different
form of municipal administration to that which was provided in other-
wise largely agricultural townships proceeded to splinter themselves off
and establish themselves into individually locally autonomous mu-
nicipalities so that they could develop their communities in accordance
with their local aspirations.
Over the forty years from 1912 to 1952 the metropolitan area be-
came divided into thirteen separate municipalities. One city, three
villages, four towns, and five urbanized townships. Each was geared to
a local pattern of development. None was very much concerned about
what was happening to its neighbor and none was interested in the
general and proper development of the whole area. With this impractical
and unrealistic development something was bound to happen and it
did not take it long to occur.
The City of Toronto had provided itself with an adequate water
supply for its own residents and for a time it was able to supply water
to some of the adjoining suburban municipalities. Before long, however,
the city did not have the capacity to take care of itself as well as its
satellite municipalities. Several of the suburban municipalities could
not get access to Lake Ontario, which is their logical source of water,
as they were cut off from the lake by the geographical location of the
city. Several attempted to provide water from wells but such a system
soon proved to be wholly inadequate.
In North York Township the population increased from 30,000 in
1945 to over 105,000 in 1953. Today its population is over 120,000.
It is what we call a dormitory municipality or what your planners call
a bedroom municipality. The residents go there to live and elsewhere
174 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
to work. That particular suburb developed into a residential area for
people of moderate means. In the absence of industrial development
there was not sufficient assessment to finance water supply, sewage
disposal, roads, sidewalks, lights and the educational facilities required
for the children of the young families who settled within its borders.
That situation was duplicated in varying degrees in other suburban
municipalities.
The situation with respect to sewage disposal was the same as with
water supply. Lake Ontario is the logical place for the ultimate disposal
of sewage. Half a dozen of the municipalities were cut off from access
to the lake by the City of Toronto. For a while the sewage disposal
facilities in Toronto were sufficient to accommodate the city and some
of the adjoining municipalities but soon the volume of sewage exceeded
the capacity of the city's system. In North York there are installed
20,000 septic tanks; they are built in clay; which in the summer has the
consistency of concrete and in the spring the consistency of moose
pasture; which in our country means a swamp. It has neither the quality
of absorption nor evaporation. I do not need to comment upon the
unsatisfactory nature of that condition from a public health point of
view. It is inconvenient and uncomfortable. It could be disastrous.
As the situation developed some municipalities were able to finance
the services which they required; others were not; some were financially
sound; others were going broke.
One municipality boasted that it had the finest system of education
in Canada. In fact it had. It was a small high class residential com-
munity, about a mile square with a population of about 20,000 and the
highest assessment per capita in Canada. Other municipalities, however,
were unable to provide their children with a minimum standard of educa-
tion without financial difficulty.
Although our industrial, commercial and residential development
was expanding in all directions nothing approaching a system of arterial
highways was developed. No agreement could be arrived at on a co-
operative basis between the thirteen municipalities as to where the
arterial highways should go and how they would be paid for. All agreed
that expressways and parkways were essential so long as they ran through
some other municipality and some one else paid for them.
The situation became desperate. Our highways became plugged with
motor vehicles. 375,000 motor vehicles are domiciled in the metropolitan
area and an additional 100,000 come in and go out each day. We were
trying to accommodate that cavalcade of motor vehicles on streets
laid out a hundred years ago which have progressed from the stage of
horse cars to street cars but not much further. Incidentally I should
say that we have a larger number of motor vehicles per capita than any
city on the North American continent with the exception of Detroit
and Los Angeles.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 175
There was a crying need for housing. The city had no room for an
organized housing development and the suburbs could not finance the
necessary services.
The Toronto and County of York Planning Board of which I was
chairman for five years, lined its walls and shelves with maps, plans and
models. But in the absence of a power to tax the constituent municipal-
ities and to take expropriation proceedings as we call them or condem-
nation proceedings as you call them we could accomplish nothing.
We had to be driven by intolerable inconvenience and the threat of
financial difficulty before the necessary steps were taken to solve our
problems. When some of our municipalities found difficulty in selling
their bonds it was evident that a remedy had to be found. There is
something very salutary about the silence which occurs when the cash
register stops ringing.
The Metropolitan Toronto Act was the result of an application by
the City of Toronto to the Ontario Municipal Board for an order direct-
ing the amalgamation of the whole thirteen municipalities into one
municipal corporation.
I should explain to you that under our Municipal Act which governs
all municipalities no municipality has sovereign powers by reason of its
Act of Incorporation. There are provisions in our Municipal Act which
apply generally to all municipalities. None are incorporated under
individual and separate Acts of Incorporation.
Furthermore the Ontario Municipal Board which is a quasi-judicial
and administrative tribunal can order the annexations or amalgama-
tion of the whole or part of any number of adjoining municipalities.
Eleven of the twelve suburban municipalities opposed the city's
application for amalgamation and righteously and indignantly defended
their local autonomy. In the face of opposition which was violent and
vitriolic the Ontario Municipal Board concluded that it was not ad-
visable arbitrarily to force upon the eleven opposing municipalities a
form of municipal government to which they were so intensely opposed.
On the other hand the Board recognizing the dangers which were in-
herent in the situation and that they required early and effective action
recommended that the Province of Ontario pass legislation to establish
a metropolitan system of municipal government for the whole area.
Neither under the general provisions of our Municipal Act nor under
any special legislation had a metropolitan municipal government been
previously established.
By reason of the comprehensive nature of the municipal services
which are now administered by the Metropolitan Corporation, the plan
is unique in North America. The closest approximation is the London
County Council in England which is composed of 150 members from
28 boroughs and which provides metropolitan services for 3J^ million
people.
176 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
The Metropolitan Toronto Act established a system whereby the
thirteen municipalities may preserve their identity and continue to
administer those services which are local in nature and at the same
time be combined together for the provision of those services which
are metropolitan in nature.
Where control over those services which have a national significance
is vested in the Federal Government and control over those services
which have a more local application is vested in your States and our
provinces. Our new system of Metropolitan Government is actually
a federal system of municipal government.
By the establishment of an additional level of government for the
provision of those municipal services which are metropolitan in nature
the way is left open for eventual amalgamation of the constituent mu-
nicipalities if that is considered to be the best course to follow. On the
other hand if this new metropolitan form of government operates suc-
cessfully there may never be the necessity for the actual amalgamation
of the consituent municipalities and the enforcement upon the dis-
senters of that political union which they so violently oppose.
The services for which the Metropolitan Corporation is responsible
are: water supply, sewrage disposal, housing, the financing of education,
arterial highways, metropolitan parks, certain welfare services, and the
overall planning of the area.
With respect to water supply ... on January 1st 1954, the Met-
ropolitan Corporation automatically became the owner of all of the
pumping stations, treatment plants, reservoirs and trunk mains in the
whole of the thirteen municipalities. No compensation is payable by
the Metropolitan Corporation to the local municipalities which previously
owned these works except that the Metropolitan corporation has as-
sumed all the outstanding unpaid bonds issued in connection with their
establishment. The Metropolitan Corporation will sell water to each of
the thirteen municipalities through meters at their borders at a whole-
sale rate sufficient to pay the cost of the operation and extension of the
Metropolitan Water System. The local municipalities will continue to
own their local water distribution mains and will sell water to their
individual consumers at prices fixed by them.
An engineering report just recently received indicates that forty-five
million dollars needs to be expended over the next five to ten years to
extend the metropolitan water system so that it will provide an adequate
water supply for the whole of the settled area. This is a metropolitan
responsibility.
With respect to sewage disposal the situation is the same . . . the
Metropolitan Corporation as of January 1st, 1954, automatically became
the owner of the sewage disposal and treatment plants and trunk mains
in all the thirteen municipalities and will accept sewage from the thir-
teen municipalities at their borders through meters at a wholesale rate
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 177
of so much per million gallons. The local municipalities will retain their
local collection systems and charge their local residents for sewage ser-
vices through the general tax rate as is presently the case or by a sewer
rental system which is presently the subject matter of investigation
and consideration.
The same engineering report recently received indicates that fifty-
nine million dollars will need to be expended over the same period of
time to provide adequate sewage disposal facilities for the whole area.
This is also a Metropolitan responsibility.
As to arterial highways . . . the Metropolitan Corporation has
already designated those highways in the whole area which became
Metropolitan Roads on the 1st January, 1954. These are the roads in
the area which are considered to have an arterial significance. The
Metropolitan Corporation will assume all of the outstanding and un-
paid debentures issued for the construction of such roads and will pay
the cost involved in their maintenance and extension. The Metropolitan
Corporation will also undertake the building of such expressways,
parkways and arterial highways as will provide the area with an adequate
arterial highway system. Engineering plans have been received for a
lakeshore expressway, estimated to cost $50 million and to be built
across the front of the city near the lake in somewhat similar fashion
to the one in Cleveland.
The Lakeshore Expressway is designed to carry 100,000 motor
vehicles a day. Part of it is on the level and part is elevated. It is
creating the usual and not unexpected row and furor as to whether the
east end of the city is getting as much out of the deal as the west. There
are those who say it is too short and should be built longer regardless
of cost. While there are those steadfast citizens who are always with us
who say we are too ambitious and will ruin the taxpayer.
We have under preliminary consideration three other highways to
give us a fundamental system of arterial roads, a Don Valley Parkway,
a Spadina Arterial Highway and an Eglinton Avenue Crosstown High-
way. The capital involved in the whole programme for arterial high-
ways over the next five to ten years is estimated at $100 million.
Metropolitan roads will be paid for 50 percent by the Metropolitan
Corporation and 50 percent by the Province of Ontario. I should ob-
serve in passing that our federal government makes no contribution to
any highway in Canada other than the Trans Canada Highway. And
our counties do not share in the cost of highways in cities. . . . Our
highways are solely a metropolitan and provincial responsibility.
With respect to public transportation, the Toronto Transportation
Commission, which has been a separate authority for thirty years, has
been expanded into the Toronto Transit Commission. The new T.T.C.
has a monopoly in respect of public transportation in the whole of the
metropolitan area with a corresponding responsibility of providing
178 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
public transportation throughout the whole of the area which comprises
240 square miles. The City of Toronto's sixty million dollar subway
recently went into operation. It is the main stem of our transit system
which with surface lines, trolley coaches and bus facilities will provide
for the millions of passengers who require public transportation for long
and short distances daily.
We have the same differences of opinion as exist in American cities
as to how transportation can best be supplied, whether arterial high-
ways and parking facilities should be built at public expense to ac-
commodate the motorist or whether he should be driven off the highways
and on to the public transit system. Having regard to the importance
of the motorist and the fact that he pays a federal sales tax of 10 percent,
a federal excise tax of 15 percent, and a provincial gas tax of 11 cents
per gallon, I imagine we will be spending many millions of dollars on
highways to compete with the millions which have been and will be
spent on our rapid transit system.
All the independent bus lines now operating in the suburbs, of which
there are several, were acquired on July 1st, 1954. Their owners will
be paid compensation for their undertakings which will be settled
by mutual agreement or if mutual agreement is not arrived at by ar-
bitration before the Ontario Municipal Board.
In order to equalize the cost of education throughout the area, the
Metropolitan Corporation has assumed as of January 1st all the out-
standing bonded indebtedness of all the schools in the metropolitan area.
