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CITY PLANNING
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QUARTERLY
JANUARY 1934
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CITY PLANNING
REGIONAL PLANNING— RURAL PLANNING— TOWN PLANNING
OFFICIAL ORGAN
AMERICAN CITY PLANNING INSTITUTE
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CITY PLANNING
QUARTERLY
Vol. X JANUARY 1934 No. 1
CONTENTS
Tokyo, the Lex Adickes, and Slum Clearance . EDWARD M. BASSETT 1
Frequency Distributions in City Planning . . CHARLES HERRICK 4
Akron's Building Line Plan .... CHARLES F. FISHER 7
CURRENT PROGRESS: — A Capital City Plans Comprehensively — Great Britain's
Land Utilization Survey — Highways and Civic Center are Major Projects —
Unemployment Relief and County Planning Coordinated — Ithaca's Many-
sided Planning Program — Planning a City of Homes — Planning Makes
Relief Work Effective . . . . . . . . 19
ZONING ROUNDTABLE: — Limitation of Industrial Workers — Families per Acre —
La Corona Cigars . . . . . . . 31
LEGAL NOTES: — Effect of Zoning on Land Values . . . . .36
N. C. C. P. & A. C. P. I. NEWS: — Federal Grants for Planning — Winter Meet-
ing of Institute ......... 38
BOOK REVIEWS & LISTS : — Reviews — Land Use Bibliography . . .39
Published Quarterly at n Oak Street, Augusta, Maine, by
CITY PLANNING PUBLISHING CO.
GENERAL OFFICE: 12 PRESCOTT STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
HENRY VINCENT HUBBARD, EDITOR HOWARD K. MENHINICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
EDWARD M. BASSETT FRANK B. WILLIAMS JOHN NOLEN
FLAVEL SHURTLEFF THEODORA KIMBALL HUBBARD
ELIZABETH M. HOUSTON, ASSISTANT TO THE EDITORS
CARL RUST PARKER, Business Manager
75 cents a copy, $3.00 a year (Foreign $1.00 a copy, $3.50 a year)
Copyright 1934, by Carl Rust Parker. Entered as second-class matter, April 8, 1925, at the Post Office
at Augusta, Maine, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.
CITY PLANNING
OFFICIAL ORGAN
AMERICAN CITY PLANNING INSTITUTE
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CITY PLANNING
QUARTERLY
VOL. 10 January 1934 No. 1
TOKYO, THE LEX ADICKES,
AND SLUM CLEARANCE
By EDWARD M. BASSETT
ON September i, 1923, Tokyo, one of the seven largest cities
in the world, was devastated by the great earthquake, fol-
lowed by a fire which destroyed the buildings in more than
half of the city. The burned area was more than fifteen times that
of the great London fire, four times that of the Chicago fire, and
nearly three times that of the San Francisco fire. The fatalities
numbered more than 58,000, and the destroyed houses more than
140,000. The numerous canals were crossed by wooden bridges
which were largely destroyed. Most of the buildings were inflam-
mable. The rebuilding of the city was an enormous problem,
partly because more than a million homeless people had to be
cared for while replanning and rebuilding were going on. In parts
of the city, streets were narrow and parks were few. The city
authorities, however, saw their opportunity to make a new Tokyo.
At their request the national legislature gave the City the power
to employ the Lex Adickes, — that is to say, the City of Tokyo was
granted all the powers that Mayor Adickes of Frankfort, Germany,
used in the redesigning and rebuilding of part of his city.
With the help of this law, street land, park land, and private
land were figuratively thrown into a common pool. Old streets
and parks were largely obliterated. These great areas of raw land
were then replanned, making more parks than before, many of
2 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
them small parks for playgrounds, and putting them in the right
places. Wider streets were laid out and many of the huddles of
narrow streets were entirely abolished; new canals were made and
some of the old ones were widened. The entire area was divided
into sixty-five districts, in the main bounded by wide streets, thus
dividing the entire area into cells having sides from one-quarter to
one-half mile in length. These new wide streets act as firebreaks
and the new buildings on them are required to be fireproof. A new
zoning plan was added to the whole.
In the reallotment of the land each former private owner was
given a parcel of land, in or near his old location, as nearly as
possible of the same value as what he lost. Ten per cent was sub-
tracted to cover the making of wider streets and larger parks, and
the cost of the reallotment. Usually the new parcel, although
slightly smaller than the old, was equally valuable because of the
redesigning of the streets and parks.
It will be difficult to bring back slum districts in American
cities into prosperity, healthfulness, and rentability without re-
designing the streets and parks of those localities. Sometimes the
present block sizes forbid parks and playgrounds and are not
adapted to suitable multi-family houses. Sometimes the streets
are too narrow. How can the Lex Adickes be employed in this
country to bring about an economical redesigning of the land? It
is generally considered that our written constitutions prevent the
use of the Lex Adickes. This constitutional provision is that pri-
vate property shall not be taken for public use without just com-
pensation. Will our courts say that money alone is compensation
and that other land is not compensation? A new carefully drawn
state enabling act would be required. A state constitutional
amendment would also be necessary in order to designate the Lex
Adickes method as a public purpose.
It is difficult to see how an economical method of redesigning
streets and parks in slum districts can be found if the Lex Adickes
method cannot be used. Let us suppose that under the present
laws, first the new design of streets and parks is made; next will
come the opening of the new streets and parks by condemnation.
Payment must be made in money to the former owners. Part of
TOKYO AND THE LEX ADICKES 3
these awards must be assessed on the property benefited and per-
haps another part will be assumed by the municipality. Then will
come the lawful closing of the old streets. Abutting owners will
claim damages in these closing proceedings. After long litigation
the city might become the owner of all or part of the land in the
area free from valid claims of abutting private owners. The cost,
however, would be so great that the undertaking would be difficult
or almost impossible. But the trouble would not be over at this
stage. The new streets would be laid out with suitable park
spaces, but the municipality would own a considerable part of the
private land, much of it the result of closing old streets. The
shaping up of building plots out of the private and public land
would take a long time. Private owners would hold out for high
prices. In New York and some other states the use of excess con-
demnation would be advantageous. It will be hard to make the
Lex Adickes method lawful, but it will be harder still to reallocate
streets and parks under existing laws and constitutional require-
ments.
Nearly all the outlying boroughs of Greater New York to-day
contain areas that were early settlements before the city grew out
to them. Their streets run in different directions from those on
the official city map. Houses have been built on them. They
remain a problem that the City and the inhabitants of the localities
have been unable to solve. The streets shown on the official map
are not the streets in actual existence on which the houses are
built. In some cases the houses are too good to destroy and the
owners oppose any plan of closing the old streets. Our statutory
methods of employing eminent domain and making assessments
for benefit do not seem to fit these cases, and consequently they
exist from year to year without new improvements in the way of
buildings and paved streets. They are living illustrations of the
difficulty of redesigning a built-up area under existing laws.
It looks as if we must find some way to employ the Lex Adickes
method in rehabilitating slum areas by redesigning streets and
parks.
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS IN
CITY PLANNING
By CHARLES HERRICK
City Planning Engineer
IN CITY PLANNING for July 1933, Mr. A. B. Horwitz of Duluth
gives some interesting data on the effect of distance upon the
frequency of use of public library facilities, in which he demon-
strates that public money can be wasted easily by placing public
buildings without making careful studies of their relative useful-
ness in different locations. The data in the article referred to are
presented in the form of bar diagrams, which are supposed to be
easily understood by the "average man" but which do not illustrate
the mathematical laws governing the phenomena.
In this case the data show that "use" varies with the distance,
and if shown by continuous lines which can be reduced to mathe-
matical equations, the natural laws involved can be found. Other
studies have shown that density of population is often a con-
trolling factor, and it is quite probable that it, as well as the dis-
tance of their residence from the library, affects the percentage of
the population withdrawing books. This can be shown by fitting
straight lines to the observed data by graphic methods, which will
not involve a high degree of error in the frequency of use by people
living less than one mile away from the branch libraries, or two
miles away from the main library. The equations are:
Main library y = 30 - 8.6 x
Urban branches y = 46 - 41.9 x
Suburban branches y = 83 - 66.4 x
where y = per cent of the total population living at a given dis-
tance from the library which will withdraw books once
a month, and
x = distance, in miles, from the library to the residence of
the people under consideration.
There are two progressive changes in the equations as you go from
the main library to the suburban branches. The people living near
the main library make less use of it than those living near the
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTIONS
branches, but the decrease in the per cent of users is smaller as the
distance from the main library increases. A very large percentage
of the people living near the suburban branches makes use of the
library, but the percentage of users decreases very rapidly as the
distance from the library increases. The formula for the urban
branches falls between the other two formulas in both these re-
spects. From other problems studied, it appears that density of
population,1 rather than distance from the main library, is the
PERCENT OF POPULATION BORROW-
ING BOOKS EACH MONTH FROM THE
MAIN LIBRARY
Mk M Ci
O 0 0
5
Co
fiH
K'
mpound Frequency Curve
ing the observations.
mple Frequency Curves
lose sum gives the
jserved Curve.
y\
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)oi
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' e
k,
""""••1
V
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\
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, "^
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"""~~ —
— -"^
-^r.-z;
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O V* VZ 3/4 1 V4 Vfe 3/4. 2. 1/4 y
DISTANCE FROM THE LIBRARY, IN MILES
factor which determines the constants in the three equations. It
would not be safe to use these data from Duluth in planning library
locations in other cities because of the wide variations caused by
some factors not included in the published data.
There is an extensive mathematical literature on the subject
of "Frequency Distribution," and five or more types of frequency
curves are classified and expressed by equations of great com-
plexity. Whenever a variation of use with distance, or distribu-
tion of statistics by classes, is encountered in city planning, the
need for this branch of mathematics is indicated.
It is possible to write the equation of a curve which results
from the summation of several different frequency curves. The
frequency curve for the "Per Cent of Total Population Using the
Main Library," shown in the accompanying diagram, is of this
1 EDITOR'S NOTE.- — Presumably the reason that the use of the library per person varies
inversely as the density of the population is that the education and amount of reading of the
population frequently varies inversely with the density.
6 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
kind,1 and is the summation of three or more curves representing
the distribution of the residence of readers of different classes of
books, probably reference or business books, fiction, general liter-
ature, and so forth. This method of analysis explains the appar-
ently aimless irregularities of the curve fitting the observed points,
indicated by the small circles.
In any city, if the distribution of books from one library is
known, it is possible, by making use of the known characteristics
of frequency distribution curves, to compute the probable dis-
tribution of books from libraries located at different points. To
do this, it would be advisable to keep the records of different
classes of books separately. The city should be subdivided into
districts of homogeneous character, and the records should show
for each district the distance from the point of distribution, the
population, density of population, and number of books borrowed
per month. Using data from another city, especially when the
density and character of the population are not known, is not
advisable. In most cases, the variation of use with distance will
not be the same in all directions, as the character or density of the
population will not be the same in all directions from any given
point within a city, especially when the point is not at the center
of the city. An understanding of the mathematics of frequency
curves will help in the analysis of all problems of this kind.
1This is a graphic approximation, suggested by curves in Elementary Treatise on Frequency
Curves and Their Application in the Analysis of Death Curves and Life Tables, by Arne Fisher,
New York, The Macmillan Co., 1922.
BLIGHTED DISTRICTS
Blighted districts are to-day greater problems than slums in
American cities. Every blighted district is a potential slum. For
every square mile of slum area we have at least five square miles
of blighted districts. . . . Sound zoning and housing are the key
to both problems. The slum is an area of insanitary and unfit
houses that needs rebuilding. . . . Reconstruction of slums will
be an endless process unless we stem the chief source, — the blighted
district. This is exclusively a city planning problem. — HARLAND
BARTHOLOMEW.
AKRON'S BUILDING LINE PLAN
By CHARLES F. FISHER
THE high cost of widening traffic streets in developed sections of cities
is mainly due to building damages. Payment must be made for volume
taken, for moving, cutting off, and remodeling buildings, and for conse-
quential damages; but the amount paid for building damages is a total eco-
nomic loss to the public. Only the land taken is needed or can be used for
street purposes, but building damages frequently amount to two or three
times the cost of the land.
City officials, municipal engineers, and city planners have long endeavored
to find some legal and satisfactory way of eliminating or reducing building
damages in the widening of thoroughfares. The power of eminent domain
has always been available for use in establishing setback lines which would
have to be observed thereafter in the construction of buildings; but, as this
method requires that proceedings be taken for each street to determine
damages and that damages, if any, must be paid, it is not satisfactory.
The police power could not legally be employed to keep buildings back from
individual streets for the sole and express purpose of reducing the cost of
future widening, since economy in the execution of an improvement project
is not a police-power reason. A comprehensive building line plan, as part
of a zoning ordinance, such as Akron, Ohio, has had since 1922, seems to
provide a legal and satisfactory way of keeping buildings back from the street
lines of major and minor streets.
A much more radical proposal has been made by a member of the legal
profession. Mr. Clifton Williams, a Special Assistant City Attorney of Mil-
waukee, advanced the idea that setback lines can be established on traffic
streets as a function of sovereignty, with notice to property owners that in
five, ten, or twenty years the property between the setback lines and the
street lines will revert to the public; and that at the end of the period speci-
fied the municipality can take the property between these lines without com-
pensation.1 His argument, crowded into one sentence, is:
The narrow horse-and-buggy traffic streets are so inadequate and haz-
ardous for motor vehicle traffic, the destruction of life and property by motor
vehicle traffic is so tremendous, the cost of making all traffic streets wide and
safe would be so enormous, the necessity for wider and safer traffic streets is
so imperative for community welfare and existence, and municipalities are so
powerless financially to undertake and carry out a comprehensive plan for
the widening of all traffic streets that a general widening of all inadequate
Mr. Fisher was Planning Engineer, 1920-22, and Planning Engineer and Secretary of
the Board of Appeals, from Jan. i, 1925 to Feb. i, 1933, Akron, Ohio.
^'Legal Problems Involved in Establishing Set-Back Lines." By Clifton Williams.
Proceedings of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Jan. 1931, pp. 119-127.
8 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
traffic streets is therefore as much the function of sovereignty as the peremp-
tory destruction of nuisances, or the destruction of buildings to prevent the
spread of fire, or quarantine to prevent the spread of disease, or the emergency
construction of levees on private land to prevent the destruction of life and
property. The reasoning he has presented for appropriation without compen-
sation may well be used to justify legally the control of the location of build-
ings with respect to street lines by means of a comprehensive building line
plan in zoning.
AKRON ADOPTS A BUILDING LINE MAP
When the City of Akron adopted a zoning ordinance in 1922 it ventured
to include a feature not found in many other zoning ordinances. Its ordi-
nance contains, in addition to the usual zoning map, a second map called a
building line map. Some earlier and many later ordinances, by a provision
in the text, require buildings to set back from street lines in residence districts
to provide front yards. The building line map of the Akron ordinance, how-
ever, is a comprehensive plan for the regulation of the location of buildings
on premises with respect to street lines, and requires buildings to set back
not only in residence districts but also in business and industrial districts.
LEGALITY UNCERTAIN IN 1922
The City Planning Commission and its staff did not decide off-hand on
a building line map. The legality of setbacks under the police power had
not been established, and in 1922 the prevailing sentiment among city planners
and their legal advisers seemed to be against it in business and industrial
districts. It was decided therefore to make a study to determine whether
keeping buildings back of street lines in business and industrial districts would
have a reasonable relation to public health, safety, and general welfare. A
review of this study will show how the incorporation of the building line map
in the zoning ordinance came about.
FINDINGS OF BUILDING LINE STUDY
Information for a building line study was available on a use map showing
in colors the use of all property in the city, a thoroughfare map showing all
existing thoroughfares, and a tentative zoning map showing the zoning use
districts into which it was proposed to divide the city. Additional informa-
tion was secured from city atlases and public records and, finally, by inspect-
ing and sizing up streets, frontages, buildings, and motor vehicle traffic and
parking.
A number of facts and conditions affecting public health, safety, and
general welfare seemed to have a definite relation to the location of buildings
with respect to street lines. Sporadic store and shop buildings were obvious
and persistent violators of existing uniformity of development. They violated
A Thief of Residential Amenities
Deleterious Effects of Store in Residential Neighborhood
Minimized by Adequate Setback
io CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
the alignment of the residence buildings as well as the residential character
of the street. Buildings of this kind had recently sprung up in many local-
ities, often on traffic streets that were almost entirely built up with dwellings
set well back from the street. They frequently were additions constructed
in front of existing dwellings. Practically all projected out to the sidewalk,
cutting off light, air, and vision. The neighbors often objected more to the
projection of the buildings than to their use for business purposes. When
constructed on corner lots and out to the lines of both streets, as a number
were, they created traffic hazards, or blind corners, which were especially
dangerous on traffic streets for both motorists and pedestrians.
Computations showed that a large part of the frontage and area ear-
marked for business and industrial districts would have to be used, if used
at all, for residence purposes, for in preparing the tentative zoning plan it
had been expedient for various reasons to allocate more frontage and area to
business and industrial districts than could ever be used for such purposes in
a city of Akron's probable future population. It was also foreseen that busi-
ness frontages and industrial areas would undoubtedly be further augmented
by subsequent amending ordinances. Furthermore, it was observed that
where business buildings in local business centers and along thoroughfares,
outside of the central business district, were more than one story high, the
upper floors were frequently used for residence purposes. It therefore seemed
reasonably certain that a large number of people would always live in busi-
ness and industrial districts.
It was found that a large percentage of the frontage, especially along
thoroughfares, proposed to be placed in business districts was occupied by
residences set twenty-five feet or more back from street lines or was vacant.
It was also perceived that, in future changes of a frontage from a residence
district to a business district, the front yard line would automatically be
eliminated if the setbacks were established by a text provision for front yards
in residence districts only.
Outside of the central business district, the frontage on thoroughfares
generally had a depth of from 150 to 200 feet and business buildings, with
few exceptions, did not exceed 100 feet in depth. In local business districts,
lots generally had a depth of 150 feet or more, and business buildings were
generally less than 80 feet deep. Scattered store buildings were generally
from 25 to 50 feet deep. Outside of the central business district, open areas
were generally left in the rear of buildings much in excess of the open spaces
that would be required in front of buildings by a building line plan.
Observations and studies on thoroughfares in existing local business
centers showed that automobile parking was not general and did not seriously
interfere with or endanger moving traffic where the frontage was vacant or
used for residence purposes, but where the frontage was occupied by stores
and used for business purposes, the parking of customers' cars along the
II
curbs, with their backing in and pulling out, obstructed and endangered mov-
ing traffic on the existing 30- and 36-foot roadways, and that this obstruction
and danger would be greatly decreased with roadways of adequate width.
It was apparent that roadways in business districts, especially on thorough-
fares, required a width of not less than 56 feet to provide for automobile park-
ing at each curb and for two lanes of moving traffic in each direction, and
that the existing roadways in business districts on thoroughfares would
eventually have to be widened to not less than 56 feet or parking would have
to be prohibited. A group of store buildings was found on a 60-foot thorough-
fare with double street-car tracks where the owner had voluntarily set the
buildings back 8 feet on a 200-foot frontage and widened the roadway, to
the evident advantage of himself, the merchants, the patrons, and the public.
This owner regretted that he had not set his buildings back a greater distance.
Motor vehicle traffic, on account of volume, speed, and fumes and gases,
produces conditions inimical to health and safety. The effects of these con-
ditions vary to some degree inversely with the width of the street and the
distance between buildings on opposite frontages.
The thoroughfares, outside of the central business district, were 60 feet
or less in width and double street-car tracks occupied the central 20 feet of
the majority. These thoroughfares, with few exceptions, were laid out over
seventy-five years ago for horse-and-buggy travel when the requirements of
the present-day type and volume of traffic could not be foreseen and the present
population was not anticipated.
A number of buildings were found set back from 5 to 12 feet on thorough-
fares outside of the central business district, in compliance with a series of
ordinances passed by the Council in 1919. These ordinances referred to public
and public utility buildings only, but private buildings had also been re-
quired, without legal authority, to observe the setback lines.
In the central business district, the land was more generally developed
and more intensively used than in any other part of the city. Here land
values were higher, buildings were built to greater heights and covered a
larger percentage of the lots, frontages were more solidly built up to street
lines, the upper floors of buildings were more generally used for business pur-
poses, and thoroughfares were from 66 feet to 125 feet wide.
DEDUCTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
From a study and analysis of the facts assembled, certain deductions and
conclusions were reached as to the effects and advantages of a comprehensive
setback plan. Keeping buildings back from street lines, and thereby increas-
ing the distances between buildings on the opposite sides of streets in busi-
ness and industrial districts will prevent the creation of blind corners at many
street intersections. It will secure to some degree for a large number of people
who will inevitably live as well as work in business and industrial districts,
12 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
some of the obvious and recognized advantages of front yards in residence
districts. It will reduce the disadvantages and evil effects of the dust, fumes,
gas, and dangers of motor vehicle traffic where it is the heaviest; it will in-
crease the amount of air and sunlight reaching buildings and streets; it will
decrease the danger of fire crossing from one side of a street to the other side ;
and it will tend to relieve the tension on the nervous systems of pedestrians
and motorists. The same sense of danger that impelled people in the Middle
Ages to walk in the center of their narrow streets at night for greater safety
affects pedestrians on our narrow traffic streets to-day. They have a feeling
of insecurity and fear where roadways and walks are narrow and traffic is
heavy that they do not have where the distance between the street walls of
buildings on opposite frontages is 80 or 100 feet.
Outside the central business district, setting buildings back from street
lines in business districts will not prevent the construction of buildings of
normal depth, but will merely result in most cases in decreasing the open
area usually left in the rear of buildings. Open spaces in front of buildings
will be more useful and beneficial to the owners and the public than open
areas in the rear.
Establishing building lines which require buildings to set back from
street lines is not a taking of property but a regulation of its use. Except
that no building may be erected on the area in front of the setback line, the
owner may use it for any legal purpose. In return for this limitation in the
use of his property he receives compensation in the benefits which he derives
from the same limitations upon neighboring owners. These benefits may be
just as substantial and advantageous in business and industrial districts as
in residence districts.
Automobile parking is now a concomitant of retail business and, in the
future, provision for such parking will become a recognized necessity for
doing business. Where buildings are set back the widening of roadways will
be facilitated and the owners of any frontage, in cooperation with municipal
authorities, may set the curbs back and widen the roadway in front of their
property to provide for the parking of customers' cars. Unless this is done
business will eventually be driven from established locations and attracted
to new centers where ample roadway width for curb parking will be provided.
Furthermore, if the City widens a roadway by decreasing the width of the
sidewalk space to an extent that is detrimental to the abutting property, as
it has a legal right to do, then the abutting property will have no remedy
where buildings are built out to the street lines.
Establishing setbacks on a traffic street for the sole and express purpose
of reducing the cost of its widening in the future would not be a police-power
reason. If, however, a comprehensive building line plan will, as a whole,
promote the public health, safety, and general welfare, then the savings
effected in the cost of the future widening of streets upon which building lines
AKRON'S BUILDING LINE PLAN 13
have been established will be an incidental and consequential resultant and
an additional advantage of such plan. The highways constituting the city's
thoroughfare system are generally inadequate, and, based upon estimates (in
1922) of increase in population and in the number of motor vehicles, many
may have to be widened some time in the future. The widening of these
highways and the opening of new traffic routes will be a vast community
undertaking. The community health, safety, and welfare will be involved.
The community should therefore employ its power in advance so as to facil-
itate the accomplishment of this undertaking within the limits of its financial
resources. The high cost of widening streets is mainly due to building dam-
ages. Unless future buildings are required to set back of street lines, the
community will be powerless to increase adequately the traffic capacity of
its thoroughfare system for the public good or the cost will be so enormous
as to impose unbearable burdens of taxes and assessments upon all taxpayers
and abutting owners.
In consideration of the foregoing facts and findings, the City Planning
Commission concluded that a comprehensive building line plan, as part of
the zoning ordinance, would preserve the public health, safety, and general
welfare, and promote the public good. It then authorized the Planning
Engineer to proceed with the preparation of such a plan.
MAP AND PROVISIONS
The Akron building line map is a part of the zoning ordinance which
was passed by the Council on August 15, 1922. It consisted originally of
twelve sheets drawn at a scale of 400 feet to the inch, the same as the zoning
map.
The building lines established are represented by lines back of street
lines, and the setback distances are shown by figures back of the building lines.
There can be no uncertainty as to whether buildings are required to set back,
nor as to the setback distance on any street frontage, nor can there be any
question as to the comprehensiveness of the building line plan.
Building lines are provided on all streets in residence districts. No set-
backs are required on streets in the existing central business district nor on
a number of streets in other than residence districts where it was deemed
inexpedient to require buildings to set back. On thoroughfares in business
and industrial districts the setback distances are the same on each side of
the street, and where it was found to be inexpedient to place a building line
on one side of a street in a business or industrial district, none was established
on either side.
The building lines and setback distances on each street were determined
by conditions and in accordance with certain general principles. In residence
districts, the setback distances generally range from 25 to 60 feet, and more
where justified by conditions, with 10 to 25 feet along the sides of corner lots.
H CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
In business and industrial districts, the setbacks on thoroughfares where the
frontage had a number of buildings built out to the street lines are 10 or 12
feet, and where the frontage was largely undeveloped or buildings generally
set back from the street lines, they are from 15 to 25 feet. Setbacks of 10
or 15 feet are generally required along the sides of corner lots in business
districts to provide for vision clearance and the protection of residence dis-
tricts on the side streets.
The building line provisions in the zoning ordinance empower the Board
of Appeals, after public notice and hearing, to authorize certain variations
of the building line regulations and to make exceptions in particular cases
where unusual or exceptional conditions exist; for example, where a lot is
much less than normal in depth, or where a corner lot is much less than
normal in width, or where a building would be pocketed between two
projecting buildings.
OPERATION AND ADMINISTRATION
The area of the city has been increased by 17 annexations from 25 square
miles in 1922 to 54 square miles in 1932. The zoning ordinance, including
the building line map, has been extended by 10 supplemental ordinances to
include all annexed territories. The building line plan has thus been expanded
with the city's growth in area, and building lines have been established on
thoroughfares and minor streets throughout the entire 54 square miles.
No building lines have been removed except from portions of two
minor streets in business districts. Building lines have been placed on por-
tions of several streets in business districts where they had not been estab-
lished originally.
Extensive frontages have been changed, as anticipated, from residence
districts to business districts by amending the zoning ordinance. In making
such changes, however, no building lines have been entirely eliminated, and,
if altered, buildings are still required to set back from 15 to 25 feet. In this
way the detrimental effects of these changes, some of which were inadvisable,
were mitigated and the residential occupancy of the property was somewhat
protected. Petitioners for changes from residence to business districts have
not asked that building lines be entirely eliminated and, where changes have
been made, the new setback distance has usually been determined by the
Planning Commission.
The building line plan has proved to be a practicable and effective method
of establishing setbacks comprehensively, and some people seem to think it
is the most valuable feature of the zoning ordinance. It has always had the
approbation and support of the Council. Its operation and administration
have not involved any unusual or serious difficulties, and the setback require-
ments have been observed as readily as other regulations of the ordinance.
Whenever an applicant for a building permit finds, or thinks, he cannot com-
ply with the required setback, he has the alternative of making an appeal to
AKRON'S BUILDING LINE PLAN 15
the Board of Appeals for a variation of the setback distance. If he can show
that there are unusual conditions in his case and that he cannot comply with-
out unnecessary hardship, a variation or exception may be authorized. In
a period of over ten years, 229 appeals for building line variations or excep-
tions, in all classes of use districts, have been filed. Of these, about 200 have
been granted. Many of the appeals granted merely permitted minor projec-
tions in residence districts or small, temporary structures in other districts.
In authorizing an extension beyond the building line on a thoroughfare in a
business district, the Board has invariably limited the portion built beyond
the building line to one story in height and has required, as a condition, that
an agreement be executed and filed binding the owner to remove such portion
beyond the building line at his own expense if and when the conditions on
account of which the exception was made cease to exist.
Buildings in Business District Observing 25-foot Setback
on a 60-foot Thoroughfare
LEGALITY SUSTAINED
Only one building line case has been taken to the courts. The owner of
a lot on a 60-foot traffic street and in a local business district desired to build
a small two-room store building between the front of a dwelling house and
the street line. He had made an appeal to the Board of Appeals for permis-
sion to build his building beyond the 10-foot building line and out to the
street line. As all buildings on the same side of the street within 75 feet on
one side of his lot and 500 feet to a cemetery on the other side were set
2
i6 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
back from the street 25 feet or more, his appeal had been denied by the Board.
The Common Pleas Court, after hearing, dismissed his petition to declare the
zoning ordinance unconstitutional and to enjoin the City of Akron from inter-
fering in any way with his use and occupation of his property. In the opinion
rendered, the court held that "the Akron zoning ordinance, in its main fea-
tures, provisions and classifications is a valid and constitutional enactment."1
On appeal to the Court of Appeals, the case was dismissed on a technicality.
ADVANTAGES TO ABUTTERS
Several instances illustrate how property owners have found setbacks to
their advantage.
The plaintiff, in the case just cited, two years later dedicated to the public
the 10 feet in front of the building which he had constructed back of the
building line and was largely instrumental in securing a like dedication along
an additional frontage of 500 feet. The sidewalk was then rebuilt to the new
street line and the roadway widened. At this time he stated that he now
realized that he was wrong in attempting to build out to the street line and
he was glad he had been forced to comply with the 10-foot setback requirement.
The Ohio Bell Telephone Company erected a $3,000,000 building in 1929
and cheerfully observed a 7-foot building line along a 66-foot street in front
and a 5-foot line along a 66-foot street on one side. Before the completion
of the building it dedicated both strips, which had a total length of 410 feet.
The roadways were then widened 8 feet, which provided for curb parking for
its patrons and left the entire existing roadways for moving traffic.
In 1931 the owner of an undeveloped block at the intersection of two
60-foot thoroughfares in a local business district replatted the block and
dedicated along both thoroughfares the land between the street lines and the
25-foot building lines, thereby providing for diagonal parking. He promptly
sold the entire block for 11 per cent more than he had vainly endeavored to
secure several years before.
EFFECT ON THOROUGHFARE SYSTEM
In the city of Akron, buildings are required to set back from street lines
on 117.5 miles of thoroughfares by the building line plan, and over 5 miles
of thoroughfares have recently been widened to setback lines.
Two factual maps, prepared in 1932, show the ultimate effect and result-
ing advantages of requiring buildings to set back to the building lines on the
streets composing the city's thoroughfare system. One map, "Traffic Capacity
of Existing Thoroughfares," shows the present width and maximum traffic
capacity, in lanes of traffic, of all existing thoroughfares. The other map,
"Building Lines on Existing Thoroughfares," shows the distance between
buildings on opposite frontages required on existing thoroughfares.
Kaufman v. City of Akron, C. P. Ct., Summit County, Jan. 6, 1927.
AKRON OHIO
CITY PLANNING COMMISSION
5UILDING LINES ON EXISTING THOROFARES
UGEND
A COMPREHENSIVE BUILDING LINE PLAN
.18 _ CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
The advantages of greater distances between buildings on opposite sides
of thoroughfares in business districts, where buildings would inevitably be
built out to the street lines if not kept back by regulations, fully justify such
regulations for police-power reasons. If and when it becomes necessary and
expedient to widen any thoroughfare to the setback lines, practically no
building damages will have to be paid for buildings erected after the building
lines were established and, in the meanwhile, the cost of building damages
for the widening of any thoroughfare will constantly decrease as time goes on.
The economic value of building lines has not been, and cannot well be,
determined. Some indication, however, may be obtained from three widening
proceedings initiated in 1929. East Market Street and East Exchange Street,
taken together, have been widened from 60 to 80 feet and from 60 to 84 feet,
respectively, for a distance of 4.05 miles at a total cost of $3,650,000. It was
determined from computations that, if the buildings built back of the building
lines had been built out to the street lines, the cost would have been $850,000
more. Nevertheless, in these widening operations, the amount paid for dam-
ages to buildings that were built out to street lines before building lines were
established was 2.5 times more than the entire cost of the land acquired.
South Arlington Street, a cross-town thoroughfare, was widened from 60 feet
to 80 feet, for a distance of over one mile, at a cost of only $40,000. Only
one building, in this case, extended beyond the building line. The frontages,
in the above cases, were entirely in business or industrial districts.
LEGALITY
The scope and application of the police, or community, power has always
changed and broadened with changing conditions and needs and with chang-
ing conceptions as to what the law ought to be. The steel frame building,
the motor vehicle, and other modern inventions have produced greatly changed
conditions on private property and public streets that are detrimental to
health, safety, and general welfare. Regulations not thought of formerly are
now necessary for the public good on account of these changed conditions.
In addition to the local case, other courts, including the highest courts
in Wisconsin, New York, and Ohio, have sustained the legality of building
lines as a part of a zoning ordinance. The United States Supreme Court
sustained the legality of a 34|-foot building line in a business district and
held that setback requirements have "a rational relation to the public health,
safety, morals and general welfare."1 It appears, therefore, reasonable to
conclude that a comprehensive building line plan, as part of a zoning ordi-
nance, will be sustained by the courts and that the legality of a particular
setback line in such a plan depends not upon the class of use district in which
the street is located but upon the judgment exercised in its determination.
v. Fox, 145 Va. 554, 134 S. E. 914, 273 U. S. 687, 47 Sup. Ct. R. 448, 274 U. S.
603, 47 Sup. Ct. R. 675.
CURRENT PROGRESS 1
Conducted by JOHN NOLEN and HOWARD K. MENHINICK \
LAWRENCE VEILLER HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM \
ARTHUR A. SHURCLIFF CHARLES W. ELIOT 2d
GORDON J. CULHAM
i
A CAPITAL CITY PLANS COMPREHENSIVELY
Approximately 110 years elapsed between the preparation of the first
city plan of Jefferson City and that recently completed. The intervening
century has witnessed remarkable scientific achievements but very limited
progress in the economic and social improvement of cities.