And in addition will pay each year to the school boards in each of the
constituent municipalities a maintenance grant of $150 per year for
each primary pupil, $250 per year for each secondary pupil and $300
per year for each vocational pupil. This will permit each of the local
municipalities to provide a reasonable standard of education for their
children and spread the cost over the whole area. If any local munici-
pality desires to provide a higher standard of education than these
payments will permit it may do so at the extra cost which will be
paid by its local taxpayers.
The Metropolitan Council is paralleled by a Metropolitan School
Board which will designate the location of new schools and co-ordinate
the activities of each of the local school boards in the thirteen munici-
palities. The Metropolitan Corporation has no jurisdiction or control
over education in its academic aspects.
Certain health and welfare services such as hospitalization of indigent
patients, the provision of homes for the aged and the financing of Chil-
dren's Aid Societies are the financial responsibility of the Metropolitan
Corporation, which will provide and maintain a court house and a jail.
The Metropolitan Corporation has all of the powers of a munici-
pality, with respect to the provision of housing and redevelopment,
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 179
which is one of the major problems which remains to be solved and which
we are now tackling.
A Metropolitan Planning Board has jurisdiction throughout the
metropolitan area and also on a regional basis extending over each of
the adjoining townships on the borders of the metropolitan area in
order to prevent undesirable fringe developments which have caused
so much trouble in the past.
The Metropolitan Corporation is empowered to acquire, establish
and operate metropolitan parks and green belts in respect of which up
to date it has been quite impossible to procure the necessary co-operation
between the thirteen municipalities.
The metropolitan undertaking will be financed by a metropolitan
budget. The cost of operating the Metropolitan Corporation will be
charged equitably and evenly over the thirteen municipalities in the ratio
of the aggregate assessment in the respective municipalities to the ag-
gregate assessment of the whole area. During the past two years, the
Greater Toronto Assessment Board established by the provincial gov-
ernment has reassessed the whole of the industrial, commercial and
residential properties in each of the thirteen municipalities on the same
basis. Each of the local municipalities will contribute to the cost of
operating the Metropolitan Corporation in the ratio that its total as-
sessment bears to the total assessment of the whole metropolitan area.
The aggregate assessment of all properties in the metropolitan area is
approximately $2,500,000,000.
All of our financing is done on the basis of real estate taxation. We
do not have municipal sales taxes, automobile taxes, machinery and
equipment taxes or income taxes.
The Metropolitan Corporation will not issue tax bills to the individual
taxpayers but will issue tax bills to each of the thirteen municipalities.
The metropolitan tax rate will be sufficient to provide the funds necessary
for its current operation and to finance the capital expenditures which
will be undertaken. The thirteen municipalities in turn will incorporate
their contribution to the Metropolitan Corporation in their local budget.
In this manner, each municipality will pay its appropriate contribution
to the Metropolitan Corporation and, in addition, will tax its local
taxpayers a local rate for the amount required to provide the local
services for which it remains responsible.
The local municipalities will no longer issue bonds for any of their
requirements. If they need capital money for their local undertakings
they will apply to the Metropolitan Council to issue the necessary bonds
for the account of the local municipality. If the Metropolitan Council
agrees that the bonds should be issued it will issue them. If the Met-
ropolitan Council considers that such bonds should not be issued as
the works are premature or not warranted the local municipality may
appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board whose decision is final. All
180 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
bonds will have for their security the total assessment of the whole
area. In respect of bonds issued for the account of a local municipality
the local municipality will tax its taxpayers each year for an amount
sufficient to pay the Metropolitan Corporation the annual payments
necessary to amortize the bonds.
I should point out that we do not have revenue bonds for financing
individual municipal undertakings nor can we issue federal income tax
exempt bonds as can your municipalities. Our financing is all done
upon the general security of the rateable assessment in the whole area.
The Province of Ontario recognizing that the only tax source for our
municipalities in real property has established a system of grants which
will be made by the province to all municipalities. These grants vary
from $1.50 per capita in small municipalities to $4.00 per capita in re-
spect of municipalities over 500,000. Accordingly the Metropolitan
Corporation will receive from the province an unconditional grant of
$4 per capita. As there are approximately 1}^ million people in the
metropolitan area the Metropolitan Corporation will receive from the
province about $5 million in 1954 and in each successive year a similar
grant of $4 per capita will be made. As the population increases the
grant will increase. This provincial contribution will lighten the burden
which will be imposed upon the taxpayers in the whole of the area and
will make it possible for the necessary metropolitan services to be
provided over a reasonable period in accordance with self-defined plans
without unduly increased taxation.
In addition to the annual grant the province paid the organizational
costs of the Metropolitan Corporation up to January 1st, 1954, when the
Metropolitan Corporation actually took over its administrative duties.
The Metropolitan Corporation is governed by a Metropolitan Coun-
cil of 25 members. Twelve members are from the City of Toronto and
twelve are from the twelve suburban municipalities. In order that the
plan will conform to our accepted principle that there should be no
taxation without representation, each of the 24 members have the quali-
fication of being elected members in their local councils :
The twelve from the City of Toronto are: the Mayor of the City;
the two of the four Controllers in the City of Toronto who received the
highest number of notes at the last municipal election; and the nine
Aldermen from the nine city wards who received the highest number of
votes at the last municipal election.
The twelve representatives from the twelve suburbs are the heads
of the twelve suburban municipalities. They are the mayors in the case
of the four towns, and the reeves in the case of the three villages and
the five townships.
Commencing on the 1st January, 1955, the 24 members of the Met-
topolitan Council will elect their own chairman from among their own
number or from outside, as the council decides.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 181
This metropolitan system of municipal government which I have
described is the solution offered by the Province of Ontario for the
problems that confront metropolitan areas. It is a calculated attempt
to allow the local municipalities in the metropolitan area to preserve
their local autonomy in respect of matters which are local in nature and
to combine them together for the provision of municipal services which
are metropolitan in nature.
'The Place of Business and Industry in
Metropolitan Planning"
DAVID L. RIKE, President of The Rike-Kumler Company, Dayton, Ohio
IN THE beginning I would like to warn you that my remarks may be
colored by the fact that I am and alwaj^s have been a retailer, and
that they may be even further colored by the fact that I am a Central
District retailer whose company neither has nor contemplates suburban
branches. However, I do believe that whatever is good for my business,
from the standpoint of metropolitan area planning, will most probably
be helpful to other types of business within our area.
I believe very firmly that business has a selfish interest in desiring
either to establish itself or continue to exist in the best possible com-
munity. As a retailer, it is quite obvious that the inhabitants of our area
are potential customers. It is certainly comforting to know that con-
sistently the take-home pay of those employed by industry in our area
ranks at or near the top among the seven large cities of Ohio. In a similar
manner industry and other types of business have a vital stake in the
type of community wherein their employees make their homes, since,
as I will discuss later, the living conditions of our employees is of prime
important to management.
I happen to come from what I believe is an unusually fine community.
Many of you also come from fine communities, and if you don't there
is no reason why you shouldn't. Fine communities don't just grow like
Topsy. They come about through a lot of hard work and a Jot of for-
ward thinking and planning. Dayton has been blessed over the past
years in having a number of industrial leaders who have taken a keen
and active interest in the future well-being of our community. An
outstanding example was John H. Patterson, founder of the National
Cash Register Company. My grandfather, who founded our business
101 years ago, and my father, firmly believed that their business could
prosper only if the community prospered. They believed that what
was good for the community was definitely good for their store. Both
182 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
of them were very active in civic affairs and did their best to further
long-range planning in our area.
Let me give you a recent example of what I mean by a good com-
munity. When it became obvious not too long after the end of the war
that the City of Dayton could not properly perform the services expected
of it and make those improvements which were vital to its future growth,
the City Commission put into effect in April of 1949 a City Income Tax
of J^ percent on the earned income of all residents of the City and of
all who worked in the City, regardless of the place of their residence;
also, on the profits of all business enterprises. Due to a technicality in
our City Charter this tax was declared invalid by the Ohio Supreme
Court in March 1950. As a result, services which had been expanded
in the past few months were quickly curtailed and practically all large
improvements which were contemplated were dropped. Immediately
our citizens and business realized the plight in which we found ourselves
and organized to present the tax to the voters in May of that year.
The passage of the tax became almost a crusade and was voted and
put into effect in July, 1951. The tax was due to expire the end of this
year, and so its renewal for five years at the same rate, namely % per-
cent, was presented to the voters at the Primary election the early part
of this month. Since it is hard to show any great accomplishment,
particularly in the way of capital improvements, in a period of less than
three years, the issue was presented with some misgivings. Fortunately
all civic groups, including the various labor organizations, supported
the renewal of the tax. There was virtually no opposition and it was
approved by 76.5 percent of those voting. It must be evident that our
citizens who must pay the tax on their salaries, as well as business who
must pay it on its profits, would never have supported this measure so
overwhelmingly if they had not known that Dayton had a long-range,
intelligent civic plan.
Last year our City Commission had approved an expenditure of
$140,000 for a complete review and modernization of our Master Plan
by Bartholomew & Associates. This expenditure is in addition to an
annual budget of $38,000 for the routine work of our Planning De-
partment staff.
Let us now consider the importance to business of proper living
conditions for their employees. Industry long ago learned that good
working conditions within the plant have at least as much merit for the
Company as for the worker, for good working conditions result in im-
proved productivity, and that in turn produce greater profits as well
as higher wages for the workers. Similarly, more and more businesses
are finding that the living conditions of their employees play an im-
portant part in morale and hence in the attitude of these employees
toward their jobs.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 183
Here is an example. The headquarters of the Air Force Research and
Procurement Branches is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base,
a short distance from Dayton. When World War II started, the activities
of the Field naturally had to be expanded many fold. As a result many
thousands of additional Civilian employees were needed, and facilities
to house them and feed them, and transportation to get them to and
from the Field, were obviously of an emergency nature. As a result,
in spite of good rates of pay for the jobs to be filled, the number of
applicants was insufficient for the positions open. Among those engaged
there was considerable dissatisfaction with the conditions of their em-
ployment, particularly with those factors having to do with employee
morale. One of these morale factors was the inability of Field employees
to get to town after work in time to do necessary shopping before the
stores closed. As a result, the Commanding General of the Field called
together the merchants and asked that they open at night for the con-
venience of Field employees. The merchants were having their own
employment problems, trying to compete with Government and in-
dustry in a very scarce labor market. However, since it had been put
up to them that shopping facilities were one of the very important
morale problems at the Field they changed their schedule and did open
one evening, and later, again at the urgent request of the Field, two
evenings each week.
It seems quite obvious that we are not going to have the best type
of employees attracted to our community or kept here unless we have
good schools, sufficient recreational facilities, and cultural opportunities
for our citizens. We at Hike's are very much concerned with employee
morale and, as a result, we attempt to do as many things as possible
to establish the reputation of being one of the best places in town to
work. If we can maintain such a reputation we will, of course, have a
wider choice of the good available people and, naturally, will end up
with a fine group of employees. Those of you who are frequent patrons
of retail stores know that friendly, courteous, helpful employees are
the most important asset any merchant can have. Just as we try to
have the best working conditions, we want our area to have the best
possible living conditions, so that the highest type of people will want
to continue to make their homes in Dayton and others, away from here,
will be attracted to our community. This strong feeling of the importance
to our business of having an outstanding community expresses itself
in our attempt to have our executives play an important part in civic
affairs.
The set-up of numerous political sub-divisions in many of our States,
which was determined in the days of transportation by horse and com-
munication by letter, seems to me to be an important factor in making
it necessary that business not only take an active interest but, more
importantly, take leadership in the planning of future metropolitan
184 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
area developments. It is always easiest, and certainly safest, to talk
about one's own situation. Dayton, by 1950 census standards, is the
center of two county metropolitan areas. The City has an excellent
Planning Board and Planning Department but, after all, their authority
goes only to the City limits. Montgomery County has more recently
established an agency for long-range planning and, within the limits of
their authority, will undoubtedly accomplish much of benefit to the
area. Unfortunately, there are at least twenty political sub-divisions
within the two counties, all of which have their own problems, and
most of them do not have the foresight to see that many of these prob-
lems are area-wide in importance, rather than being limited to their
own city, village, or township. Unfortunately, there is no over-all
metropolitan planning authority to coordinate these various interests.
If you accept my earlier conclusions that business very definitely
profits by operating in a well run community, then I think that you
must agree that the enlightened self-interest of business further requires
that it exert its influence to see that a good, sound plan is developed
which will serve the needs of the entire metropolitan area and that
there is sufficient authority to put their plans into effect.
Let us remind ourselves that a very important part of every city's
income is derived from the central business district. In Dayton 10 per-
cent of the total real estate valuation for tax purposes is located on
either side of Main Street, within a five-block strip. This is on a front
foot basis and not the total value of the properties.
After considerable study, including research by outside organizations
whom we engaged, we are convinced that any rumors you may have
heard about the critical condition or demise of the downtown business
section are, as Mark Twain said, "grossly exaggerated." Unquestion-
ably, the larger the city, the more importance suburban sections will
assume, business-wise. On the other hand, in practically all cities of
1,000,000 population or less, which roughly would mean cities of met-
ropolitan areas of less than 2,000,000, the central business section is still
very much alive and, in my opinion, faces quite a rosy future.
We exchange figures with 26 other department and specialty stores
located in non-competing areas from coast to coast and from Maine to
Texas. In the five year period from 1948 through 1953, which has wit-
nessed the great growth of the suburban shopping center, quite a few
of these stores have opened branches, but of the five stores that made
the largest percentage of sales increase over that period, only one opened
a suburban branch. The other four have continued to concentrate their
efforts in the central business section. Naturally, we are going to need
a lot of help from all the agencies involved in future planning if my
prognostication is correct about the continuing strength of the down-
town area, but you may be sure that we will be more than anxious to
cooperate with them toward the solution of our mutual problems.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 185
The most important problem facing the central business section is
getting people into and out of the downtown area quickly and com-
fortably. Obviously, this involves a great number of factors. You must
provide easy access to the large city from the smaller communities and
rural areas within your territory. Since this will involve arterial high-
ways and cross the confines of many political sub-divisions, it will be
absolutely necessary that there be some agency which can plan on an
area rather than a community basis. As I have indicated, I believe
business can be of great help in fostering such over-all planning organ-
izations and in helping them put their recommendations into effect.
Four-lane arterial highways to the edge of the city and then traffic
lights every block until you ultimately reach downtown are no more
absurd than city through-ways which end all too soon in suburban two-
lane streets. Easy access to the downtown is important to both the
individual car owner and to those who rely on mass transportation.
Since several surveys which we have made in Dayton indicate that
approximately half the people arriving in the central section come by
mass transportation, it would seem only obvious as well as fair to do as
much to make that service the best possible as to give of our time and
money to improve the situation of the private car driver. Unfortunately,
the problem cannot be divided and put neatly into two equal water-
tight compartments. The number of passengers per private automobile
vs. the number of passengers per bus or streetcar is vastly different.
The number of cars jamming up the streets and highways create one
of the most serious problems for the mass transportation vehicle. With
proper highways and street planning and development we can hope to
move all vehicles, private and public, in a reasonably satisfactory man-
ner, if only we can take care of them quickly and efficiently when they
get where they want to go. Insufficient or, more importantly, poorly
utilized parking, with the attendant congestion caused by cruising cars
which should have been already parked, is one of the main sources of
central district congestion. Our Dayton experience with the Jiffy Park-
ing system, which moved all-day parking to the fringe areas and sharply
increased the turnover of shopper parking, is to me an outstanding ex-
ample of what can be done to make the most of existing facilities and
is a wonderful tribute to what can be accomplished when local govern-
mental planning authorities and business work together.
To indicate our own belief in the importance of parking we have
purchased or contracted to purchase within the past few years two
pieces of real estate; one is 50,000 square feet, the other 60,000, each
within a block of our store, and at a total cost of over $1,000,000. Be-
cause parking in Dayton (believe it or not) is not as bad as in most
medium-size cities, these properties will be used for the present as park-
ing lots, and multi-deck garages will be erected only when they are
economically justified.
186 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
I have been quite concerned recently with the effort being made by
private enterprise to attempt to push the municipalities into providing
off-street parking. Since parking is primarily a problem of providing a
number of individual lots and garages which should be able to pay their
own way, it seems to me that business should be expected to carry most,
if not all, of the load. On the other hand, there are fewer ways in which
business can help the operators of mass transportation, and so if there
are to be local governmental subsidies to ease the transportation situa-
tion, it seems to me they might well be directed toward improving mass
transportation facilities.
Our problems seem relatively simple when touched upon in such an
off-hand manner. Frankly, you and I know that they are extremely
complicated and will be costly as well as tedious in their solution. How-
ever, I have made this digression into the specific needs of the central
business section because I wanted to indicate to you that it is still the
most dynamic section of most metropolitan areas and the one which
those of you who must find the wherewithal to run our communities
can continue to count on to produce a disproportionately large share of
your revenue for many years to come.
Citizens Responsibility for Civic Planning
The Pittsburgh Story
THEODORE L. HAZLETT, JR., Solicitor, Allegheny Conference on
Community Development, Pittsburgh, Pa.
THE Pittsburgh Story is basically the planning and carrying forward
of a broad program of regional improvement and development.
Within a period of seven years, there has been invested or committed
to be invested in the Pittsburgh area, approximately $1,637,000,000 of
private and public money. The program consists of such improvements
as a new airport, five skyscrapers, a steel mill capable of producing two
million tons of steel annually, public off-street parking facilities, new
parks (city and state), a smoke abatement program, dams for flood
control, stream purification, slum clearance, public housing, a new hotel,
new downtown apartments, a multi-million dollar highway program,
and an expansion of educational institutions.
Why this vitality? What caused a city sliding down hill so fast to
suddenly be propelled upwards at a breath-taking rate? The reasons,
of course, are many — chance, good planning, and availability of private
and public monies. Underlying them all, however, I personally feel
that the results were accomplished by a change of attitude in Pittsburgh
by Pittsburghers. And it is on that subject that I wish to speak to you
this evening. Perhaps I might have spoken on the changing attitude
about Pittsburgh, since actually my presence here exemplifies the fact
that there has been such a change. Not too long ago, a resident of Pitts-
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 187
burgh was apt to be somewhat defensive about his home town, parrying
the remarks about the smoky city with some such retort as, "Well it
may not be the best place in which to live, but it certainly is a good
place to make money." Today, the average Pittsburgher speaks with
pride about his City and is delighted to have an opportunity to discuss,
usually at the request of outsiders, the Pittsburgh of the present. As a
matter of fact, he may be offensive rather than defensive. And I hope
you will pardon me if I seem to speak with a certain provincialism.
The change of attitude was a complete rearrangement of basic ideas
and behavior patterns. Such can occur only in periods of crisis, and at
the end of the war years the City found itself in that position. Pittsburgh
was dying, if not dead. Assessed valuations had dropped radically.
Industry was moving away. One reason given was the inability to at-
tract managerial talent to the area. The men were willing, provided
salaries were high enough, but their wives objected. With the dropping
of industrial values, commercial and residential values also fell. The
future was as dark as the soot laden air. The change of attitude was
simply this. The community realized that a new approach was necessary;
that in order to revitalize a city, certain problem areas had to be staked
out and eliminated by cooperative effort on the part of all segments of
the community, and also, by farsighted rather than by expedient think-
ing that is so often prevalent in the normal political and business world.
This approach I call the Civic Approach. I can explain it more clearly,
I think, by showing it to you in actual operation.
Smoke Abatement. The fundamental project and the foundation upon
which the Pittsburgh improvement program was built was smoke
abatement. It was realized in the very beginning that excessive smoke
and the unfavorable reputation it gave the City were major obstacles
to the community's future growth. In 1941, the Council of the City
of Pittsburgh passed a Smoke Control Ordinance, but enforcement was
deferred, because of the war conditions, until October 1, 1946 when it
was made effective for industry and railroads. A year later, residential
properties within the City were brought under its control. The essence
of the Pittsburgh Ordinance is tackling smoke at the root of the problem
by stopping smoke at its source. The methods have been the use of
smokeless fuel such as Disco, Anthracite, mixture of Anthracite and
Bituminous coal, Gas and Oil, and also the installation and use of mod-
ern mechanical firing equipment for both industrial and domestic uses.
The results have been startling. Official figures of the U. S. Weather
Bureau show that Pittsburgh now gets about 69 percent more sunshine.
In seven years, 1946 to 1952, the hours of total smoke have been re-
duced by more than 69 percent, heavy smoke hours by 93 percent.
Cleaner living conditions have saved city residents an estimated twenty-
seven million annually, or $41 each in laundry and cleaning bills, house-
hold expenses and other economies. Looking back, however, these
188 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
results were not foreseeable by many. A large number of people had
the false notion that smoke and smoking stacks meant prosperity.
Others thought that smoke abatement would drive industry away. The
greatest opposition was from those who did not wish to have to pay
more for fuel or bear the cost of new furnace installation. "Remember
Little Joe" became the battle cry of the opposition to the incumbent
Mayor, David L. Lawrence, and the councilmen who were favoring
strict enforcement. To withstand the pressures created by this situation
required real political courage. The party in power was Democratic,
and the source of that party's political power lies for the most part in
the large group in the lower half of the economic ladder. These people
felt the pinch where it hurts the most — in the pocketbook. Mayor
Lawrence in the primary election of 1948 came very close to losing the
Democratic nomination. The principal issue of that campaign was the
smoke control program. Because of his administration stand on the
smoke issue, the City today has received not only the direct benefits
mentioned heretofore, but also many indirect benefits. For example,
the first question raised by the Equitable Society when it was consider-
ing its investment in the community in the development of the Gate-
way Center was, "What have you done about your smoke?" Fortunately,
because of the change in political thinking, i.e. the civic approach, not
political expediency, our answer could be satisfactory.
Triangle Cooperation. Looking at the change in thinking of the
business community, two examples immediately comes to my mind. The
heart of the City of Pittsburgh is that area known as the Golden Tri-
angle. It consists of approximately 400 acres and is bounded on two
sides by rivers, the Allegheny and the Monongahela, which form at
their juncture, the Ohio, and on the third by a sudden rise of land. This
is the City's most expensive commercial area. There has been historically
a rivalry between the business interests in the upper part of the Triangle
and those in the lower half, a condition which is prevalent in most cities.
It has in the past had some very bitter moments, and yet, when the
redevelopment of the lower part of the Triangle was being planned, the
business community united. Mr. Edgar J. Kaufmann, President of the
Kaufmann's Department Store, serving as a member of the Urban Re-
development Authority of Pittsburgh, gave unstintingly of his efforts to
persuade the Equitable Society to become the redeveloper of the area.