The early plan included less than one third of the present city. This
first plan, prepared in 1822, was the work of a commission appointed by the
state legislature to select the site and prepare the plan for the new capital
city. This early plan included nine streets parallel and seventeen streets at
right angles to the river. One street was made 100 feet wide and the re-
mainder were 80 feet wide. Each block contained approximately four acres
and was 417.5 feet square with a twenty-foot alley running east and west.
While excellent foresight was exercised in providing wide streets, the planners
paid insufficient attention to the topographic conditions. Jefferson City
occupies a comparatively rugged site. Bluffs immediately adjacent to the
Missouri River rise precipitously 100 to 150 feet. These bluffs are pierced
at a few intervals by small streams which, with their tributaries, meander
through the territory to the south so that the entire city is practically a series
of hills and valleys. The stamping of any form of gridiron street platting
upon this area naturally results in frequent excessive street grades. Some of
the streets in the original plan have never been opened or paved, while others
necessitated considerable grading to make possible street grades not exceeding
ten or twelve per cent.
Although the topographical characteristics result in many difficult street
problems, they likewise provide numerous advantages. Excellent building
sites are found in the higher areas; some of the more rugged land is unde-
veloped and can be used advantageously as naturalistic parks; and in general,
variety and interest are available which, if properly utilized, will insure a
city of charm and individuality.
Work upon the present plan was begun in 1930. The complete project
included special reports upon all of the more important elements of the city's
physical structure, as well as a zoning plan.
The proposed major street system comprises certain existing streets,
some of which should be widened, as well as a number of new streets and
extensions. Provisions which will enable through traffic to by-pass the more
congested areas and insure convenient intercommunication between all por-
19
2o CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
tions of the city are predominating features of the plan. The proposed im-
provements will tend to encourage a more balanced growth within the urban
area. Coordinated with, and arranged so as to supplement the major streets,
is a system of pleasure drives. These latter routes will provide pleasing
approaches to the Capitol buildings and afford pleasant drives about the city.
The Capitol grounds are proposed to be enlarged and surrounded by city,
county, and state buildings. Excellent views of this impressive center can
be obtained along the parkways in many sections of the city.
Due to the large amount of vacant area (approximately 50 per cent of
the total city area, at the time of the survey) excellent opportunities are
available for providing park and recreational facilities. In several instances
the school playgrounds and neighborhood parks have been combined so as
to afford maximum service at minimum cost. The larger park areas occupy
sites of unexcelled natural beauty and will be used by many visitors as well
as by local citizens. The park plan is coordinated with the zoning ordinance
(adopted 1932), thus insuring that the areas will be properly located and of
adequate size to serve the existing as well as the future residential districts.
A preconceived plan is essential for successful and desirable municipal
growth. In addition, however, the active interest and support of both officials
and citizens are necessary. Much interest and cooperation are evidenced in
the new city plan by the citizens of Jefferson City, so that a capital city
should result that will not only compare favorably with any other state capital
but will also be a source of pride to the citizens of Missouri.
R. H. RILEY,
Harlan d Bartholomew and Associates.
GREAT BRITAIN COMPLETES A LAND UTILIZATION
SURVEY
The Land Utilisation Survey of Britain is a voluntary organization which,
under the auspices of the Geographical Association and the University of
London School of Economics, has completed a land-use survey of Great
Britain. To accomplish the project twenty-two thousand volunteer workers,
including supervised school children, were required.
With the appearance of the first prints of the completed maps, the
geographer, the regional planner, and the town planner were irresistibly
drawn together in common study of the first true picture of England that
any one of them had ever seen. The maps present evidence of a partially
completed National Plan which it is the first duty of citizens to protect and
then to develop step by step.
GORDON J. CULHAM,
Town Planner, Toronto, Canada.
22 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
HIGHWAYS AND CIVIC CENTER ARE MAJOR PROJECTS
San Diego, Cal., a city of 160,000 persons, has an area of over ninety
square miles and a frontage on bay and ocean of thirty-three miles. During
the past few years the City Planning Commission has completed the zone
plan and the major street plan for the city.
One of the most important local construction projects within recent
months is a new highway, first designed by the City Planning Commission,
affording a new entrance to the city from the north. This boulevard, cover-
ing over seventeen miles within the city limits, is unique in the fact that it
has less than a dozen cross streets in its entire length. Part of this highway
is constructed with parallel paved strips, separated by planting. A tree plant-
ing program, now being prepared by the City Planning Commission and the
Director of Parks, will be started on completion of the paving, and it is the
intention to use welfare labor on this work. Because this highway has been
built as a cooperative project between the City, County, and State at no
expense to the abutting property owners, and because most of the adjacent
land is to-day only sparsely settled, the Planning Commission is sponsoring
architectural control by ordinance to provide that all structures erected along
the highway be in the "Southern California" style with white stucco walls
and red tile roofs. Preliminary hearings with property owners indicate that
the ordinance will meet with approval.
The City Planning Commission recommended the adoption of numerous
building-setback ordinances to provide for future street widening of several
important highways. The lines thus adopted assure economical street widening.
A number of highways have been planted during the past few years with
palms and semi-tropical plantings. Plans for the planting were prepared in
the City Planning Department, funds were raised by the Chamber of Com-
merce, and the planting was done under the direction of the Park Department
with labor furnished by the Welfare Board.
The growth study undertaken by the City Planning Commission, which
is attempting to throw some light on the question, "Where will the next
75,000 San Diegans live?" has aroused considerable interest. To reduce the
element of guess to a minimum, topography, transportation facilities, traffic
conditions, paved and graded streets, utilities, zone restrictions, climatic con-
ditions, educational facilities, playgrounds, prices of property, building-permit
records, special assessments, tax delinquencies, and other pertinent facts were
all studied. Records of each of the twenty-five districts comprising the city
were studied for several succeeding years and trends in each area were noted.
On the basis of this study, predictions were made for each district. This
survey will prove valuable in the advance planning of public works and will
be of general interest to citizens.
CURRENT PROGRESS
The question of the selection of the Civic Center site has been, unfor-
tunately, the subject of much discord, but it is expected that a forthcoming
election will settle the dispute. The construction of a Civic Center is now
advocated as a public works project under the recovery program of the Presi-
dent. The City Planning Commission has united with the County Planning
Commission on a comprehensive report on the matter and application is being
made for N.R.A. funds to construct the first unit. Incidentally, the site
selected by the joint City-County Planning Committee is on the shore of
San Diego Bay on land now owned by the City. This selection coincides with
the recommendation contained in the Comprehensive City Plan prepared by
Mr. John Nolen in 1926.
A New Highway with Recently Transplanted Palms
San Diego's zone ordinance has been upheld in two recent court decisions.
These are the only court actions in ten years of zoning experience.
Other activities of the Commission include the preparation of plans for
recreational areas in Balboa Park, the City's famous 1400-acre park, and plans
for neighborhood parks and play areas.
GLENN A. RICK,
City Planning Engineer.
UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF AND COUNTY PLANNING
COORDINATED
During the past eighteen months the Monroe County Regional Planning
Board has arranged its program to assist in meeting the problems confronting
the County Administrators during the present emergency period. In order
to do this, a broad interpretation has been given to the scope of its work.
Members of the staff have been loaned to other departments to assist
with special problems, and "white collar" workers have been used on work
relief projects to advance the planning program. Some of the jobs assigned
to these workers under the supervision of the Planning Board were outside
24 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
the field of planning. As regards purely planning activities, with the excep-
tion of plans for the park layout and the development of an industrial port and
deep-water harbor in Irondequoit Bay, these have been confined to the two
fundamental phases of mapping the region and making fact-finding surveys.
The plans for and the development of the county park system have been
under the guidance of the County Park Commission. It was from that Com-
mission that the Regional Planning Board evolved.
The plans for port development were completed under the authority of
the Rochester-Monroe County Harbor Survey Committee. The details of
making the survey and plan were, however, under the direction of the staff
of the Planning Board.
The advance sheets of the new topographic map made by the United
States Geological Survey in cooperation with the New York State Department
of Public Works and Monroe County have been published. The aerial survey
and controlled mosaic were completed in 1931. The profit from the sales of
prints now equals the cost of the survey.
Using the aerial mosaics, a land utilization survey has been completed
in cooperation with the New York State College of Agriculture. By joint
cooperation of the State College of Agriculture and the United States Bureau
of Chemistry and Soils, the various soils of the county have been classified.
Over three hundred special improvement tax districts exist in the towns
immediately adjacent to the city of Rochester. Maps of these towns showing
district boundaries are being made.
A comprehensive physical, social, and economic survey is about complete
for the town of Gates; from this survey will be developed a town plan.
In cooperation with the State College of Agriculture, a study has been
completed of the social and trade area boundaries of the many communities
of the county. These surveys and studies included the trends of commuting
to industrial and business centers.
Traffic density counts are being made at key stations for a three-day
period each month, so as to give reliable data upon which to develop a regional
highway plan. Some origin and destination surveys have been made. The
traffic data are being assembled and analyzed in cooperation with the United
States Bureau of Public Roads, which has loaned the services of a senior
highway economist as consultant.
A very detailed study of the financial set-up of the county and its several
hundred separate taxing units is being made and will be used in the prepara-
tion of long-term budgets.
When complete, the physical, social, and economic data will be used as
foundation material upon which will be erected the master plan.
J. FRANKLIN BONNER,
Secretary, Monroe County Regional Planning Board.
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26 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
ITHACA'S MANY-SIDED PLANNING PROGRAM
The City Planning Commission of Ithaca, N. Y., is a board of seven
non-salaried members appointed for overlapping terms. The Mayor, City
Clerk, City Engineer, and City Forester are additional advisory members
without vote. The function of the Commission is to recommend to the
Common Council proposals having to do with development of the city plan,
to pass upon questions affecting the zoning ordinance, and to investigate
and report upon other matters concerning the betterment and physical well-
being of Ithaca.
Under the principle of "advance planning," the Commission is working
out a program for the future in terms of five-year intervals so that as oppor-
tunity is found, plans that are the result of careful forethought and study
may be put into effect in a systematic and logical way.
The Commission is giving much thought to a proper system of arterial,
by-pass, secondary, and residential streets. It is also actively engaged in
planning parks and playgrounds.
Coordinating with the national movement for better park facilities, and
with the advice of trustees under the will of a former mayor and benefactor,
Senator Edwin C. Stewart, additional lands were purchased and the level of
thirty acres of lakefront was raised an average of two and one-half feet. This
park area was improved by planting and by the addition of tennis courts and
picnic facilities.
Realizing the need for control of new realty subdivisions and platting of
streets, the City adopted and enforced during 1933 a set of subdivision regu-
lations, which had been drawn up by the Commission.
During the past year the Planning Commission sponsored the writing
of essays on "The Future Ithaca" by the pupils of the Ithaca schools. Over
two hundred worthy essays were submitted to and judged by the City Plan-
ning Commission. The significant thing about this contest was the large
number of useful suggestions, maps, and plans that were made.
Plans for landscaping main entrances to the city were promoted by the
Garden Club of Ithaca, which gave one thousand dollars for materials. The
City furnished men to plant the new Taughannock Boulevard entrance that
skirts the west shore of Cayuga Lake and the aviation field.
Ithaca now owns the entire mile and a half southern frontage of Cayuga
Lake in a strip three-quarters of a mile wide. Cut by Cayuga Inlet and Fall
Creek, it presents a picturesque opportunity for park development.
Liberal provisions for an aviation field, parks, playgrounds, and a bird
sanctuary are being continued by the City and developed under the plans
and guidance of Ithaca city officials.
GEORGE S. TARBELL,
Chairman, City Planning Commission,
28 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
PLANNING A CITY OF HOMES
Abilene, Kan., first came into prominence as a wide-open "cow town"
of the 1870's. When the Kansas Pacific Railroad began the construction of
its lines after the Civil War, the Texas cattlemen were provided with a means
of shipping to the eastern markets. For several years their herds had been
seized and scattered by marauding bands of guerillas along the Missouri-
Kansas border. The cattlemen chose Abilene as a new outlet. This led to boom
growth and much building along the tracks. Abilene to-day contains only
a few faint traces of the early development. It is now a city of homes, well-
Attractive Homes Protected by Planning and Zoning
paved avenues, and prosperous retail and manufacturing concerns. A definite
city plan is established, and complete control of development is maintained.
One of the most dramatic results of planning is the actual moving of the
retail center for several blocks. After development had naturally drawn the
retail district away from its early location on each side of the railroad, an
area of light manufacturing grew up on the borders of the district. Several
years ago the City was faced with a three-fold problem: the retail district
needed to expand; the manufacturers needed more room; and a new hotel
was required for increased transient traffic brought by hard-surfaced highways.
CURRENT PROGRESS 29
The City Planning Commission met all three problems by making them
work to mutual advantage. A new light-manufacturing zone was established
close to the three railroads that serve the city. This shift provided business
with room to expand, and gave better shipping facilities. The small one-
story structures vacated by this move were acquired and wrecked, and a
modern eight-story hotel was erected on the site.
Residence districts are properly safeguarded. For instance, no unsightly
auto-junking establishments are located within the city limits. Even outside
the city, the highway side of these yards is masked to the view of travelers.
Zoning provides for suburban shopping centers so that all neighborhoods are
adequately served. Property owners can be certain that there will be no
business encroachment to depreciate their holdings. As a result of this pro-
tection, residence owners have developed and improved property to a point
that has made Abilene nationally known as a city of homes.
Abilene is fortunate in having a city planning board that is alive to
opportunity and wise in administering to community needs.
ELLIOTT BELDEN,
Chairman, Publicity Committee,
Abilene Chamber of Commerce.
PLANNING MAKES RELIEF WORK EFFECTIVE
While the City of El Paso has had little money to spend on public works
during the past few years, progress has been made in carrying out the city
plan by the use of relief funds.
The Texas College of Mines is located among some rocky hills in the
western part of the city, and until R. F. C. and N. R. A. labor was used for
improvements, the campus was rough and unattractive. Plans for the develop-
ment of the property had been prepared by the City Plan Commission, and
the grading of the grounds, the building of roads and rock walls, and finally
the construction of a gymnasium and athletic field, have furnished employ-
ment for one hundred to two hundred men since the beginning of the Federal
relief work. Under the direction of the Park Commissioner many hundreds
of cubic yards of good soil were hauled from the valley, and shrubs and trees,
donated by the Park Department and other friends of the College, were
planted in great profusion.
Approved projects for further relief work include a new bridge on College
Avenue, the enlargement of Washington Park by leveling and surfacing an
old dump to make it available for recreational purposes, and grading work
in Memorial and Grandview Parks.
The City Plan Commission is making studies for extending its plan to
include territory in the upper and lower valleys, where there is great need
for the guidance of developments which are now very haphazard, with narrow
and poorly planned roads that will soon become entirely inadequate.
30 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
A river straightening and regulating project to be undertaken by the
United States and Mexico on the Rio Grande, for which treaties have recently
been ratified, will make available a large area near the city for subsistence
homestead dwellings. Several hundred acres now in Mexico will become the
property of the United States and will afford an opportunity for a model
development of homes where good soil and cheap irrigation will make possible
attractive and wholesome living conditions in the country yet near the indus-
trial districts and the city.
W. E. STOCKWELL,
City Plan Engineer.
HOUSING AND UNEMPLOYMENT RELIEF
If you are considering what to do at a time of unemployment
like this you must ask, "What are the projects requiring the largest
amount of labor? What are the projects which would directly and
indirectly confer social and economic benefits?"
There is one group of capital expenditures offering opportunities
to kill a dozen birds with one stone. I am thinking in terms of
houses and rooms. What makes housing so perfect for the N.R.A.
program ?
First, you give labor by these projects to a very large number
of people. There is no limit to what needs to be done to cities to
make them decent places in which to live.
Second, one dollar spent in housing reaches far. It goes ten
to twenty times as far as a dollar used in road building. Housing
is the most economical way imaginable to turn relief money into
employment. The labor will be needed in the places where there
is the greatest amount of unemployment. Moreover, in housing
we do not face the problem of scrapping useful equipment.
These are the considerations which should give the reorganiza-
tion of our slums the first place in the entire recovery program.
I know the old argument that government should keep out of
housing but under present conditions I cannot become very enthu-
siastic about it. If we ever expect to transform our cities into
decent places for all classes, we must do it now. This period of
distress may yet be turned into a blessing. — PROFESSOR ANTON
DE HAAS at the Annual Conference of the Massachusetts Federation
of Planning Boards.
ZONING ROUNDTABLE
Conducted by EDWARD M. BASSETT
LIMITATION OF INDUSTRIAL WORKERS
QUESTION
PLANNING BOARD
CITY HALL, NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y.
Dear Mr. Bassett:
A recent zoning case tried in a local court raises rather unique ques-
tions. It refers to a clause in the ordinance prohibiting the use of premises
in a business district for a cleaning and dyeing works employing more
than five persons. Number of employees is deemed to be those actually
engaged in the dyeing and cleaning and not clerks, salesmen, and similar
employees.
In a building located in a business district was conducted a cleaning
and dyeing business employing fifteen or more persons. It was a lawful
use of property, deemed a nonconforming use. After passage of the
prohibitory clause in the ordinance relative to more than five employees,
a permit was granted and an additional building was erected on the rear
of the same lot. Not more than five persons were to be employed in this
building.
The court held that the Building Inspector had rightfully granted the
permit in that it was not an enlargement of a nonconforming use nor an
addition to an existing building. It then holds that both buildings are
being used as a common plant, and because of this, more than five per-
sons are using this new building. It then raises the question, "Can it be
that the ordinance intended two or three such buildings might occupy a
single lot, simply because a building permit provides not more than five
persons may occupy each building?"
Another question is also raised. What is the difference between four
individual cleaning and dyeing works, under separate ownership, in sep-
arate buildings side by side, employing four persons each, or the same
set-up under one firm name with one set of books? How do they differ
in respect to health, safety, and general welfare?
Yours very truly,
PAUL A. BANKSON,
City Plan Engineer.
ANSWER
The court asks whether two or three such buildings may occupy one lot.
In zoning ordinances a lot is the land devoted to a single principal building
having the required open spaces. It need not front on a street. There can-
not be two main buildings on one lot if "lot" is used in the zoning sense. There
are two buildings and two lots. In this case I understand that the yard re-
quirements for the new building are complied with. This being so, the Build-
3
31
32 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
ing Inspector rightly granted the permit for the five-employee dyeing estab-
lishment. So long as it is used for not more than five employees it is a lawful
use. If, however, the building is used by its own five employees and also by
the employees of the old building indiscriminately, then the use is unlawful
and should be ousted. If it is used for more than five employees but only
five at one time, it is still unlawful. The fact that the old building and the
new are both used for dyeing, perhaps filling the same orders and perhaps
having only one set of books, does not make the second building unlawful.
The ordinance does not say that the second building must be disconnected
from the business of the first building.
The last question is whether four separate dyeing works in separate
buildings, side by side, employing four persons each, differ from one estab-
lishment of larger size in respect to health, safety, and general welfare. Per-
haps they would be equally as injurious as the larger building. But the fact
remains that the City has specifically made them lawful. New York City
makes no provision for the number of employees in its zoning resolution.
After zoning began to spread throughout the country, many cities desired to
let small industries into the business district. There might be no objection
to a candy store with five candy makers but there would be serious objection
to a candy factory with two hundred candy makers. It has seemed to me
that these provisions to insure small hand industries in the place of large ones
were entirely sensible. The city, however, that invents and employs this
device surely takes the risk of some one's trying to circumvent the law by
building four separate small factories instead of one large one. In the long
run it will not happen often. The five-employee method works rather well.
Few owners will build a row of buildings and operate them separately in
preference to going to an industrial district.
In New York City a garage for not more than five cars could be built
as a matter of right in a business district. Ingenious owners built villages of
five-car garages. A case went to court and the court held that if each build-
ing was on its own lot, it did not matter whether it fronted the street, and
the zoning resolution was therefore complied with. These garage villages
began to increase in number so that the Board of Estimate was compelled to
change the provisions prohibiting such a garage village and to put it on the
same basis as a large garage.
Courts consider that the legislative authority of each municipality knows
best what uses ought to be prohibited in zoning. Some cities prohibit what
other cities allow. New Rochelle considered that dyeing establishments
employing not over five persons should be allowed in the business district.
The legislative authority of that city then and there decided that four or five
such small industries in a row were proper. If the Council intended that they
could not be under the same management, it should have said so.
E. M. B.
ZONING ROUNDTABLE 33
FAMILIES PER ACRE
QUESTION
Zoning Roundtable:
We are at present interested in creating a new "A A" zone of one
family per acre in substitution of at least one half of the present "A"
residential zone, permitting five families per acre. How about this?
CHARLES BATES DANA,
Chairman of the Darien (Conn.}
Town Plan and Zoning Commission.
ANSWER
Modern state enabling acts for zoning provide that regulations may be
established for density of population. The limitation of families per acre is
justified under such a law. Early limitations seldom went further than five
families per acre. Then came a movement to protect localities of suburban
estates against buildings on small plots. Some towns went so far as to pro-
hibit greater density than three acres per family. The legislative authorities
are pushed to the greatest extreme by the argument that small lots are not
wanted in that particular community. What considerations must control?
Zoning regulations must be reasonable. Land situated alike must be
treated alike. The regulations must have a substantial relation to the health,
safety, morals, and general welfare of the community. Knowing all this, let
us say that a council decides on a limit of one acre per family. The test will
arise when some landowner submits a plan for one residence on one fifth of
an acre and demands a permit. The building inspector refuses and then the
landowner asks the court for a mandamus order commanding the inspector
to issue the permit on the ground that the one-acre provision is unreasonable
and unconstitutional and therefore void. When the case comes to trial the
landowner will introduce an opinion witness who will say that a residence
on one acre of land is no safer or more healthful than five residences on one
acre if each of the five residences is surrounded with proper yards and open
spaces. In other words, he will say that there is no substantial relation be-
tween the regulation of one acre per family and the community health and
safety. The city will then be compelled to produce an opinion witness who
can relate his experience with residential units and who will testify that five
residences on one acre are substantially more unsafe and unhealthful than
one residence. In the ordinary type of city such a witness is not easy to
procure. Even if he were procured, he might not convince the court. If the
city's opinion witness must testify that any density greater than three acres
per family is unsafe and unhealthful, it is still more difficult to find a witness
or convince the court. Accordingly a city and its zoning advisers in fixing
a limit of density must consider whether they can produce a convincing
3a
34 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
opinion witness. Looked at in this way, it is plain that a regulation per-
mitting five families per acre is more easily defended than one requiring one
acre per family. My o\vn notion is that in the ordinary type of city a limita-
tion of two families per acre is about as far as a good opinion witness will be
likely to go. Even he would have some trouble under cross-examination.
He would be asked to relate what fires had proved disastrous because houses
were closer together than two per acre. If a medical doctor were used as an
opinion witness on danger to health, he might have difficulty in showing that
communities of one family per acre were more healthful than communities
of five per acre.
In a small town, such as one of the typical outer suburban residential
tow7ns on the edge of Metropolitan Boston, which permits wooden shingle
roofs and has neither public sewers nor water supply, expert testimony might
more easily be adduced in support of one family per acre zoning, based on
such considerations as safety from fire, reduction of water pollution hazard,
and the promotion of the general welfare through the encouragement of the
most appropriate use of land and the conservation of property values by
perpetuating the amenities of the town, these being matters specifically re-
ferred to in the state enabling act.
If the area is a large one in which all the owners are of one mind, there
is no objection to their entering into a private covenant which will be placed
on the record and which will run with the land, providing that every resi-
dence shall have at least one acre of surrounding land. Private restrictions
will be enforced by the courts and are entirely independent of the zoning
regulations.
E. M. B.
LA CORONA CIGARS
In New Jersey Municipalities for November, 1933, the Secretary of the
Zoning Board of Adjustment of Trenton writes enthusiastically about the
wisdom and practicality of a variance permit which the Board issued for the
erection of a factory to make La Corona cigars in a residence district on the
zoning map. The justification seems to consist in the attractiveness of the
building design, its lawns and the planting of its grounds, the high quality
of the cigars, and the neatness of the workers. He adds to this argument the
statement that the factory would not come to his city unless this variance
were made and that, in times like these, practical purposes such as securing
new industries justify the subversion of the usual zoning methods.
Good zoning provides the right place for industry as well as for business
and residences. It is simple to distinguish light from heavy industry and to
place light-industry districts in the right localities. Any municipality that
allows an invasion of a residence district by the La Corona factory will be
asked some day why it excludes from residence districts a high-class shoe
ZONING ROUNDTABLE 35
factory. It may also be asked how it can without discrimination exclude a
factory for second-class cigars in a residence district or how it can in the case
of La Corona prevent the neglect of the lawns and planting.
The present depression will pass away but factories placed in residence
districts will continue. This variance to permit a factory in a residence dis-
trict in Trenton is probably unlawful because the land is undoubtedly suitable
for residences and will be used for that purpose when building starts again.
The words "unnecessary hardship" have a very definite meaning. In order
to bring the case under these words, the applicant must show that the land
on account of its environment is not suitable or profitable for any use but
industry. This probably could not have been shown and probably was not
attempted. But if the environment justified the entrance of a factory, it
would have been fairer to all landowners and a greater safeguard to the zon-
ing plan of the city if the council had changed the whole area from residence
to industry on the zoning map. But, of course, this would not suit the appli-
cants, who undoubtedly wanted to continue residential surroundings for their
factory. This permit is tantamount to saying that residential localities are
protected in this city, but when a new industry desires to come, the home
locality, which has been preserved through the help of the zoning ordinance,
will be sold out and its attractiveness will be used not to bring new homes
but to bring new factories. F M B
ECONOMIC BALANCE IN PLANNING
Certainly some such [growth] estimate is a far saner basis for
economic planning than assumed unlimited growth, or the mere
following of the policy of laissez-faire.
The speculative debauchery in real estate in cities has surpassed
the excesses of the stock market, but it is as yet scarcely appreciated
or understood. The blocks and blocks of vacant and obsolete
property, industrial as well as residential, constitute an ever in-
creasing burden of overhead expense. Our cities are too much like
the apple which is firm and attractive on the exterior but slowly
decaying around the core.
Commercial and multiple dwelling uses of land combined cannot
absorb five per cent of a city's area and yet a large per cent of
every city's area is usually subjected to speculation for these two
uses. This practice is inviting property blight upon a very large
scale. The next step in city planning should be comprehensive
planning of the whole city area for purposes of economic balance
and the prevention of waste. — HARLAND BARTHOLOMEW.
LEGAL NOTES
Conducted by FRANK BACKUS WILLIAMS (
EFFECT OF ZONING ON LAND VALUES
In many ways the effect of zoning on land values is of importance, and
there has been much discussion of the subject both in and out of the courts.
The advocates of zoning usually claim that zoning generally makes land more
valuable since it makes it more useful for many purposes; and there is much
evidence to support this claim. Landowners opposing zoning usually assert
that it lessens values; and in some cases we know that it does have this result.
In either case reasonable zoning is valid. Nevertheless, the effect of zoning
on land values is often a matter of importance and for this reason two recent
cases bearing on the subject may be of interest.
In a California case1 the landowners in a condemnation proceeding by
the City to take their land claimed that the value allowed for it by the court
was too small. Under the zoning ordinance the land was placed in a resi-
dence district. The owners asserted that the City, having passed the ordi-
nance and having the power to repeal it, was estopped from introducing it
in evidence; and that, since it was a restriction upon the number of uses to
which the land could be put, it lessened the value of the land, which should
be calculated upon all of its possible uses.
The court held that there was no estoppel against the City; that there
was no evidence introduced to show that the restriction to residential use
lessened the value of the land and no presumption to that effect, since such
restrictions often increased values; and that, irrespective of the fact that the
ordinance might be repealed, it showed the possible use of the land at this
time and therefore was evidence admissible as to its value.
In a New York case2 the landowner proved that if the ordinance was
valid her land was worth $30,000, while if it was invalid the market value
of her land would be $53,000; and claimed that the ordinance was unreason-
able and void. The court sustained the ordinance, pointing out the fact that
if the remaining vacant lots in the development could be built up with apart-
ments, the owners of these lots would obtain an unfair advantage at the
expense of the owners of single-family houses.
At the outset the City made the novel claim that the landowner had
waived her right to question the validity of the zoning ordinance by waiting
'City of Beverly Hills v. Augur (District Court of Appeals, Oct. 28, 1932) 15 Pac. 2d, 867.
2MacEwen v. City of New Rochelle and County of Westchester, Supreme Court, West-
chester County, Sept. 30, 1933.
36
LEGAL NOTES 37
for several years before suing to test it. This claim the court overruled.
There is no statute of limitations which by its words bars this action in any
given number of years; and there are no facts offered in evidence to show an
estoppel making it unjust for the plaintiff to question the constitutionality
of the ordinance at this time. It should also be noted that if for the moment
the ordinance be viewed as void, it is, until its repeal or a judicial declaration
of its invalidity, a continuing invasion of the plaintiff's rights, in which a new
cause of action arises in the plaintiff's favor against the City each day.
F. B. W.
NATIONAL PLANNING TO-DAY
Until comparatively recent times the average American scoffed
at any suggestion of a necessity for orderly planning for city, state,
or nation. We were a young and prideful and boastful people.
The size of our cities and the speed with which they could be made
to grow were all that interested us. Slums meant population, and
if the death rate was criminally high the birth rate was a thing to
marvel at.
While city planning is still in its adolescence, it has at any rate
won a recognized place in our social economy. Now as new sec-
tions are added to our cities some attempt is made to proceed in
an orderly manner. Social and esthetic values are taken into
account. We^build with eyes on the future. We realize that light
and space and air are necessary and desirable even for city dwellers.
Factories are kept in their place ; zoning laws protect our residential
sections. We cherish and develop our natural landscape features.
We are undertaking to eradicate our slums. The result is that
increasingly in the future our cities will be more pleasing to the
eye and more comfortable to live in.
We now are taking a further step forward in the matter of
planning. If city planning has been worth while, why not go in
for national planning? And that is precisely what we are doing
in this Administration.
The determination to embark on an extensive program of public
works has furnished us with both the occasion and the means of
making at least a tentative beginning in the direction of national
planning. — SECRETARY HAROLD L. ICKES.
! N. C. C. P. & A. C. P. I. NEWS
Conducted by FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Secretary
FEDERAL GRANTS FOR PLANNING
The Conference on Planning and National Recovery, held jointly in
Baltimore, October 9 to 11, by the National Conference on City Planning
and the American Civic Association, told the country that: (a) planning
was an essential public work project and should be eligible for Federal grants,
and that (b) planning commissions should be put to work immediately.
The Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works has acted with
cheering promptness on this advice. On November 16, Mr. Frederic Delano,
Chairman of the National Planning Board, announced to 925 local and re-
gional planning agencies that the Civil Works Administration would respond
favorably to requests for drafting and statistical assistance; and that official
planning agencies should immediately prepare their planning projects and
submit them to local Civil Works representatives. Unofficial planning
agencies may also benefit by this offer of assistance if their requests are trans-
mitted by a state, county, or city official.
More recently, the National Planning Board has been granted by the
Public Works Administration $250,000 for the employment of qualified
planners, who may be loaned to state, regional, or city planning commissions
which meet appropriate standards to be determined by the National Plan-
ning Board. The alert planning commissions have already submitted projects
and some of them have received technical and clerical assistance. Here is
an opportunity that should be taken advantage of by every active planning
commission in the country.
F. S.
WINTER MEETING OF THE INSTITUTE
Jacob L. Crane, Jr., the newly elected President of the Institute, will
call a meeting of the Institute in Washington some time late in January,
probably Saturday, January 27.
The tentative subjects for discussion are "Subsistence Homesteads,"
"Federal Housing Projects," and "The National Planning Board." The
meeting will also consider the report of the committee appointed at the Annual
Meeting of the Institute in Baltimore to suggest improvement in the organi-
zation and program of the Institute.
F. S.
38
h
i BOOK REVIEWS & LISTS
( Conducted by THEODORA KIMBALL HUBBARD j
VILLE DE MARSEILLE: PLAN D'AMENAGEMENT ET D'EXTEN-
SION: Memoire Descriptif. By JACQUES GREBER. Paris, Vincent,
Freal et Cie, 1933. 118 pages + plates. Illus., photographs, plans and
maps, perspectives, tables. 11 x 9 inches. (Bibliotheque de 1'Institut
d'Urbanisme de 1'Universite de Paris.) Price 160 fr.
This is a magistral survey of the second city of France by one of her
foremost city planners, professor at the University of Paris, and a member
of the commission in the Department of the Interior charged with the official
supervision of planning throughout the country. Not only is the report
finely printed and sumptuously illustrated but the materials are developed
with that logic and clarity which add to the conviction of the plans and photo-
graphs of the projects here submitted to the municipal authorities for action.
After a "summary analysis" of the site, population trends, and commer-
cial activities of the city, the report is divided into four main sections: com-
munication, housing, open spaces, and esthetics. The section dealing with
communication includes a consideration of main trunk highways, circular
boulevards (including an adequate by-pass system), radial streets, secondary
highways, and the unification of rail and water communications. Scale studies
are made for such problems as main-route intersections; streets for widening
or connecting with existing streets are listed; projects for parkways are set
forth in detail. This section of the report will perhaps strike the American
planner as most like his own work both in temper and in technique.