His store is located in the Uptown area and is the biggest department
store in the City. One of his closest competitors is the Joseph Home
store located in the Downtown area, and immediately adjoining the
redevelopment area. This redevelopment brought a new life into that
lower area, and guaranteed and preserved its values for many, many
years to come. This in my opinion was also the civic approach and
action — it was thinking on the broader scope, not the narrow expedient
scope.
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 189
Newspapers and Publicity. Newspapers, radio and television play,
as we all know, a very important part in shaping public opinion in our
communities. In Pittsburgh, not only have they been friendly, but
they have taken an active role in the improvement program. One
newspaper has assigned a special reporter to this field who spends most
of his time developing the stories relating to the program. Others have
at least one or two men on their staff who also keep abreast and fully
informed of the progress that is being made, and the relationship of
one matter to another, which is of utmost importance. Accurate re-
porting is a necessity, but it is particularly important in the civic field,
so that the community can fairly appraise the program and motives of
those proposing change. Any change is generally resisted. The people
ought to know, and are entitled to know, the full background so as to
intelligently appraise the matter. I can sincerely say that without co-
operation of the news agencies in the Pittsburgh area, the Pittsburgh
program would never have been accomplished. They too have a new
approach — the Civic Approach.
Citizen Participation. Another aspect about this new approach is
the citizen's desire and willingness to serve. Hundreds of persons have
taken part in the program. They have participated without monetary
compensation on committees and counsels, and have given freely of
their time and talents to solving the community's problems. A list of
such activities would fill several pages, but here are just a few: The
Citizen's Airport Committee; the Citizen's Committee on Mass Trans-
portation; Mayor's Emergency Traffic Committee; United Smoke Coun-
cil; Recreation, Conservation and Park Council; Mayor's Water Com-
mittee; Point Park Committee; and Mayor's Committee for a Greater
City. Through the use of such committees, there is made available to
public officials, the very best experience that the City has to offer,
experience which could not be bought, and on the other side of the coin,
the citizen himself, through his constructive and unselfish work, re-
ceives a feeling of satisfaction that is also immeasurable.
Organization. This changing attitude, in all its ramifications did not
occur over night — it was a long process. It was nurtured by an organiza-
tion called the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.
This group was the catalyst in the picture. It is a private non-profit
organization serving as an overall civic agency, stimulating and coordin-
ating research and planning. Its objective is to assure the well being
and growth of the Allegheny region as a well adjusted, healthy com-
munity capable of providing its citizens with conditions essential to
good living. The governing body of the Conference is a citizen's sponsor-
ing committee consisting of, at the present time, seventy-two persons
from the field of industry, commerce, finance, labor, education, public
administration, newspaper and radio, and civic affairs. The list of names
is virtually a "who's who" of Pittsburgh. The group of the sponsors
190 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
directing the policies and functions of the Conference is an Executive
Committee of twenty persons, chosen from the Sponsoring Committee.
The officers of the Conference and the incumbents consist of a Chair-
man, Mr. Arthur B. Van Buskirk; a President, William P. Snyder III;
one First Vice- President, Clifford F. Hood; three Vice- Presidents, Leland
Hazard, George D. Lockhart, and A. W. Schmidt; Secretary, Mr. Wal-
lace Richards; Treasurer, Mr. Leslie J. Reese. The officers are ex-officio
members of the Executive Committee. The twelve other members
serving on the Executive Committee at the present time are Messrs.
Sidney Swensrud, James M. Bovard, A. H. Burchfield, Jr., H. J. Heinz II,
Edgar J. Kaufmann, George H. Love, Gwilym Price, Lawrence C. Woods,
Jr., James F. Hillman, Dr. Edward R. Weidlein, Robert C. Downie,
and Mr. Park H. Martin, who is the Executive Director of the Con-
ference. The Executive Committee itself is divided into four sub-com-
mittees. The subject matter assigned to each of these committees is as
follows: Committee No. 1 concerns itself with mass transportation; the
Greater Pittsburgh Airport; and the rail river truck terminal; Committee
No. 2 — with highways and bridges; Penn-Lincoln Parkway; Ohio River
Boulevard (Pittsburgh Extension); Point Interchange; Crosstown
Thoroughfare; parking and traffic; Point Park; and highway protection;
Committee No. 3 — with Mayor's Committee on Cleaner City; Smoke
Abatement — United Smoke Council; building cleaning; recreation,
conservation and park council; stream polution abatement; refuse
disposal; and Committee No. 4 — cultural projects and activities; citizen
education on civic responsibilities; securing policy approval from in-
dustry and commercial institutions for employees to participate in
public affairs and hold elective office; Civic Light Opera; library facilities;
bicentennial celebration for Pittsburgh; possibility of intergrading
musical, operatic and dramatic activities in one central area.
There is another group of assignments which the Executive Director
himself closely supervises. The subjects are: The Sanitary Authority;
Parking Authority; Urban Redevelopment Authority; Public Housing
Authority; County Urban Redevelopment Authority; City and County
public agencies; Flood Control; and area development in boroughs and
townships. The Executive Director is responsible for all operations of
the Conference under the Executive Committee. In addition to the
Executive Director, the staff includes two Assistant Directors, one in
charge of engineering, and one in charge of public relations; consultants
in various fields, such as mass transportation, housing, and economic
research, who are retained as required; an office manager, and secretarial
and stenographic services — a total of twelve regular employees, plus
part-time assistants and consultants, as required.
How much does it cost to run such an organization? On an annual
basis, the budget of the Conference during the past years is roughly
around $88,000. Where does the money come from? For the most part,
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 191
the money is raised by public subscription, by the Pittsburgh Civic
Business Council. This Council is a central fund raising agency pro-
viding for the regular budgets of the Allegheny Conference, the Cham-
ber of Commerce, the Pittsburgh Convention Bureau, and the Better
Business Bureau. It is the community fund idea being applied to these
civic types of organizations. Although the Conference is affiliated with
the Council, it fully retains its freedom of action, its own individual
identity, and operating economy. The Conference also receives special
grants of money for special projects. These monies come from interested
citizens or from foundations, the nature of which I will speak more
fully at a later point.
Functions. That in brief is the basic organization of the Conference.
Now you probably are wondering in what manner does the Conference
function. Let me point out four or five categories. Let me warn you,
however, that in the field of civic endeavor, the pragmatic approach is
necessary. However, it may interest you to know some of the ways
in which the Conference has been carrying out its job.
Planning and Research (Parking Study). First and foremost, the
Conference is a planning and research agency. It takes unto itself a
specific community problem, develops the relevant facts, and then
suggests a possible remedy or remedies. A good example of such is the
off-street parking study. The Conference requested the Regional Plan-
ning Association to develop the factual background for this study
(this is also a non-profit organization, which in many ways is a planning
or engineering arm of the Conference). It brought to Pittsburgh several
well known authorities in this field: Messrs. Walter H. Blucher, Execu-
tive Director, American Society of Planning Officials; E. H. Holmes,
Chief, Highway Transport Research Branch, Bureau of Public Roads,
Department of U. S. Commerce; Burton W. Marsh, Traffic Engineering
and Safety Department, American Automobile Association; Theodore
M. Matson, Director, Bureau of Highway Traffic, Yale University;
D. Grant Mickle, Director, Traffic Engineering Division, Automotive
Safety Foundation; Leslie Williams, Deputy Commissioner of Streets,
City of Philadelphia. To implement this plan, it was necessary to create
a Public Parking Authority. New legislation was needed and it required
action by the political leaders in the community. The plan was pre-
sented to both the Republican and the Democratic leadership of the
County and a bill sponsored by both parties was introduced and passed
at the 1947 session of the Pennsylvania General Assembly at Harrisburg.
Thereafter, an Authority was created by the City of Pittsburgh in
accordance with the provisions of the law. The Mayor appointed some
outstanding citizens to serve as its Board. These were people such as
Chancellor Fitzgerald of the University of Pittsburgh; Mr. Lee Austin,
President of the Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation; Mr. Reynolds, a
well known business man from the North Side; Mr. Weir, a Councilman
192 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
of our City and an Attorney; and Miss Anne Alpern, the City Solicitor.
At the present moment, the Authority has constructed two parking
facilities, providing 1,500 car spaces, and operates two lots. It financed
its operations through an issuance of revenue bonds of six million
dollars. It is contemplated that several additional garages will be
built in the near future, one under a park between the Mellon-U. S.
Steel Building and the Aluminum Company Building where a total
block is being cleared, having been given to the City by the Mellon
family where it is contemplated that a park be constructed above
ground and that there will be five underground floors for parking,
making available an additional 850 car spaces. It is also hoped that in
the near future, another parking facility will be constructed in the
Gateway Center area. This attempt to meet the crisis caused by the
traffic problem on our narrow streets and lack of parking space could
never, of course, have moved along as rapidly as it has unless there
had been some very good and very basic studies made. The theory of the
studies that were made was that there should be a separation of parkers
from those who wished to park for a short time and those that wished
to park for a longer time, such as all day. It was felt that the community
needed a great many more short-time spaces near the downtown area
or near the department stores, business houses, and professional offices,
and that the long term parker, the all-day parker, should use the peri-
pheral area and walk a few blocks. The only way we felt to accomplish
this was by the prices you set for your parking spaces, and this price
differential is beginning to some extent to succeed in accomplishing that
purpose. Whether or not we are successful depends entirely, of course,
upon the additional parking spaces developed within the next few years.
Dissemination of Information. Another category is that of dissemina-
tion of information. The Conference makes available its planning and re-
search reports to the general public and to those who are vitally affected
or interested. The list of brochures, pamphlets, and articles, published by
the Conference in recent years runs well over one hundred and fifty items.
Just recently, on behalf of the County smoke control program, one
hundred and ten thousand pamphlets describing this program and in-
forming the people as to the requirements that have to be met by resi-
dential owners were distributed through the County school systems
and information was also given to the teachers in the schools so that
they could hold classes on the problem and explain it to the children
who in turn would carry the information home to the parents.
Cooperative Effort. A third method is obtaining cooperative effort
and acting also in certain cases as an arbitrator. In illustrating this
particular field, I am reminded of what occurred within the last three
or four months. Part of our improvement program of the City is the
construction of a limited access highway cutting right through the
middle of our community which will take the east-west traffic through
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 193
the City in a very short period of time as compared to the long and
difficult trip that it now is. One of the properties that had to be acquired
as the highway approached the center of the City is owned by the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and it meant the relocation of
many of their tracks and also the acquisition of their existing station.
This is a state program and the state highway engineers began several
years ago to discuss with the officials of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad,
the question which is always involved, and that is "How much should
the railroad get for its property?" After several years of negotiation,
it became critical that a decision be reached because of the delay which
would be created in the highway construction program. The Confer-
ence, feeling the need that there be no delay, offered to come into the
picture to act, in the sense, as an arbitrator. It listened to arguments
on both sides, made its own appraisal of the situation, and recom-
mended terms of a settlement agreement. Both parties accepted this
agreement, and our highway program is moving according to schedule.
This important aspect of obtaining cooperation between parties should
not be overlooked as the area in which an organization such as the
Conference, and yours here, can be effective. In many of these projects
it requires approvals of one sort or another, and agreements between
all three levels of government, Federal, state and local, and even within
the local scene you have a county government, a city government, a
borough government or township government that is affected. In
Pittsburgh we have a great number of smaller governmental units,
and by providing these parties a place in which to meet to discuss their
program and their problems in an atmosphere of fairness and impar-
tiality, has proved invaluable to the Pittsburgh program.
"Gadfly." The Conference also functions very effectively as a "gad-
fly." This is the technique used to get these programs off the drawing
boards into actual construction and finished. Once the Conference
makes the plan and gets the agency created that is to carry it out, it
then doesn't sit back and do nothing more. Rather it acts as an expedi-
tor; it acts as a pin pricker, it offers constructive criticism, and assists
wherever it can. Its Executive Director and staff serve on special tech-
nical committees. Its prime job, though, is to see that plans are carried
out. Many of these projects take a long period of time for their com-
pletion. For example — in any state highway program — if you do not
have an agency in the community looking out for the community's
interest, making sure that the state highway program moves along on
schedule, many times these programs never are carried to completion
for many, many years, if ever.
Administration. Lastly, there is a development in the Pittsburgh
scene which is not duplicated nor could it be duplicated, I'm afraid, in
many cities. That is the administration of private monies for public
uses. In Pittsburgh, we are benefited with a large number of very
194 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
wealthy foundations, whose trustees are devoted to the City and wish
to see it improved in whatever manner it can be. These trustees, rather
than giving the money directly to the City, will give it to the Conference
and the Conference will act as the administrator of the expenditure of
the money. Here is how it works. A Foundation of the City, the Sarah
Mellon Scaife Foundation desired to give the City a Children's Zoo.
The money for the zoo was given to the Conference. The Conference
had architects prepare working drawings and specifications which were
approved by the city officials interested such as the Director of the
Department of Parks and Recreation, and then the Conference took
bids on the work and with permission of the City had its contractor go
upon public property and build thereon the zoo. It then formally dedi-
cated the zoo to the citizens and people of Pittsburgh.
Conclusion. That briefly is the Pittsburgh Story. It of course is not
the whole story, but the last chapters have not as yet been written. It
is a story which I hope will be of some benefit to you, and encourage you
in your efforts. Our cities are a priceless heritage, they must be con-
served, beautified and improved. They mirror the soundness of our
Democratic institutions. Let us make sure through unselfish citizen
participation that the image is true and one in which we may take pride.
Panel on Consolidation of City and County Services
DR. THOMAS H. REED, Municipal Consultant, Wethersfield, Conn.
THE subject as General Grant has announced it, and as it appears
in the program is one in which obviously planners are interested,
because unless there is some means devised by which services can be
rendered satisfactorily and in an integrated fashion to the people of
the wide-spread metropolitan areas which surround our principal cities,
there is no assurance that the great plans the planners make, will ever
do anything more than decorate office walls and finally fall into in-
nocuous desuetude.
Some kind of integration of metropolitan areas is necessary in order
that the people who live in those areas may have the services, including
the plans that are executed. In order to do that, it is necessary to pro-
vide, logically, carefully, and painstakingly for the performance of
those services. People have been pouring into metropolitan areas.
The last forty years have seen a tremendous exodus of urban population
into outside areas. The only reason that our central cities have not
been decimated is that the population of the country as a whole has been
increasing as rapidly as it has. Sometimes we are apt to think that
nothing much has been done to take care of this metropolitan problem,
but as a matter of fact, many things have been done, many of them the
wrong things!
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 195
I am rather briefly going to review some of the methods which have
been applied to the solutions, or the attempted mitigation at least,
to the metropolitan problem. In several states, there are units of gov-
ernment which cover the whole state, which are considerably smaller
than the county in size, and which apparently lay ready at hand to
take care of the needs of the people who moved out of the central cities
into the suburbs. These are the towns in New England, New York;
the townships in Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and townships in several
states west of the Allegheny Mountains, including Ohio.
In New England the town on the whole, has been a rather vigorous
unit of government. Generally speaking, the towns in New England
(around the larger cities in that part of the country) have done what
they could with the resources at their command to provide services for
the people who moved into them. In New York, Pennsylvania, New Jer-
sey, the activity of the town or township has been less vigorous because
they have had to share it with counties and many small incorporated
municipalities. In New England neither the county nor the small
municipality has played any particular part in the matter. West of
the Alleghenies, the township has been a pretty feeble institution. It
was struck with inferiority to begin with, because it was made exactly
six miles square, the lines running north and south and east and west
according to parallels of latitude and longitude, and it corresponded
with no real division of the country and no pattern of settlement.
Generally speaking, west of the Alleghenies, the towns and townships
have failed to take any particular part in trying to solve the needs of
the metropolitan population.
Now, in New England, however, while the towns have been vigorous
and active, they have not solved the metropolitan problem. As a matter
of fact, they have furnished a pretty serious obstacle to a solution of the
problem. The mere fact that many of them are three centuries old, that
they have long traditions of independence, and a stubborn local pride,
has made them furnish a pattern of government in metropolitan areas
which is unendurably durable, which you can't break down. Boston,
for example, is surrounded by towns of pre-RevoIutionary dates, which
have practically throttled that city into a state of extreme decay.
Anybody who knows what the Boston tax rate is, understands what
encirclement can do to a city in the position of Boston.
In Hartford where I happened to live in Wethersfield just outside
of Hartford, we have a metropolitan area which is producing similar
results for Hartford. It has not become as bad yet, but just the other
day, Colt Manufacturing Company, which was born in Hartford, and
which has been associated with Hartford for all its existence from days
before the Civil War, announced that it was going to move to Windsow
Locks! It has a plant that is valued at $6,000,000 on the assessment
role of the city of Hartford, and it is going to move away. It is not
196 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
going to re-do its plant in Hartford. It is going to move out to a new
location. That is the American way, if you understand me. Our early
farmers wore their early farms out in the East and abandoned them
and moved West. It is much easier to start life anew on a new place
than to rejuvenate the old one. The same thing is true of a factory
apparently. They are going up to Windsow Locks and Hartford is in a
dither. They are having a luncheon today of businessmen to consider
what can be done to keep business in Hartford. Now the metropolitan
problem of Hartford is in a sad state because the towns around Hart-
ford are so strong and so determined to retain their personal identity
that there seems no way of breaking them down. Furthermore, the
distribution of resources among these towns is very unequal. I live in
Wethersfield which hasn't any industry. We have nothing but residences.
Most of them are small, little ones that have been built recently. The
little so-called ranch type houses, and the small cape cods, and the
little salt boxes that are not much bigger than actual salt boxes. They
are assessed for around $5,000, and at our tax rate of a little over 30
mills, they pay a little over $150, which will not educate three-quarters
of one child in the schools of our town. Whereas, across the river in
East Hartford where (by the fortune of war a great plant has been built
to make airplane engines) the United Air Craft Plant was built. While
they have many people, they also have a lot of assessed valuation, and
their tax rate is about % of ours. Now that does not mean that the
problem is being solved by the New England towns. When it comes to
school districts, here in Ohio you have school districts — you have thou-
sands of school districts — little school districts that have one school
apiece. Many of those lie within the metropolitan area of Cincinnati
and Cleveland. They present enormous inequality in ability to provide
education in their ability to do it at a reasonable cost to the taxpayer.
Some of them have much wealth and few children, others have a great
many children and little wealth. A very uneven result is produced. The
problem is not being solved by these primary units of government.
Another method that has been tried a great deal, is the extension
of city services into the suburbs. The people out in the suburbs usually
want that done. They solicit the city to extend its water mains, and
extend its sewers. They even offer to pay two or three times the rates
that the city people are charged for water in order to get. It is a fairly
good bargain for them to do it that way when they can get it done. The
city on the other hand, seems, superficially at least, to benefit by being
able to sell surplus water at a higher rate than it can get from its own
people. When it comes down to the question of any further steps in the
way of integration, the fact that they have sewer and water enables
these people to remain indifferent to any argument in favor of further
integration. If they have sewer and water, they can, until hell freezes
over, practically remain indifferent to the arguments of any kind of
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 197
annexation or of any substantial type of integration. As long as they
want to remain independent they can stand it to get along without the
other services, or they can pick them up from some other source. So
that method has not solved the metropolitan problem.
Then another method has been tried and that is the special or ad hoc
district. There are a great many of those in the country. They serve to
solve one particular problem in a metropolitan area. Sometimes they
solve two or three problems. Boston, for example, has a metropolitan
commission with sewers, water and parks under its jurisdiction. They
have done a very good job on the whole, but there is one peculiarity.
Its members are appointed by the Governor and it reports to the state
legislature. The people of Boston and the surrounding areas have nothing
to do with running it, except to pay the bills. It is not a democratic
institution, and it has as a matter of fact, put the quietus almost com-
pletely upon any movement for further integration, which in the case
of Boston is very sadly needed.
We have a metropolitan commission in Hartford that provides the
area around Hartford with water and sewer. The water is excellent,
pure and tasteless, and in pretty ample quantity, except when the
weather gets dry in July and August. They also have a pretty good
sewer system. Personally, I don't have a sewer. The sewers come up
within about 300 yards of my house and they don't approach me. I
merely pay taxes for sewers that I don't enjoy. It is not a perfect system,
but it has entirely strengthened the hands of the independent towns in
remaining independent. The commission is appointed by the governor.
The people have nothing to do with it, except to pay the bills. It is an
undemocratic institution and it serves to perpetuate our lack of inte-
gration, a situation sadly needed by us — not as badly as in Boston,
but still, badly enough.
Then the method has been tried of incorporation. That is perhaps
the most natural method. It sounds democratic and reasonable. The
people in a little community should incorporate, get together in order
to provide themselves with some kind of service. It has been done on
a very large scale. There are hundreds and hundreds of these small
incorporations. They are as thick as dandelions in May in many metro-
politan areas. Most of them are too small and too poor to do much of
anything at all. Of course, they will have a policeman, but what is
one policeman? What is a police force like we have in our town of
Wethersfield of a dozen men when you come to divide it into three
shifts and have one man in the office all the time. What have you in
the way of patrol for a city of 16,000? Practically nothing. If it were
not for the Hartford police and the state police we would be in a power-
less state in our community. We get along nicely as it is, but it is be-
cause we chisel upon the neighboring community. Now some of these
incorporated places are very fortunate. They have a large industry
198 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
or group of industries to tax, or their numbers are very small and their
properties are very valuable. They get along very nicely, but there
are others that are in an unfortunate condition of not having resources
that are commensurate with their responsibility. When one small
community gathers unto itself an undue share of the resources of the
metropolitan area, it damages the ability of the metropolitan area
as a whole to deal with its problems. I would just like to refer to you
three of these villages that are located in your own state of Ohio. One
is in Hamilton County, Indian Hill, which is a refuge for millionaires.
It has so many millionaires in it that it is able to pay all of its municipal
expenses out of the proceeds of the intangible tax and the inheritance
tax. It did that and accumulated a surplus of a million dollars in ten
years without levying any kind of a property tax for village purposes.
That's swell, and they have wonderful service. They have a police de-
partment which will come to your residence and will take charge of
parking the cars at your afternoon party or which will, if you partake
a little too much at a cocktail party in the afternoon or a dinner party
in the evening, see that you are safely escorted to your home. A super-
plus kind of service, which no ordinary community can provide. Swell!
Then there is the village of Evondale, which is not far from there,
which is a paradise for industry. It had almost no inhabitants, some-
thing less than 500, at the time of its incorporation. I don't think that
it has many more now. It has very large industries. It has an enormous
tax potential. It has a limit on village taxes in its charter of 2 mills
which is a very, very modest rate. Their revenues are considerable.