The remodeling of the old and unhealthy districts is approached first
from the point of view of improving traffic facilities. The demolition of the
most unsanitary dwellings fortunately coincides in many cases with the need
for cutting through new streets; the author misses no chance to drive home
the value of killing two birds with one stone. And he rightly emphasizes the
indispensability of developing modern low-cost housing in the uncongested
areas before attempting any wholesale renovation of the areas "spontaneously
deserted." With congestion of over 500 to the hectare (one hectare equals 2.47
acres) in two of the ancient "quarters" in the old city, the need is for 27,000
new apartments to relieve the present congestion and for about 3600 new
apartments annually to take care of the estimated influx of newcomers who
in the next half century are expected to add 50 per cent to the present popu-
lation of over 800,000. The report includes photographs of no fewer than
thirteen streets — or better, alleys — on which the buildings are shored up;
the importance of the problem could not be more cogently illustrated.
39
40 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
The sections dealing with open spaces and with esthetics (in part the
equivalent of the British "preservation of ancient monuments") are as broadly
conceived and as carefully — and catholically — drafted as the engineering sec-
tions of the report. Nor is the commercial (tourist) value of the unusual
coastal environs of the city neglected; photographs and plans indicate the
areas to be preserved and developed as parks and recreation areas. Alto-
gether, this study is a most valuable contribution to continental planning
literature as well as an interesting exposition of current French practice.
PHILLIPS BRADLEY
LEICESTERSHIRE. REGIONAL TOWN PLANNING JOINT AD-
VISORY COMMITTEE REGIONAL PLANNING REPORT. Pre-
pared by Allen & Potter. Leicester, W. Thornley & Son, 1932. 106
pages. Illus., maps and plans (part folded), diagrams, cross sections,
charts, tables (part folded). 10 j x 6f inches. Price 7s. 6d., or post free
8s. 6d.
Leicestershire means to the lover of England a beautiful agricultural
county in the very heart of the Island, centered about the ancient county
seat of Leicester, dating back to the Roman occupation of Britain. This
well illustrated report succeeds in giving a remarkably clear picture of the
region, its topography, its industries including textile and leather manufacture
as well as agriculture, its population, its amenities and its historical monu-
ments, and its outlook for the future.
The technical matter of the report is carefully studied and ably pre-
sented, showing evidence of the real understanding by both consultants and
Joint Advisory Committee of the heritage of the past and the adjustments
necessary for sane modern development. Road systems necessarily call for
much attention, since the central location of Leicester invites through traffic
from all directions. Traffic, however, by no means dominates the volume:
public utility services, open spaces, and, above all, land utilization (zoning)
occupy their due proportion of study; and all proposals are considered in the
light of general amenity, to which all England is becoming awake as a measure
of self-preservation.
Both survey and plan maps are exceptionally easy for the reader to
study; and the photographs, detailed and aerial, give a true picture of the
real charm of Leicestershire.
The hopes expressed in the report that local authorities will make their
town plans conform to the regional outline and will proceed to regulations
looking toward the preservation of existing monuments and the control of
new development are heartily echoed by the reviewer, whose remembrance
of the ancient treasures of Leicester and the hospitality of its leading archi-
tect is most vivid and delightful.
1 . K.. H.
BOOK REVIEWS 41
TRENDS IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. By LEONARD D. WHITE.
New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1933. 365 pages. Tables,
charts. 9x6 inches. (Recent Social Trends Monographs.) Price $4.00.
This volume is one of a series of monographs published under the direc-
tion of the President's Research Committee on Social Trends. It is divided
into four sections entitled "Trends in the Balance of Power," "The New
Management," "Trends in Public Employment," and "Trends in the Tech-
nique of Improvement of Public Administration."
The study was largely completed in 1931. Because we are in the midst
of a whirling tempest of governmental change, the author has considered it
futile at this time to reanalyze the material in terms of recent happenings.
Neither has he attempted to evaluate the trends as advantageous or disad-
vantageous. Rather, he has presented the facts, leaving to each reader the
task of interpreting them in the light of his own experience.
The chief value of the report lies in its wealth of administrative data for
the first time brought together and made readily available.
H. K. M.
SUMMARY OF THE FULFILMENT OF THE FIRST FIVE-YEAR
PLAN FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY
OF THE U. S. S. R.: Report of the State Planning Commission
of the Council of People's Commissars of the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics. Moscow, State Planning Commission of the
U.S.S. R., 1933. New York, Amkniga Corporation. 296 pages. Tables.
9 x 5| inches. Price, cloth $1.25; paper $1.00.
The recorded progress in this compact volume, obviously primarily
a propagandist document, is of special interest to the student of regional
or national planning in at least one important aspect. Here we actually have
in operation a nationally planned economy such as is so much talked about
in the United States and other nations. One immediate result has been to
shift the growth in population and particularly the growth in industrial
activities in large part away from the formerly dominant centers of European
Russia to new centers close to mineral resources and other raw materials in
central Asia and other remote parts of the Soviet Union.
In the past four years new bases for coal, metallurgy, oil, electric power,
machine building, coke and chemical industries, and cotton textile and other
light industries have been established in the East. Agriculture has been
similarly expanded and new cotton-growing districts developed. To meet
the new situation 14,000 kilometers of new railways have been constructed,
four-fifths of these in the eastern districts.
42 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
"The socialist geographic distribution of the productive forces" is a
consciously planned effort to increase the welfare of the inhabitants of these
regions, many of them more or less autonomous republics, and to make them
no longer mere semi-savage colonial dependencies wastefully exploited by
foreign capital.
Large-scale unemployment and overproduction would appear remote or
impossible under the socialist economy. The rest of the world, hesitating in
its stride or definitely turning back to less productive ways in an effort to
find a more secure and stable basis, must watch the Soviet Union's advance
with the most intense personal interest.
ARTHUR C. COMEY
HOW CITIES CAN CUT COSTS: Practical Suggestions for Construc-
tive Economy in Local Government. By CLARENCE E. RIDLEY and
ORIN F. NOLTING. Chicago, International City Managers' Association,
1933. 58 pages. 10 x 6| inches. Price, paper $1.00.
Pointing out that at a time of depleted treasuries the cost of municipal
government must be reduced, the authors outline methods of accomplishing
the necessary economies through a constructive and scientific program for
eliminating inefficient and obsolete practices rather than through the hap-
hazard use of the axe. The suggestions are intended for the guidance not
only of public officials but of civic groups as well.
Possible economies are suggested in management, office practice, financial
and personnel administration, public welfare, public works, police and fire
administration, public health, libraries, planning and housing, elections, and
governmental structures.
It is significant that the authors recommend not less but more city plan-
ning and zoning as the proper method of accomplishing substantial savings
in the cost of building and operating a city.
H. K. M.
THE LAW RELATING TO TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING. By
W. IVOR JENNINGS. London, Charles Knight & Co., Ltd., 1932. 240
pages. Tables. 10 x 6j inches. Price 12s. 6d.
Although designed primarily to assist local government officials and
others concerned with the carrying out of planning schemes in Great Britain,
this book provides all interested in the development of planning powers with
a valuable interpretation of the application of England's most recent advance
in public control, the Town and Country Planning Act of 1932, which came
into force April 1, 1933. While copious annotations explaining this rather
complicated law constitute the bulk of the book, its greatest interest to this
BOOK REVIEWS 43
reviewer lies in its brief but meaty first chapter, "The History of Planning,"
which is really a summary of the social changes of the past hundred years
leading up to the present situation.
From the extreme squalor that resulted from people with rural habits
becoming townsfolk, to municipal housing in group cottages on planned sub-
urban sites has been a natural development of the Industrial Revolution,
though often lagging far behind the need. In very recent years, the middle
class of wealthy proprietors has been replaced by the "black-coated workers,"
ranging from company directors to clerks and typists, who "all delight in
fresh air, open fields and sanitary conditions," some of them so disliking towns
that they suffer the discomforts of daily travel to avoid living in the cities
where they work. "The problem now is not to prevent people from crowd-
ing together in towns; it is rather to prevent them from scattering themselves
about the countryside" in such a manner that they destroy for all the very
amenities they seek. Country planning of rural areas is now a vitally neces-
sary complement to the planning of towns. The new act assures that the
countryside shall not be developed until "ripe," and then only according to
a plan.
ARTHUR C. COMEY
PLANNING FOR THE SMALL AMERICAN CITY: An Outline of
Principles and Procedure Especially Applicable to the City of
Fifty Thousand or Less. By RUSSELL VAN NEST BLACK, in collaboration
with Mary Hedges Black. Chicago, Public Administration Service, 1933.
90 pages. Illus., plans. 10| x 7f inches. Price $1.00.
This monograph is not a treatise on esthetic design. Neither is it an
exhaustive discussion of technical procedure in city planning. Its purpose
is definite, and it is admirably adapted to that purpose: to tell operating
officials and interested citizens in the community of under fifty thousand
population how to make a plan and how to carry it out.
The book is necessarily short, and — as far as possible — non-technical in
language. The trained city planner will find few new facts in it, but he
probably will find some clear reasoning and some just and happily phrased
statements which will help him later in some problems of his own.
Completeness of detail has been properly sacrificed to preserve brevity
and interest. The present reviewer was amused to see that on those subjects
about which he had only a superficial knowledge Mr. Black's discussion
seemed both accurate and adequate, but when the reviewer happened to have
a good deal of detailed experience, he found himself wishing sometimes that
Mr. Black had said more, and sometimes that he had taken the other side,
or both sides, of a vexed question. If Mr. Black had done so, however, the
book would have been spoiled for the very purpose for which it was written.
44 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
Mr. Black has given the cause of city planning a push in the right direc-
tion by making it possible for anybody who can endure to read sixty or seventy
pages of text to comprehend how entirely our modern planning may be not
frills or fads but simply applied common sense.
H. V. H.
A LAND USE BIBLIOGRAPHY*
Compiled in
The Library of the Schools of Landscape Architecture
and City Planning, Harvard University
By KATHERINE MCNAMARA, Librarian
ADAMS, THOMAS. Rural planning and development: a study of rural conditions and prob-
lems in Canada. Ottawa, Commission of Conservation, Canada, 1917. 281 p. Illus.,
maps (part folded), plans, diagrs.
. Should governments conscript land or regulate its use? (Conservation of life,
July 1918; vol. 4, p. 59-61.)
ADJUSTMENTS IN FARMING in the better farming areas: [a symposium]. (In Proceedings
of National Conference on Land Utilization, 1931, p. 153-202. Maps, charts.)
Contents: Soil conservation a major problem of agricultural readjustment, by H. G. Knight;
Soil classification a basis of agricultural adjustments, by J. G. Lipman; The outlook a basis
for adjustments in the better farming areas, by H. R. Tolley; A regional approach to the prob-
lems of farm adjustments, by C. L. Holmes; The role of the small farm in future land utiliza-
tion in the United States, by John D. Black; How can mechanization and scientific management
strengthen the competitive position of American agriculture? by M. L. Wilson; Helping the
farmer translate economic information into action, by C. W. Warburton; General discussion.
ALWAY, F. J. Land classification. (In Report of proceedings of ist Tri-State Development
Congress, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, 1921, p. 59-66.)
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. Proceedings of
land use symposium: summer meeting at Syracuse University. Syracuse, N. Y., The
University, June 21, 1932. 57 p. Folded map, tables.
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS. IRRIGATION DIVISION. COMMITTEE
ON "A NATIONAL RECLAMATION POLICY." Report. (In Proceedings of American
Society of Civil Engineers, Sept. 1928; vol. 54, p. 2097-2100; with discussion, May, Aug.,
Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec., 1929, Feb., Apr., Sept., 1930, Jan. 1931; vol. 55, p. 1193-1206,
1595-1599, 1861-1876, 2181-2199, 2375-2392, 2677-2683; vol. 56, p. 341-348, 76i-774,
1647-1656; vol. 57, p. 129-133.)
BAKER, O. E. Land utilization in the United States: geographical aspects of the problem.
(Geographical review, Jan. 1923; vol. 13, p. 1-26. Illus., maps, charts, tables.)
Paper read at joint meeting of the Association of American Geographers and the American
Geographical Society, Apr. 1922.
— . The outlook for land utilization in the United States. Washington, U. S. Dept.
of Agriculture, July 1931. 33 p. Mimeographed. Maps, charts. (Extension Service
circular no. 168.)
Rural-urban migration and the national welfare. (Annals of the Association of Amer-
ican Geographers, June 1933; vol. 23, no. 2 [whole number], p. 59-126. Maps, charts.)
BARTHOLOMEW, HARLAND. Urban land uses: amounts of land used and needed for
various purposes by typical American cities. Cambridge, Harvard University Press,
1932. 174 p. Illus., maps, tables. (Harvard city planning studies, vol. 4.)
BORN, CHARLES E. Influence of soils on land ownership in Bayfield County, Wisconsin.
(Journal of land and public utility economics, May 1930; vol. 6, p. 170-179. Map, chart,
tables.)
•References to a great wealth of material dealing with specific land uses have not been included.
BOOK REVIEWS _ 45
BOURNE, RAY. Regional survey and its relation to stocktaking of the agricultural and
forest resources of the British Empire. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1931. 169 p. Illus.
(part folded), maps (part folded), tables (part folded). (Oxford forestry memoirs no.
BOWMAN, ISAIAH. Planning in pioneer settlement. (Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, June 1932; vol. 22, p. 93-107. Map.)
CLOSE, C. F. Land utilization maps of Great Britain. (Geographical journal, June 1933;
vol. 81, p. 54I-543-)
COLLINGWOOD, G. H. Trees: redeemers of the Tennessee. (American forests, June 1933;
vol. 39, p. 247-249. Illus., map.)
COMEY, ARTHUR C. What is national planning? (City planning, Oct. 1933; vol. 9, p.
164-167.)
CONTRERAS, CARLOS. National planning project for the Republic of Mexico. (City
planning, July 1925; vol. i, p. 97-109. Maps.)
CONTROL OF LAND USE essential to relieve traffic congestion. (American city, June 1930;
vol. 42, no. 6, p. 5.)
Excerpts from preliminary report of Committee on Measures for the Relief of Traffic Conges-
tion, as prepared for submission to Third National Conference on Street and Highway Safety.
See also Causes of congestion analyzed by National Conference, in American city, July 1930.
COUNCIL FOR THE PRESERVATION OF RURAL ENGLAND. Town and regional plan-
ning; reservation of agricultural land. (Journal of the Town Planning Institute, Mar.
1928; vol. 14, p. III-II2.)
CRANE, JACOB L., JR. The Iowa conservation plan: its bearing upon general land plan-
ning. (Journal of land and public utility economics, Aug. 1933; vol. 9, p. 247-251.)
A review of the Iowa twenty-five year conservation plan.
— , and GEORGE WHEELER OLCOTT. Report on the Iowa twenty-five year conser-
vation plan, prepared for the Iowa Board of Conservation and the Iowa Fish and Game
Commission. [Des Moines, The Board and the Commission], 1933. 176 p. Illus., maps,
plans, charts, tables.
CREDIT PROBLEMS in the readjustment of land utilization and farm organization: [a
symposium]. (In Proceedings of National Conference on Land Utilization, 1931, p. 202-
239. Maps, charts.)
Contents: Functions of farm-mortgage agencies in agricultural readjustment, by S. J. West-
brook; The management of farm lands held by credit agencies, by Elbert S. Brigham; Some
problems in financing needed readjustments in land utilization and farm prganization, by Nor-
brook; The management of farm lands held by credit agencies, by Elbert S. Brigham; Some
problems in financing needed readjustments in land utilization and farm prganization, by Nor-
man J. Wall; Results of directed agricultural-credit movement, Georgia, 1931, by J. Phil.
Campbell; Broadening the market for Federal intermediate credit bank debentures, by E. H.
Thomson; Increasing the usefulness of the intermediate credit system as a supplement to the
country bank, by Wood Netherland.
DALZELL, A. G. National planning and public welfare. (Town planning, Journal of the
Town Planning Institute of Canada, Dec. 1930; vol. 9, p. 113-115.)
DELANO, FREDERIC A. How and where will our children live? (Nation's business, Jan.
1930; vol. 18, no. i, p. 41-43, 158, 160. Illus.)
A review of "What about the year 2000?"
DEVRIES, WADE. Correlation of physical and economic factors as shown by Michigan
Land Economic Survey data. (Journal of land and public utility economics, Aug. 1928;
vol. 4, p. 295-300. Map, tables.)
DORAU, HERBERT B., and ALBERT G. HINMAN. Public control over urban land utili-
zation. (In their Urban land economics, N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1928; part 3, p.
247-378. Plans, tables.)
. Urban land classification. (In their Urban land economics, N. Y., The
Macmillan Co., 1928; part 2, p. 125-244. Maps, plans, tables.)
ELIOT, CHARLES W., 2ND. Does city planning assist economic planning? (Annals of
the American Academy of Political and Social Science, National and world planning,
July 1932; vol. 162, p. 121-126.)
46
CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
ELY, RICHARD T. Conference on Land Utilization. (Civic comment, Nov.-Dec. 1931;
no. 36, p. 7-9.)
— , and EDWARD W. MOREHOUSE. Agricultural land utilization. (In their Elements
of land economics, N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1924; Chap. 7, p. 98-123.)
— . The present and future utilization of land. (In their Elements of land eco-
nomics, N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1924; Chap. 5, p. 46-70. Maps, charts, tables.)
The social ends of land utilization. (In their Elements of land economics,
N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1924; Chap. 13, p. 269-289.)
Urban land utilization. (In their Elements of land economics, N. Y., The
Macmillan Co., 1924; Chap. 6, p. 71-97. Illus., tables.)
See also Appendix, Table I: Per cent of total land area devoted to various classes of uses in
sixteen cities, 1923, compiled by H. B. Dorau.
— , and GEORGE S. WEHRWEIN. Land economics. Ann Arbor, Mich., Edwards
Brothers, 1931. 165 p. Lithoprinted. Tables.
FEDERATED SOCIETIES ON PLANNING AND PARKS. JOINT COMMITTEE ON BASES
OF SOUND LAND POLICY. What about the year 2000? An economic summary of
answers to the vital questions: Will our land area in the United States meet the demands
of our future population? How are we to determine the best use of our land resources?
[Washington, D. C., The Societies, 1929.] 168 p. Maps, charts, diagrs.
Federated Societies on Planning and Parks composed of: American Civic Association, American
Institute of Park Executives, American Park Society, National Conference on City Planning,
National Conference on State Parks.
FOSCUE, EDWIN J. Land utilization in the lower Rio Grande valley of Texas. (Economic
geography, Jan. 1932; vol. 8, p. i-n. Illus., maps.)
FREY, JOHN W. Our economic map. (Survey graphic, Mar. i, 1932; vol. 67, p. 612-615.
Maps.)
GOODMAN, ROBERT B. The regulation and control of land use in non-urban areas. (Journal
of land and public utility economics, Aug. 1933; vol. 9, p. 266-271.) Also reprinted.
GRAVES, MARK. The tax problem. (In American Association for the Advancement of
Science. Proceedings of land use symposium, 1932, p. 25-26.)
GRAY, GEORGE HERBERT. The land question as related to city planning and housing.
(Journal of the American Institute of Architects, Oct. 1921; vol. 9, p. 330-337. Plan,
diagrs.)
GRAY, L. C. The field of land utilization. (Journal of land and public utility economics,
Apr. 1925; vol. i, p. 152-159.)
— . Large scale regional and rural land planning: problems and objectives: national
phases. (In Four addresses . . . presented before the National Conference on City Plan-
ning and the American Civic Association, Southern Hotel, Baltimore, Md., Oct. n, 1933.
Washington, National Planning Board, Federal Emergency Administration of Public
Works, [1933]. 9 p. Mimeographed.)
— . The National Land Use Committees. (In American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. Proceedings of land use symposium, 1932, p. 5-8.)
— , and O. E. BAKER. Land utilization and the farm problem. Washington,
Govt. Printing Office, Nov. 1930. 54 p. Maps, charts. (U. S. Dept. of Agriculture
miscellaneous publication no. 97.)
GREELEY, W. B. Country planning and national forests. (National municipal review,
Apr. 1921; vol. 10, p.. 211-215.)
HARE, WILLIAM L., and HERBERT WARREN. On the land, the law and the tax. (Garden
cities and town planning, Dec. 1931; vol. 21, p. 259-262.)
Part I by William L. Hare. Part II by Herbert Warren.
HOOVER ORDERS a federal reorganization: plan presented Congress would create Division
of Land Utilization and Conservation in Department of Agriculture. (American forests,
Jan. 1933; vol. 39, p. 33, 37.)
BOOK REVIEWS 47
HOYT, W. G., and H. C. TROXELL. Forests and stream flow. (In Proceedings of American
Society of Civil Engineers, Aug. 1932; vol. 58, p. 1037-1066. Map, charts, tables; with
discussion, Sept., Nov., Dec. 1932, Feb., Mar., Apr., May, Sept. 1933; vol. 58, p. 1288-
1293, 1614-1618, 1811-1836; vol. 59, p. 376-379, 484-494, 607-616, 835-840, 1149-1166.)
THE IDEA of a national plan. (Garden cities and town planning, Apr. 1929; vol. 19, p.
79-81.)
ILLICK, JOSEPH S. Land use and forestry. (In American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. Proceedings of land use symposium, 1932, p. 15-24.)
INTRODUCTION to land planning. (Civic comment, Apr., May, June, 1933; no. 43, p.
19-20.)
JAMES, HARLEAN. Putting land to its proper use. (In her Land planning in the United
States for city, state and nation, N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1926; Chap. 19, p. 323-343.
Maps, diagrs.)
KlMBLE, ELLIS. The Tennessee Valley project. (Journal of land and public utility eco-
nomics, Nov. 1933; vol. 9, p. 325-339. Map, tables.)
KNIGHT, HENRY G. Land use and erosion. (In American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. Proceedings of land use symposium, 1932, p. 37-43.)
THE LAND and its use: [a review of four English books on the land problem]. (Garden
cities and town planning, Nov. 1921; vol. n, p. 262-263. Diagrs.)
LAND CLASSIFICATION in Minnesota. (National real estate journal, July 25, 1927; vol. 27,
no. 14, p. 57.)
LAND CLASSIFICATION through national foundation. (National real estate journal, Nov.
28, 1927; vol. 28, no. 24, p. 30.)
LAND: ITS USE and misuse: [a symposium]. (In Proceedings of National Conference on
Land Utilization, 1931, p. 37-77- Maps, charts, diagrs., tables.)
Contents: Land utilization in the western range country, by William Peterson; Extent and
emergency character of problems of submarginal lands, by Thomas P. Cooper; New York's
land-utilization program, by C. E. Ladd; Some ways of dealing with the problems of submarginal
land, bv L. C. Gray; Land inventory as a basis for planning land utilization, by L. R. Schoen-
mann; What methods should be employed to take submarginal lands out of agricultural pro-
duction? by H. W. Mumford; General discussion.
LAND UTILIZATION and the farm problem: [a symposium.] (In Proceedings of National
Conference on Land Utilization, 1931, p. 1-36. Charts.)
Contents: The agricultural outlook and the land problem, by Nils A. Olsen; The place of Fed-
eral reclamation in a Federal land policy, by Elwood Mead; Relation of land utilization to the
general objectives of the Federal Farm Board, by James C. Stone; Developing a national policy
of land utilization, by Arthur M. Hyde.
LAND UTILIZATION SURVEY: new ordnance maps. (Journal of the Town Planning In-
stitute, Mar. 1933; vol. 19, p. 114.)
Brief description of the maps prepared as a result of the Land Utilization Survey carried out
under auspices of London School of Economics and the Geographical Association.
LEOPOLD, ALDO. Wilderness as a form of land use. (Journal of land and public utility
economics, Oct. 1925; vol. i, p. 398-404.)
LlNDHOLM, S. G. Land and its uses, District of Columbia: report to the National Capital
Park and Planning Commission. [Washington, The Commission], June 1927. 42 p.
Mimeographed. Tables.
LlPMAN, JACOB G. Land use and agriculture. (In American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. Proceedings of land use symposium, 1932, p. 27-36. Tables.)
LOVEJOY, P. S. Concepts and contours in land utilization. (Journal of forestry, Apr. 1933;
vol. 31, p. 381-391.)
. Theory and practice in land classification. (Journal of land and public utility eco-
nomics, Apr. 1925; vol. i, p. 160-175. Maps, diagr.)
48 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
MANN, A. R. Large scale regional and rural land planning: problems and objectives: the
local phases; state, county and community. (In Four addresses . . . presented before
the National Conference on City Planning and the American Civic Association, Southern
Hotel, Baltimore, Md., Oct. n, 1933. Washington, National Planning Board, Federal
Emergency Administration of Public Works, [1933]. 9 p. Mimeographed.)
MANNING, WARREN H. A national plan study brief. Special supplement to Landscape
architecture, July 1923; vol. 13. 24 p. Maps.
MELCHER, WILLIAM. The economics of Federal reclamation. (Journal of land and public
utility economics, Nov. 1933; vol. 9, p. 382-394. Map, tables.)
MORGAN, ARTHUR E. National planning in practice: [a quotation from radio broadcast
Aug. 15, 1933.] (City planning, Oct. 1933; vol. 9, p. 167.)
MORGAN HEADS Tennessee Valley Authority. (American forests, July 1933; vol. 39, p. 320.
Portrait.)
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LAND UTILIZATION. Proceedings of conference (Chicago,
111., Nov. 19-21, 1931), called by the Secretary of Agriculture and the Executive
Committee of the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and Universities. Washington,
Govt. Printing Office, May 1932. 251 p. Maps, charts, diagrs.
NATIONAL LAND-USE PLANNING COMMITTEE. First annual report, from date of
organization to June 30, 1933. Washington, [The Committee], July 1933. 19 p. Mim-
eographed.
— . Land-use planning in the Tennessee River Basin. Washington, [The Committee],
May 17, 1933. 3 p. Mimeographed. (Publication no. 7.)
— . Scope and character of a national cooperative research project in land utilization.
Washington, [The Committee], Aug. 1933. 15 p. Mimeographed. (Publication no. 8.)
- and NATIONAL ADVISORY AND LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE ON LAND USE.
Conservation of the grazing resources of the remaining public domain. Washington,
[The Committees], Mar. 1933. 21 p. Mimeographed. Tables. (Publication no. 4.)
Organization and objectives of the National Land-Use Planning Committee
and the National Committee on Land Use. Washington, [The Committees], Oct. i,
1932. 9 p. Mimeographed. (Publication no. 2.)
The problems of "submarginal" areas, and desirable adjustments with par-
ticular reference to public acquisition of land. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, Apr.
1933. 24 p. (Publication no. 6.)
Resolution with reference to the relationship of urban unemployment to land
utilization and settlement. Washington, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, June 23, 1932. 9 p.
Mimeographed. (Publication no. i.)
Res9lution formulated by the National Land-Use Planning Committee and adopted by the
National Advisory and Legislative Committee on Land Use, May 3, 1932; revised and made
public June 23, 1932.
— . Suggested principles of state legislation relating to the use of underground
waters. Washington, [The Committee], Mar. 1933. 9 p. Mimeographed. (Publica-
tion no. 3.)
A NATIONAL LAND-UTILIZATION PROGRAM: [a symposium]. (In Proceedings of Na-
tional Conference on Land Utilization, 1931, p. 240-251.)
Contents: Report of committee on summaries and conclusions, as amended and adopted by the
Conference; Discussion and adoption of the report; Institutions and organizations represented.
NEW YORK (STATE). COMMISSION OF HOUSING AND REGIONAL PLANNING. Re-
port to Governor Alfred E. Smith. Albany, The Commission, May 7, 1926. 82 p.
Maps, charts, diagrs.
A series of studies of forces which have shaped the economic history of the State.
NOLEN, JOHN. Large scale regional and rural land planning: foreign experience in land
planning. (In Four addresses . . . presented before the National Conference on City
Planning and the American Civic Association, Southern Hotel, Baltimore, Md., Oct. n,
1933. Washington, National Planning Board, Federal Emergency Administration of
Public Works, [1933]. 9 p. Mimeographed.)
BOOK REVIEWS 49
THE PLACE OF FORESTRY in a national land-utilization program: [a symposium]. (In
Proceedings of National Conference on Land Utilization, 1931, p. 77-110. Maps, charts.)
Contents: National economic and social objectives in forest policy, by Raphael Zon; Land
utilization and conservation, by George D. Pratt; Turning submarginal crop lands within the
farm to wood-lot uses, by James Fowler; What are the possibilities of private forestation? by
S. T. Dana; Fitting forestry into a general program of land utilization, by R. Y. Stuart; The
coordination of state and Federal efforts in the development of a land-utilization program, by
Cully A. Cobb; General discussion.
PLANNING in the Tennessee Valley. (Civic comment, Apr., May, June, 1933; no. 43, p.
12-13.)
PRESIDENT SEEKS AUTHORITY for Tennessee Valley project. (American forests, May
1933; vol. 39, p. 224-225.)
PRESIDENT'S RESEARCH COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL TRENDS. Utilization of natural
wealth. (In Recent social trends in the United States, N. Y., McGraw-Hill Book Co.,
1933; vol. i, Chap. 2, p. 59-121. Maps, charts, diagrs., tables.)
Part I: Mineral and power resources, by F. G. Tryon, and Margaret H. Schoenfeld.
Part II: Agricultural and forest land, by O. E. Baker.
RAPER, CHARLES L. Land use and transportation. (In American Association for the
Advancement of Science. Proceedings of land use symposium, 1932, p. 44-47.)
READJUSTMENTS IN TAXATION made necessary by changes in land utilization: [a sym-
posium]. (In Proceedings of National Conference on Land Utilization, 1931, p. 110-153.
Maps, charts.)
Contents: Fiscal problems of local communities resulting from changing conditions of land
utilization, by George S. Wehrwein; Adjustments for greater economy in local public expen-
ditures, by John C. Watson; Should other industries help bear the financial burden of main-
taining a rural civilization? by C. V. Gregory; Adjusting the tax burden to the tax-paying
ability of the tax bearer, by Richard T. Ely; Redistribution of the responsibility for supporting
governmental functions, by Fred Brenckman; Changes in taxation requisite for a sound program
of land utilization, by Eric Englund; Some ways of relieving the excessive burden on farm land,
by Mark Graves; General discussion.
REGIONAL PLAN OF NEW YORK AND ITS ENVIRONS. Land uses. (In its The graphic
regional plan, N. Y., The Author, 1929, vol. i, part III, p. 309-395. Illus., maps, charts.)
REW, R. HENRY. The use of agricultural land. (Nineteenth century and after, May 1920;
vol. 87, p. 802-813.)
RlNGLAND, ARTHUR C. Mussolini's Sybarites: typifying Italy's national land plan for
the conservation, reclamation and utilization of the country's soil and water resources.
(American forests, July 1933; vol. 39, p. 291-297, 334. Illus., maps.)
ROOSEVELT ENDORSES a land use survey. (American forests, Jan. 1933; vol. 39, p. 34.)
ROWLANDS, W. A. County zoning for agriculture, forestry, and recreation in Wisconsin.
(Journal of land and public utility economics, Aug. 1933; vol. 9, p. 272-282.) Also
reprinted.
SCHOENMANN, L. R. Planned land use. (In American Association for the Advancement
of Science. Proceedings of land use symposium, 1932, p. 48-57. Folded map, tables.)
SHELFORD, VICTOR E., and OTHERS, editors. Naturalist's guide to the Americas pre-
pared by the Committee on the Preservation of Natural Conditions of the Ecological
Society of America, with assistance from numerous organizations and individuals. Balti-
more, Williams and Wilkins Co., 1926. 761 p. Maps, tables.
SMITH, GEORGE OTIS, and OTHERS. The classification of the public lands. Washington,
Govt. Printing Office, 1913. 197 p. Maps, diagrs., tables. (U. S. Geological Survey
bulletin no. 537.)
STAMP, L. DUDLEY. The Land Utilisation [sic] Survey of Britain. (Nature: a weekly
journal of science, May 14, 1932; vol. 129, p. 709-711. Maps.)
— . The Land Utilization Survey of Britain: a paper read at the afternoon meeting
of the [Royal Geographical] Society on 16 Feb. 1931. (Geographical journal, July
1931; vol. 78, p. 40-47; with discussion, p. 48-53. Map.)
TENNESSEE VALLEY LAND BOOM. (Millar's housing letter, July 17, 1933; vol. i, no.
40, p. I.)
50 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. i
U. S. CONGRESS. 69TH. 2D SESSION. HOUSE. Document no. 765. Part I. Rural de-
velopment in the South. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1927. 38 p. Map, tables.
Part I of Letter from the Secretary of the Interior transmitting a report of special advisers of
their investigation of reclamation and rural development in the South and a report on swamp
and overflow lands in the Yazoo Basin, Miss. Report discussed in article: Reclamation and
rural development in the South, in Journal of land and public utility economics, Nov. 1927.
U. S. CONGRESS. 70TH. 1ST SESSION. SENATE. Document no. 45. Southern Recla-
mation Conference. Proceedings of the Southern Reclamation Conference held in Wash-
ington, D. C., Dec. 14 and 15, 1927, under the auspices of the Department of the
Interior and of the Bureau of Reclamation. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1928.
92 p. Illus.
— . 7iST. 2D SESSION. HOUSE. Report no. 870. Creation of organized rural
communities to demonstrate the benefits of planned settlement and supervised rural
development. [Washington, Mar. 13, 1930.] 15 p.
730. 1ST SESSION. SENATE. Document no. 12. A national plan for Amer-
ican forestry: letter from the Secretary of Agriculture transmitting in response to S.
Res. 175 (seventy-second Congress) the report of the Forest Service of the Agricultural
Department on the forest problem of the United States. Washington, Govt. Printing
Office, 1933. 2 vols. Illus., maps, tables.
U. S. DEPT. OF THE INTERIOR. BUREAU OF RECLAMATION. Report of the special
advisers on reclamation and rural development on their investigation of opportunities
for reclamation and planned group settlement in the southern states, Dec. 2-13, 1926.
Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1927. 38 p. Tables.
VACANT LAND in suburban areas [Chicago]. (National municipal review, Apr. 1932; vol.
21, p. 2II-2I2.)