They can deal with their very limited problems very well. They are
intelligent. They are practical people. They have recently employed
Harland Bartholomew and Associates to make a plan and it is not every
village of 500 people with a tax rate of no higher than 2 mills that can
employ Mr. Bartholomew on such a mission. On the other hand,
they have got more money than they need.
And then lying somewhat between these two, almost adjacent to
Evondale and not far from Indian Hill, is the all negro village of Lincoln
Heights. Now Lincoln Heights has no industry. It has nothing to tax
but the very humble homes of the people who live there. It can't muster
enough money to provide decent services of any kind for its people.
A village like that, even in a beautiful and rich county like Hamilton,
is a potential danger to the whole county. If you say, "Why were they
so improvident as to incorporate as a village under those circumstances?"
I will give you their answer, which I have no reason to think is not true.
They organized as a village because they could not as a part of the
county, obtain anything like decent services from Hamilton County.
They thought that they might do better and they thought that there
might be a possibility to annex some of those industries which ultimately
went into Evondale. Evondale was formed. Lincoln Heights is there,
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 199
and it will be there forever unless some kind of metropolitan integrega-
tion is provided.
Another method which has been tried is annexation. We have heard
a great deal about annexation. It is very difficult. There are a thousand
obstacles in the way of success. In those states where a vote of the people
is required in the annexed area, it does not happen very often. Prac-
tically never except when the area that is annexed is in distress of some
kind. A few states like Virginia and Texas are very liberal in their
annexation laws. But in most of the states, you have to overpersuade
the politicians of the area that they want to be annexed and they never
want to be annexed. They always want to play the game in the area
in which they have hitherto played it. So, annexation is difficult.
A lot of people have become quite discouraged about annexation and
are turning to other methods of solving the problem because of its dif-
ficulty. Yet, annexation is the only method which promises any genuine
simplification of the organization of a metropolitan area and any real
economy in operation. For some metropolitan areas that are small,
that have no great resources upon which they can rely to carry the
overhead of a central federated system like the one that has been adopted
in Toronto, you still would have to recommend, and I still do recom-
mend annexation! That was the reason that I recently made a study
of Niagra Falls, New York, and the two towns which lie adjacent to it,
Lewiston and Niagra. Niagra Falls is a city of ninety thousand people
and the 1950 population of these two towns was a little less than 7,000
for Lewiston and a little less than 5,000 for Niagra. It is absurd to
talk about setting up a borough system for such an area. Yet they are
only a minor fraction of the county of Niagra and they need integration
in the worst way, — integration in planning, and integration in services.
There is a tremendous potential in industry in that area and it is going
to spread into those villages if an opportunity is afforded. We recom-
mended consolidation. It may never take place. Take Hamilton County
Ohio. The Ohio portion of the Cincinnati area is practically all Hamilton
County, and Hamilton County is practically all metropolitan area. The
same thing is true of Cuyahago County in Cleveland, and the same
thing is true of Allegheny County in Pittsburgh. Where that situation
exists, it is perfectly possible, provided that the powers that be are
willing, to transfer enough powers from the minor municipalities in
the areas to the county to create a regional or metropolitan government
without increasing the layers of the government at all, or unduly weigh-
ing upon the taxpayer. No additional government is created. No
additional overhead beyond what now exists. There is a very favorable
opportunity to do it. It is no wonder that people under those circum-
stances turn to a consideration of the county as the proper unit of met-
ropolitan administration. On the other hand, it is true that most coun-
ties in the U. S. today are not fit to be entrusted with additional power.
200 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
They are badly organized, they have no executive authority, many of
them have services which are provided by independently elected officers,
and the rest are very loosely grouped under a county board. The coun-
ties are riddled with politics. They are the last great reservation in
which the spoilsmen roam unhindered. Now under those circumstances,
if we are going to increase the powers of the counties, we have first got
to reorganize the county. That may be almost as difficult to do as to
bring about annexation, when you come right down to it. The counties
have been doing this sort of thing in a limited extent for some time.
Most counties in large metropolitan areas have done something for the
suburban population. They have usually done it at the expense of
the taxpayers of the whole county including the poor city. Fulton
County, Georgia, for example, for many years provided in the Buck Head
section of that county, outside of Atlanta (the best residential section
in the area) a full amount of municipal services, on a very good grade.
They did it partly at the expense of the people of Atlanta. In fact,
the taxpayers of Atlanta paid about 80% of the cost of providing these
services for Buck Head. Furthermore, there was a tremendous duplica-
tion. There was a public works department for the city, and one for the
county. There was a police department for the city, a police department
for the county. There was a fire department for the city, a fire de-
partment for the county; a health department for the city, a health
department for the county. There was all sorts of duplication. The
city hall is located within two blocks from the county court house.
The obvious absurdity of the duplication was plainly manifested.
Now that kind of duplication of services has characterized county
activity on behalf of the suburbs in almost all counties where it has
been tried. You can only get away from it in two ways: One is by
separation. That is what has practically happened in Fulton County
Georgia. The city of Atlanta has annexed the large area in which the
county was providing municipal services and at the same time the
legislature has forbidden the county to engage in any municipal ser-
vices except by contract with the city of Atlanta, which has provided a
division of responsibility leaving the city to do the urban things and
the county to take care of purely rural areas. In Virginia any city of
10,000 population or more is a county by itself. That separation pre-
vents people from paying more than one tax bill for local purposes.
It also has its disadvantages. St. Louis was separated some 75 years
ago from St. Louis County and that separation has been plaguing
St. Louis ever since. There were similar situations around San Fran-
cisco which was originally a county, made a city and county back in
1850. It was much more difficult for it to expand than if the separation
had not taken place. The other way is by consolidation, — consolidated
city and county. By consolidation I mean either centralized complete
consolidation, or partial consolidation on a federated plan, such as has
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 201
been tried now in Toronto and which the administrative county of
London has employed since 1888. That is a simple method provided you
have an area that is large enough and subordinate units that are strong
enough to support the role of boroughs.
On the other hand, there is a strong movement at the present time
toward what is sometimes called functional consolidation. That is the
easy road. You take one function. You take the public library in Erie
County, New York. They take it away from Buffalo and give it to
Erie County. Hamilton County has assumed the administration of
welfare which formerly, was carried on by the city of Cincinnati. That
sounds like a perfectly reasonable thing to do. As far as the particular
service is concerned, it is helpful. It would be a good thing to do any
time, anywhere, provided that functional consolidation led logically
to a better scheme of integration. It is pretty far from integration,
when the city council and the board of county commissioners still re-
main independent bodies and still wield their authority separately.
Now I think you will agree with me that these metropolitan areas
surrounding our larger cities are really greater cities in every true sense
of the word, as for example economic and social, and in every other
sense except the purely legal and political. They are entitled to some
kind of unity in their administration to integration. If functional con-
solidation promoted such integration, I would be for it every time. One
step at a time is a good rule in many circumstances, but the trouble is
that every time (by functional consolidation, or the creation of a special
district, or by the extension of city services) you take the pressure off
of the outside municipalities, towns, or villages, you make it more
difficult to bring about integration. I can understand why the home
owners who have rather improvidently gone out into the county and
bought a home that is not supplied with pure water, and discover that
fact after he is in the house with his family and children is willing to
accept almost any means of getting water. He is not going to scrutinize
the ultimate effects upon metropolitan integration of the water supply.
He is going to be for a water supply any way he can get it. The same
thing is true of the real estate man who has lots to sell. Those lots are
only marketable when they are provided with certain services like water
and sewer. He is going to be for getting those services any way he can
get them. But for planners, whose view is to the future and who must
consider carefully the consequences of the changes that take place in
community relations, for them to give up considering the ultimate
effects and go hell for leather for anything that will produce "functional
consolidation, that is a crime." Oh, it gives you something to write in
your report, it gives you something to congratulate yourself on before
you go to sleep at night, etc. It is splendid, but after all, you should
be careful that the functional consolidation you advocate is a step toward
real integration and not the creation of an obstacle to it.
202 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
HUGH POMEROY, Director, Department of Planning, Westchester County,
White Plains, New York
I THINK that I can claim for Westchester County a strong executive
direction of government, a fine organization under the charter, and
the general excellent quality of administration. Even though I have
been only eight years in Westchester County, I think that I can consider
myself enough of a newcomer to the county to speak objectively as to
the quality of its government. I continue to take objective pride in it,
as I have the opportunity of participatnig in it. On the other hand the
very fact of the quality of Westchester County government tends to
disqualify me from speaking authoritatively on the subject of Dr. Reed's
characterization of counties in general, having in mind the array of
3,050 counties throughout the United States.
Dr. Reed has so thoroughly described the various methods and
devices for providing governmental services for urban communities
that I can only say, whatever problems any community may face in
providing such governmental services, we have more and bigger ones in
the New York metropolitan area. Among the several delineations of the
New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area centering in
the borough of Manhattan, the one used by the Regional Plan Asso-
ciation best comprises the urban community as a planning problem.
In one of my evening classes at Columbia University, Dr. Renner, a
geographer, recently described the various forms of community. It
would seem that the only way we can describe the form of the New
York metropolitan area is a multi-nucleated paraphylasic counterbation.
The complexity of that language somewhat describes the complexity of
the problems we face. As defined by the Regional Plan Association, the
urban community of this metropolitan area extends into three States.
It includes 17 counties outside New York City, which in itself contains
five small counties. I will never forget Mr. Shurtleff's reference to the
counties of New England as vestiginal. The five counties coterminous
with the boroughs of New York City are, indeed, vestiginal, performing
no legislative function. They are administrative units of state govern-
ment. Of the 17 outside New York City, one is in Connecticut, seven
are in the State of New York, and nine are in New Jersey. The com-
munity contains 550 municipal units of government, cities, boroughs,
villages, towns and townships. This total does not include an even
larger number of school districts, coterminous with the municipalities
in New Jersey and Connecticut, and generally not in the State of New
York. It does not include a multiplicity of special agencies, or three
interstate agencies, the bi-state board of the New York Authority, a
great operating agency, the new bi-state water front authority, a regula-
tory and administrative agency, and the tri-state inter-state sanita-
tion commission. The problem of government in the area is further
complicated by the large authority exercised by the States with respect
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 203
to certain functions that markedly affect the whole pattern of physical
development and may profoundly affect local governmental problems.
In the field of physical development, certain functions formerly
local have been raised to the county level of jurisdiction in whole or in
part.
Recreation, one of the oldest, is exemplified by the county park
systems in New Jersey and the Westchester County Park System.
Main Thoroughfares represent an expansion of jurisdiction where the
county has taken over a function greatly expanded from that of handling
important rural roads in that the county handles thoroughfares that
are of greater than municipal concern and deemed to be of less than
state concern.
Sewerage. Our great county sanitation district in Westchester
County is operated by the county covering less than half of the territory
of the county, but 85 percent of its population.
Water Supply. As in the county of Long Island, and in our own county
recently formed, the county water agency operates under state law.
Interestingly the members of that agency are by appointment of the
county executive. The members of the agency consist of the com-
missioner of public works, the commissioner of health, and the director
of the department of planning. That is an operating agency in the field
of water supply.
In the field of planning as distinguished merely from physical de-
velopment (regardless of who plans it) the examples of the listing of
responsibility from the local to the county level are few. In Nassau
County it is represented by jurisdiction of the county over subdivisions
in unincorporated territory and within 300 feet of a municipal boundary
and a county veto power over zoning changes within 300 feet of a town
boundary. The towns have similar power over zoning changes within
300 feet of a boundary of a village within the town. We have those
overlapping jurisdictions.
In Westchester County, the county health district (as it covers
most of the county except three large cities) has jurisdiction over the
water supply and sewers in subdivisions. In the counties of New Jersey,
certain supplementary authority has been given to the county over
subdivisions and a veto power with respect to subdivisions that may
involve drainage affecting county roads directly or indirectly. The
New Jersey counties also have overriding official map authority. The
county may adopt an official map overlying the municipality and no'
buildings may be erected within the beds of the streets shown on the
county official map. There is no procedure for coordination with the
municipal official map, but obviously there must be. That overriding
official map authority in New Jersey, so far as I know, has not been
used. In New Jersey and New York, counties may prepare master
plans, but they are only persuasive so far as the municipalities are con-
204 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
cerned, except for an ambiguous provision in the Nassau County charter,
that has never been used and possibly could not be. In New Jersey
alone, municipalities are directed by statute to consult with their neigh-
bors in planning. That directive by the legislature was noted by Chief
Justice Vanderbilt of the New Jersey Supreme Court in a decision that
was handed down by unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court re-
cently. I think this decision is one of the great land-mark decisions in
zoning jurisprudence.
Some of you may recall the borough of Crestkill case, Dovlon pro-
ducts case, in which the courts, first the lower court, and then the higher
court, held that zoning in a particular municipality had to be considered
against the land use of an entire community area. Judge Vanderbilt
wrote that decision and referred to the fact that you could not cir-
cumscribe these problems by adventitiously located municipal boun-
daries. Shortly thereafter, this same borough of Crestkill found itself
concerned by what a neighboring borough was going to do. There are
four boroughs involved forming roughly the four quadrants of a larger
quadrangle, the common boundary meeting almost at a common point
in the center. The southwesterly and most populous of the four bor-
oughs proposed to rezone its northeasterly block for business purposes
in the midst of residential zoning in all four boroughs. The other three
boroughs took an unprecedented action, entered suit as plaintiffs against
the fourth borough to declare the zoning invalid in the light of com-
prehensive planning considerations for the four boroughs. I went into
court on the only court case in which I have ever attacked a municipal
zoning ordinance, as expert witness for the three boroughs. Judge
Wayshe of the Superior Court admitted the boroughs as plaintiffs
against vigorous opposition by the fourth borough. He himself was so
much concerned with inter-community planning problems that he,
sitting in Morris County, got the Bar Association in Morris County to
take the lead in a series of inter-community planning programs or
seminars in Morris County. The Bar Association took the lead at the
instance of a judge of the Superior Court. Judge Wayshe declared
the zoning to be invalid. The case was appealed. The Supreme Court
took it on its own certification. Judge Vanderbilt wrote the decision.
He went right to the heart of the matter and declared the zoning in-
valid, not in relation to the comprehensive planning in the borough
itself, but particularly in relation to comprehensive planning in the en-
tire area. The New Jersey courts are almost in the van of statesmanship
in zoning matters under the 1947 constitution and under the inspired
leadership of Judge Vanderbilt.
In New Jersey the county is required in its planning to take account
and confer with municipalities within the county in the formation of
the county master plan. (A thing that is mentioned very weakly in our
county planning act in the State of New York, but spelled out somewhat
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 205
better in our county charter under which our department operates.)
Regardless of what the law says we engage in our own county in that
consultation to a very high degree and are in continuing consultation
with municipalities in our county.
All three of the States in the New York area have for years author-
ized the formation of inter-municipal or inter-county (or both) regional
planning commissions, but none has ever been formed in the New York
metropolitan area. The only one in all three States is one over near
New Haven in Connecticut. I think this is due in part to the cumber-
someness of the machinery if applied to any sizeable area. I think that
it is in part due to the fact that a regional planning commission under
such legislation has no hitching post, as it were, in a responsible legis-
lative unit of government. It is floating around in the air without
administrative responsibilities, or without gearing into the operations
of the governmental unit with jurisdiction. Regional planning legis-
lation has not been used because the voice of planning is heard only
faintly over and beyond the walls of local municipal jurisdiction that
contain and re-echo within themselves the clamor of day-to-day prob-
lems of governmental administration. Yet, this whole vast New York
metropolitan area is tied together by inextricably inter-related physical
facts. It is affected as an aggregate, and in all its parts by inter-related
social and economic characteristic forces and trends.
The most encouraging and in some respects the most striking de-
velopment in the entire complex situation is the growth of county
planning in the area. Several new county planning commissions have
recently been established or have been activated from a long period of
inactivity. Those that have been struggling along are being staffed
more amply with increasing budgets. There is a growing alertness in
the field of county planning. General Grant made reference to the
inter-county planning conference, which is a meager beginning but I
think a significant development, in which periodically representatives of
the county planning commissions in the area and the New York City
Planning Commission meet for an exchange of experience, the coor-
dination of research, and discussion of the problems of common interest.
Recently the first regional conference in inter-county planning was
conducted by this group in Newark with excellent attendance from the
entire area. We were much gratified in Westchester County that the
luncheon speaker was our own county executive whose talk on county
planning in county government could have been summed up in a few
words. "We could not provide good government in Westchester County
without the work of the Department of Planning," and "Good govern-
ment in Westchester County requires the work of the Planning De-
partment."
We are even hopeful of having an effective working relationship with
the city of New York, which is for the most part, sufficient unto itself,
206 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
dealing with its neighbors only when Mr. Moses mounts his charger
and mows down the countryside. With Dr. Luther Gulick, as the city
administrator, we have established a liaison at top level, in the mayor's
office. That, I believe will bring about continuing collaboration, not only
for specific problems but in dealing with broad fundamental principles.
We have liaison also in the field of research. The research staff of our
Commission and that of the New York City Planning Commission
work in the closest collaboration, tying their research activities together
and also with the Regional Plan Association to whom we look for
considerable leadership in the area.
Now, what are the causes of this turning to the county in the field
of planning? I think they arise out of the sequence of considerations.
We are in a period of considerable change in our area. Three or four
months ago I was called on to talk at the one hundred and twentieth
celebration of the Town Ridge Community Church. Town Ridge is in
the upper part of our county. It showed the greatest growth from 1940
to 1950 of all our forty-six municipalities, increasing over 50 percent in
population from 806 to 1,234. Town Ridge 120 years ago had exactly
the same boundaries and it was more populous then than in 1950. It
is only by the increase in population since 1950 that it has passed the
population that it had 120 years ago. The northern part of our county
which now contains 15 percent of its population then contained the
majority of its population. Little industries were scattered around the
county. There was considerable agriculture. That was just before the
dawn of the day of the commuter. As the rail lines pushed up into the
county, they put us in a suburban relationship to New York City. The
gradual recession of agriculture with the building of the reservoirs of
the New York City water supply, the change in industrial technology
with the advancement of the industrial revolution, brought about actual
recession of population in the northerly part of the county, while the
southerly part boomed. We have been in the era of the commuter ever
since. The dominant single element in our economic base as far as pri-
mary employment is concerned is the New York commuter. At the
present time he represents about 20 percent of our total labor force.
In manufacturing and industry, he represents about 12 or 13 percent.
The most significant change in our pattern of development was when
the automobile became a dominant factor in the dynamics of urban-
ization. The people then moved out from the rail lines. Now we are in
the period of development that seems as striking to our people as what
happened in the twenties. It is not accelerated decentralization from
the central city. It is rather an economic redistribution in our area.
We in the suburban areas feel that two things are needed particularly
from the central city. One is great economic strength on the part of the cen-
tral city. The other is cultural richness on the part of the central city. We
feel that insofar as the suburban areas are residential (they certainly
IN THE CITIES AND TOWNS 207
are not all residential) what the central city needs most from them is a
great diversity of characteristics to provide as wide a range as possible
of satisfactory living environment. So what is happening is an economic
redistribution in different parts of each area. There is an actual recen-
tralization of certain activities in the central city. There is the inter-
ception of purchasing power inflowing from the suburbs in retail trade,
and the development of regional shopping centers located more or less
in a fairly constant relationship to population. Nassau County is de-
veloping to a certain type of industry, Northern New Jersey in a some-
what similar manner and Southern New Jersey with a different industrial
pattern. Westchester County is not developing industrially, but is
attracting the headquarters of large national concerns. General Foods
now has its headquarters in White Plains. General Electric is coming
in. Others are following.
There are two outstanding characteristics of this changing pattern oj
development. One running parallel with this economic redistribution
is the striking increase in the demand for land per family in all new de-
velopments. This fact is leading to some re-examination of our zoning
regulations to put them in better relationship to what the people need
and what they want. Zoning is actually lagging behind the demands of
the people themselves. Another change is the emphasis on area design,
that is large scale development.
With all these changes, there is an eager search on the part of local
officials, civic groups, business, industry, real estate, home builders
and others for information about the forces that are operating between
communities in our county and in the area. With this is a recognized
need for an interpretation of that which is happening so that local
community decisions can be made intelligently. This is a realization
that a zoning decision made on all the facts that are immediately in
front of a body, may obscure what lies beyond. The term that is used
more and more in our thinking is "Whither Westchester?" With this
there is a natural turning to the county as the available unit of govern-
ment which has inter-community functions and which has certain
over-all planning responsibilities. Strikingly, the urge for county plan-
ning is largely growing out of the need that is felt by local municipal
officials for something beyond the boundaries of their own jurisdictions
that they can tie to. It is a most significant move! It reinforces some of
the things that Dr. Reed said about turning to the county as an avail-
able unit of government. The communities still hold to their right of
local determination under the exceedingly strong home-rule powers of
the New York constitution. The same question of local determination
comes up in consideration of consolidation. The theoretical bookkeeping
advantage that can be shown by consolidation must somehow answer
the question of how to preserve the greatest diversity of community
characteristics in the whole metropolitan composite.
208 AMERICAN PLANNING AND CIVIC ANNUAL
The question is bow can we properly determine developmental policy
over a multiple jurisdictioned urban community? Zoning has gone way
beyond this stage. We believe that zoning should be based on a com-
prehensive plan. I am concerned with what the basic land-use plan
should represent. We do not take facts about land use and grind them
through a comptometer and come through with a zoning plan. There
is the factor of men's judgment which lends desires and determinations
about the community.
We have choices among alternatives with respect to community
development. There must be a conscious arriving at a developmental
policy that shall somehow seek the living environment which appears
the most desirable, and this should be linked with sound economic
opportunity. The major land-use plan and the major channels of com-
munication and transportation are of region-wide significance and there
should be an authority for making a determination at that level. Within
that step in a multi-county metropolitan area, the county may be taken
as a unit in which the determination may be made. At the next level,
a little more detail could be added. Then at the municipal level is the
opportunity for detailed decision and determination within this broad
frame work.
Then there is the problem of preserving or restoring the opportunity
to act on developmental problems in our particular communities in the
light of planning considerations, rather than having freedom of choice
limited and warped by the necessity of balancing the municipal books
from within those "adventitiously located municipal boundaries."
As the cost of government increases, and as the cost of schools rises,
our municipalities are having to weigh proposed zoning changes only
partly in the light of broad planning considerations and increasingly of
how much the change will add to the tax base as against the cost of
competent facilities and services. I think that a part of the answer must
lie in the continuation of the process that we are discussing here of raising
to the next and broader level of governmental responsibility the exercise
and the payment for certain functions that in their very nature can
best be handled or the cost spread over a large area of determination.