VANCE, RUPERT B. Human geography of the South: a study in regional resources and
human adequacy. Chapel Hill, N. C., The University of North Carolina Press, 1932.
596 p. Maps, tables.
VAN HlSE, CHARLES RICHARD. The land. (In his The conservation of natural resources
in the United States, N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1924, part 4, p. 263-358. Illus., map,
charts, tables.)
WEAVER, F. P. The relation of taxation to land utilization. (In American Association for
the Advancement of Science. Proceedings of land use symposium, 1932, p. 9-14.)
WEHRWEIN, GEORGE S. Land ownership, utilization and taxation in Bayfield County,
Wisconsin. (Journal of land and public utility economics, May 1930; vol. 6, p. 157-169.
Maps, charts, table.)
— . Zoning in marginal areas. (City planning, Oct. 1933; vol. 9, p. 155-163. Maps.)
— , and ROBERT F. SPILMAN. Development and taxation of private recreational land.
(Journal of land and public utility economics, Nov. 1933; vol. 9, p. 340-351. Maps,
charts, tables.)
WELLINGTON, JOHN H. Land utilization in South Africa. (Geographical review, Apr.
1932; vol. 22, p. 205-224. Maps.)
WHITTEN, ROBERT. City planning in Soviet Russia. (City planning, July 1931; vol. 7,
p. 147-160. Illus.)
— . Large scale regional and rural land planning: ways and means of carrying out the
plan: the expansion of planning principles and methods. (In Four addresses . . . pre-
sented before the National Conference on City Planning and the American Civic Asso-
• ciation, Southern Hotel, Baltimore, Md., Oct. n, 1933. Washington, National Planning
Board, Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, [1933]- 6 p. Mimeographed.)
WISCONSIN. COMMITTEE ON LAND USE AND FORESTRY. Forest land use in Wis-
consin. Madison, The Committee, Apr. 1932. 156 p. Maps, charts, tables.
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CONTENTS
Penalties of Excess Subdividing . . . CHARLES D. CLARK 51
Trends in Present-day City and Regional Planning in the United States, 1933
. HAROLD S. BUTTENIIEIM 62
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VOL. 10 April 1934 No. 2
PENALTIES OF EXCESS SUBDIVIDING
By CHARLES D. CLARK
Subdivision Engineer, Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission
DURING the past ten years the Los Angeles County Regional Planning
Commission has dealt with a tremendous amount of subdivision of
land into small building sites. Great profits were made by some
subdividers and even by some purchasers of these lots, and the successes were
shouted from the housetops; large losses were incurred, and spoken of in
hushed voices. Money flowed into this County more readily than does water,
and large amounts of money were invested in real estate. Then, suddenly,
business activity receded. The sale of real estate stopped, and to-day millions
of dollars lie idle, invested in vacant lots for which there are no buyers. This
pause in the rush of business affords time to observe the economic results of
this past activity.
MAJOR TOPOGRAPHIC FEATURES
In studying subdivision economics in the County of Los Angeles, the
first essential to clarity is an understanding of the major topographic features.
The considerable subdivision activity in the mountain and Antelope Valley
sections has not been town-lot subdivision. The mountainous areas, includ-
ing Santa Catalina and San Clemente Islands, are areas of recreational possi-
bilities rather than of potential building sites, and will so continue indefinitely.
Antelope Valley is a farming section and, with the exception of a few scattered
communities, will be affected but slightly by town-lot subdivision activity for
many years.
The elimination of these regions of but little potential subdivision activity
for urban uses leaves only the coastal plain, an area which is in part inten-
sively developed and which is adapted to many types of land subdivision,
ranging from beach recreational developments to areas of heavy industry.
A careful examination of the present situation in this area is essential to a
discussion of the problem under consideration.
51
52 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
The County of Los Angeles has an area of 4085 square miles. From this
total it has been decided, for the reasons given above, to eliminate, for the
purposes of this study, the mountain area of 1876 square miles, Catalina and
San Clemente Islands, containing 132 square miles, and Antelope Valley and
other mountain valleys, containing 1002 square miles. This leaves 1075
square miles in the coastal plain, including 248 square miles of hilly land
suitable for residential uses. Of the 1075 square miles, 28 are unfit for sub-
division, being marshes, swamps, and stream beds. There remain 1047 square
miles suitable for building sites. Of this available area, 382 square miles have
already been subdivided and the character of their development permanently
fixed. How much of this developed area is actually being used by our popu-
lation of 2,200,000 persons?
LOT VACANCIES
The distribution and extent of lot vacancy were determined by a search
through the records of the Los Angeles County Assessor, from which it was
found that only 56 per cent of the subdivided lots in the entire County are
occupied. In the area back of the coastal plain there are 28,916 lots with a
population of only 10,657 persons, many of whom are living on farm lands.
It is not surprising, then, to find a lot occupancy of but 8.4 per cent in these
outlying regions. This figure in itself, however, does not tell the complete
story, for an old established town in this region has considerably affected the
totals. When this town, Newhall, is omitted from the totals of the outlying
district the lot occupancy is 6.5 per cent.
The coastal plain or metropolitan area of Los Angeles County, however,
is not quite so seriously over-subdivided. In this region 57.5 per cent of the
subdivided lots are occupied, leaving 42.5 per cent vacant, whereas 44 per
cent are vacant in the County as a whole. Such vacancies in a new com-
munity might be temporarily justified, but in a metropolitan region this huge
excess of lots seems unwarranted. Los Angeles, the central city of the region,
has a substantial area surrounding its downtown district where more than
80 per cent of the lots are occupied. Large parts of the areas of the satellite
communities of Long Beach, Whittier, and Pasadena also have this high use
density. A considerable part of the remainder of the coastal plain has a lot-
use density in excess of 60 per cent, but the major portion has less. Such
an excessive amount of non-productive property cannot fail to lower the value
of legitimate investments and must tend to increase tax delinquency and the
burden of taxation.
The distribution of low-occupancy areas seems to follow no definite rule.
Speculation, we are forced to conclude, is the basic cause of the large excess
of unused lots. The city of Los Angeles affords an illustration. Occupancy
ranges in various districts from 5 to 95 per cent. Nearly all the lots in the
center of the city are occupied ; on the east the lot occupancy decreases fairly
PENALTIES OF EXCESS SUBDIVIDING
53
uniformly with the distance from the center. South of the center there is
a large area where less than 20 per cent of the lots are occupied, and farther
south the occupancy increases again until at Los Angeles Harbor there is a
Gntelope U alley
943 Sa. mi
of Los ANGELES COUNTY
\
AREA. INCLUDING ISLANDS 4,055 Sa.Mi
i
O 5 10 I? 2O
SC»lt "' MILtS
THf BC6IONAL PLANNING COMMISSION
small area where more than 80 per cent of the lots are occupied. West of
the city is a band of fairly new development where 40 to 60 per cent of the
lots are occupied, and another area where less than 20 per cent are occupied.
North of the center of the city is the San Fernando Valley, a large area mostly
within the corporate limits of Los Angeles, where less than 40 per cent of the
la
54 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
lots are occupied. Hundreds of acres in this valley were subdivided and
placed on the market in 1923 and 1924 when prices were high and Los Angeles
real estate was in speculative demand. It is little wonder that nine years
later comparatively few of these lots have been utilized. How long will it
be, with the present trend of population increase and present ratios of various
types of occupancy, before all this vacant property will be needed for sound
urban expansion?
PERMITTED INTENSITY OF DEVELOPMENT
The first consideration must be the intensity of use permitted under the
zoning standards, in order to determine the density in persons per square mile
in fully developed areas. The facts made known through zoning are among
the most important tools available for the study of subdivision development.
The Zoning Section of the Regional Planning Commission has studied the
proportions of land needed for various types of use. This information may
be applied to an average square mile as a basis, eliminating therefrom the
manufacturing uses, which must be studied separately. It has been found
that in Los Angeles County the average square mile, as fully occupied with
the normal uses as is permitted by the zoning standards, will include a popu-
lation of 10,897 persons. Of these, 6258 will be housed in single-family resi-
dences requiring 0.43 of a square mile; multi-family residences will house 3498
persons and require 0.06 of a square mile; duplexes will house 1141 persons,
requiring 0.07 of a square mile; 0.03 of a square mile will be devoted to busi-
ness uses; the balance of 0.41 of a square mile will be used for parks, play-
grounds, streets, and other public uses.
Applying this information to the present lot vacancy, we find sufficient
subdivided property in the coastal plain to care for an additional population
of 1,819,799 persons, an increase of 83 per cent in the present population,
based on the 1930 Census figures. According to a report of Mr. F. E. Wey-
mouth, Chief Engineer of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern Cali-
fornia, it will be at least fifteen years before this area reaches a population
of 4,019,456 persons, the number required to utilize the undeveloped vacant
lots. Although Los Angeles County is in a favorable position to become a
great metropolitan area it is hardly logical to prepare streets, utilities, and
building sites for such a great population increase, years in advance of its
realization.
SHOULD SUBDIVIDING CEASE?
Should all subdivision activity cease for a number of years and, if not,
just how much subdividing should be permitted?
Although the existence of unused lots is a liability to the community,
the individual owner may claim them as assets in so far as he expects to put
them to use or to sell them at a profit. In some cases his expectations will
56 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
be realized. Some vacant lots are steadily increasing in value in excess of
the cost of upkeep, but many are not. Is anything more valueless than an
object which can be put to no use, has no esthetic value, and invokes a burden
on its possessor? Vacant lots are often of this character.
There should, of course, always be available a reasonable supply of vacant
lots of various types, just as there should be a supply of commodities in a
grocery store. The grocer, however, does not carry a stock sufficient for the
next fifteen years! The carrying charges alone on such a stock would be
prohibitive, and changes in buying habits might make most of it obsolete.
This is also true of vacant lots, for who can predict the mode of living fifteen
years hence and the street and lot requirements for changing conditions?
Even if such predictions were possible, there would still remain the prohibitive
cost of carrying the excess property until it could be used.
COST OF CARRYING VACANT LOTS
The carrying charges on vacant lots may be divided into two classes:
(1) the cost to the owner, and (2) the cost to the community. The charges
against the owner include: (a) capital outlay; (b) interest on investment;
(c) taxes; and (d) assessments. A further charge against the owner is the
shrinkage of his investment. An oversupply of vacant lots, as truly as of
any commodity, will lower the average values. The lowering of land values
does not, however, lower the assessments or the cost of upkeep, and soon it
becomes a question whether the property is an asset or a liability. In 1931
the assessed valuation of vacant lots was approximately $392,259,823, which
represents a true value of about $784,519,646. The interest on this invest-
ment amounted to more than $47,000,000. The tax bills during that year
were approximately $15,000,000, and the assessments collected other than on
the tax bills were $4,500,000. These charges bring the total costs to owners
for retaining this vacant property during 1931 to $66,500,000. In addition,
more than three quarters of a billion dollars were tied up in idle land.
The charges against the community are more difficult to ascertain, since
many factors are involved. Some clarification may be obtained by classifying
and analyzing the various charges as follows: first, the increased cost of
government in Los Angeles County and in the incorporated cities, as indicated
by increased taxes resulting from land subdivision; second, the increased cost
of maintaining such improvements as streets, lights, and drainage, sewerage,
and water-supply systems; third, the increased public service rates for power
and light, telephone, gas, and transportation.
This is an imposing list of charges. That they are actual costs and truly
"extra" charges which would not otherwise be necessary may be illustrated
by a simple example. Nearly one half of the lots in Los Angeles County are
vacant. If this vacancy were spread evenly, every house and structure would
be separated from every other by a vacant lot. Now picture a consolidation
57
of the County with the vacant lots eliminated and all the structures moved
toward a common center. The people of this imaginary city would then
occupy one half of the area which they would have occupied under the first
assumption. The area which they no longer need contains hundreds of thou-
sands of vacant lots, miles upon miles of streets improved with various classes
of pavements, curbs, walks, lights, drainage and sewerage structures, electric,
telephone, and gas lines, and transportation facilities. Is such a condition
an economic waste? Undoubtedly, yes. Under the conditions of to-day
practically this amount of waste actually occurs, although it is less obvious.
Let us now study in detail the costs of these unnecessary expenditures
on the basis of the preceding list of charges. The tax rate in Los Angeles
County for the last four years has been 88 cents per $100 of assessed valua-
tion. This includes all costs of general county government. What propor-
tion of this 88-cent basic tax rate is not only chargeable to vacant lots but is
probably made necessary by their existence? The division of acreage land
into lots increases the work of the assessor, tax collector, auditor, planning
commission, and, in short, of practically every department of government.
These increases in governmental work and expense necessitate an increase in
the assessed valuation of subdivided land over that of acreage land. This
increase in assessed valuation, when determined, will give a basis for measur-
ing the tax burden of vacant lots. The average assessed valuation per square
mik for acreage land is $255,164 and for vacant lots $1,346,064, an increase
of $1,090,900. Thus, the average tax on vacant lots is 5.3 times the average
tax on the same area of land in acreage, an increase of 428 per cent. These
figures, of course, do not mean that immediately upon subdividing, taxes will
increase 428 per cent, for this is the average increase over the entire County
and includes subdivisions which have been on the market for many years.
It does indicate, however, that subdivided land pays higher taxes than acreage
land and that much of this increase is due solely to the fact of subdivision
rather than to any real difference in value.
For the 175 square miles of vacant lots the total increase in assessed
valuation attributable to subdivision amounts to $190,907,500. Application
of the 88-cent county tax rate to this figure shows an additional tax on these
vacant lots, as a result of their subdivision, of $1,679,986 annually. This
amount is 10.3 per cent of the tax on all real estate, and represents a tax rate
of 3.91 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation. This figure of 3.91 cents
may sound trifling, but it is of importance for it is 4.45 per cent of the basic
county tax. In the cities of Los Angeles County, similar calculations demon-
strate that 5.28 cents of their average basic tax rate is derived from non-
productive vacant property. This is 3.5 per cent of their average basic rate,
and amounts to a total for all cities in the County of $2,013,120 annually.
It is evident that the additional taxes paid as a result of subdivision amount
58 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
in Los Angeles County to more than three million dollars annually, and are
necessitated largely by the increased costs of government resulting from the
subdivision of acreage land. It may be rightly stated that technically this
charge is borne directly by the vacant-lot owners themselves and therefore
does not create an additional burden upon the owners of improved lots in the
community, but in the last analysis the burden falls upon the general public.
Having determined the increased tax burdens resulting from an excess
amount of subdivided property, which are a measure of the increased cost of
government, we may turn our attention to the second phase of this subject, —
namely, the increased cost of maintenance of improvements.
The actual construction of streets, highways, and appurtenant structures
is chargeable, for the greater part, to special assessment districts, and the
costs are borne by vacant and occupied property on a frontage or area basis.
These charges, therefore, for the most part do not come from the general
fund and may be considered to be not chargeable to the community as a
whole; however, the economic waste of an excessive amount of streets is
apparent. The maintenance of streets and appurtenant structures, on the
other hand, is chargeable to the general fund, and the street in front of a
vacant lot requires the same maintenance as the street in front of an occupied
lot. In order to determine the maintenance charges, a compilation has been
made of the actual average cost of maintenance in an area totaling 547 square
miles and including eleven cities. The area studied contains every type of
improvement found in Los Angeles County. The figures, however, pertain
only to the coastal plain, for it was there that the examples wTere taken.
Furthermore, the maintenance charges on improvements in the coastal plain
are entirely different from these charges in the mountain and Antelope Valley
areas, where maintenance charges are a negligible quantity in their effect
upon the totals. For the sake of clarity the result of this investigation has
been reduced to costs of maintenance of one mile of street for one year. The
figures are as follows: streets, $349.71; lights, $223.65; drainage, $5.59 (only
4 cities); sewer, $32.07 (only 9 cities); equipment, $35.71 (only 7 cities); mak-
ing a total of $646.73.
All the above costs were paid from the general fund, which was collected
through taxes. With 42.5 per cent of the lots in the coastal plain vacant,
it is evident that for each mile of street maintenance, 42.5 per cent of $646.73,
or $274.86, was expended each year in front of vacant lots. A further simple
calculation will give the total of these charges in Los Angeles County. The
average subdivision contains 205 lots per mile of streets. With 1,071,000
lots in the coastal plain the street mileage in front of these lots amounts to
approximately 5224 miles. Calculating from the known percentage of lot
vacancy and the average cost per mile of maintaining streets in front of
vacant lots, it is found that each year $1,435,869 is expended for maintenance
in front of vacant property.
60 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
Who pays the bill? Obviously the vacant-lot owner does not pay his
fair share because the taxes on vacant lots are less than those on improved
property. In 1931 the average tax for land alone on an improved lot was
2.7 times the average tax on a vacant lot, and in the coastal plain the owners
of improved lots paid, on a land basis, 73.2 per cent of the taxes while they
owned but 57.5 per cent of the lots. Moreover, the improved lots had an
added assessed valuation of over 680 million dollars, attributable to these
improvements. This means, then, that the owners of improved lots pay 81.6
per cent of the taxes on all subdivided lots. Reducing this to street mainte-
nance charges, it becomes evident that the owners of improved lots are pay-
ing $2,137,266 per year more for street maintenance than are the owners of
vacant lots, while the actual cost of maintenance per lot is the same in each
case. The inequality of this arrangement is evident, as is the fact that a
yearly charge of $1,435,869 for maintenance of streets and appurtenant struc-
tures in front of vacant lots constitutes an economic loss to the community.
Considering now the relation between land subdivision and the cost of
public utilities, a simple example will demonstrate that utility rates are in-
creased through over-subdividing. Picture a subdivision served by electricity
wherein the houses are widely separated. The distribution line must reach
the most remote dwelling, and approximately the same quantities of wire,
poles, insulators, and other pole hardware are required as would be needed
if every lot were occupied and served by the line. The cost of the main line
per subdivided lot is practically the same regardless of whether the lot is
using this facility or not, and consequently the unit cost per service is reduced
in direct proportion to the number of services within the area covered. The
same would, of course, also be true for other public utilities, such as telephone,
gas, and transportation. When all the lots are occupied, there will, of course,
be a maximum number of utility users who, through the service rates, would
be paying for the installation and maintenance costs of the distributing system.
But when a large proportion of the lots is unused, this extra overhead must
be borne by actual residents, since it cannot be charged to vacant lots. It
is obvious, then, that a saving can be derived through operation of utility
lines more nearly at maximum capacity, and that such a saving could be
applied to decrease the rates.
The actual amount of this saving is practically impossible to ascertain,
as utility companies are hesitant about divulging information relating to unit
costs, but taking another utility as an example will shed some light on the
situation. The cost of laying gas mains on residential streets averages about
$2640 per mile. With 2222 street miles of vacant lots the cost of laying gas
mains adjacent to these vacant lots amounts to $5,866,000! Of course this
expense is unavoidable from the standpoint of the gas company, for the sub-
scriber who pays the bill must be reached, but it is just one of the many extra
expenditures made necessary through over-subdividing.
PENALTIES OF EXCESS SUBDIVIDING 61
STEPS TOWARD A SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM
These analyses of the costs of vacant lots, both to the owners and the
community, have shown that the process of over-subdividing does produce
an economic loss of no small importance. What step or steps can be taken
to diminish the effect of such over-subdividing and to prevent its recurrence
in the future?
The present oversupply of vacant lots can be diminished by the simple
process of reverting contiguous groups of unused parcels to an acreage basis.
This process is applicable, however, only in cases where an appreciable number
of vacant lots in a single group are in the ownership of a single individual or
a small number of individuals who are willing to cooperate with each other.
But it should not be overlooked that even then reversion can never return
to the owners the money lost through removal of the land from production,
increased taxes, the cost of subdividing, and the unsuccessful sales effort.
Nor can it reimburse the public for money spent on street maintenance and
other services rendered. In the County of Los Angeles, the advantages of
combining a group of so-called town lots, vacating the streets, and allowing
the land to return to acreage have been recognized by many property owners.
During a recent twelve-month period the number of lots removed from the
market and the map in this manner in the unincorporated area of the County
slightly exceeded the number of newly subdivided lots. If the process of
reversion, coupled with the normal building activity, could continue, it would
be but a matter of time until the proportion of vacant lots to occupied lots
would reach a reasonable figure. Past experience indicates, however, that
long before that time the speculative subdivider will be apt again to increase
unduly the vacant-lot supply.
It cannot be denied, in the face of a 42.5 per cent lot vacancy, that any
new subdivisions during the next few years should be of the best type, well
planned, capable of passing every economic test, strategically located, properly
served with utilities, and answering to an actual community need rather than
to a speculative market. This view is held by the majority of our real-estate
subdividers and brokers, who have learned through costly experience that
the unwarranted wholesale subdivision of land by a few unscrupulous persons
has so undermined sound realty values and so affected the confidence of the
public as to produce unfair competition and a strong feeling of uncertainty.
The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission is convinced
that excess subdivision should no longer be tolerated. Sound real-estate
values are the basis of our financial structure, and must be protected against
exploitation. Is not the time past due when the public should take cognizance
of these facts and demand that from now on its inherent rights in that basic
natural resource, the land, be rigidly protected by means of adequate control
of land subdivision in the interests of the community as a whole?
TRENDS IN PRESENT-DAY CITY AND
REGIONAL PLANNING IN THE
UNITED STATES, 1933
By HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM
Editor, The American City
A year ago, in reviewing trends in city and regional planning in the
United States for 1932, I ventured this prophecy:
The era of reckless expansion of competitive facilities for manufacture
and trade, which was a major cause of the present depression, will be
succeeded by an era of rational expansion of public works and of city
rebuilding, which will be major factors in future prosperity. . . . The
unthinkable alternative is that the American people are to be forced
down to a permanently lower scale of living, merely because they have
attained the constructive skill, but not yet the cooperative skill, for a
more abundant life than the world has ever known. If the cities and
states cannot provide the necessary funds for such a program, the Federal
Government must loan the money or do the job itself.
A year previously, in discussing the planning trends of 1931, I had said:
Another trend which as yet has not passed beyond a growing deter-
mination of a few leaders to do something about it, will, I believe, become
insistently vocal and finally effective. This is the elimination of the
slums of our cities and their replacement partly by public open spaces
and partly by either privately or publicly financed housing developments.
During the period which has now elapsed since the inauguration of the
Roosevelt Administration, the most noteworthy trend in city and regional
planning in the United States has been the extent to which these prophecies —
of which, of course, I had no monopoly — are beginning to come true. The
stimulation of public works and of planning and housing are outstanding
characteristics of the New Deal.
NATIONAL PLANNING BOARD
Of special significance is the creation last July, by President Roosevelt,
of the National Planning Board. This triumvirate of leaders in the fields of
planning, economics, and political science — Frederic A. Delano, of Washing-
ton, Wesley C. Mitchell, of New York, and Charles E. Merriam, of Chicago —
with Charles W. Eliot 2d as Executive Officer, and Harold Merrill, Assistant,
is functioning with vigor and vision. Implemented with funds of the Public
Works and Civil Works Administrations, the National Planning Board had
enlisted, before the end of 1933, the cooperation of the governors of more
than half of the states to such an extent that fifteen of them had actually ap-
pointed state planning boards, and most of the others had indicated their
62
TRENDS IN PRESENT-DAY PLANNING 63
early intention of so doing.1 The National Planning Board suggests that the
first goal of a State Planning Board should be the preparation of a preliminary
plan which may well include: (1) a program of public works for a consider-
able period, (2) a proposed transportation system, (3) a general classification
of the area of the state into the principal recommended land uses, and (4)
other studies and projects such as housing, government reorganization, and
so forth, as may be indicated in each state.2
SLUM CLEARANCE AND HOUSING
Even more spectacular, as indicating how a slowly maturing trend can
become a rapidly developing reality in a single year, is the progress of 1933
in the assumption by government — national, state, and local — of leadership
and responsibility in slum clearance and large-scale, low-rent housing projects.
When the year opened, there were only three states having laws under which
the then available loans from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation could
be made to limited-dividend housing corporations, and the idea of the Federal
Government or the states or municipalities going directly into the housing
business was a radical dream. When the year closed, the dream had mate-
rialized to such an extent that the National Association of Housing Officials,
organized in November, 1933, under the aegis of the Public Administration
Clearing House, was able to report that fifteen states had laws creating boards
to supervise private limited-dividend housing corporations, and four states
had laws creating housing authorities or other public housing bodies.3
The closing months of the year also witnessed the entry of the Federal
Government directly into the housing business. In October, as an adjunct
to the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, there was formed
the Public Works Emergency Housing Corporation. As announced by the
President of the Corporation, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes:
The Corporation will engage in low-cost housing and slum clearance
projects which otherwise would not be undertaken. It will lend every
assistance to states, municipalities and public housing authorities in the
development of worthy projects, and it may finance projects outright as
a demonstration to the country of what can be done.
1Before February 21, 1934, the governors of 31 states had reported to Washington the
appointment of such boards.
2Definite suggestions for procedure are given in the "Fifth Circular Letter," obtainable
from the National Planning Board, Interior Building, Washington, D. C.
3The 15 states are: Arkansas, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, Texas, and
Virginia. The 4 states having laws creating housing authorities or other public housing
bodies, are: Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio. New York has since been added
to the latter list, and a New York City Municipal Housing Authority has been set up. A
letter dated March i, 1934, from Charles S. Ascher, Executive Director of the National Asso-
ciation of Housing Officials, gives the following additional information: "Ohio has metro-
politan housing authorities in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Youngstown, and Toledo. There is one
in Detroit. The Board of Public Land Commissioners of Milwaukee has a project well de-
veloped, and a municipal housing commission has been set up in Los Angeles, though it is
not yet well organized. Bills for the creation of housing authorities are pending in Illinois,
South Carolina, and Massachusetts."
64 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
While the Corporation will be empowered to do anything that a
private contractor or builder can do, the policy of the Public Works
Administration is not to interfere with or enter into competition against
legitimate private businesses, but to supplement and stimulate these
businesses in a field of vital social importance.
The Corporation has broad powers to engage in a general construction
business, to finance and aid in financing low-cost housing and slum clear-
ance, to perform engineering and architectural work, and to conduct and
carry on the business of builders and contractors. In addition to build-
ings, the Corporation has power to locate, lay out, construct and main-
tain roads, avenues, parks, playgrounds, recreational facilities, sewers,
bridges, walls, utilities and incidental improvements in connection with
housing projects. The Corporation may equip, furnish, operate, manage
and maintain homes and buildings of every nature.
The historian would fain ascribe these remarkable developments — na-
tional, state, and metropolitan — to a sudden flowering of a heretofore slowly
budding concern for the subnormal housing conditions of our American cities.
Candor compels, however, the statement that the impetus appears to have
come more from a desire to provide jobs than to provide houses — and still
more, perhaps, from the desire of states and cities to secure, for local spend-
ing, Federal funds that otherwise would go elsewhere.1
PWA EMPHASIZES PLANNING
Whatever the motive, the results seem certain, on the whole, to prove
beneficial. Some concern has been expressed lest Federal stimulus of public
works and housing developments, by the expenditure of the $3,300.000,000
for these purposes authorized by the 1933 Congress, should result in many
poorly planned projects. But the Public Works Administration has from its
inception last June been emphasizing not merely building but planning. Its
first statement of construction policy, issued June 22, 1933, stipulated that
"projects which are integrated with other projects into a significant plan
should be preferred to projects which are isolated and unrelated." Unfor-
tunately, however, too few cities and regions were prepared with the plans
and planners essential to such integration, and the unemployment emergency
has required the allotment of Federal funds to many poorly or hastily planned
projects.
The concern of the Public Works Administration with comprehensive
planning was also shown when allocating the $400,000,000 provided in the
National Industrial Recovery Act for grants to state highway departments.
It was then stipulated, to quote Secretary Ickes, Federal Public Works Ad-
ministrator, that "primarily this money should not be used to build a little
bit of road in this township and an unconnected mile of road in the adjoining
1Under the National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933, limited-dividend housing corpora-
tions are eligible for loans from the Public Works Administration; while states, municipalities,
and other public bodies are eligible not only for loans but for "grants" (gifts) of funds up to
30 per cent of the cost of labor and materials employed in any project.
TRENDS IN PRESENT-DAY PLANNING 65
township, but to join arterial highways, to connect up with main roads already
partly constructed, so as to work towards a comprehensive and logical net-
work of roads throughout the country."
CORRELATION OF PHYSICAL AND ECONOMIC PLANNING
An inspiring picture of planning possibilities was painted by Secretary
Ickes before the National Conference on City Planning in Baltimore in
October :
Intelligent and comprehensive planning on a national scale fits into
the social vision of the future. If, as I believe, we are now definitely
committed to the testing of new social values; if we have turned our
backs for all time on the dreadful implications in the expression "rugged
individualism"; if we have firmly set our feet to tread a new and more
desirable social path ; if we have given over the feeding not only ourselves
but our wromen and our children to the gluttony of ruthless industrialism;
if it is our purpose to make industrialism serve humanity, then national
planning will become a major governmental activity.
A year ago I expressed the hope that some historian of the trends of 1933
would be able to report a much closer correlation than then existed between
the land-use and the city planning movements. Such correlation has since
been aided by the action of the National Conference on City Planning in
devoting a session of its annual meeting in Baltimore to "Large-Scale Re-
gional and Land Planning," and by the activities of various governmental
agencies, including, in addition to the National Planning Board, the Tennessee
Valley Authority and the Subsistence Homesteads Division of the Depart-
ment of the Interior. These last two merit special mention in a review of
city and regional planning trends of 1933.
TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY
The Tennessee Valley Authority is functioning, not under the National
Industrial Recovery Act, as are the other activities to which reference has
thus far been made in this paper, but under Public Act No. 17 of the 73d
Congress. Under this act an executive order was issued by President Roose-
velt on June 8, 1933, as follows:
In accordance with the provisions of Section 22 and Section 23 of the
Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933, the President hereby authorizes
and directs the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority to
make such surveys, general plans, studies, experiments, and demonstra-
tions as may be necessary and suitable to aid the proper use, conservation
and development of the natural resources of the Tennessee River drainage
basin, and of such adjoining territory as may be related to or materially
affected by the development consequent to this Act, and to promote the
general welfare of the citizens of said area; within the limits of appro-
priations made therefor by Congress.
66 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
Here is an attempt by the Federal Government to plan and build for the
physical development and social welfare of an area of some 41,000 square
miles, including portions of seven states, — Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky. And even this vast area,
as pointed out by Earle S. Draper, Director of Land Planning and Housing
of the Tennessee Valley Authority, at the Baltimore Conference in October,
is not independent of adjacent rural territory and of certain large cities out-
side the area, such as Nashville, Birmingham, and Atlanta. In its efforts to
improve the living conditions of several millions of men, women, and children,
the Tennessee Valley Authority, in the words of its General Counsel, David
E. Lilienthal, "has certain specific duties to perform: for example, it is the
proprietor of the great hydro-electric plant at Muscle Shoals and of the
Government nitrate plants at that place; it is directed to construct two great
dams — Norris Dam, near the headwaters of the Tennessee, on the Clinch
River, and the Joe Wheeler Dam, perhaps the longest dam in the country,
some sixteen miles above Muscle Shoals, on the Tennessee River. In addition,
it has a duty to develop a program of flood control, of soil erosion prevention,
and of reforestation. It is directed to make surveys and studies looking
toward the planned development of the entire Tennessee Valley area. The
lessons which experience may teach as a result of this effort in the planned
development of a region may be adapted and applied in other parts of the
country. There is already a movement on foot to create similar agencies in
other regions, notably in the Missouri Valley and in the valley of the Columbia
River."
Among the activities already undertaken by the Tennessee Valley
Authority of special interest to city planners is the design of the new town
of Norris, Tenn. This new town is being developed as a means not merely
of accommodating temporarily 2000 or more workers during the construction
period of the Norris Dam, but of providing a permanent community based
upon the orderly combination of industrial work and subsistence farming.
Another major feature of the Tennessee Valley regional development plan
will be a new road using the top of Norris Dam in crossing the Clinch River.
This highway — technically a "freeway " — will serve as a connecting link in
a new route between Cincinnati and the Mid-West and Knoxville, the Great
Smoky Mountains, and the South. As a scenic "freeway," this section of the
route will be fully and perpetually protected against the encroachment of
billboards, hot-dog stands, shacks, and other roadside clutter so destructive
to the natural beauty of any section.
SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS
An experiment, begun during 1933 with high purpose and a poor name,
is being undertaken by the Department of the Interior through its Division
of Subsistence Homesteads. This new agency of the Federal Government
TRENDS IN PRESENT-DAY PLANNING 67
was set up independently of the Federal Emergency Administration of Public
Works under Section 208 of the National Industrial Recovery Act, which
reads :
To provide for aiding the redistribution of the overbalance of popula-
tion in industrial centers, $25,000,000 is hereby made available to the
President, to be used by him through such agencies as he may establish
and under such regulation as he may make, for making loans for and
otherwise aiding in the purchase of subsistence homesteads. The moneys
collected as repayment of said loans shall constitute a revolving fund to
be administered as directed by the President for the purposes of this
section.
If the administrators of this section of the Act were construing their task
as merely that of dumping unemployed urban dwellers or impoverished farm-
ers onto scattered plots of rural land where they would theoretically be
satisfied to eke out a mere subsistence, this movement would have no place in
our present discussion. The problems of an age of plenty will never be solved
by adopting low standards of comfort and culture. But an important con-
tribution to the Nation's welfare and to rational land planning may result
from the development of communities of "subsistence homesteads" where
agriculture and industry and government may combine to provide not merely
a living but a life worth living.
In its Circular No. 1, dated November 15, 1933, the Division of Subsist-
ence Homesteads outlined its general purpose as follows:
Underlying the enactment of this legislation is the widely held belief
that large numbers of the population of this country face a period of
employment difficulties so severe and prolonged that special measures of
much more than an emergency relief character are required to deal with
the situation. . . . The planned redistribution of population contemplated
in the subsistence homesteads legislation is essential in order that large
groups of people, caught in a situation from which they are powerless to
extricate themselves unaided, may have an opportunity to gain for them-
selves some degree of economic security and a more adequate standard
of living.