There is, I believe, a possibility of using the county as an effective
unit — not as an entire answer to the problem — but as an effective unit
toward the answer. I believe that it can be a unit in a geared-in process
for the determination of developmental policy as a part of the planning
process. The county can be used as the repository of functions lifted
from the local level to a place where their financing may be put on a
broader basis. This method could preserve or restore freedom from the
warping influence of municipal economic considerations that may
greatly impair our planning objectives.
INDEX
Abraham & Straus Dept. Store, 127.
Adams, Thomas, 7.
Alaska, 61.
Albright, Horace M., vi, 10, 79.
Allegheny Co., Pa., 199.
Allegheny Conf. on Com. Dev. 189.
Allen, E. E., 53.
Alpern, Miss Anne, City Solicitor, 192.
American Automobile Assn., 28.
American City Planning Inst., 6.
American Civic Assn., 1, 4, 5.
American Institute of Planners, 6.
American Planning and Civic Assn., 5
19, 105, 111, 123, 146.
American Society of Planning Officials, 6.
Arkansas, 31.
Armstrong, C. H., 54, 86-89.
Aster, John Jacob, 74.
Astrup, Mark H., 63.
Atlanta, Ga., 200.
Augur, Tracy B., 114-123.
Austin, Lee, Pres. Jones & Laughlin, 191.
Baltimore Women's Civic League, 5.
Bartholomew, Harland, v, 8.
Bartholomew Associates, 182, 198.
Bassett, Edward M., 6.
Bennett, Hugh, 22, 92.
Blessing, Charles A., 95-101.
Blucher, Walter H., 191.
Boardman, Samuel H., 87.
Bovard, James M., 190.
Brady, Hobart C., 127.
Broaddus, Mayor Andrew, 42.
Brockman, C. Frank, 76.
Bromm, A. C., 161.
Brown, Paul, 79.
Browning, Bryce, 21-26.
Bryce, Ambassador James, 5.
Bucklin, C. V., 89.
Burchfield, A. H. Jr., 190.
Burnham, Daniel, 2.
Byck, Dann, 42.
Byrd, Gen. Daniel B., 31.
California, 32.
Chamber of Commerce of the U. S., 108.
Central Park, N. Y., 130.
Cherokee Park, Louisville, 130.
Chipperfield, W. A., 61.
Cleveland, Ohio, 104-112.
Cleveland Development Foundation, 105.
Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co., 104.
Cleveland Urban Redev. Agency, 105.
Cobo, Mayor Albert E., 95, 97.
Cole, Albert M., 107.
Colt Mfg. Co., 195.
Comey, Arthur C., 7.
Cookingham, City Mgr. L. P., 140-146.
CougiH, K. R., 37.
Crestkill Case, N. Y., 204.
Cudd, Dr. Herschel, 2.
Culverwell, Albert, 73-76.
Cumberland Falls, Ky., 128.
Curtice, Harlow, Pr. General Motors, 95.
Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, 199.
DeBoer, S. R., 146-148.
Delano, Frederic A., v, 7, 10.
Demaray, Arthur, 79.
Downie, Robt. C., 190.
Drury, Newton B., 79, 85-86.
Dyer, Harold Dyer, J., 45.
East River Project, 120.
Edison, Thomas A., 3.
Eisenhower, President, 29, 106.
Eliot, Charles, 2.
Elmer, Arthur C., 46, 80-83.
Engineers, Corps of, 67, 86.
Eno Foundation for Traffic Control, 28.
Equitable Society, 188.
Erie Co., N. Y., 201.
Euclid Village Case, 7.
Evans, James F., 50.
Evondale, Ohio, 198.
Farm Bureau Ins. Cos., 156.
Fatig, Dr. Richard S., 52.
Feiss, Carl, 105-112, 158.
Fitzgerald, Chancellor, Univ. of Pittsburgh,
191.
Flickinger, V. W., 51.
Florida, 34.
Foley, Jim, 156-158.
FoIIin, James W., 107-108.
Ford, George B., 7.
Ford, Henry and Edsel, 95, 97.
Ford Rouge Plant, 97.
Fox, Mrs. Cyril, 26-30.
Frye, Carl R., 158.
Fuller, Lonnie C., 80.
Fulton Co., Ga., 200.
Garrabrant, R. B., 158-159.
Geddes, Norman Bel, 26.
General Electric Co., 207.
General Foods, 207.
General Motors, 28-29, 95, 97.
Geological Survey, 13, 18.
Georgia Inst. of Technology, 2.
Grant, U. S. 3rd, v, ix, 205.
Green Belt, 97.
Gries, John M., 5.
Gwinn, Abner, 48.
Gulick, Dr. Luther, 206.
Haldeman, B. Antrim, 5.
Hall, William R., 45.
Hamilton Co., Ohio, 199.
Hanson, Earl P., 83-85.
Hartford, Ct., 195.
Hayes, President, 11.
Hazard, Leland, 190.
Heinz, H. J. II, 190.
Hella, U. W., 47.
Herlihy, Elisabeth M., 5.
Hill, Emmett L., 34.
Hillman, James F., 190.
Holabird, Root & Burgee, 153.
Holmes, E. H., 191.
Home Builders, 108.
Hood, Clifford F., 190.
Home, Joseph, 188.
Howard, Ebenezer, 2, 114, 119.
Hubbard, Henry V. and Theodora, 7.
Hubbard, Col. Shelton P., 101-104.
Hudson, J. L. Co., 96.
Hulbert, Eri, 112-113.
Idaho, 36.
Incodel, 21.
Indian Hill, Hamilton Co., O., 198.
Indiana, 37.
Ingalls, George F., 50.
Iowa, 39.
Jerome, Jerome K., 128.
Johnson, Carl J., 57.
Johnson, Clinton G., 42.
Jones and Laughlin, 191.
Kansas City Country Club Dist., 5.
Kaufmann, Edgar J., 188, 190.
Kaylor, James, F., 45.
Keller, K. T., Ch. Bd. Chrysler Corp., 95.
Kelsey, Harlan, 4.
Kentucky, 40.
Lawrence, Mayor David L., 188.
Lausche, Gov., ix, 92-94.
League of Women Voters, 108.
Levin, David R., 131-139.
Letchworth, England, 2.
Lewis, Jack F., 59.
Lincoln Heights, Ohio, 198.
Lincoln Village, Ohio, 156-158.
Lincoln, Murray Danforth, 156.
Lockhart, George D., 190.
Love, George H., 190.
Louisville, Ky., 42.
Lowell, Dr. A. Lawrence, 1.
Maier, Herbert, 79.
Maine, 45.
Marsh, Burton W., A.A.A., 191.
Martin, Park H., 190.
Matson, Theodore, Yale Univ., 191.
Maryland, 45.
McFarland, Dr. J. Horace, 5, 10.
McKay, Secretary of the Interior Douglas,
71.
Marconi, 2.
Mellon gift to Pittsburgh, 192.
Menhinick, Howard K., 1-11.
Men-jam, Charles E., 5.
Merriam, Lawrence C., 67.
Miami Conservancy District, Ohio, 21—23.
Michigan, 46, 80-83.
Mickle, D. Grant, 191.
Minnesota, 47.
Missouri, 48.
Montana, 49.
Moody, Walter D., 5.
Moore, Granville, 158-164.
Morgan, Harcourt A., 7.
Morris Co., N. Y., 204.
Morrison, Mayor deLesseps, 103.
Moses, Robert, 28, 206.
Moye, A. N., 35.
Muskingum Conservancy Dist., 21-26.
Nassau Co., 204, 207.
National Conference on City Planning, 5.
National Conference on State Parks, 32, 85.
National Council of State Garden Clubs, 29.
National Resources Planning Board, 7.
Nebraska, 50.
New Orleans, 101-104.
New York, 7, 50.
New York City Planning Commn., 206.
Niagara Falls, 4, 199.
Nichols, J. C, 5.
Nolen, John, 5.
Ohio, 19, 21, 51, 92-94.
Ohio River Water Sanitation Commn., 21.
Oklahoma, 53.
Olmsted, Frederick, L., 2, 85.
Oregon, 54, 86-89.
Owen, Wilfred, 1.
Paulsen, C. G., 13-19.
Pittsburgh, Pa., 186-194.
Pittsburgh Civic Business Council, 191.
Pittsburgh Regional Planning Assn., 191.
Planning & Civic Comment, 125, 127.
Pomeroy, Hugh, 158, 202-208.
Pond, William B., 90-91.
Potomac River Interstate Commn., 21.
President's Adv. Com. on Gov. Housing
Policies, 106.
Price, Gwilyn, 190.
Purdy, Lawson, 7.
Public Roads, Bureau of, 29.
Radburn, 97.
Real Estate Boards, 108.
Reclamation, Bureau of, 68, 86.
Redman, Albert E., 158.
Redwood Highway, 34.
Reed, Thomas H., 194-201, 202, 207.
Reese, Leslie J., 190.
Regional Plan Assn. of N. Y., 202, 206.
Richards, Wallace, 190.
Richmond, Kenneth C., 127.
Riis, Jacob, 2.
Roberts, Ashley C., 49.
Robinson, Charles Mulford, 2.
Rock Creek Park, Washington, 129, 130.
Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 33.
Roosevelt, Theodore, 11.
Root, John, 153.
Rubloff, Arthur, 148-155.
Rumbold, Charlotte, 5.
Rush, Wilbur A., 39.
St. Louis Co., 200.
San Francisco City and County, 200.
Saturday Evening Post, 76.
Scaife, Sarah Mellon Foundation, 194.
Schmidt, A. W., 190.
Scientific American, 2, 11.
Segoe, Ladislas, 158.
Shearer, Gordon K., 55.
Shurtleff, Flavel, 158-164, 202.
Sierra Redwoods, 33.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, 155.
Smeath, George, 160.
Snyder, William P. Ill, 190.
Solberg, Erling, 27.
Swan, Herbert, 5.
Swift, Col. Harley B., 123-128.
Szilard, Dr. Leo, 115.
Taylor, E. H., 25.
Tennessee Valley Authority, 7.
Texas, 55.
Tilden, Samuel, 12.
Tillotson, Miner R., 79.
Todd, H. E., 162, 163.
Tolson, Hillory A., 79.
Town Ridge, N. Y., 206.
Toronto, Canada, 171-181, 201.
Traffic Quarterly, 28.
United Air Craft Plant, 196.
Urban Redevelopment Auth. Pittsburgh,
188.
Vanderzicht, John R., 56.
Van Buskirk, Arthur B., 190.
Vanderbilt, Judge, 204.
Van Orsdale, Nathan, 155.
Veiller, Lawrence, 2.
Wacker's Manual, 5.
Wallace, Tom, 11-13, 128-131, 163.
Wantrup, Prof. Univ. of Cal., 19, 20.
Ward, Henry, 40.
Washington State, 56, 89-91.
Waterson, Henry, 11, 12, 13.
Wayshe, Judge, 204.
Weidlein, Dr. Edward R., 190.
West Virginia, 57.
Westchester Co., N. Y., 202-208.
Western Reserve Univ., 104.
Wheaton, William, 120.
White, Ray M., 92-94.
Whitten, Robert, 5.
Williams, Frank B., 7.
Williams, Leslie, 191.
Wilson, Arthur, 36.
Wirth, Conrad L., 79.
Wisconsin, 57.
Woodbury, Coleman, 120.
Woods, Lawrence C, 190.
Wyoming, 59.
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