And in discussing specifically the decentralization of industry and the
problems of "stranded" agricultural communities, this statement of purposes
and policies said:
Decentralization of industry.- — In recent years there has been a con-
siderable movement of certain types of industry from their former centers
of location. ... As to location, decentralization may involve the establish-
ment of industry on the periphery of existing industrial centers or dis-
tricts, or in smaller cities or villages but still within the same general
industrial region, or in either large or small centers in a different industrial
region. Industrial decentralization, where feasible, promises definite
economic and social advantages. It should aid in the redistribution of
the overbalance of population in existing large industrial centers. . . .
68 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
The Division is much interested in testing out more fully than has
yet been done in this country the possibilities of associating garden home-
steads with work in various types of nearby industrial plants as a regular
and permanent arrangement. Small plants in villages and smaller cities
appear to offer an especially fertile field for such experimentation. . . .
Experiments, under various conditions, of the planned integration of
industry and subsistence farming will demonstrate the feasibility and
consequences of such an alliance between farm and factory and may give
an impetus to a movement held to be desirable on a number of grounds.
Stranded agricultural communities. — "Stranded" population groups by
no means are confined to industrial groups. There are thousands of farm
families marooned on eroded and worn-out lands or on lands inherently
too poor on which to make a living, trying to carry on a hopeless struggle
for existence. In other cases the land is not inherently hopeless but the
rural communities have become utterly demoralized by a complete dis-
organization of the agricultural system. . . . There are rural slums as
well as city slums. These greatly aggravate the overbalance of popula-
tion in industrial centers because the farm people, driven from these hope-
less situations, move to the cities, there to add to urban employment and
relief problems.
Such completely dislocated rural communities must be reorganized
and rehabilitated. . . . Smaller farms, more compact grouping to permit
the operation of schools, local government and other public services at
lowest possible costs per capita, reduction of acreage of wheat and cotton
and other staple crops, and more dependence upon subsistence crops,
encouragement of ownership and reduction of tenancy, are among the
changes that reorganization requires. Such reorganization may in turn
necessitate a readjustment of local government functions and revenues,
replanning of roads and schools, and other rearrangements.
In all these readjustments, the Division of Subsistence Homesteads,
in cooperation with other agencies, can be of great service.
Up to the end of 1933, subsistence homesteads projects were under way,
or had been approved by M. L. Wilson, Director of the Subsistence Home-
steads Division, in Dayton and Youngstown, Ohio; Monmouth County, N. J.;
Reedsville and Tygart Valley, W. Va. ; Decatur, Ind.; and Fender County,
N. C.1
THE NORTH CAROLINA AND DAYTON PROJECTS
The Fender County project merits special mention, as it will mean the
consummation of a "farm city" vision conceived several years ago by Hugh
MacRae, of North Carolina, widely known for his efforts in building rural
communities, and John Nolen as planner.
Probably the most significant discussion of the aims and ideals of the
subsistence homesteads movement which has yet appeared is an article in
the January, 1934, Survey Graphic, by Ralph Borsodi. That this leading
JBy March I, 1934, appropriations totaling $8,157,500 to 25 projects in 15 states had
been announced by the Division of Subsistence Homesteads; and tentative approval had been
given to 9 other projects.
TRENDS IN PRESENT-DAY PLANNING 69
advocate of the homestead colonization idea appreciates the fundamental
importance of retaining for the community the land ownership and land rev-
enues, is evident from his discussion of the Dayton Homestead Unit:
A feature of primary importance in the Dayton plan is the system of
land tenure. Title to the land and the original farm buildings, used for
community purposes, is vested in the Homestead Unit as a whole. Sepa-
rate plots are then leased to each homesteader on annual terms fixed by
the Unit in accordance with the relative desirability of each plot. Leases
are automatically renewed each year, though there are provisions for
terminating them at any time. If terminated by the Homestead Unit —
as they may be for violations of the provisions of the lease — the buildings
and improvements of the plot may be sold by the homesteader or disposed
of, if he fails to find a purchaser upon an appraisal determined by arbi-
tration. On the other hand, the homesteader has title to all improvements
upon his plot, and may sell his property at any time to any one eligible
to become a member of the Unit.
In other words, title to land rests in the community which creates the
land value, and title to improvements in the individual. Under this
system the holder of a plot is practically compelled to use it or abandon
it to some one else who will. This, I believe, obviates the danger which
has wrecked innumerable idealistic communities as well as commercial
real estate developments, — the danger that the original owner will merely
leave the plot unused awaiting an opportunity to sell it at a profit after
an increase in value.
The ground rents collected from the leaseholders furnish the com-
munity the income with which to pay taxes levied upon the property,
interest payments, payments upon the principal borrowed in order to
purchase the land, and any other community expenses.
The pioneer work being done by the Tennessee Valley Authority and the
Subsistence Homesteads Division may well go down in history as among the
most important of recent planning trends if they actually prove to be, as
their proponents hope, a means of helping our American cities to rationalize
their relations to their environs.
A NEW FEDERAL LAND POLICY
The closing day of the year found the New York Times devoting the
first column of its first page to a dispatch from Washington headed: "Report
Roosevelt Backs Land Buying in Broad Program." The opening paragraph
stated that the President was represented in Administration circles as having
approved a new and permanent policy under which some 50,000,000 acres of
submarginal lands would be retired from cultivation at a cost of about
ISSO.OOO^OO.1
"Those in charge of the proposed program," the Washington dispatch
stated, "are aware that more than a decade would be required to show
*As a definite step in carrying out this policy, the Public Works Administration announced
on January 3, 1934, an allotment of $25,000,000 for the removal of submarginal lands from
commercial crop production.
2a
TO CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
substantial results, but they attach great significance to the adoption of a land
policy by the Government and the actual beginning of acquisitions."
The day before this statement came from Washington, one of the Presi-
dent's most influential advisers, Rexford G. Tugwell, Assistant Secretary of
Agriculture, in an address before the American Economic Association, in
Philadelphia, had predicted that the Government of the future will control
the use of all land, public and private. Land which cannot be operated
effectively under private ownership will be held by the Government as public
forests, parks, game preserves, grazing ranges, recreation centers, and the
like, Professor Tugwell asserted. Privately owrned land will be controlled "to
whatever extent is found necessary for maintaining continuous productivity,"
he said. "We have depended too long on the hope that private ownership
and control would operate somehow for the benefit of society as a whole.
That hope has not been realized."
Here is indicated a trend of greater significance to the future of city and
regional planning and to public welfare in the United States than has been
disclosed on any other card in the deck of the New Deal.
Fortified by these pronouncements from Washington, your historian again
ventures into the realm of prophecy. He predicts that the year 1934 will
witness a greater demand from economists and political scientists than the
United States has yet seen for the rational planning, control, and financing
of land uses. This will involve more general recognition of the fact that
effective planning consists not merely in the preparation of maps and sketches
of desirable uses and improvements, but in powerfully implementing such
plans through legislation and taxation. A definite example may point a moral
and adorn this tale.
Among the many projects for which Federal grants have been unsuccess-
fully solicited by local committees in recent months, was an important flood-
control and river-improvement proposal affecting seven counties in a well-
populated state. That substantial community benefits would result from the
consummation of this project seemed evident. The appropriation requested
was some $12,000,000. Its prompt expenditure would have helped solve not
only urgent local problems of unemployment, but also the recurrent problems
of devastation by flood, discomfort from mosquitoes, and disregard of poten-
tial recreation areas of great beauty and utility.
This proposal is here cited, not to question its engineering soundness or
social urgency, but because of an analysis of anticipated financial benefits to
property owners set forth in a report of the consulting engineer. This docu-
ment was prepared in 1928 — when, doubtless, financing by the state rather
than by Federal funds was contemplated. Summarizing the predictions listed
for the seven counties, the report estimated land values increased by from
TRENDS IN PRESENT-DAY PLANNING 71
$70,000,000 to $100,000,000 within five years, from the proposed $12,000,000
expenditure. The report contained, however, no suggestion that the cost of
the project might equitably be repaid, over a period of years, out of the re-
sulting land-value enhancement.
No doubt these estimates, if prepared in the deflation of 1933, would
have been more conservative than was the case in the exuberance of 1928.
Few uses of public funds — perhaps not even this one, if granted — could be
expected to result in land-value increases of six times the cost of the project.
Nevertheless, it may be doubted whether any public works expenditure is
normally justifiable which may not reasonably be expected to create increased
land values, or prevent decreased land values, to an amount at least as great
as the public costs involved.
An important arm of the National Government — the Federal Emergency
Administration of Public Works — has been engaged for some months in try-
ing to spend or lend, with wisdom and speed, the huge public works fund
already mentioned. Distribution, urgently needed as a means of unemploy-
ment relief, has been disappointingly slow. Among the retarding influences
has been a laudable desire to prevent waste and graft from funds granted and
to protect the safety of funds loaned. Every laborer, supply dealer, and con-
tractor is very properly expected to give a dollar's worth of service or product
for every dollar he receives. But little thought has been given by our law-
makers to the question of whether, in imposing the taxes for interest and
amortization on the resulting public debt, — national, state, and local, — any
adequate payment will be expected from the landowners who reap the chief
financial profit from public works expenditures.
Even if the tax burdens resulting from public expenditures are unjustly
distributed, such expenditures may, in times of emergency, be far preferable
to idleness and doles. But if we are really to attack problems of planning
and of public expenditures at their roots, we must study more carefully their
relationships to the control of land uses and to financial benefits received by
those who hold title to the surface of the earth. Various pronouncements of
Administration spokesmen seem to indicate a laudable desire to drive not
merely the money changers out of the temple but the speculators off the land.
To quote Chairman Arthur E. Morgan of the Tennessee Valley Authority :
Our social and economic planning must include control over real
estate developments. I am told that in the vicinity of Muscle Shoals the
lots already laid out would house a population of from four to seven
million people. People from all over the United States have bought lots
in the Muscle Shoals region expecting a great rise in price. It is quite
possible to develop a policy that will allow the honest real estate developer
to operate, but it is very difficult to put the policy into execution.
Public acquisition of land is, of course, the surest guarantee of success
in the public planning and control of land uses. And it is the surest method,
72 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
also, of conserving for the public treasury the economic rent and the increases
in land values created by the presence of population and by the expenditures
and services of government. We seem to be headed — and wisely headed —
toward a policy of acquisition, through various governmental units and author-
ities, of substantial additions to the public domain. Some of us may live to
see the day when the truth now embalmed in Article I, Section 10, of the
Constitution of the State of New York — "The people of this state, in their
right of sovereignty, are deemed to possess the original and ultimate property
in and to all lands within the jurisdiction of the state" — will be vitalized into
effective legislation in the Empire State and every other American common-
wealth. But we need not wait until that uncertain future to begin using
scientific methods of fiscal control which will make possible more effective
physical control of community development than we have yet had.
FEDERAL AID FOR LOCAL PLANNING
While the year 1933 probably saw the lowest total of recent years in
local appropriations for the work of planning commissions and employment
of planning consultants, this unfortunate effect of unwise budget-slashing was
offset in some measure toward the end of the year by the CW7A activities.
On November 16, Frederic A. Delano, as Chairman of the National Planning
Board, wrote to the planning agencies of the country, calling attention to the
availability of aid for planning from the funds cf the newly established Civil
Works Administration. In this letter it was recommended that, as a basis
for comprehensive planning, official planning agencies take immediate action
toward the formulation of planning projects. Mr. Delano suggested:
These projects might include such matters as mapping, planning
studies and surveys for the collection of data for zoning, soil conditions,
land use and classification, population distribution, schools, park and
playground development, port, harbor and waterway work, parkways,
highways, traffic, transit, water supply, drainage and sewerage, long-
range financial programs, real property inventories, tax maps, building
and housing conditions, subdivision control, etc.
As an example of speedy action, George H. Herrold, Managing Director
of the City Planning Board of St. Paul, was able to report to Mr. Delano
on November 27 that, acting on the foregoing suggestion, he applied for and
had been granted by the Minnesota organization handling CWA funds $15,000
for a comprehensive traffic survey, $8970 for a comprehensive recreation and
playground survey, and $5820 for a housing survey.
PLANNING FOR TRAFFIC SAFETY AND FACILITATION
A criticism of plans and planners sometimes made, and often justified, is
that the correction of minor defects in existing street widths, intersections,
parking facilities, and so forth, is often subordinated to emphasis on grandiose
TRENDS IN PRESENT-DAY PLANNING 73
projects. During the year this misplaced emphasis has been partially cor-
rected. The credit can be shared in part by such organizations as the National
Safety Council, whose Traffic Engineer, Earl J. Reeder, had an article on
"Preventive Planning for Traffic Safety" in CITY PLANNING for July, 1933;
and the American Automobile Association, whose Director of Safety and
Traffic Engineering, Burton W. Marsh, outlined for the 1933 Municipal Index
thirty different ways of "Making Unemployment Relief Funds Save Lives in
Traffic," in an article under that title, reprints of which have been widely
distributed. The availability of the $400,000,000 fund allocated in November,
1933, by the Public Works Administration to the Civil Works Administration
is making possible the carrying forward, in hundreds of cities and villages,
of minor but important improvements of these kinds. The previous alloca-
tion under the NIRA of a like amount for the emergency construction of
highways and other related projects contained the stipulation that:
The amount apportioned to any state under this paragraph may be
used to pay all or any part of the cost of surveys, plans and of highway
and bridge construction including the elimination of hazards to highway
traffic, such as the separation of grades at crossings, the reconstruction
of existing railroad grade crossing structures, the relocation of highways
to eliminate railroad crossings, the widening of narrow bridges and road-
ways, the building of footpaths, the replacement of unsafe bridges, the
construction of routes to avoid congested areas, the construction of
facilities to improve accessibility and the free flow of traffic, and the cost
of any other construction that will provide safer traffic facilities or defi-
nitely eliminate existing hazards to pedestrian or vehicular traffic.
ROADSIDE PROTECTION AND BEAUTIFICATION
In the regulations approved by the Special Board for Public Works gov-
erning the expenditure of the above-mentioned $400,000,000 for highway
construction, an important place is given to the appropriate improvement
and landscaping of the highways. This was the subject of an address by
Wilbur H. Simonson, Landscape Architect of the United States Bureau of
Public Roads, at the annual meeting of the American Civic Association in
October.1
Section 6 of the Public Works Highway Regulations is interpreted by
Thomas H. MacDonald, Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads, to require that
each state highway department include in its program of construction of the
Federal-aid highway system a definite number of projects that will provide
for the appropriate landscaping of a reasonably extensive mileage of parkways
and roadsides. In order to carry out the work in a satisfactory manner, it is
believed that it will be necessary for all state highway departments to employ
JFor an abstract of this paper with four full-page reproductions of new charts of roadside
improvement information prepared under Mr. Simonson's direction, see The American City
Jan. 1934, pp. 39-44. There is much of value also in the six-page report of the Committee
on Roadside Improvement of the American City Planning Institute, in ClTY PLANNING
Oct. 1933, pp. 181-186.
74 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
qualified landscape architects and horticulturists to determine the proper
kinds of plant material to be used in different soil and climatic conditions,
and the most effective arrangement of grading and plant material, for each
particular project location. To quote Mr. Simonson:
The highway recovery program marks the opening of a more balanced
conception by the people of the possibilities afforded in the planned de-
velopment of highways. Highway improvement work, while providing
for the effective employment of labor, also creates tangible values of a
reasonably permanent nature so necessary to the new social order. It is
good business for the nation to plan for the economic conservation of its
highway investment.
THE FIRST PLANNED COUNTY IN NEW ENGLAND
In county planning one of the most significant activities of the year was
the work of the Fairfield County (Conn.) Planning Association. This organi-
zation, with headquarters with the Bridgeport Chamber of Commerce, is able
to publicize its region as "the first planned county in New England." The
success of the Fairfield County Planning Association is based, first, on the
recognition of the necessity of arousing public interest in the county plan;
second, on securing enthusiastic cooperation of local planning agencies and
local city and town engineers; and, third, on a planning service.
PROGRESS IN PUBLIC RECREATION
Park and recreational development has been set forward a great many
years by the use of relief labor and CWA funds during the depression. Many
projects were under way at the end of 1933 in numerous cities in all parts
of the United States, as reported by the National Recreation Association.
It is worth noting that in New Hampshire, L. H. Weir, of the National
Recreation Association, made a three months' survey of lakes, potential park
areas, and other recreational facilities. The matter of pollution was also
considered. Governor Winant's desire for an agency which might carry out
the recommendations of this survey is believed to have been a major reason
for his prompt action in making New Hampshire the first state in the Union
to appoint a State Planning Board under the regulations promulgated in
December by the National Planning Board.
ZONING
Perhaps the most significant forward step in zoning during 1933 was the
ordinance adopted in May by the Board of Supervisors of Oneida County,
Wis., regulating the use of agricultural, forest, and recreational land. This
county has been faced with a serious problem as to the proper use of marginal
agricultural lands. Previously the various county subdivisions affected had
TRENDS IN PRESENT-DAY PLANNING 75
ratified the ordinance, through action of the town boards. This is said to be
the first county in the United States to undertake county zoning of this broad
character.1
An important legal decision of 1933, recognizing the relation of zoning
ordinances to land values, was that handed down on September 30 by the
Supreme Court of Westchester County, N. Y.2 To quote from Frank B.
Williams' Zoning and Planning Notes in the November, 1933, issue of The
American City:
The plaintiff's land is situated in a zoning district restricted to single
families and so developed. This land has been condemned by West-
Chester County for park purposes. Its value, if the provision of the zon-
ing ordinance confining the use of land within the district to one-family
residences is valid, is $30,000, and the award, based upon the validity
of that ordinance, is for that amount. The value of the land condemned,
if the zoning ordinance is invalid, and the land can be used for apart-
ments, is $53,000 or more. The plaintiff therefore claims that the zoning
ordinance is invalid, and that she should receive the larger amount for
her land. . . . The Court holds, however, that the zoning ordinance is
constitutional and valid, and the plaintiff not entitled to more than the
$30,000 awarded her.
HOUSING AND PLANNING MEET
In addition to noting, as has been done, the stimulus given to housing
and slum clearance by Federal loans and grants, this review of recent trends
should record the fact that the year 1933 has seen real progress in the spacious-
ness of planned housing developments.
The plans for many of these projects provide for a much lower coverage
of the land than has been the practice heretofore in large-scale, low-rent hous-
ing developments. It is to be regretted, however, that a number of the
projects provide for much greater building heights than good practice would
dictate.
Outstanding among the year's writings in this field was Henry Wright's
"Housing — Where, When and How?", which appeared in the July and August
issues of Architecture and is soon to be published in book form. Two con-
clusions from this study, the general adoption of which it is hoped some future
historian may be able to record, are:
(1) Land must not under any conditions be subdivided and sold before
its use is actually determined and it is both needed and intended for immediate
and complete building under building plans made and adopted in general form
at the same time and part of the same process; and (2) land now subdivided
but only partly used or not at all must be restudied for reassembly and
1See illustrated article by George S. Wehrwein, of the University of Wisconsin, "Zoning
in Marginal Areas," in CITY PLANNING, Oct. 1933, pp. 155-163.
2MacEwen v. City of New Rochelle and the County of Westchester.
76 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
resubdi vision, the planning to include streets and public utilities, the most
efficient and best which can be designed in relation to potential use.
Of special value, also, is "The Rebuilding of Blighted Areas: A Study
of the Neighborhood Unit in Replanning and Plot Assemblage," by Clarence
Arthur Perry, of the Russell Sage Foundation, published by the Regional
Plan Association of New York.
The specific tract studied is in Winfield, Long Island, N. Y., a three-mile
motor drive from Queensboro Bridge, and ten minutes from the Pennsylvania
Station in New York City, a site typical of large areas in most cities. Five
different plans are presented for mass reconstruction which would provide at
moderate rentals an attractive, convenient neighborhood, with plenty of light
and air, recreation space, and freedom from through traffic.
Still another important document of the year which recognizes the vital
relationship of housing and city planning is the Proceedings of the National
Conference on Slum Clearance, held in Cleveland on July 6 and 7.
REAL ESTATE INTERESTS LOOK MORE FAVORABLY ON GOVERNMENT AID
A trend is worth noting which may signify for some leaders in the real
estate world a permanent change of heart and for others merely a demonstra-
tion that "when the devil is sick the devil a monk would be." This is to be
found in certain recent pronouncements of realtors and real estate boards.
On November 28, in one of the "You and Your Government" discussions over
the nation-wide network of the National Broadcasting Company, Peter Grimm,
leading real estate man and Chairman of the Citizens' Budget Commission
of New York, was asked his opinion of a municipality's proper relation to the
problem of slum clearance and low-rent housing. Mr. Grimm's reply places
him in the forefront of liberal thought among the real estate fraternity:
I am becoming increasingly convinced that another function which
cities may soon add to their steadily increasing number is to insure proper
housing for those in the low economic classes. The shame of almost
every city is its slums. There is no one who does not at least pay lip
service to the slogan: "The slums must be cleared." But the fact is that
private capital is not attracted sufficiently to provide decent housing for
the lower income groups. It may be worth while for the taxpayers to
subsidize good housing and to live in future in a society of clean, healthy
individuals whose lives have not been spent in hovels and who have had
some experience of the amenities of civilization.
POLITICAL SCIENTISTS GIVE THEIR BLESSING
Inclusion in the 1933 edition of the National Municipal League's "Model
City Charter" of a section on "Plans for Slum Clearance" and one on "Blighted
Areas" is significant. So also is the publication by the Municipal Adminis-
tration Service of Russell Van Nest Black's excellent monograph on "Planning
TRENDS IN PRESENT-DAY PLANNING 77
for the Small American City." So also is the inclusion of a broadcast on
"Saving by Planning," by Alfred Bettman, George McAneny, and Flavel
Shurtleff , in the nation-wide series sponsored by the American Political Science
Association. Thus slum clearance and city planning as municipal activities
get the aid and the blessing of the political scientists. Hundreds of new city
charters adopted in recent years throughout the United States have been
based largely or wholly on previous editions of the "Model City Charter."
Ten or more cities were reported at the end of 1933 as considering changes
in their basic law which will probably embody the new charter sections above
mentioned.
A CHART AND A CHALLENGE
Among the other achievements to its credit, the year 1933 brought forth
one of the most philosophical paragraphs yet written on the fundamental
need for, and value of, city and regional planning. Here it is, from the presi-
dential address of Alfred Bettman at the Baltimore meeting of the National
Conference on City Planning:
The moral, intellectual, economic and social soundness of the planning
concept seems to me to be beyond all question. If an area such as the
city, the town, the county, the region, the state or the nation is to have
a development on, and the uses of, its land which produce social and
material values and justify its expenditures, then there must be some
plan or design which will determine the appropriateness of the location
and the extent of any specific structure, such as any specific street, school
site, office building, court house, market place, by its relationship to
something outside of itself, namely, to the remainder of the city, town,
and so on, and by its relationship to functional activities other than its
own, as, for instance, by the relationship of a housing development to
recreational open spaces, parks, highways, street railways, business cen-
ters, and so on. Material and social values are not different or contrasted
kinds or portions of values, but are interdependent. Indeed, more
accurately speaking, material values are the effect and social values the
cause. The comprehensive master plan of city, town, county, region,
state, by determining the appropriateness of place or location, and the
program of urgency or priority, by determining the element of time, are
instrumentalities for the creation of social values — by which is meant
that when things are put in the right place and installed or constructed
at the right time, they produce the social values which we know as health,
convenience, prosperity, morals and welfare, and, unless they do promote
these social goods, they are not worth their cost. The master plan of
the whole as one of the measures of the value and justification of any
part, is what is meant by planning, and we must be willing in our ad-
vocacies and in our practices to adhere to that meaning.
Guided by such a chart, and impelled by such a challenge, may we not
hope to make true the recent prophecy of Robert D. Kohn, that:
THE FUTURE IS TO THE PLANNERS!
CURRENT PROGRESS
Conducted by JOHN NOLEN and HOWARD K. MENHINICK
LAWRENCE VEILLER HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM
ARTHUR A. SHURCLIFF CHARLES W. ELIOT 2d
GORDON J. CULHAM
STATE PLANNING IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
Approaches have been made toward state planning — in highways, in
parks, in conservation, and the like — but up until now it has been imprac-
ticable to make much headway in all of these aspects of a state's functions
simultaneously. The National Planning Board through its initiative and
activity has been the instrumentality in placing state planning on a more
comprehensive basis.
Governor John G. Winant, in the latter part of November, acted rapidly
and favorably on the proposals set forth in the offer of the National Planning
Board to aid materially in financing and direction. A tentative technical and
organization program was prepared, and an application was made to the
National Planning Board for the assignment of qualified planning consultants,
and to the Civil Works Administration for funds with which to engage staff
personnel.
ORGANIZATION
A State Planning Board was appointed, consisting of the Commissioner
of Education, State Forester, Highway Commissioner, and the members of
the State Development Board, and of three citizens (later increased to seven),
and planning consultants1 were named; and on December 12, after funds had
been made available, active work began in selecting a staff and setting up
headquarters in Concord.
The staff personnel of the State Planning Board has been organized into
five sections: Research; Planning and Drafting; Local Planning Advisory;
Library and Files; and Clerical, — all under the supervision of the Chairman of
the Planning Board through an Executive Secretary.
PROCEDURE
The program has been divided into stages coordinating both the needs
of the work and the funds.
(a) Fact finding and coordination of much work of a survey and analyt-
ical character which has been undertaken by various state and private agencies
during the past few years.
xThe planning consultants appointed for New Hampshire are John Nolen, Justin R.
Hartzog, and Geoffrey Platt.
78
CURRENT PROGRESS 79
(b) Analysis of facts, the determination of problems, and discovery of
trends.
(c) Following closely upon the diagnosis of problems and discovery of
trends, the study to effect preliminary solutions and recommendations.
With this procedure established, a pointed physical, social, and economic
program was adopted which included a study of the following: geography,
topography, and climatology; soils and geology; population distribution and
trends; history, social life and customs, and a cross section of public opinion;
land uses and values; transportation; public utilities; public health and sani-
tation; recreation; housing and living standards; education; forestry, fish,
game, and wild life; industry; agriculture; and the statutes relating to plan-
ning and finance.
OBJECTIVES
The first objective beyond the general round-up of existing survey data
has been the study of the facts and trends in land utilization, in transporta-
tion, and in public works, with a view to developing plans and programs to
meet the conditions and needs. Through the courtesy of the United States
Geological Survey, aerial photographs covering much of the area of the state
have been available for the study of existing land use and physical features.
As another objective, in order that planning may become deeply rooted,
the State Planning Board has adopted a policy of cooperating with and
encouraging cities and towns throughout the state to take advantage of the
provisions of the present zoning enabling act and also to establish local "plan-
ning councils" to promote community planning and to study local problems
on an unofficial basis pending the passage of a planning enabling act. Many
towns have taken steps leading toward action along these lines.
As a first step toward a recreation study and program, the Planning
Board has prepared, in cooperation with the State Development Commission,
a timely map showing the winter sports facilities available throughout the
entire state. This map has had a wide distribution, especially as the weather
conditions prevailing this season have been excellent for the winter activities,
annually organized and participated in by towns, clubs, and citizens in gen-
eral, and have drawn large numbers of people from beyond the state for
week-end visits.
The long-term objectives will be the formulation of a master plan and
program for the development of the state which will be coordinating and in-
tegrating in its capacity and scope, and orienting in its character. Based
upon the physical, social, and economic factors of the state as a whole, the
plan will become a guide in general principles and in cooperative liaison be-
tween all activities and agencies.
JUSTIN R. HARTZOG,
Planning Consultant.
80 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
A CHALLENGE
In the fall of 1929, when disaster came to Wall Street, not much concern
was felt by city planning commissions nor by city planners as to the progress
of their efforts and their work; but in 1930 drastic action was being taken by
city governments to cut down municipal expenses, and by 1932 well-trained
city planning technicians were looking in vain for work in their calling. One
could, at that time, count on his fingers the number of resident city planners
still holding full-time jobs.
Should such a young and vigorous national movement as city planning
have received such a devastating blow at a time when the need of planning
was most urgent? Was there not some weakness in the foundation of this
new profession that caused it to be so susceptible to the shock? The purpose
of these words is to provoke thought and perhaps help to produce under-
standing of a special work that needs to be regarded in a more serious light.
Why was this cessation of city planning endeavor so universal? Study
of city planning practice shows clearly that it was because this work was not
recognized as an important municipal function. Now, when every city is
doing or attempting to do a vast amount of improvement work as part of
the national recovery program, the trained men in city planning are not being
called upon in the numbers that they should be. It appears that those who
have given their time to city planning have been so involved in the technical
planning that they have not considered whether the people knew that plan-
ning is essential. Until the masses learned to read, the worth of the printing
press was not fully appreciated. The worth of efficient planning is not yet
widely realized, and until it is, only a relatively few trained planners will be
given the opportunity for service.
That the value of professional help can be made known has been fully
demonstrated by the accomplishments in these drastic times of the American
Society of Landscape Architects. This organization has kept itself fully in-
formed of the actions of the National Government and its members were
quickly told of news of professional significance. When the recovery construc-
tion work began, trained landscape architects were among the first to be
called. The need for these technical men was recognized in every state and
many are the positions that landscape architects have filled with credit to
their profession. The effect of the present use of landscape architects will be
lasting. The good to that profession is great because of the growth of the
understanding of its functions.
City planning needs to gain such wide understanding. The service this
profession can render is endless. The work is waiting. When recognition
comes, the need will be great for those who have given an abundance of time
to the study of this art and science.
J. HASLETT BELL
CURRENT PROGRESS
81
AZUSA BUILDS A CIVIC CENTER
Azusa is a beautiful little city of six thousand inhabitants lying in the
fertile San Gabriel Valley about twenty miles east of Los Angeles. Azusa's
civic center, which occupies a full city block fronting on the Foothill Boule-
vard, was conceived and built in recent years as a part of a general civic plan.
The central building in the civic center is a public library with a beautiful
fountain fronting on a broad expanse of lawn and shrubs. On one side of
the library is the civic auditorium and Chamber of Commerce building. On
the other side is the main civic building, which houses offices for city officials
and the emergency hospital.
In the half-block back of these buildings is being developed a park with
tennis courts, grills, picnic tables, and so forth. This work has been carried
on by the unemployed during the last two years.
Azusa's Civic Center
The main project now under advisement is a sewerage system and dis-
posal plant costing approximately $180,000 to be built under the Public Works
Administration. The plans have been approved by the State Board of Health
and the entire project has been approved at Washington. Work will start as
soon as legal requirements are fulfilled. Plans are also being considered
for the improvement of the present water system to give the City adequate
water for the extension of business and the building of new homes. In addi-
tion to the above projects the City is carrying out a definite plan of paving
all minor as well as major streets under the Civil Works Administration.
The City has beautiful schools, churches, and residences and several
progressive industries. All building is now carried on in compliance with a
zoning ordinance adopted about six years ago.
F. S. HAYDEN,
Chairman, City Planning Commission.
82 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
LAND SUBDIVISION CONTROL IN GERMANY
Until last September there was no national German law for town build-
ing and regional planning. These matters had been handled by the individual
states, and only three of them had made any provision for regional planning.
During the past decade German cities, like American cities, have been
expanding into unbuilt-upon areas. Landowners have subdivided their hold-
ings into small lots so that on the fringes of cities scattered groups of dwellings
have been springing up, very often lacking convenient means of access, sewers,
water, electricity, schools, and so forth. This situation is even more serious
in Germany than in America because Germany is a smaller country and more
heavily populated.
To take care of this problem the Reich, on September 22, 1933, passed
a law regulating the development of residential areas, particularly in the
unbuilt-upon areas surrounding the towns. The first paragraph of the new
law gives State authorities power to designate as residential areas districts
in which houses are to be built or where it is believed that they should be
built, if it is thought that the interest of the public or the welfare of the resi-
dents themselves would be injured if there were no appropriate regulations.
For these residential areas a site plan (for which exact instructions are
given) must be prepared. If such a site plan is established by the town
authorities the subdivider must meet the following requirements of the State
authorities :
(1) Secure special permission to subdivide the property into lots.
(2) Secure special permission to sell the lots. The authorities must re-
fuse this permission if any buildings erected do not conform to the
site plan.
(3) Give the community up to 25 per cent of his land in the case of a
single-family development, and up to 35 per cent in the case of an
apartment house development, for public roads, squares, recrea-
tional facilities, or any other public needs.
(4) Sell no land at a price beyond a certain limit, if the authorities so
demand.
(5) Provide roads, water supply, sewerage, lighting, school buildings,
and other necessary civic improvements, if the authorities so require.
No claim for compensation may be set up in connection with any of
these requirements.
Obviously, this law is very comprehensive in the control of land sub-
division development. So far as we know, no other country has such an up-to-
date town planning law, yet in every country there arise the same difficulties
between property owners and town extension authorities.
DR. ING. PH. A. RAPPAPORT,
Essen, Germany.
I ZONING ROUNDTABLE I
1 Conducted by EDWARD M. BASSETT i
SHOULD RAILROAD LAND BE ZONED?
We are often asked whether railroad land should be zoned. The answer
is, "Yes." It does not matter whether the railroad owns the land in fee or
has an easement for right of way. It is dangerous to omit the zoning of rail-
road land. The railroad may use existing land for shops in a residence dis-
trict. Sometimes the railroad discontinues part of its trackage and sells the
land to a builder. This builder may put up a garage or factory in a locality
otherwise residential and which should have been zoned as residence. A case
happened in Brooklyn where a considerable stretch of curved trackage was
abandoned for railroad purposes and the land sold to a builder. This was
in the high-class residence district known as Fiske Terrace. The line of de-
marcation between the one-family house district and the apartment district
was open to doubt by reason of the former railroad use. At any rate, the
builder filed his plans for an apartment house. The single-family house
owners opposed the granting of the apartment house permit in court and
were successful. If the railroad land had not been zoned, the out-of-place
apartment house would have been erected.
Sometimes district boundaries will be made at the boundary lines of the
railroad right of way, leaving the bed of the right of way unzoned. This is
usually unintentional. The map makers intended that the two districts
should touch each other at the center of the right of way and thought that
their maps would be so interpreted. They should have made the boundary
line of the two districts in the center of the right of way. Better yet, the
entire right of way should be thrown into one district or the other.
E. M. B.
SHOULD LAND UNDER WATER BE ZONED?
This question first arose in Jamestown, N. Y., where a small river ran
through the city near the edge of the central business district. The City
had not zoned the river, depending on maps and records that showed that
the river had been pronounced a navigable stream by the early state author-
ities. Land titles, however, extended to the middle of the stream. The owner
of a store on one side of the stream filed an application to extend his store
half way over the stream, allowing ample space for the river to flow beneath.
83
84 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
The City refused to grant the application. Before the dispute came
to trial in court the matter was compromised by allowing the store to be
built without certain industrial additions that were originally intended. Later
the City zoned the bed of the river as business. Of course, it did not matter
whether the stream was navigable or not. The bed of the stream should
have been zoned.
Rochester, N. Y., zoned the bed of the Genesee River. Many thought
that land under this great river ought not to be zoned. But the main street
of the city crossed this river on a great stone bridge and stores were built on
both sides of the entire bridge long before the days of zoning. The visitor
walking through this street would not be aware that he was crossing a bridge
because the three- and four-story buildings on the bridge did not differ from
the buildings in the other parts of the street. The makers of the zoning map
insisted that the river should be zoned so that buildings erected on bridges
like this could not be changed into factories. There is no doubt that this
zoning is lawful.
Towns and villages along the North Shore of Long Island are constantly
disturbed by the enlargement of the sand and gravel industry. Sand and
gravel are needed for grouting and cement work in Greater New York,
especially in the building of subways. In an endeavor to prevent the gravel
companies from destroying the shore fronts it was hoped that the zoning of
these shore fronts as residence would prevent the gravel industry, but the
courts held that the owners of the land were privileged to take earth products
from the land regardless of zoning. The gravel companies, however, could
not sift and sort their products in the residence district because this treat-
ment was an industrial process. Therefore one of the companies built a dredge
that could take the gravel under water from the foreshore and excavate into
the upland, sifting and sorting the gravel on the dredge and placing it on
scows to be transported to New York City. It became evident that this
form of industry must, if possible, be prevented on dredges near the shore.
Thereupon a number of the towns placed the land under the tidal waters in
residence districts extending as far into Long Island Sound as the jurisdiction
of the town extended. Undoubtedly this was lawful. No case has arisen
where the court has been asked to pronounce on the lawfulness of the pre-
vention of industry on floats near the shore, but it is fully expected that if
a case arises, the residence zoning will be upheld as against the carrying on
of an industry in the navigable tidal waters off-shore.
If navigable tidal waters off-shore cannot be zoned, it will be possible for
a float, arranged for a restaurant or for a concert hall or for dancing, to be
anchored off-shore opposite residence districts. It is inconceivable that
municipalities so situated have no right to protect themselves. Of course,
ZONING ROUNDTABLE 85
the residence zoning cannot extend beyond the limits of the municipality's
jurisdiction. It happens, however, that Long Island towns have in many
cases jurisdiction far beyond low-water mark.
The conclusion is that a municipality can zone land under water, whether
flowing streams, inland lakes, or tidal waters, so far as its jurisdiction extends.
E. M. B.
DENSITY OF POPULATION
Architects and associations interested in better housing are giving a
great deal of attention to the best investment of Federal money for slum
clearance. They rightly say that zoning amendments containing regulations
for less density should be adopted. One drawback, however, is that in many
of our cities the slum districts, like the Lower East Side in Manhattan, have
a present density that is too great. The requirement of a smaller density
for model tenements will be difficult and many will claim that it is unlawful
because of arbitrariness and discrimination. Another drawback is that prac-
tically all the model tenements recently built and now being built cause a
greater density of population per acre than existed before they were built.
This is because they are more than four stories high. Their designs afford
more light and air to each living room, but the extra height increases the
density per acre. The main thing, however, is the welfare of the human race,
and healthful rooms with open space for play are undoubtedly more important
than a drastic limitation of families per acre. Model tenements in what are
now slum districts in great cities need a rearrangement of streets to make
possible larger units, more sunlight in rooms, and a fair amount of play space.
This is where the right solution of housing problems by building model tene-
ments enters the field of city planning. If people in great cities must be near
their work, multiple dwellings are imperative. They will never be so good
for bringing up families of children as one- and two-family detached houses
in the outskirts. Normal children grow up better near the earth and where
they can do something with the earth on their own hook, rather than ride on
elevators and play in public streets and playgrounds. Outlying districts of
great cities need a strict limitation of families per acre to prevent gradual
congestion. As a rule, localities do not deteriorate where the buildings have
an abundance of sunshine. New York City has the power to impose regula-
tions limiting the number of families per acre but never has done so. It is
important that zoning area maps regulating the number of families per acre
should be established in this city. The same statement can be made regard-
ing many other large cities in this country. Dark rooms whether in one-
family or multiple dwellings tend to create a constantly enlarging circle
of blighted districts between the center of the city and the suburbs.
E. M. B.
3a
1
i LEGAL NOTES
Conducted by FRANK BACKUS WILLIAMS
REAR LOT LINE
It is often important in the application of a zoning ordinance to a par-
ticular lot to decide which is the side line and which the rear line of the lot,
since the space requirements for side and rear yards, often so important to
neighboring lots, are usually different. An excellent illustration in point is
furnished by a recent Massachusetts case.1
The Texas Company owns a lot on the southeast corner of Quincy and
Ashland Streets in the city of North Adams. Bianco owns an inside lot fac-
ing on Quincy Street, next to the Texas Company's lot. The zoning ordinance
provides that no building shall be erected in this zoning district so as to ex-
tend within fifteen feet of the rear line. The proposed building in question
is within fifteen feet of Bianco's line. Bianco objects to the granting of a
permit, claiming that his line is the rear line of the Texas Company's lot;
while the Texas Company claims that it is a side line. In other words, the
point in dispute is, which street does the Texas Company's proposed building
front on, for the rear line will be opposite to the front line. Bianco claims
that the building will front on Ashland Street; the Texas Company maintains
that it will front on Quincy Street.
The interesting thing about the case is the facts that are considered by
the court in fixing the frontage. They are: the street on which former build-
ings on the lot were numbered; the entrances, whether principal or side, of
such buildings; the lines, shape, and dimensions of the lot; the location of
water mains and sewer pipes; the uniform custom of engineers when dividing
a block to arrange the lots with greater depth than frontage; the fact that
the uses to which land is put and customs with regard to it may change.
The court below found that the City in deciding that the Texas Company's
lot fronted on Quincy Street, made no error; and that decision the upper
court affirms. The determination of which is the rear lot line of a specified
parcel of land is largely a question of fact, although partaking in some aspects
of questions of law. In the first instance it was the duty of the City to make
that determination. It involved primarily the exercise of sound judgment
as applied to the particular neighborhood. Factors not necessarily competent
in evidence might enter into the exercise of that judgment. In its judgment
the City does not seem to the court to have erred.
1Bianco v. City Engineer and Building Inspector of City of North Adams (Texas Co.
Intervener), 187 N. E. 101 (Supreme Court, Sept. 14, 1933).
86
LEGAL NOTES 87
ZONING PUBLIC PROPERTY
Is a local government in the construction of its buildings bound by its
own zoning ordinance? This question was discussed in a former issue of this
Quarterly.1 The weight of authority is to the effect that the state and its
agencies are not bound by such limitations in general terms, as in this case,
but only by limitations which are express or arise from the words of the
statute by necessary implication.
The novelty in a recent New York case2 again raising the point is in
deciding that the town could not locate its incinerator contrary to its own
ordinance because it was exercising not a governmental duty but a corporate
function for profit akin to that of private corporations.
This distinction is a difficult one to make. The collection of garbage is
a function in the interest of public health, often exercised by public authorities.
This function is not usually profitable to the public authority as such, greatly
as it benefits the community. How is the disposal of solid waste to be dis-
tinguished from that of fluid waste or sewage? Sewage is never, perhaps, of
profit to our governments, as such, although I understand that the City of
Paris makes it into fertilizer for sale. The care of the sick and insane is
surely for the general welfare, and is assumed sometimes by the public author-
ities, sometimes by private agencies for private profit.
The present decision is subject to appeal to the highest court of the state,
and the determination of that tribunal is awaited with great interest.
F. B. W.
1See Legal Notes for Jan. 1933, citing People v. Simms. See also Village of Larchmont v.
Town of Mamaroneck, 239 N. Y. 551; City of Cincinnati v. Wegehoft, 162 N. E. 389.
2O'Brien v. Town of Greenburgh, App. Div., reported in New York Law Journal, Dec. 23,
1933-
RIGHTS OF CITIZENS
The privilege of driving safely on the highways, of maintaining
the attractiveness and value of one's residence, of enjoying the
Commonwealth's parks, public buildings, and scenic beauty, of
sharing in its traditions, and of doing all these things free from
interruption or distraction by propaganda of whatever character,
are liberties of the citizens of Massachusetts neither greater nor
less in their intrinsic dignity than the liberty to advance one's
fortunes and increase the amenities of living by persuading the
public to purchase useful goods. From Brief For Respondents
[Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, General Outdoor Adver-
tising Co., Inc., and others v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
and others]. November, 1933.
I N. C. C. P. & A. C. P. I. NEWS |
Conducted by FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Secretary i
MEETINGS OF THE CONFERENCE
It is likely that the Annual Meeting of the Conference will be held in
the fall, but the many planning activities centering in Washington make
some sort of meeting of the Conference desirable before summer. Planning
commissioners, city engineers, and others interested in public works programs
should be acquainted with the progress of the recently appointed State Plan-
ning Boards, which will have something to report in May, with the work of
the Subsistence Homesteads Division, which now has thirty-four projects
under way, and with the changes which are proposed in the procedure for
the application of Federal grants and loans for local public works. The
Directors of the Conference have therefore appointed a committee to arrange
a special session of the Conference during May.
THE INSTITUTE MEETING
The Winter Meeting of the Institute was held in Washington on Sat-
urday, February 10. Short addresses were made by Charles W. Eliot 2d
on the Program of the National Planning Board, by Robert D. Kohn and
Frederick L. Ackerman on Housing Problems, and by Dr. M. L. Wilson and
John Nolen on Subsistence Homesteads.
The Meeting also considered a report by a committee appointed in Balti-
more to suggest improvements in the organization and program of the In-
stitute. No action was taken on this report pending action by the Confer-
ence on a similar committee report.
Because the abnormal economic conditions of the past few years have
resulted in important, though unknown, shifts in population and in changes
affecting the industrial, commercial, and agricultural activities of the Nation,
the 1930 Census figures are in some respects now obsolete and inadequate.
In recognition of this situation and the obvious disadvantages of the lack of
up-to-date population information as basic planning data, a resolution was
unanimously adopted by the Conference urging the passage by the Adminis-
tration and Congress of an Act substantially carrying out the provisions
of the Ellenbogen Bill. This would provide for the taking of a census approx-
imately in the middle of the present ten-year census period or earlier, if con-
ditions make it advisable.
F. S.
88
BOOK REVIEWS & LISTS I
)
Conducted by THEODORA KIMBALL HUBBARD j
URBAN SOCIETY. By NOEL P. GIST and L. A. HALBERT. New York,
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1933. 724 pages. Illus., maps and plans,
charts, tables. 8 x 5| inches. (Crowell's Social Science Series.) Price
$3.50.
This is one of the best arranged and most comprehensive books I have
seen of the growing crop of sociological treatises on the modern city. Like
all of its kind, it is staggering in the breadth of material which it tries to
cover: the rise and location of cities, distributive and selective aspects of the
city, social relationships, the organization of life in the city, and, as conclu-
sion, the planning and control of urban society. This takes us from Brunhes,
Mark Jefferson, and Ratzel, through Whelpton, Galpin, and Sorokin, on to
Park, Burgess, McKenzie & Company, past Munro, Merriam, Steffens, and
Lord Bryce, all the way to Mrs. Edith Wood, Purdom, MacKaye, the Re-
gional Plan of New York, and treatises on highway design and sewage
disposal, with side glances at Stuart Chase, Walter Lippman, Spengler, and
Veblen. All in 724 pages.
Everything seems to be grist for the sociologists' mill. \Ve have Raven-
steinian theories of migration, the "auto-transient family," "symbiosis,"
"ecology," and "vertical mobility" in the same book with the American Public
Health Association's classifications of organic and inorganic municipal wastes,
and descriptions of the Chicago Drainage Canal and the Catskill Aqueduct.
Some of the material seems aimed at the college senior; some of it would go
well in an eighth-grade "civics" manual. There are nine pages on the socio-
logical significance of urban land values, and twenty-six pages on the physical
equipment of the city, — all about streets, fire protection, city markets, trans-
portation, and conduits.
Then again, we come upon thumping statements like these, being the
"laws" of suburbanization: "first, the horizontal expansion is proportionate
to the vertical expansion of the city; and second, the relation of the suburb
to the city proper tends to vary directly as its distance from the center." The
authors do not claim to have discovered these "laws"; they quote them from
from another sociologist. And yet they "levy several criticisms" against
Shaw's "Delinquency Areas," the first of which is, forsooth, that "the study
actually uncovered nothing that was not already known in a general way."
3b
89
90 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
I have heard one of America's leading sociologists define sociology as
comprising whatever is taught under that name. Perhaps the planner should
be gratified that there is recognition of the importance of the physical arrange-
ment of the city in determining the life of its inhabitants and the character-
istics of its society. Yet I am forced to question the value of a presentation
which because of its attempt to be all-embracing can do little more than skim
the surface.
CHARLES S. ASCHER
PENTRU BUCURESTI: Noi Studii Urbanistice: Delimitari; Zoni-
ficare; Circulatie; Estetica. By C. SFINTESCU. Bucuresti, Institutul
Urbanistic al Romaniei, 1932. [351] pages. Illus., plans, diagrams,
tables. 9^ x 6| inches. Price Lei 500.
Wherever there are cities there is need of city planning, and despite
differences in race, nationality, customs, and climate, the underlying prob-
lems and the basic elements of planning are very much the same everywhere.
Bucharest, with a population of 631,000, has all the problems of an American
city, — proper population and land-use distribution, highways, transit, rail-
ways, waterways, parks, airports, and so forth, and their coordinated develop-
ment for maximum possible efficiency and beauty.
Professor Sfintescu presents his recommendations for the development
of Bucharest in four closely related sections. The first deals with general
problems of land utilization, calling particular attention to the desirability
of preventing endless miles of urban development by separating the central
urban area from the developing satellites by means of open green belts. Ex-
tensive studies of topography, soils, climate, population, communication, and
the present use of land are followed by recommendations for the division of
the city into zones for residence, business, industry, military purposes, and
so forth. The entire problem of circulation is dealt with in the third section
of the report. Highways and traffic, transit, water traffic on canals, and air-
port development are studied in detail. The recommended major street
skeleton conforms to our ideal of a system of radial and circumferential streets
with varying cross sections to meet the needs of different amounts and kinds
of traffic. The concluding section of the report points out possibilities of
improving the appearance of Bucharest through the beautification of open
spaces, the grouping of buildings to secure pleasing perspectives, silhouettes,
and panoramas, the redesign of streets and public squares, and the decoration
of the city by the proper disposition of appropriate monuments commemo-
rating those who have made important contributions to the life of the Nation.
This Roumanian planner has adapted to his particular problems some
of the methods observed in the study of American, English, French, and
German planning. The results are interesting and instructive.
H. K. M.
BOOK REVIEWS 91
COMMUNICATION AGENCIES AND SOCIAL LIFE. By MALCOLM
M. WILLEY and STUART A. RICE. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Com-
pany, Inc., 1933. 229 pages. Charts, tables. 9| x 6| inches. (Recent
Social Trends Monographs.) Price $2.50.
Communication has undoubtedly been perfected far beyond the expecta-
tions of many, and probably will excel in the future some of the dreams of
the present advanced communication thinkers. The authors have set forth
in this book significant data interpreting the present-day facilities which the
public has at its command. They include in their field of study the general
transportation agencies operating by rail, highway, air, and water; those
communication agencies such as the postal service, telephone, and telegraph;
and finally, the agencies of mass impression — the newspaper and the radio —
all of which have come to play such an integral part in our social life that we
are hardly conscious of them until some emergency snaps them momentarily
into our consciousness.
The authors have not left the reader with only a mass of organized
authoritative data, but have endeavored to point it up with its social rela-
tionships, both to the individual and to the community. They are fully
aware of the need for integration and adjustment of the various forms of
communication to meet the competition that exists between the agencies, not
only for support but for actual "life" in some cases; to govern it for public
purpose; and to orient it for the proper balance between local and standard-
izing influences.
The volume will be of interest to all those engaged in or associated with
large-scale planning.
JUSTIN R. HARTZOG
THE AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION PROBLEM. By HAROLD G.
MOULTON and ASSOCIATES. Washington, D. C., The Brookings Institu-
tion, 1933. 915 pages. Illus., graphs, charts, tables. 8^ x 5f inches.
Price $3.00.
Whoever would gain a well-rounded picture of the present-day problem
of transporting persons and commodities throughout the nation in the most
efficient manner, whether by railroad, highway, inland waterway, air trans-
port, or pipe line, should study this research, which was prepared for the
National Transportation Committee. The report of the Committee, of which
the late Calvin Coolidge was Chairman, is included in the volume.
Railroads, as probably the most important single element in the national
transportation system, naturally receive the greatest amount of attention
but the other systems of transport and both their present and desirable rela-
tions to the railroads and to each other are carefully studied. Conclusions
92 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
regarding methods of transport, financing, regulation, taxation, consolidation,
terminal unification, and so forth are reached after the presentation and
analysis of an enormous amount of data. One chapter presents important
relations between systems of transportation and city planning.
On the basis of these studies the researchers present their recommenda-
tions for a new national transportation policy.
rl. Jx. Ivi.
AMERICANS AT PLAY. By JESSE FREDERICK STEINER. New York,
McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1933. 201 pages. Tables. 9£ x 6J
inches. (Recent Social Trends Monographs.) Price $2.50.
"Americans at Play" is part of a comprehensive survey of many social
changes which are proceeding simultaneously, examined with an eye to their
reaction one upon another. This research corresponds in method with the
other Monographs prepared under the direction of the President's Research
Committee on Social Trends. It is restricted to the analysis of objective
data. The point of view is in some respects a narrow one, the author describ-
ing recreation as justified by health and efficiency, and making little or no
reference to its contribution to joy, education, or the various forms of creative
life, as set forth in such a book as "Education Through Recreation," by L.
P. Jacks, the English educator. The volume deals only with changes and
trends. The principal subjects discussed are parks and playgrounds, com-
petitive sports and games, commercial amusements, and pleasure travel.
The background which he presents is that Americans have been pioneers
without much leisure. They were also Puritans, with a fear of pleasure, from
which influence he feels they have now reacted. The rise of interest in recrea-
tion did not occur until the latter half of the nineteenth century, mainly in
the last forty years. Urban park development, he holds, has taken place
largely during the last twenty-five years. He makes the statement that the
"park properties were first developed by horticultural experts, and were not
regarded as suitable places for active games and sports," which seems scarcely
an accurate expression of what happened.
There is little reference in the book to the contribution of planning and
design to outdoor recreation, except a reference to city planning and public
recreation. It is stated that the hit-or-miss manner of growth of American
cities during the last century precluded any widespread efforts to set aside
park lands of sufficient extent to meet future recreational needs. There
appears to be a failure to recognize recent advances in comprehensive plan-
ning, and the authority which municipalities, counties, and states now have
to provide the land necessary for parks and other recreational areas.
The estimated annual cost of American recreation within the field in-
cluded in this Monograph was put at $10,165,857,000 (1930). The author
believes that "there can be no doubt of the present trend away from the more
simple and less expensive leisure time pursuits to those that are more costly."
BOOK REVIEWS 93
A summary of opinion about the book might be put in this way. It
deals with trends primarily, and with little else. These trends show the direc-
tion of change, its scale, and rapidity. They are supported by fifty-two tables
of statistics and figures gathered from many varied, authoritative sources,
but there are no graphs nor diagrams nor other illustrative material. There
is no significant comparison with trends in other subjects, nor trends in the
same subjects in other countries. No comparison is made with the increase
in wealth in America, nor in population. There is no play yardstick, no
indication of the trend in design or construction. The book is not critical
nor constructive, except so far as the presentation of trends may be so con-
sidered. Nevertheless, the author has done well what he set out to do, and
what he set out to do was worth doing.
JOHN NOLEN
ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF LAND VALUES IN CHICAGO: The Re-
lationship of the Growth of Chicago to the Rise in its Land Values,
1830-1933. By HOMER HOYT. Chicago, The University of Chicago
Press, 1933. 519 pages. Illus., maps and plans, tables. 9f x 65 inches.
Price $5.00.
City planners are constantly seeking more facts and more kinds of facts
as a basis for their physical plans. For much of these data they hopefully
turn to the sociologist, the economist, and students of other social sciences.
It is a matter of congratulation to find these investigators themselves con-
stantly extending their fields of research. The subject of the present volume
is a case in point. The city planner needs to know how city land values have
reacted in the past and also to have a dispassionate interpretation of these
reactions throwing light on their probable trends in the future. No research
could be more effective for this purpose than this painstaking, scholarly in-
vestigation of the land values of a great city over a long period of years.
Mr. Hoyt traces and charts the course of Chicago land values, excluding
buildings, and their relation to its growth in population and to business con-
ditions from the 1830 "hamlet of a dozen log huts" to the present time, noting
particularly each boom and depression. He then analyzes the major factors: —
demand, supply, differences in values, and long-run trends, both for the entire
city and for each district. Finally he uncovers the precise nature of the
cyclical character of city land values, considering Chicago as exhibiting only
local variations from the broader forces operating throughout the United
States. It is a satisfaction to find the data brought up to and including
September, 1933. The more than one hundred figures in the book contribute
not a little to the reader's ready grasp of Mr. Hoyt's able presentation.
ARTHUR C. COMEY
94 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
FLIGHT FROM THE CITY. By RALPH BORSODI. New York, Harper
and Brothers, 1933. 194 pages. Illus., plans, tables. 8j x 5f inches.
Price $2.50.
In 1920, the year of the serious housing shortage, Mr. Borsodi and his
family moved to the country outside of New York City and established a
self-sustaining homestead.
The account of this successful experiment is particularly significant to-
day when the Federal Government is sponsoring subsistence homesteads on
a large scale. It demonstrates conclusively that an intelligent, well-fitted
man can hope to be successful. In fact, the Borsodis were so successful and
enjoyed the country life so much that subsistence farming, for them, proved
to be the "good life" rather than a "cyclone cellar," to be abandoned as soon
as the immediate storms had passed. It is to be hoped that there will be
other Borsodis among the people whom the Government is placing on its
subsistence projects.
The experiment of Mr. Borsodi and his family was based upon principles
which for them, at least, have proved sound. Their garden production was
supplemented by part-time earnings elsewhere to furnish cash income for the
purchase of goods, machinery, and so forth, which could not be raised on
the farm.
The Borsodis produced only the amount of goods which they, themselves,
could consume — nothing for sale — because they discovered that surplus pro-
duction and sale were not a profitable use of their time and because these
practices would place them in the class of farm industrialists, subject to all
the uncertainties and hazards of the market. For example, they replaced
a cow with two goats because the cow gave so much milk that they found
themselves becoming dairy producers rather than subsistence farmers. On
the other hand, they found that domestic production and consumption, free
from sales and transportation costs, does pay in actual dollars and cents.
Drudgery was reduced to the minimum by the utilization of all possible
power and labor-saving devices, necessitating a considerable amount of cap-
ital. However, all the machinery need not be accumulated at once. The
absolutely essential initial investment is comparatively small. It seems to
the reviewer that the Government might better loan or even give the settlers
the necessary minimum of capital than expend in the long run probably even
more in the form of doles. Mr. Borsodi believes that it is feasible to place a
substantial minority of our population on self-sustaining homesteads and
describes in some detail a project of this character at Dayton, Ohio.
Planners will find in this book a wealth of experience in a comparatively
new field of endeavor in which the Nation has embarked.
H. K. M.
BOOK REVIEWS 95
THE TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING ACT, 1932, EXPLAINED:
A Guide to the Law and Practice of Town and Regional Planning.
By REGINALD POOLE. With foreword by Patrick Abercrombie. Liverpool,
The University Press of Liverpool, and London, Hodder & Stoughton
Ltd., 1933. 136 pages. 1\ x 5 inches. Price 3s. 6d.
TOWN AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A Guide to the Town and
Country Planning Act, 1932. By H. CHAPMAN. London, J. M. Dent
& Sons Ltd., 1933. 245 pages. 8f x 6 inches. Price 10s. 6d.
The need of textbooks explaining the British Town and Country Plan-
ning Act of 1932 becomes evident when one realizes that town planning legis-
lation in Great Britain has grown to such length and complexity that ninety
pages are required to set forth the 1932 Act, whereas only nine pages were
required to deal with town planning in the original Act of 1909.
The primary purpose of these two excellent books is to analyze and in-
terpret the Act for the benefit of those directly concerned with its adminis-
tration,— a purpose well accomplished. American readers, less interested in
studying administrative details than in securing a general understanding of the
law, will appreciate Mr. Chapman's inclusion of a chapter recounting progress
in town and regional development, and one presenting a general explanation
of the Act. His book has the further advantage of including in an appendix
the complete text of the Act and additional regulations.
H. K. M.
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE IN ENGINEERING LINES. Elicited and
edited by the AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ENGINEERS. Easton, Pa.,
The Mack Printing Company, 1933. 521 pages. Illus., tables. 9 \ x 6 \
inches. Price $2.50.
Although intended primarily as a guide for students considering engineer-
ing as a profession, this book should prove interesting and valuable to those
engineers who would gain a well-rounded picture of their profession and to
the general public who are perhaps prone to think of an engineer as a man
who drives a locomotive or operates a stationary engine. The volume is
authoritative and instructive.
Planners will be particularly interested in a well-considered chapter on
"City Planning Engineering," written by the late Morris Knowles and in-
cluded among the forty-odd "engineering specialties." Mr. Knowles points
out that city planning is not the exclusive field of any one profession and that
"unless there is general cooperation by all in modern city planning, the work
cannot be well done."
H. K. M.
96 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
LIST OF PLAN REPORTS IN THE UNITED STATES, 1933
Compiled in the Library of the
Schools of Landscape Architecture and City Planning at Harvard University
By KATHERINE McNAMARA, Librarian
CALIFORNIA. CALIFORNIA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONERS ASSOCIA-
TION, AND CALIFORNIA STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. Activities and
accomplishments of county planning commissions in California. [San
Francisco, California State Chamber of Commerce], 1933. 15p. mimeo-
graphed.
CHICAGO, ILL., AND REGION. PLAN COMMISSION. The Chicago plan in
1933: twenty-five years of accomplishment. June 1, 1933. 24p. photos.
— . CITY COUNCIL. COMMITTEE ON TRAFFIC AND PUBLIC SAFETY.
The Greater Chicago traffic area: a preliminary report on the major
traffic facts of the city of Chicago and the surrounding region, prepared
for the Illinois Commission on Future Road Program. August 1932.
35p. maps and plans. (Miller McClintock, consultant.)
A limited way plan for the Greater Chicago traffic area: a
physical and fiscal program for limited way construction in the city of
Chicago and in the surrounding region. October 1933. 103p. photos.,
maps and plans, diagrs., cross sections, charts. (Miller McClintock,
consultant.)
Limited ways for the Greater Chicago traffic area: a report
prepared for the Illinois Commission on Future Road Program. De-
cember 1932. 57p. photos., maps and plans, tables. (Miller McClin-
tock, consultant.)
DOUGLAS COUNTY, "Wis. AUST, FRANZ A., AND WALTER A. DUFFY. Rural-
regional plan. Preliminary report: part one. [1933.] 30p. mimeo-
graphed, colored maps and plans.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY, CONN. PLANNING ASSOCIATION. Fairfield: first
planned county in New England. Report on the first year of the plan.
June 1933. 12p. photos., maps and plans.
— . Merritt Parkway number. November 1933. 12p. photos.,
maps and plans.
ILLINOIS. COMMISSION ON FUTURE ROAD PROGRAM. Report. Springfield,
111., 1933. 73p. tables.
IOWA. CRANE, JACOB L., AND GEORGE WHEELER OLCOTT. Report on the
Iowa twenty-five year conservation plan. Des Moines, Iowa Board of
Conservation and Iowa Fish and Game Commission, 1933. 176p.
photos., maps and plans, tables, cartoons.
KENILWORTH, ILL. Ten year report of municipal progress. Assembled by
F. L. Streed, village manager. September 1932. 16p. lithoprinted,
photos., diagrs., tables.
BOOK REVIEWS 97
Los ANGELES, CAL. BOARD OF CITY PLANNING COMMISSIONERS. Annual
report, July 1932 to June 1933. 30p. photos., maps and plans, per-
spectives, charts, tables.
MASSACHUSETTS. SPECIAL COMMISSION ESTABLISHED TO STUDY AND RE-
VISE THE LAWS RELATIVE TO ZONING, TOWN PLANNING AND THE REG-
ULATION OF BILLBOARDS AND OTHER ADVERTISING DEVICES. Final
report. Boston, January 1933. 185p. (House document no. 1240.)
MILWAUKEE, "Wis. MAYOR'S HOUSING COMMISSION. Report, September
1933. 28p. maps and plans (one folded), sketch, charts.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS. Retrospective
sketch of the first half-century of Minneapolis park development, 1883-
1933. 20p. lithoprinted, maps and plans, tables (part folded).
— . CITY PLANNING COMMISSION. Annual reports, January 1932.
Presenting a condensed report on the activities of the City Planning
Commission from January 1, 1925 to January 1, 1932. 180p. mimeo-
graphed, photos., maps and plans, charts, tables.
MONROE COUNTY, N. Y. REGIONAL PLANNING BOARD. Fifth annual re-
port, from January 1, to December 31, 1933. Rochester, N. Y., 1933.
[71]p. mimeographed, maps and plans, chart, tables.
— . Financial statistics of the town of Gates, as a basis for finan-
cial planning or budgeting. Rochester, N. Y., 1933. 145p. mimeo-
graphed, maps, charts, tables.
Origin and destination survey and analysis of the South
East Quadrant of Monroe County. Prepared by Wilbur C. Slayton,
assistant engineer. Rochester, N. Y., May 1933. 7p. mimeographed,
maps, table.
A planning study of Gates : being part of a regional planning
study of Monroe County, entitled Town and county planning. Rochester,
N. Y., 1933. [75]p. mimeographed, maps and plans, charts, tables.
Owing to the drastic reduction of its 1934 budget, the Monroe County Regional
Planning Board finds it impossible to continue its policy of supplying its publica-
tions without cost to those who request them. In order to share a small portion
of the cost of publication and mailing, it asks that thirty-five cents in stamps be
sent for each copy requested.
NEW YORK CITY AND METROPOLITAN REGION. REGIONAL PLAN ASSOCIA-
TION, INC. From plan to reality. A report of four years' progress on
the regional development of New York and its environs, with a program
of present needs and opportunities. New York, The Association, 1933.
142p. photos., maps and plans (part folded), sketches, tables.
ROCHESTER, N. Y. See MONROE COUNTY, N. Y.
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, CAL. PLANNING COMMISSION. A resume of its
work and activities. [Santa Barbara], July 1932. 12p. (L. Deming
Tilton, director of planning.)
98 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
ST. PAUL, MINN. COMMITTEE ON ADDITION PLATS. Report to the City
Planning Board, Mar. 21, 1933. 7p. mimeographed.
TEANECK, N. J. PLANNING BOARD. The Teaneck Plan. 1933. 43p. photos.,
plans (one folded), sketches. (Technical Advisory Corporation, con-
sulting engineers.)
TUCSON, ARIZ. GOODRICH, ERNEST P. Report of preliminary investiga-
tions of city and regional planning needs of Tucson, Arizona. March 23,
1932. 17p. typewritten.
WISCONSIN. COMMITTEE ON LAND USE AND FORESTRY. Forest land use
in Wisconsin. Madison, Wis., April 1932. 156p. maps, diagrs., charts,
tables.
OTHER RECENT PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED
CITY PLANNING is glad to receive for listing in this department pamphlets and
documents of professional interest to its readers. The publications it thus receives are
filed for permanent reference in the Library of the School of City Planning of Harvard
University.
ABERCROMBIE, PATRICK. Town and country planning. London, Thornton Butterworth
Ltd., 1933. 256 pages. Illus., plans. Price 2s. 6d. (Home University Library of Modern
Knowledge.)
ADSHEAD, S. D. The West Essex regional planning scheme, 1933: the report prepared for
the Advisory Joint Town Planning Committee. London, J. Alexander & Co., 1933.
1 20 pages. Illus., maps and plans (part folded and colored). Price 55. 6d.
ALBERT RUSSEL ERSKINE BUREAU FOR STREET TRAFFIC RESEARCH, HARVARD
UNIVERSITY. Street traffic bibliography: a selected and annotated bibliography of
the literature of street traffic control and related subjects, 1920-1933. [Compiled by]
Miller McClintock, director, and Joseph Wright, librarian. Cambridge, Mass., 1933.
223 pages. Mimeographed. Price £1.00.
BANBURY (ENGLAND) AND DISTRICT JOINT REGIONAL PLANNING COMMITTEE.
The regional planning of Banbury and district: an explanatory memorandum. Banbury,
The Committee, 1933. 24 pages. Price 6d.
BORSODI, RALPH. This ugly civilization. 2d ed. New York, Harper and Bros., 1933.
468 pages. Diagrs., tables. Price $3.00.
CALCUTTA (INDIA) IMPROVEMENT TRUST. Annual report on the operations of the
Calcutta Improvement Trust for the year 1932-33. Calcutta, The Trust, 1933. 101
pages. Illus. Price Re. i.'-(with plan Rs. 2/-).
CHICAGO PLAN COMMISSION. Proceedings of the thirty-third meeting of the Chicago
Plan Commission. . . May 18, 1933. Chicago, The Commission, 1933. 24 pages.
CLARKE, JOHN J. Outlines of the law of housing & planning, including public health,
highways and the acquisition of land. With an introduction by the Rt. Hon. Sir Leslie
Scott, K. C. London, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1933. 297 pages. Price 75. 6d.
CLAYTON, C. F., and L. J. PEET. Land utilization as a basis of rural economic organiza-
tion, based on a study of land utilization and related problems in 13 hill towns of Vermont.
Burlington, Vt., University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, Vermont Experi-
ment Station, in cooperation with the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the U. S.
Department of Agriculture and the Vermont Forest Service, June 1933. 144 pages +
15 plates. Graphs, tables, maps (part colored and folded). (Bulletin 357.)
BOOK REVIEW S 99
CONTRERAS, CARLOS. El piano regulador del distrito federal. [Mexico City], 1933. 51
pages. Illus., maps and plans (one folded).
CORT, CESAR. Murcia: un ejemplo sencillo de trazado urbano. Madrid, Sucesores de
Rivadeneyra, S. A., 1932. 367 pages. Illus., maps and plans (one folded). Price Ptas. 50.
DANGER, RENE. Cours d'urbanisme. (Technique des plans d'amenagement de villes.)
Preface de M. Risler. Paris, Librairie de I'Enseignement Technique, 1933. 358 pages.
Illus., plans. Price 90 fr.
FEDERAL EMERGENCY ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC WORKS. NATIONAL PLAN-
NING BOARD. Circular letters, Aug. 21, 1933 to date. Washington, The Board, Aug.
21, 1933 to date. Mimeographed.
1, 2. Suggestions to regional advisers. 3. Progress report: status and stimulation of plan-
ning regions, states and cities. 4. Large scale regional and rural land planning. 5. Federal
assistance for planning. 6. State planning and status of organization and work (containing
list of personnel of state planning organizations).
FRED L. LAVANBURG FOUNDATION and HAMILTON HOUSE. What happened to 386
families who were compelled to vacate their slum dwellings to make way for a large hous-
ing project? New York, Fred L. Lavanburg Foundation, 1933. 12 pages.
GREATER LONDON (ENGLAND) REGIONAL PLANNING COMMITTEE. Second report.
March 1933. London, Knapp, Drewett & Sons Ltd., 1933. m pages. Illus., maps and
plans (part folded). Price js. 6d.
HEYDECKER, WAYNE D. Report on the preparation of the land value map of West-
chester County, 1932-33. With a foreword by Carl H. Pforzheimer. Westchester County
Emergency Work Bureau, Oct. 1933. 25 pages + folded chart. Lithoprinted. Maps.
JACOBS, NATHAN B. Utility distribution systems in housing projects. Reprinted from
the Journal of the American Water Works Association, May 1933. 12 pages.
JEANES, W. W. Housing of families of the American Federation of Full-fashioned Hosiery
Workers, Local nos. i and 39, Philadelphia, June-July 1932. Philadelphia, Kastner &
Stonorov, architects, 1933. 69 pages. Maps, graphs, tables. Price $1.00. (Bryn Mawr
College, Carola Woerishoffer Graduate Department of Social Economy and Social Re-
search, Studies in Social Economy.)
LONG ISLAND STATE PARK COMMISSION. Jones Beach State Park, 1933. [Jones Beach,
The Commission], 1933. [28] pages. Illus., map and plan.
LOS ANGELES (CAL.) COUNTY. Ordinance no. 2351 (new series). An ordinance provid-
ing local regulations for the subdivision of land within the unincorporated territory of
the County of Los Angeles, and for the preparation and presentation of subdivision maps
thereof. Adopted Oct. 9, 1933. i page folded.
MACFADYEN, DUGALD. Sir Ebenezer Howard and the town planning movement. Man-
chester, England, The University Press, 1933. 166 pages. Illus., maps (part folded).
Price los. 6d.
MARINER, ELWYN E. Condemnation procedure and land purchase practices in New York
State municipalities. Albany, N. Y., State Conference of Mayors and Other Municipal
Officials, Bureau of Training and Research, 1933. 59 pages. Price $1.00. (Publication
no. 21.)
MASSACHUSETTS. An Act revising the municipal zoning laws. [Chap. 269.] Approved
June 1 6, 1933. 7 pages.
— . DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE. DIVISION OF HOUSING AND TOWN
PLANNING. Annual report for the year ending Nov. 30, 1933. Edward T. Hartman,
consultant on planning. [Boston], The Department, 1933. 12 pages. (Public document
no. 103.)
— . SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT. Brief for respondents [in three recent outdoor
advertising cases]. [Boston, Goodwin, Procter & Hoar], Nov. 1933. 209 pages + folded
tables. Price $1.00. (Suffolk County: in Equity no. 3201.)
ioo CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 2
MILLER, SIDNEY L. Inland transportation: principles and policies. A revision and ex-
tension of Railway Transportation. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1933.
822 pages. Maps, graphs, diagrs. Price $4.00.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOUSING OFFICIALS. State laws for public housing-, a
memorandum on the drafting of enabling acts for public housing agencies. Chicago,
The Association, 1934. 18 pages. Free to officials; price to others, 25 cents.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CITY PLANNING. Planning problems and national re-
covery: planning problems presented at the twenty-fifth National Conference on City
Planning held jointly with the American Civic Association at Baltimore, Md., Oct. 9-11,
1933. Philadelphia, published for the Conference by Wm. F. Fell Co., 1933. 158 pages.
Price $3.00.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON LAND UTILIZATION. Proceedings. Chicago, 111., Nov.
19-21,1931. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1932. 251 pages. Maps, graphs.
Price 20 cents.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SLUM CLEARANCE. Proceedings. Cleveland, O., July
6-7, T933- I23 pages. Price $3.00.
NATIONAL LAND-USE PLANNING COMMITTEE. First annual report (from date of
organization to June 30, 1933). Washington, The Committee, July 1933. 19 pages.
Mimeographed. (Publication no. V.)
N. H. STATE PLANNING BOARD. Town and city zoning and planning primer. Concord,
N. H., distributed by the State Development Commission, [1934]. 31 pages. Map.
N. Y. STATE BOARD OF HOUSING. Report to Governor Herbert H. Lehman and to the
Legislature of the State of New York. Albany, 1933. 88 pages. Graphs, tables. (Legis-
lative document, 1933, no. 112.)
NEWMAN, BERNARD J. Housing in Philadelphia, 1932. Philadelphia, The Philadelphia
Housing Association, 1933. 38 pages. Maps, diagrs. Price 25 cents.
OHIO STATE PLANNING CONFERENCE. Proceedings of the fifteenth annual meeting,
Oct. 19 and 20, 1933, Columbus, O. Edited by John M. Picton, Jr. Cincinnati, The
Conference, 1933. 53 pages. Mimeographed. Price Sr.oo.
PERRY, CLARENCE ARTHUR. The rebuilding of blighted areas: a study of the neighbor-
hood unit in replanning and plot assemblage. Architectural and planning studies under
the direction of C. Earl Morrow. New York, Regional Plan Association, Inc., 1933.
59 pages. Illus., plans. Price $2.00.
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION SERVICE and COMMITTEE ON UNIFORM STREET AND
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by Donald C. Stone, Walter O. Harris, Gustave A. Moe, and Howard Hopkin. Chicago,
Public Administration Service, 1933. 72 pages. Lithoprinted. Price 75 cents. (Pub-
lication no. 35.)
ROHLFING, CHARLES C. The airport approach. Reprinted from Air Law Review, Apr.
J933- New York, New York University School of Law, 1933. 9 pages.
ROYER, JEAN, editor. L'urbanisme aux colonies et dans les pays tropicaux: communica-
tions & rapports du Congres International de 1'Urbanisme aux Colonies et dans les Pays
de Latitude Intertropicale. Preface de M. le Marechal Lyautey. Tome premier. Nevers,
Fortin, Imprimeur, 1932. 388 pages. Illus., maps and plans. Price 120 fr.
SCHLESINGER, ARTHUR MEIER. The rise of the city, 1878-1898. New York, The Mac-
millan Co., 1933. 494 pages. Illus. Price $4.00. (A History of American Life, vol. X.)
SHIPLEY, FREDERICK W. Agrippa's building activities in Rome. St. Louis, Mo., Wash-
ington University, 1933. 97 pages. Map and plans. Price $1.25. (Washington Univer-
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BOOK REVIEWS 101
SHURTLEFF, FLAVEL, GEORGE MCANENY, and ALFRED BETTMAN. Constructive
economy in government: saving by planning. Preprinted from The National Municipal
Review, Oct. 1933. 6 pages. (You and Your Government Series V, Lecture no. 15, de-
livered Sept. 26, 1933, over a nationwide network of the National Broadcasting Co.)
SlMONSON, WILBUR H. Planning for roadside improvement. Photostatic copy of an
article \riLandscape Architecture, July 1933. [13] pages.
SOCIAL RESEARCH: an international quarterly of political and social science. Vol. I, no. i,
Feb. 1934. Published by the New School for Social Research, Inc., 66 West Twelfth St.,
New York, N. Y. Subscription, $2.00 a year, 50 cents a single copy.
SOUTH JERSEY PORT COMMISSION. Seventh annual report to the Legislature of New
Jersey. Camden, N. J., Jan. 30, 1933. 32 pages. Illus.
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. CITY PLANNING COMMISSION. JUDGING COMMITTEE.
Report: Competition for a town-plan for the part of Stockholm designated Nedre Norr-
malm (Lower Norrmalm). Stockholm, The Commission, 1934. 103 pages.
STODIECK, KARL. Der wirtschaftliche Ausbau der Grossstadt. Berlin, VDI-Verlag, 1933.
59 pages + folded diagrs. Graphs, tables. Price RM 3.
THOMPSON, WARREN S., and P. K. WHELPTON. Population trends in the United States.
New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc., 1933. 415 pages. Graphs, tables. Price $4.00.
(Recent Social Trends monographs.)
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TUUT VOOR VOLKSHUISVESTING EN STEDEBOUW. Rapport betreffende de vereffen-
ing van ongelijkmatige gevolgen voor de grondeigenaren ten gevolge van uitbreidings-
plannen, rooilijnen en plannen tot verbetering binnen de bebouwing. [Amsterdam],
Nederlandsch Instituut voor Volkshuisvesting en Stedebouw, 1933. (Publication no.
XXXIX.)
WATSON, HENRY. Street traffic flow. London, Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1933. 395 pages.
Illus., plans. Price 2is.
WlLCOX, JEROME K. NRA. The new deal for business and industry: a bibliography,
May-Aug. 1933, together with a list of official publications of other new governmental
agencies. Compiled for the John Crerar Library. Chicago, American Library Associa-
tion, 1933. 78 pages. Mimeographed. Price 75 cents.
COORDINATED TRANSPORTATION ESSENTIAL
Of vital importance to the social and economic life of the State
is the efficiency with which people and goods are transported by
rail, highway, water and air. . . . We need to restudy our trans-
portation system in relation to rural and urban development;
power supply and transmission; probable distribution, growth and
size of industrial areas; present and potential agricultural produc-
tion; and to ports, terminals and markets for distribution of
goods. . . . We must work out a practical method of integrating the
different units so as to use each method in its most efficient and
economic form. — Fifth Circular Letter, NATIONAL PLANNING BOARD.
BACK NUMBERS OF CITY PLANNING
For ready reference, CITY PLANNING has grouped certain of its back numbers
according to valuable articles on kindred subjects. The following sets, providing
for old subscribers duplicate copies of helpful material, and furnishing valuable infor-
mation on special subjects, are obtainable as long as the supply lasts:
ASSESSMENT
What We Don't Know about Special
Assessments
Walter II . Blucher
Planning Progress in Saint Louis
Harland Bartholomew
A New Idea in Special Assessments
Charles Herrick
3 issues, set $1.30
BUILDINGS— HEIGHT
The Economic Spiral (National Con-
ference Roundtable)
J. Rowland Bibbins
The Third Dimension
Richmond D. Moot
Principles Which Should Control
Limitations in Bulk of Buildings
Frederick Law Olmsted
3 issues, set $1.50
CITY PLANNING— U. S. SURVEYS
Survey of City and Regional Plan-
ning in the United States (1924-
1925-1926-1927-1928-1929-1931)
Theodora Kimball Hubbard
Trends in Present-day City Plan-
ning in the United States (1930-
1931)
Harold S. Buttenheim
8 issues, set $3.00
CITY PLANNING— U. S.
City Planning in the United States
Alfred Agache
A New Plan for Historic Alexandria,
Virginia
Irving C. Root
Planning for Boston — 1630-1930
Elisabeth M. Herlihy
Waterfront Boulevard Development
in Charleston
R. S. MacElwee
"What of the City"— Chicago. I. II.
Charles B. Ball
Cleveland's Planning Progress
Charles E. Conley and William
J. Murphy
Promoting Planning in Cleveland
Charlotte Rumbold
City Planning in Dallas
John E. Surratt
The Plan for Greater Dallas
E. A. Wood
Denver Makes a Plan
Arthur Hawthorne Carhart
City Planning Future for Des Moines
J. Haslett Bell
Des Moines Comprehensive City
Plan: Its Background and Promise
James B. Weaver
City Planning in Detroit
Walter H. Blucher
(con.)
CITY PLANNING— U. S. (con.)
Dubuque Plans Anew
John Nolen and J. R. Hartzog
Ten Years of City Planning in
Evansville
Raymond W. Blanch arcl
Fort Worth, Texas
Harland Bartholomew
A City Government and City Plan-
ning— Memphis
The Hon. Rowlett Paine, Mayor
Milwaukee's Efforts in City and Re-
gional Planning
C. B. Whitnall
"Dare and Do" in City Planning —
Oklahoma City
City Planning in Philadelphia
Andrew Wright Crawford
City Planning in Portland, Oregon
Howard K. Menhinick
Roanoke's Planning Action in City
and County
John Nolen
City Planning in Rochester
Edwin A. Fisher
Planning Progress in Saint Louis
Harland Bartholomew
Saint Paul Moves Forward
Gerhard Bundlie
City Planning in Saint Paul
George II. Herrold
Progress of City Planning in Texas
Louis P. Head
Planning Washington and Its En-
virons
Charles W. Eliot 2nd
19 issues, set $8.00
CITY PLANNING— FOREIGN
The After-Conference Tour (France,
Spain)
Gordon J. Culham
The Development of City Planning
in Germany
John Nolen
National Planning Project for the
Republic of Mexico
Carlos Contreras
City Planning in Poland
Waclaw Wrzesien
City Planning in Soviet Russia
Robert Whitten
City Planning Activity in Spain
Harry B. Brainerd
6 issues, set §3.00
CIVIC CENTERS— U. S.
Promoting Planning in Cleveland
Charlotte Rumbold
Denver Makes a Plan
Arthur Hawthorne Carhart
Des Moines Parks and Civic Center
J. N. Darling
3 issues, set $1.50
ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS PARKS
Why the Automobile Industry Should Des Moines Parks and Civic Center
Believe in City Planning J. N. Darling
Paul G. Hoffman Park and Recreation Areas in the
Blighted Districts: Their Cause and City Plan
Cure f . K. and H. V. Hubbard
C. Earl Morrow and Charles Notes on Laying Out Roads for
Herrick Pleasure Travel in Scenic Areas
The Responsibilities of Realtors in Frederick Law Olmsted
City Planning What are Parks?
J". C. Nichols Charles W. Eliot 2nd
The Chamber of Commerce and City The Acquisition of Public Open
Planning Spaces
John Ihlder Frank B. Williams
Why City Planning is Good for Sound A Park System for the Maryland-
Real Estate Development Washington Metropolitan District
L. F. Eppich Roland WT. Rogers
Preventive Planning Acquisition of Park Land in Con-
L. Deming Tilton nection with Real Estate Subdivi-
City Planning and Economy sions
Thomas Adams S. Herbert Hare
The Effect of the Depression on City 7 issues, set .................... $3.00
Building in Texas
John E. Surratt PLAYGROUNDS
ESTHETIC CONSIDERATIONS ' ^iST"5 '" "" La'K' ^^
Architectural Imagination in City William E Harmon
Building "Built-in Playgrounds"
Harvey Wiley Corbett O H Koch
Architecture and City Planning Interior Block Playgrounds in High
¥iel ?a^rme^, Class Residential Developments
The Art of City Planning S. Herbert Hare
Raymond Unwm 3 issues, set ................. $1.50
The City as a Work of Art
Charles Moore PRACTITIONERS
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS ' ' The Responsibilities of Realtors in
What We Don't Know about Special Ul\y £ Mnmg,
Assessments J- G' Nlchols
Walter H Blucher Interest of the Engineer in City
Planning Progress in Saint Louis A!T TVJ t> i
Harland Bartholomew ~, i^l ^ Baker , «.. DI
A New Idea in Special Assessments The ^tyrrLnf ineer ,and ^P^f mng
Charles Herrick MJ™ Knowles and U. N.
Promotion vs. Prohibition in Citv . , -. f , ^-. „,
Planning Architecture and City Planning
Charles W Eliot 2nd Eliel Saarinen
The Long-term Financial Program Clf>' planni"g as a Professional
38 nAiClt PlannCrS Hubbard and Howard
X,. *. . TrTVyTL'*l
5 issues, set .................... $2.50 K' Menhmick
LAND SUBDIVISION 4 lssues' set .................... $2-00
A Study of Municipal and County
Regulations for Subdivision Con- PUBLIC OPEN SPACES
trol. I. II. The Community Forest and the
Howard K. Menhinick Community Plan
Playgrounds in New Land Subdi- Charles Lathrop Pack
visions "Built-in Playgrounds"
William E. Harmon O- H. Koch
Land Subdivision: The Effect of Park and Recreation Areas in the
Density on Acreage Values and on City Plan
Lot Values T. K. and H. V. Hubbard
Robert Whitten The Acquisition of Public Open
Interior Block Playgrounds in High Spaces
Class Residential Developments Frank B. Williams
S. Herbert Hare Acquisition of Park Land in Con-
The Enforcement of Deed Restric- nection with Real Estate Subdivi-
tions sions
Charles S. Ascher S. Herbert Hare
6 issues, set ............ . . $3.00 5 issues, set .................... $2.50
REGIONAL PLANNING— U. S.
The Circumferential Thoroughfares
of the Metropolitan District of
Boston
Arthur A. Shurtleff
Boston Metropolitan Planning
Arthur A. Shurtleff
The Division of Metropolitan Plan-
ning, Boston
Henry I. Harriman
Regional Planning of Happy Valley,
Tennessee
John Nolen
Two Years of Regional Planning in
Los Angeles County
Hugh R. Pomeroy
The Unemployed Aid Regional Plan-
ning in Los Angeles County
Charles H. Diggs
A Park System for the Maryland-
Washington Metropolitan District
Roland W. Rogers
Planning Progress in Maryland-
Washington Metropolitan District
Irving C. Root
Planning for Milwaukee County
E. A. Howard
Theory of Planning the Region as
Exemplified by the Philadelphia
Tri-State Plan
Russell Van Nest Black
The Philadelphia Tri-State Region
Samuel P. Wetherill, Jr.
The Declaration of Inter-dependence
(Philadelphia)
Robert Wheelwright
9 issues, set $4.00
SOCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
Zoning and the Mobility of Urban
Population
Nels Anderson
The Philosophy of City Planning
Mayor James M. Curley
"Quickening the Soul of a City"
From an address by Dr. E. H.
Gary
Rapid Transit and Social Values
Frederick Law Olmsted
Blighted Districts: Their Cause and
Cure
C. Earl Morrow and Charles
Herrick
4 issues, set $2.00
STATE PLANNING
State Planning in Illinois and Iowa
Jacob L. Crane, Jr.
The New York State Regional Plan
Clarence S. Stein
State-wide Planning to Save the
Beaches
Tam Deering
3 issues, set $1.50
STREET TRAFFIC REGULATION
Directional Traffic Control
Richmond D. Moot
Preventive and Palliative Measures
for Street Traffic Relief
Miller McClintock
City Planning and Traffic Surveys
Earl J. Reeder
3 issues, set $1.50
STUDY AND TEACHING
Youth and City Planning
Justin F. Kimball
Local Geography as a Basis for
Teaching City Planning
Donald S. Gates
City Planning as a Professional
Career
Henry V. Hubbard and Howard
K. Menhinick
3 issues, set $1.50
TECHNICAL PROCEDURE
The Technical Approach to the Study
and Planning of Regions
Thomas Adams
Theory of Planning the Region as
Exemplified by the Philadelphia
Tri-State Plan
Russell Van Nest Black
How to Make a City Plan
Harold M. Lewis
3 issues, set $1.50
ZONING
The Fact Bases of Zoning
Alfred Bettman
Zoning and the Mobility of Urban
Population
Nels Anderson
The Present State of Court Decisions
on Zoning
Alfred Bettman
Use of the Police Power in City Plan-
ning and Zoning
Edward D. Landels
Better Zoning for Easier Adminis-
tration
Russell Van Nest Black
Principles Which Should Control
Limitations in Bulk of Buildings
Frederick Law Olmsted
6 issues, set $3.00
ZONING— U. S.
Boston Zoning — Its First Birthday
Elisabeth M. Herlihy
The Buffalo Zoning Campaign
A. Edmere Cabana
Des Moines Experience with Zoning
L. A. Jester
3 issues, set $1 -50
Your order, specifying subjects of sets (ASSESSMENT, BUILDINGS— HEIGHT, etc.)
and accompanied by check, should be sent to:
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annin
eview
(Issued from tKe Department of Civic Design,
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WESLEY DOUGUL, Editor
Advisory Committee:
PATRICK ABERCROMBIE
S. D. ADSHEAD
C. H. REILLY Published at the
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CITY PLANNING
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NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CITY PLANNING
QUARTERLY
Vol. X JULY 1934 No. 3
CONTENTS
National Planning ..... CHARLES W. ELIOT 2o 103
Planning a Housing Project . . . . WALTER H. BLUCHER 112
What Advance Planning Can Do for Ithaca . RALPH S. HOSMER 126
New Planning Opportunities . . . REXFORD NEWCOMB 129
CURRENT PROGRESS: — Advisory Planning Now, Official Planning Later — A
City Planning Resolution — Planning Board Justifies its Existence — Zoning
a Small Town — Ithaca, Twenty-five Years from Now — Futile Town Plan-
ning— Freeways, Linear Zoning, and Subdivision Control
ZONING ROUNDTABLE: — Zoning and the State Plan ....
LEGAL NOTES : — Notes and Decisions ......
N. C. C. P. & A. C. P. I. NEWS: — Chicago Meeting of the Institute —
1934 Planning Conference . . . . . . 143
BOOK REVIEWS & LISTS : — Reviews — A Subsistence Homesteads Bibliography
— Recent Publications ........ 144
Published Quarterly at n Oak Street, Augusta, Maine, by
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GENERAL OFFICE: 12 PRESCOTT STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
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at Augusta, Maine, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.
CITY PLANNING
OFFICIAL ORGAN
AMERICAN CITY PLANNING INSTITUTE
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CITY PLANNING
QUARTERLY
VOL. 10 July 1934 No. 3
NATIONAL PLANNING
By CHARLES W. ELIOT 2d
Executive Officer, National Planning Board
THE repeated emphasis put on national planning in almost
every speech by President Roosevelt has made the American
public conscious of "planning" as an active force and process.1
Naturally, this new awareness of planning has produced a variety
of reactions in the public mind, depending on the interpretations
and meanings which are given to the word.
Those of us who have watched the progress of city and regional
planning see in national planning a natural extension of familiar
principles and policies which have proved their value to the "aver-
age citizen" in numerous communities. Others, without that
association or previous contact with the term, see in it dangers of
"regimentation," "interference with natural liberties," or some
dreaded influence of an imagined "brain trust."
President Roosevelt himself says in the introduction to "Look-
ing Forward":
I shall not speak of an economic life completely planned and
regulated. That is as impossible as it is undesirable. I shall
speak of the necessity, wherever it is imperative that govern-
ment interfere to adjust parts of the economic structure of the
nation, that there be a real community of interest — not only
among the sections of this great country, but among the
economic units and the various groups in these units; that
there be a common participation in the work of remedial
figures, planned on the basis of a shared common life, the low
1An article based on two recent lectures in the course, "National and State Planning,"
at the Harvard School of City Planning.
103
104 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
as well as the high. On much of our present plans there is
too much disposition to mistake the part for the whole, the
head for the body, the captain for the company, the general
for the army. I plead not for a class control but for a true
concert of interests.
It seems to me that those who are worried or profess to be
worried over the possible imposition of some kind of Russian Five
Year Plan upon the American people are somewhat inconsistent.
With one breath they denounce what they call "planning" and in
the next, demand that the Administration in Washington put for-
ward a "program" or a statement of the controlling inner purposes
behind all the varied activities of the Federal Government, — in
brief, they demand what others of us might call a "plan." Perhaps
all that they really mean is that a Russian bugaboo has become a
standard trick in playing politics.
Americans should realize that Soviet Russia did not invent
national planning. Neither did President Roosevelt. Rather, it
would be more accurate to say that the Constitution of the United
States was the first national plan, — a program, with carefully
defined limits, for the accomplishment of six specified purposes.
National planning is distinctly an American idea. American his-
tory is a continuous record of partial plans for one or another phase
of our national development, as witness Hamilton's Plan for
Manufactures, Gallatin's and John Quincy Adams' Public Works
Plans, Clay's American System, the land policy for the settlement
of the West with its unique provision for setting aside regular sec-
tions for endowment of future schools, the budget system set up
in 1921, and, even as late as the Hoover Administration, the estab-
lishment of the Federal Employment Stabilization Board. Now
the time has come to go on in the same spirit.
Two kinds of plans are often confused: one is a fixed design
such as architects and engineers make to guide the construction
of a building or dam, and the second is a continuing process requir-
ing constant revision of theories and practices to keep up with
changing conditions and changing needs. We need to distinguish
clearly between these two kinds of planning. A fixed plan may
put us in a strait-jacket and give us a type of autocratic control
NATIONAL PLANNING 105
quite as objectionable as "rugged individualism." We must plan
to avoid any such results from our new efforts in the field of
national planning.
What then, you may ask, do we mean by national planning
and how is it to be effectuated? I think the President has aptly
phrased it in his recent speech on Subsistence Homesteads when
he said:
The one great impression I got of our country was that it
had grown up like Topsy, wandering around for over three
hundred years, opening up new lands and new territories, and
because the country was so vast nobody seemed to suffer.
In these latter days we have come to the end of limitless
opportunities, of new places to go and new industries to start
in operation. The time was ripe and over-ripe for the begin-
ning of planning, of planning to correct the errors of the past.
I don't see why there is not greater enthusiasm for plan-
ning except that the word planning does not have anything
spectacular about it and the results are not immediate. We
like to throw up our hats and go after panaceas that will cure
all of our troubles in thirty days. We don't like planning
because we are lazy and we don't like to think ahead.
If we substitute hard thinking for laissez faire, our first prob-
lem is to decide which line of approach to take. It is my belief
that the physical approach is most likely to provide us with com-
mon understanding of our problem, and, in the long run, to prove
the best catalytic agent to secure the synthesis or coordination of
policy which we now need.
That belief, no doubt, reflects my own special interest and
training in the physical planning field. The physical approach is
the easiest way toward national planning, not only because we
have a background of experience in that field greater, perhaps,
than in any other, but also because there are tangible results to
record our progress and to check our mistakes.
In this respect, the physical planners are much better off than
those who advocate an economic approach. It is difficult for people
to visualize or think ahead on problems that have no recognizable
form. The statistical materials for economic planning are largely
amorphous, — without shape, — and any designer working with long
io6 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
columns of figures is faced with constantly changing sets of basic
facts. To be sure, the earth and physical conditions change also,
but in comparison they are relatively fixed. Furthermore, the
changes in the shape of the earth's surface, whether they are
brought about through forces of wind and water or through human
endeavors, are definitely visible and more generally understood.
Social and governmental planning involve the same difficulties
as are encountered in the economic field. It has often been re-
marked that our ability to invent and use physical machines to
"blow ourselves to hell" has far outstripped our ability to organize
society in promoting our journey in the opposite direction. Human
relationships are still more of an enigma to most of us than are
our physical surroundings.
Under these circumstances it seems to me most fortunate that
the new National Planning Board is starting out under the sym-
pathetic eye of the Secretary of the Interior as a part of the Public
Works Administration. The practical side of its work and a direct
relationship with physical problems are thereby assured. On the
other hand, the membership of the Board gives equal assurance
of a broad social and economic point of view toward these physical
planning developments.
Dr. Wesley C. Mitchell, of Columbia University, and Dr.
Charles E. Merriam, of the University of Chicago, have spent
many months on the research "Recent Social Trends,"1 which
brings the planning picture up to the point of a "Plan for Planning."
Their studies of the social and economic material for planning work
provide a rich background for further advance in the field of
economic planning or social planning.
The Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Frederic A. Delano,
brings to the Board his rich experience in the city and regional
planning movement. In this restricted part of the field of physical
planning, city planners have accumulated much data in the last
thirty years and developed a technique which is apparently appli-
cable to larger units of counties, states, or groups of states. It
^'Recent Social Trends in the United States: Report of the President's Research Com-
mittee on Social Trends." 2 vols. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1933.
NATIONAL PLANNING 107
was to that experience that I referred in saying that for physical
planning we have a greater background than for other methods of
approach to planning work.
Physical planning, be it for city, metropolitan area, state, or
nation, always involves four steps, — the analysis of:
1. Natural resources and limitations of the area.
2. The use that man has made of these resources.
3. Possible desirable uses which we can foresee.
4. Controls or ways of securing these desired uses or adjust-
ments.
Let me discuss each of these briefly, and you will see what I
mean by physical planning.
NATURAL RESOURCES AND LIMITATIONS
It is obvious that we are controlled in what we can do by
many physical forces and conditions which it is altogether unlikely
that man can change to any great degree. We may move indi-
vidual mountains, but the peaks of the Rockies, the Sierras, or
the Appalachians will still be controlling factors in the use of the
land areas of the United States. We can build jetties and break-
waters, but we shall still be dependent upon our great natural
harbors and rivers for the protection of most of our water-borne
commerce. We may be able to dispel fog in small patches to
assist in the safe operation of airways, but there is slight chance
of our changing the climate of the great desert areas of the South-
west. Distribution of land and water, lake and sea, mountain and
valley, rain and snow, floods and waterfalls, rich alluvial plains
and desert, and the habitats of birds, beasts, and fish, the basic
mineral resources, — coal and iron, silver and gold, — and so forth,
will always and inevitably control the basic plan for the nation.
How these various factors work was clearly presented in a
most fascinating pamphlet issued by the State Housing Commission
of New York almost ten years ago in its study of the develop-
ment of New York State.1 That study showed in graphic form
the dominating influence of the two great valleys' — the Hudson
JNew York State Commission of Housing and Regional Planning. Report to Governor
Alfred E. Smith, May 7, 1926.
io8 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
and the Mohawk — not only in the making of history but in the
use of a great variety of resources affecting the mode of living of
the inhabitants of the state.
The basic data which we have for the United States along
these lines are still very sketchy, although, of course, many govern-
ment bureaus, federal and state, and many universities and private
organizations have spent enormous sums in collecting the needed
facts. The topographic map of the United States, for instance,
has been in the course of preparation over forty years, yet the
Geological Survey has mapped only about forty-five per cent of
the area of the country. The maps of much of this area are obso-
lete and inadequate because of the early dates and relatively small
scales of the surveys, so that only about twenty-five per cent of
the area of the United States can be considered adequately mapped.
The water-power and navigation possibilities of our primary
river systems have been the subject of research by the Corps of
Engineers of the Army during recent years, and gauging stations
have been operated by the Geological Survey and the Weather
Bureau for a much longer period, but still there is no completed
record of the resources of the country in this regard. A similar
story can be developed in connection with almost all of our basic
resources. We have only just scratched the surface, and we con-
stantly discover new values that we had not appreciated. There
is much, therefore, left to be done toward the development of the
material for this first step in physical planning for the nation.
We need now to discover what data we have hidden in for-
gotten pigeonholes of government bureaus and university depart-
ments. In brief, we need to "take stock" or conduct an inventory
to avoid wasteful search for material previously discovered and
forgotten, and to see what missing parts are essential to provide
us with a broad picture of the possibilities and limitations imposed
by natural forces.
MAN'S USE OF RESOURCES
The second field requiring analysis for planning purposes,
questions of economic and social conditions, looms large. Man's
NATIONAL PLANNING 109
use of natural resources is of course history, but again we find
history often controlled by the physical forces which man cannot
overcome.
We are all familiar with the so-called economic interpretation
of history in terms of trade routes in relation to commercial expan-
sion, but even so wise a head as President Washington did not
fully appreciate the dominating influence of physical conditions on
human endeavor. He went astray in thinking that the city named
after him would become the great Atlantic seaport for the nation,
because to his mind the Potomac, cutting the middle of the Appala-
chian range, was the logical route to the west. He did not fully
appreciate the Hudson and the Mohawk, the advantages of which
shifted the whole scene of commercial dominance to New York.
A similar story can be found in the problem of submarginal
crop land. Man's struggle to conquer the wilderness can go far
through reclamation activities or discovery of new kinds of wheat,
but in the long run the economic balance inevitably puts down
many of these areas as submarginal and inappropriate for culti-
vation.
There is still a third field: that of power. We again find the
whims, or initiative, of human beings dislocating the natural
trends, as in the case of the cotton industry in New England,
which is now inevitably moving back to the lands where cotton
is grown.
FURTHER POSSIBLE USES OF RESOURCES
Besides the economic considerations involved in these struggles
between man and the physical forces which surround him, there
are human values and social problems which loom larger and
larger as we approach the third part of our research into the con-
trolling factors in the physical approach to planning work. When
we come to discuss possible uses of our resources, we are launching
into no new human field of effort. Way back in the early period
of settlement in New England, a fascinating book was published
called "The New England Prospect" which outlined what the
pioneers of those days thought would be the ideal development of
New England's natural resources. Still later, Jefferson in his
no CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
famous notes on Virginia, did much the same thing for his beloved
commonwealth. And in modern times a group under the leader-
ship of Mr. Delano and the American Civic Association has pub-
lished a book entitled "What About the Year 2000 P"1 which indi-
cates a few of the basic problems now confronting the country.
METHODS OF SECURING DESIRED USES OF RESOURCES
Now we come to concerted efforts by the new state planning
boards and the National Planning Board to go a few steps further
in this field.
No program for ideal use of natural resources will be of much
utility unless it is implemented with controls or promotion weapons
gradually to carry out the program. Through our experience in
city and regional planning, we have found such tools in at least
three fields. In the case of land use, for instance, we have dis-
covered the possibility of zoning for appropriate use of different
areas in cities, and Wisconsin has begun the application of the
same principles to counties and larger units. In California and
other states, the possibilities of easements, or rights in land, involv-
ing partial ownership in governmental units are being tried. In
Michigan, the policy of retaining lands which come back to the
state because of delinquent taxes has been found a useful weapon.
And, of course, the outright purchase of areas for public purposes
has always been recognized as an essential power of all govern-
ments. We need to refine and develop these various possibilities
for more adequate control of land use without undue interference
with experimentation.
Similarly, in the second field, transportation, we have learned
much of the possibilities of stimulating growth or discouraging it
through the control of location and rates of transportation facilities.
People in our western country realize the tremendous value which
railroad locations and crossroads have played in the settlement of
the area. An equally potent influence has been the rate structure,
an example of which may be found in the change of differential
federated Societies on Planning and Parks. Joint Committee on Bases of Sound Land
Policy. "What About the Year 2000?" [Washington, The Societies, 1929.]
NATIONAL PLANNING in
some twenty years ago for through wheat shipments into Boston,
which resulted in the diversion of much of that traffic to Baltimore.
We have still a third tool, in the control of public works, whose
location and the employment which they give may be one of the
important influences in the development of our various natural
resources. It is because these three tools seem to offer the best
opportunity for state planning that the National Planning Board
has stressed studies in these three fields as perhaps the most
important activity for the new state planning boards.
You will be interested to know that there are now forty
state planning units at work on studies of the kind which I have
just been outlining. State plans must, however, develop within
the framework of a national plan. The National Planning Board
is, therefore, striving to secure the foundation for the development
of the structure of a national design. To that end, it is sponsoring
researches into efforts now being made along these same lines,
particularly in the field of public works. It has organized a series
of coordinating committees within the Federal Government to try
to focus the attention of government officials on some of the critical
problems in this planning field. Through these various activities,
the National Planning Board is laying the foundation for a National
Plan which must grow out of our inheritance, our interests, and
our activities. National planning is a continuing process, for a
National Plan will never be complete as long as the nation exists.
NATIONAL PLANNING HAS ARRIVED!
Where the wood dips down to the hollow,
Two lovers stood in tears,
The sorrow of parting lay o'er them,
And the pain of the passing years.
As the tears splashed over their clothing,
Like healing summer rain,
Each clasped the hand of the other,
And sang this sweet refrain:
'Nothing short of a comprehensive scheme of
national planning will solve our problems."
London Express
PLANNING A HOUSING PROJECT
By WALTER H. BLUCHER
City Planner and Secretary, Detroit City Plan Commission
AN outstanding fallacy in the development of housing projects
(not as yet realized by many of the newly created experts)
is the thought that a site can be selected without any rela-
tion to the city as a whole and that successful housing can be
built thereon. In most of the instances where housing plans have
been prepared, the particular site was chosen because it was vacant
or because it could be acquired for a fairly low1 cost or because
the problem of plot assembly did not exist. In how many of the
projects prepared and submitted during the last year have all of
the factors affecting city development been considered? In how
many of these projects has just one of the many factors been con-
sidered, namely, that of population trends? It is a well-known
fact that in many of our large cities there have been shifts of
population from one area to another. It is (or should be) equally
well known that there has been a movement of population from
the city to the country. How far or how long that trend will
continue is not so well known. It is also known that the curve
of population growth in the large cities is leveling off. This one
factor of population has a most important bearing upon any hous-
ing project and yet I venture to say that it has been considered
in only a few of the many hundreds of housing plans developed.
There has been so much talk of slum clearance just to rid the
cities of our sore spots, and there has been so ardent a desire to
provide employment, that many of the housing projects have been
developed only on the basis of these two factors. The question
of the need of the community for new housing and particularly
the question of whether the site under consideration is the proper
place for new housing have been given too little thought.
HOUSING BASED ON COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING
The plan developed in the city of Detroit undoubtedly is not
perfect. Whatever its imperfections, it was based upon a plan
1This is a relative term — depending upon the community.
112
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for the city of Detroit. The intensive surveys leading to housing
development were started several years ago and the matter of
housing was considered even years before that. In 1928, when
housing was not the "stylish" thing to do and when very few cities
in the United States were considering the matter, the following
statement was made in the Annual Report of the City Plan Com-
mission: "Most cities in America have given almost no attention
to the problem of housing its [sic] citizens and particularly the low-
wage earners. . . . We can not continue to disregard the housing
of our small-income citizens. . . . The municipality will necessarily
take part in any scheme for housing reform. It will be asked to
cooperate and to be able to do so it will be necessary that we be
informed. ..."
There has been much discussion lately regarding the social
conditions in slum areas and blighted areas. Many of our people
have just discovered that living and health conditions in these
areas are worse than those to be found in the best areas in the
city. In 1927 the Michigan Housing Association, in cooperation
with the Department of Health and the City Plan Commission,
made a series of surveys of the city of Detroit and found, of course,
what was to be expected, that juvenile delinquency, tuberculosis
deaths, pneumonia deaths, infant mortality, crime, and so forth
were more prevalent in the blighted areas than they were in the
other areas. For instance, on the East Side the tuberculosis deaths
were 114.25 per 100,000 population, while in the best sections of
the city they were below 68.55 Per 100,000 population. The aver-
age for the city was 91.4 per 100,000 population. The writer feels
that some of these studies have been overemphasized and that fair
comparisons have not always been drawn. It is not honest to say
that conditions in the slum areas are always worse than those in the
best areas of the city. In our own surveys we found that although
the worst conditions prevailed in the worst areas, the same high
rate was sometimes found in some of the better sections of the
city, and the reason for the prevalence of that high rate could not
be explained. More recently, further studies were undertaken to
prove certain assertions made by others and it was found that in
PLANNING A HOUSING PROJECT 115
the so-called East Side Blighted Area, which represents 1.4 per
cent of the city's area, 38 per cent of all of the felonious homicides
committed during 1932 had taken place.
The study from which our housing program resulted was
started two years ago by the City Plan Commission in an effort
not to create new housing but to determine how the blighted areas
in the city could be rehabilitated. From the standpoint of use and
financial return from the property in these blighted areas the City
was not in a satisfactory condition. It was the purpose of the
study to determine, first, the causes and factors contributing to
this blight and, second, how the areas might be developed and put
to some economic use. In the development of this program there
were absolutely no preconceived conclusions. An effort was made
to collect necessary data, to analyze those data fairly and honestly,
and to determine, first, if it was possible to use these areas eco-
nomically and, second, what the best use would be.
Funds were not available for an elaborate survey of the entire
city at the time. The City Plan Commission was successful, how-
ever, in obtaining the services of a number of volunteer architects
and engineers who served without pay but who received a small
amount for expenses. Fortunately there had been previously com-
pleted certain surveys of the city showing the utilization of all of
the property. The Commission was able, however, to make a
detailed and careful resurvey of the large blighted areas in the
city, which will be described more at length hereafter.
A study of population trends in the city was made first, and
this was followed by a study of trends within the area of Grand
Boulevard. This area consists of seventeen square miles and in-
cludes the older section of the city. The United States Census
showed a population loss in the area from 1920 to 1930 of about
70,000 persons. Independent surveys had been made by the
Board of Education, which tended to show that the population
inside of the area had increased from 1920 to 1925 and had dropped
off materially between 1925 and 1932. It was the opinion of the
Board of Education statisticians that the loss during this seven-
year period amounted to some 122,000 persons. Applying the
rough figure often used by planners, that 100 persons are required
n6 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
for the use of 50 feet of business frontage, it can readily be seen
how much of the business frontage inside of the Boulevard went
out of use because of the shift of population. The reason for the
many vacancies on the principal streets in this area is thus readily
explained. We had the anomalous situation of property on Wood-
ward Avenue valued at from $1500 to $5000 per front foot renting
for less than property on Twelfth Street, which was valued at
from $300 to $700 per front foot.
EAST SIDE BLIGHTED AREA
In order that some conclusions might be reached in a reason-
able period of time, the City Plan Commission concentrated its
studies on what was known as the East Side Blighted Area. This
area lies two blocks east of Woodward Avenue, the principal north
and south street in the city, between Brush and Dequindre Streets,
north of the Detroit River and south of the Boulevard. It has an
area of about two square miles. The area is populated largely by
people of the negro race and since there has been a great increase
in the negro population in Detroit (from 40,000 in 1920 to 120,000
in 1930), it was assumed that the population of this area had been
increasing. Study, however, revealed the fact that from 1920 to
1930 the population in this so-called East Side Blighted Area
decreased 25 per cent. Another factor seemed peculiar: in some
of the areas studied the average size of negro family consisted of
2.8 persons. The average for the city is 4.3 persons per family.
A thorough investigation showed that many of the colored families
with children were moving out of the district into near-by areas
because of the prevalence of crime.
The East Side Blighted Area was chosen for the first study
because it was known to be the poorest section of the city from an
economic standpoint. If the economic factor were the only one
to be considered it might be more logical to develop housing on
the West Side of the city in about the same relative position with
relation to the center of the city. Intensive surveys on the West
Side showed that the income of tenants is higher, that the rentals
being paid are higher, and that many of the problems to be found
on the East Side do not exist. The West Side study covered an
Alley Dwellings
A Church
PRESENT CONDITIONS IN DETROIT'S EAST SIDE BLIGHTED AREA
ii8 CITY PLANNING Vol. io, No. 3
area of about five square miles. The Commission was of the
opinion that it should first attempt to solve the most difficult
problem; if it failed at that, an easier one could be attacked.
SPECIAL STUDIES
In addition to the various sociological surveys of juvenile
delinquency, infant mortality, tuberculosis deaths, pneumonia
deaths, and so forth, which showed what was expected, namely,
that the worst conditions prevailed in the blighted areas, a series
of more applicable studies was prepared. For instance, a study
was prepared showing the relation of the blighted area to industry,
principal thoroughfares, car lines, bus lines, and so forth.
A careful analysis of all welfare families was made. The con-
dition of the five thousand welfare families residing in the East
Side area was compared with the average for the entire city, and
found to be worse than this average. For instance, while the
average of deserted women for the city was 2.8 per cent, the aver-
age for the East Side Blighted Area was 7.04 per cent. Among
all welfare families, 71 per cent were renting their homes while in
the blighted area 91 per cent were renters; whereas 11.83 Per cent
of all dependent families in the city were purchasing homes on
contract, in the East Side Blighted Area only 2.06 per cent were
purchasing homes. Among all the welfare families .07 per cent
were unmarried couples while in the East Side Blighted Area 3.77
per cent admitted that status.
A study was made of assessed valuations. In the city of
Detroit valuations on the whole had increased until 1930. They
started to drop during that year and from 1930 to 1932 dropped
25 per cent. In the East Side Blighted Area valuations started to
drop in 1927 and are still dropping. The decrease from 1927 to
1932 is about 65 per cent. The reason for the decline in valuations
was not, of course, the depression, because these values started to
drop during the very height of the boom and were dropping in
1927, 1928, 1929, and 1930. The reasons for the decline were
quite obvious: the buildings were obsolete, low rentals were being
obtained, taxes were unpaid.
PLANNING A HOUSING PROJECT 1^
A study of tax delinquencies showed a great amount of delin
quency in that area. The average for Section I, as sent to Wash
*a *t**Lnm»w**»i f\
Sill J*H •Niiti]
"LNS .;*«!
Existing Lot Occupancy. See Redesign of This Area, page 121.
ington, was a delinquency of 70 per cent in 1932, and in some of
the blocks 92 per cent of the properties were delinquent for that
year. There was a time when the downtown area helped to "carry"
i2o CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
the outlying properties, but to-day the downtown areas do not
even pay for their own facilities. It was an interesting fact that
although Section i has a total assessed valuation of $965,000 it
has not been worth the amount of the delinquent taxes (about
$35,000) to the property owners. This is not a completely accurate
statement because some of the owners obviously could not pay the
taxes even if they wished to do so.
As an example of what the owners thought of their properties,
a survey was made of buildings destroyed or torn down by the
owners largely for the purpose of eliminating the taxes on the
buildings. From January i, 1932, to June i, 1933, a total of 892
buildings was so removed in the city of Detroit. In the East Side
Blighted Area, which covers 1.4 per cent of the total city area, 269
buildings were removed, representing 30 per cent of the total.
A very thorough survey of the entire area was undertaken and
trained investigators were sent to each house with questionnaires
upon which information was to be obtained regarding: size of
building, number of apartments, number of rooms, number of bed-
rooms, number of families, whether there are gas, electricity,
water, bathtub; material and approximate age of the building and
its condition, existing mortgages, whether the property is occupied
by the owner or a tenant; name, nationality, race, age, and sex of
each of the occupants, total number of occupants, number em-
ployed, average weekly income, rental paid (if any), form of trans-
portation to work, whether occupant owned an automobile, par-
ticular route used in going to work, length of present residence,
length of residence in Detroit, previous residence address, whether
the family preferred subsistence farm life, whether they had had
farm experience, and so forth. This information has been tabu-
lated. It is interesting to note that in the worst section of the
city, vacancies amount to about 7 per cent of the total number of
dwellings, while in the West Side blighted areas the vacancies
amount to over 20 per cent. Apparently the worse the condition
of the house, the greater the number of people living there.
One of the first steps undertaken after all of the information
(only a small part of which has been described) had been collected,
was the preparation of a thoroughfare map. The major highways
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122 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
were laid out, and the streets which had to be retained were shown.
It was generally felt that the other streets in the area might be
closed.
REPLANNING THE EAST SIDE AREA
Having determined what was wrong, the next step was to
determine what might be done to rectify the situation. The City
Plan Commission knew that most of the property owners in that
district hoped, since their property was close to the center of the
city, that it might some time be used for commercial or industrial
purposes. A survey of the city showed that there is available for
commercial use six times as much property as has actually been
built upon, including vacancies. It was very apparent, therefore,
that this property would not be suitable for commercial purposes,
or at least could not be used for those purposes for many years. A
survey of industrial properties showed that there is available for
industrial use 100 per cent more land than is actually in use for
that purpose at the present time. In the light of the ascertained
population trends and industrial trends it was evident that the
land could not be utilized for industrial purposes for many years,
if at all. That left only two other possible uses: parks and open
spaces or some form of housing. Parks and open spaces would be
desirable, but no funds were available with which to acquire the
land, so there remained only the final alternative of housing.
The next step was to determine the kind of housing which was
most suitable for the area. Buildings of one, two, three, four, and
six stories were designed and their costs were estimated. (These
costs were actually estimated carefully; it was not merely a case
of cubing the buildings.) The Commission very quickly learned
that the rental of any of the buildings beyond two stories in height
would be greater than that in a two-story building because of the
added cost of maintenance, operation, elevators, central heating
plant, and so forth. The Commission also found that if it were to
construct six-story buildings it could house the entire population
of Detroit in this very limited area. Furthermore, it was of the
opinion that additional concentration was not desirable nor neces-
124 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
sary. It discovered that the best use of property in this area was
for two-story group housing and that land values would have to
be determined thereby.
Fortunately land values in the area were such as to permit
that form of use. The assessed valuation of the land in what is
known as Section i, including buildings, is under 90 cents per
square foot. Qualified real-estate men believe that it can be pur-
chased for an amount less than the assessed valuation.
The buildings which have been designed are two-story fire-
proof group houses (not row houses) arranged in quadrangles of
twenty-eight dwellings. Two important north and south streets
have been closed. All but one of the east and west streets within
the area have been closed. The population of the entire forty-
block area will be 10,000 people, — enough to utilize efficiently one
elementary school. Each of the four sections is a more or less
self-contained unit and the whole area has been protected either
by major highways or city-owned property along the perimeter.
In Section i of the area there are at the present time 946
families, providing a population of about 2500 people. We propose
to rehouse 729 families with a slightly higher average number per
family, giving a total of 2500 people, so that there will be fewer
families but no decrease in population. In Section i the proposed
total coverage of buildings is less than 20 per cent and there are
80 persons per acre. Of course units of varied sizes have been
planned for different sizes of families. When the original report
was submitted to Washington for approval it was estimated that
the average rental per room would be $6.28, including taxes,
amortization, interest, and maintenance costs. Since the original
plans have been prepared, through a redesign of buildings the
room rental has been reduced to $5.80. If the land can be acquired
for less than the assessed valuation there will be a further reduction
in this figure. Maintenance will be low because of the nature and
design of the buildings.
It was originally intended that the property owners might
merge their interests and that through the borrowing of funds
needed for the buildings they might reconstruct these areas. When
the Emergency Relief and Construction Act was passed it was
hoped that the work might be undertaken by limited dividend
corporations but the necessary legislation was not available in
Michigan. With the passage of the National Industrial Recovery
Act the City found it possible, because of existing legislation, to
undertake municipal housing.
SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS
What interests the Commission most in this project is the fact
that it started out to find some method whereby blighted areas in
the city might be rehabilitated. There were no preconceived con-
clusions and there was certainly no thought at the time that the
best use for the property would be for housing purposes. This
study was undertaken not as a housing study but as a city plan-
ning study, and housing resulted therefrom. It will be noted that
the Commission determined that these areas, not as isolated sites
but in their relation to the entire city, were best suited for housing
purposes and that the best form of housing was a two-story building.
The results of the study, if carried out, will be: the rehabilita-
tion of blighted areas, and as a consequence the rehabilitation of
the city of Detroit; the construction of new housing in an area
where better housing is badly needed; the construction of housing
for low-wage earners; and the provision of work for that group
which has suffered from the depression for the longest period of
years.
We believe that a logical and sound plan has been developed.
It is based, not upon the use of an unrelated area, but upon a
study of the needs of the community. All questions have not
been answered; all problems have not been solved; the most
important problems of administration still remain. The City Plan
Commission is convinced, however, that if given a fair trial and
honest administration the project has a chance of success.
HOUSING
Basically [housing] is not a problem of life in cities, but of life
wherever it is lived. ... It is associated with the means of living far
more closely than with the place of living. — EARLE S. DRAPER and
TRACY B. AUGUR in Law and Contemporary Problems, March, 1934.
WHAT ADVANCE PLANNING CAN DO
FOR ITHACA
By PROFESSOR RALPH S. HOSMER
Department of Forestry, Cornell University
IN any enterprise it is a good idea, every now and then, to step aside for
a few moments and attempt to get an impartial view of what has already
been accomplished and of what lies ahead.1 Such a check-up often leads
to a review of plans, a fresh analysis of objectives, and a revision that leads
to a better program for the future.
The making of plans, even if they are elaborate and detailed, does not
imply that all parts of them must necessarily be put into execution imme-
diately. As regards plans for the development of a city, many factors enter
in to determine the time and extent to which they may be applied. Among
these the question of finances naturally comes first. It is wise to admit at
the start that some features of a city plan must be slow in reaching full reali-
zation, but that fact need not at all deter us from having a plan, carefully
thought out and thought through. Such a plan helps keep the ideal con-
stantly before us. It becomes a standard by which can be judged and measured
the new ideas or modifications which are proposed to meet changing conditions.
And after all, what is a plan of this type but an ideal brought down to
earth and crystallized into a program which can then be enunciated, and if
accepted, scheduled and dispatched? It seems to me that the real function
of the City Planning Commission of Ithaca is to devote its energies to develop-
ing and perfecting the plans on which we are already embarked, and to making
them work in actual daily practice.
The object of any rightly conceived city plan is to make the city a
better place in which to live and work. It divides up into a few fundamentally
important chapters, to which others may be added as there is local need.
COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS
First comes communication, the layout of the main thoroughfares, ave-
nues, and streets that traverse and serve the business portion of the town,
and then the proper location and arrangement of the streets and drives of
the residential sections. In Ithaca our street plan is already highly developed,
but because some of our main business streets are none too wide, there is
still plenty of room for careful thought concerning the deflection of through
traffic to routes that are even better than we now have. The effective use
of the by-pass in many cities is one of the most significant developments of
recent years. We have made an excellent start in this direction, but there
still remain problems that deserve further careful study. Once such plans
1Remarks at a special meeting of the Ithaca City Plan Commission.
126
ADVANCE PLANNING FOR ITHACA 127
are made, we can decide more wisely as to which project should have priority
in execution. Some, because of cost, may have to wait many years. But
knowing what we would like to do will help us to do it.
Incidental to proper street layout comes a host of minor problems, some
of which at times may even develop into major perplexities. Take for example
the automobile parking problem. Certainly that has not yet been solved in
the downtown section. Nor have all the main thoroughfares that give entrance
to our city as smooth pavements as we might wish, — but it is unnecessary to
pile up instances. Communication stands out as the first need in any city plan.
ZONING
Next in importance, perhaps, is the application of zoning to a city, —
the allotment of definite areas to manufacturing, business, residential, and
recreational use. Some think our zoning ordinance needs revision. Very
possibly parts of it do. In any growing town, changes are bound to occur,
not all of which can be foreseen.
The thing that is important about the existing ordinance is that it has
established the zoning principle in Ithaca. That marks a significant gain
which must not be lost, but there is no reason why an impartial, disinterested
study should not be made of that ordinance, with the object of amending it,
if necessary, the better to meet the needs of to-day and of, say, the next
decade.
It should be obvious that the time to do this is not when the people of
one or another part of the city are at odds over some particular proposal,
but rather when the whole matter can be approached calmly and with thought
for the best permanent interests of all concerned.
Incidentally again, with this and other parts of the city plan, there is
need that all the people of Ithaca come more clearly to understand why a
wise city plan, properly carried out, helps to make one's town a more desir-
able place in which to live. Perhaps part of the duty of this Commission
should be to aid more than in the past in helping to bring about such under-
standing.
OTHER IMPORTANT ELEMENTS
The third chapter of the city plan might well be devoted to plans for the
future, immediate and more remote. One point that certainly needs con-
sideration is that new suburban subdivisions shall be developed in harmony
with the general scheme of the city plan. Such matters as the location,
width, and character of streets, the relation of elevation to proposed water
and sewerage systems, and the like, should all have the approval of the
appropriate city authorities in advance of the beginning of operations. A
good start in this direction has been made. This beginning should be con-
sistently followed up.
128 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
The recent controversy over the new county building has perhaps some-
what obscured the fact that its location is another step toward the grouping
of our more important public buildings in a sort of civic center. Looking
ahead two or three decades, we shall eventually need more public buildings.
As that time approaches it will be well to bear in mind that location as well
as good architecture is a point not to be forgotten.
Let us here turn for a moment to the present needs of those who will
be the citizens of the future. Ithaca has excellent swimming facilities and
some good playgrounds. It might well be considered, as a part of our recre-
ational area development, if we could not also have one or two shallow skat-
ing ponds within easy reach of some of our larger schools.
Other chapters of a good city plan deal with sanitation, and with coopera-
tion with the public service corporations, especially in getting more wires
underground into conduits, or at least into cables. As in every American
city, there is still opportunity for improvement in this particular in some
parts of Ithaca.
Its attractiveness is an asset to any city. Private grounds that are well
cared for obviate the necessity of clean-up campaigns. Here is a place where
every individual property owner can lend a hand. Well-cared-for street trees
in the residential sections do much to create a favorable impression on visitors
and add to the satisfaction and pride of the permanent residents in their city.
Our city forester understands his job and is doing it well, but not infrequently
his work could proceed faster if all of us would make it a point to cooperate
with him and back him up in his efforts.
It is not difficult when one comes to enumerate them to think of many
ways in which Ithaca could be made an even more attractive and livable
city than it now is. And many of these things could be done at little or no
cost to the public. Indeed, I am moved as a concluding word to suggest that
the best way to get any city plan really to work is to get everybody at work to
make it work. Too often we leave it to City Planning Commission "Georges."
I submit that things would happen a lot faster if we had more local-
improvements associations in Ithaca, in which interested individuals could
unite for the betterment of their respective parts of the town. There is much
to be said in favor of the old idea of the town meeting where every citizen
had a right to have his say. A local community association gives something
of the same opportunity. If, having talked matters over and made plans,
the members then get out and put them into effect, things begin to happen.
Ithaca is favored beyond most cities in location and in already possessing
many of the things that make for better living. If all of us, whether as city
officials, members of local associations, or individuals, will but work together,
we shall go far toward bringing to realization the ideals which lie behind and
inspire our Ithaca City Plan.
NEW PLANNING OPPORTUNITIES
By REXFORD NEWCOMB
Dean, College of Fine and Applied Art, University of Illinois
I THINK there is no question but that we are entering definitely into
an era that will be characterized by planning.1 The world of to-morrow
will be a planned world. Within recent years the movement that origi-
nated in the "garden city" and "city beautiful" aspects has expanded in
every direction. We have learned or are learning that physical planning as
such, while important and central, cannot by any means be the whole story.
A city is often not so much a geographical or political entity as it is a state
of mind. From the city concept we have passed to the regional concept, —
but even here we have found that regions must in some way be coordinated, —
and thus, limited by historical, geographical, and political barriers, we have
progressed to county and inter-county plans.
I assume that most of us are already familiar with the concept of the
state plan, which is indeed based upon what may in time prove to be illogical
geographical divisions, but which for the present, at any rate, are the only
practical units. While comparatively little so far has been done in America
with state planning, Illinois and many other states are studying this question
and in some, state planning commissions have been appointed.
But there are planning considerations that cut across county and state
boundaries. I was impressed a few years ago while in attendance at the
Regional Conference at the University of Virginia when Director Bohannan
of the Virginia State Port Authority pointed out the national implications
of the development of the Virginia ports. Such considerations immediately
raise the question of national planning, an idea that has recently gained great
headway due to the concerted action made necessary by the depression. The
National Industrial Recovery Act with the machinery set up to make it
function is in essence only one sort of a national plan.
Any plan set up to accomplish speedy emergency remedies cannot be
well founded or adequately matured. This demonstration, however, should
make our people conversant with the necessity of national planning in the
full meaning of the term. The National Planning Board in Washington,
instituted to facilitate state and regional planning, may in time turn its
attention to the broader questions involved in harmonizing the state plans
developed under its tutelage.
In America we are in need of: an adequate national master plan;
matured state (or indeed interstate) plans; regional plans within states, cover-
ing one or several counties or other political divisions; county plans; regional
1Remarks at the opening of a conference on New Planning Opportunities in Illinois, held
at the University of Illinois.
129
I3Q CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
plans, focalized about towns and cities; town and city plans with their zoning,
commercial, industrial, and recreational implications.
Now when I say "plans" I do not mean plans of only geographic or
physical import. I refer to plans that comprehend the following important
considerations, attention to which is necessary to any adequate planning
program.
HISTORY
There is perhaps no historical fact more important than county and
state boundaries. Such boundaries, often illogical from the standpoint of
unified planning, must, however, be reckoned with. Nearly every region
furnishes important historical considerations that must be taken into account.
GEOGRAPHY (INCLUDING TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE)
Geography is perhaps the most potent factor in the resultant life pattern
and therefore in any plans that may be made to minister to that life. Certainly
the functional or structural plans are very dependent on such factors. (Recrea-
tion, for instance, is one matter in Southern California and quite a different
matter in Illinois.)
ECONOMICS
The economic pattern of any community or region with its peculiar
industrial and commercial considerations cannot be ignored. In Illinois, for
instance, one sort of planning applies to our great metropolitan area, another
to our mining districts, another to our southern hilly marginal lands. Here
also such problems as industrial decentralization and concomitant considera-
tions are pertinent.
GOVERNMENT
Legal and administrative considerations are powerful factors in the
development of any plans whatsoever. In this state the whole question of
the realignment of school facilities enters very centrally into the state plan-
ning problem. Of the over 14,000 tax-gathering bodies in the state of Illinois,
somewhat over 12,000 are school districts, many of them supporting the
obsolete one-room school. It has been suggested that many townships and,
indeed, counties should be consolidated with others. All along the line it is
quite evident that considerable governmental replanning is necessary.
SOCIOLOGY
Sociology would include analysis of: social patterns; recreation; religion;
crime and poverty; psychology, public opinion, and civic spirit; rural-urban
relations.
RESOURCES
A study of resources — mineral, plant, and animal — should be accompanied
by studies of bacterial, insect, and other plagues.
NEW PLANNING OPPORTUNITIES 131
Out of these and other background considerations emerges the structural
or physical plan requiring the community planner (city, regional, state,
national) who with his solution coordinates the primary facts resulting from
a survey of the above-mentioned background considerations and evolves
therefrom a philosophy or set of objectives to be accomplished. He harmonizes
the various elements of design involved, with the aims and objectives of the
plan in hand, and brings into unity and harmony the contribution of the
engineer in circulation and transportation, — involving highways, streets,
canals, bridges, river and harbor developments, public utilities, including
drainage and water supply, sanitation, reclamation, and so forth, — and the
architect's contribution in the way of structures, — industrial, commercial,
civil or administrative, and residential.
From this brief and sketchy picture of the various factors involved, it is
very evident that any sort of a community plan cannot be the exclusive task
of any single individual or indeed of a single profession. As I see it, adequate
planning is the common task of all intelligent people and commands the best
contributions of our sociologists, economists, political scientists, lawyers,
administrators, the various physical scientists, agriculturists, educators, land-
scape architects, engineers, architects, and so forth. Surely the coordination
of the work of these various professions should challenge the organizing abilities
of our planners and planning boards.
CITY PLANNING AND FIRE PROTECTION
The insurance rates on individual buildings are also affected by
factors which can be controlled by planning and zoning provisions.
The crowding of buildings means increased insurance rates because
of charges in rating schedules for the hazard of exposure. The
enforcement of wise bulk zoning operates to eliminate such crowding.
It will often be found, therefore, that from the completion of
certain features of the master plan which affect the local fire situa-
tion, tangible results will follow in the form of reduced insurance
premiums, a factor which city planners will find of great assistance
in support of their program.
The fire insurance bureau having jurisdiction in the municipality
involved has a staff of competent fire protection engineers. . . .
It will be apparent that city planners and fire protection engineers
of rating bureaus and other organizations can be of material assist-
ance to each other. — From Advance Publication of the Report of
the Committee on City Planning and Zoning, of the National Fire
Protection Association, 1934.
j CURRENT PROGRESS |
I Conducted by JOHN NOLEN and HOWARD K. MENHINICK I
LAWRENCE VEILLER HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM
ARTHUR A. SHURCLIFF CHARLES W. ELIOT id
GORDON J. CULHAM L. DEMING TILTON
ADVISORY PLANNING NOW, OFFICIAL PLANNING
LATER
Since its creation in 1925, under authority granted by the State in 1923,
the Town Plan Commission of Hamden, Conn., has found that the problems
with which it most frequently has to deal are: (1) the establishment or re-
establishment of building lines and veranda lines; (2) layouts of streets;
(3) the control of real-estate subdivisions.
Building lines and veranda lines have been established in many sections
of the town either on the petition of abutting property owners or on the
recommendation of the Commission. The purposes of these lines are to pro-
vide opportunity for adequate light and air and agreeable surroundings, and
to avoid the construction of new buildings near the street, where future
widening may be necessary.
The Commission has prepared a major thoroughfare plan, after having
given careful consideration to topography, property affected, and neighboring
communities. At present the plan is an informal one backed by a branch of
the town government, which gives it a degree of stability which would be
lacking if it were sponsored by individuals or civic organizations. It is hoped
that through the force of public opinion the thoroughfare plan will eventually
be adopted as "official."
It has been the policy of the Commission to give property owners every
opportunity to learn how proposed street layouts will affect their holdings.
Large landowners are invariably called in to go over proposed layouts with
the Town Engineer, and later all owners are invited to discuss proposals
informally with the Commission. By the time formal hearings are held most
of the difficulties have been ironed out and there is a thorough and clear
understanding of the aims of the Commission.
Plans for all real-estate subdivisions are submitted to the Commission
for approval, which is granted only after careful consideration of the street
plan and its adaptability to the adjacent property.
The success of town planning depends largely on favorable public opinion.
It is therefore hoped that there will be increasing interest in town planning
and understanding of its aims and purposes, so that the Commission will be
empowered ultimately to carry out its plans.
F. WALDEN WRIGHT,
Secretary, Town Plan Commission.
132
CURRENT PROGRESS 133
A CITY PLANNING RESOLUTION
Twenty years of experience have demonstrated the desirability of proper
planning of all forms of public works. Such procedure minimizes waste,
eliminates unnecessary tax burdens, assists in stabilization of values, and
promotes more soundly developed communities.
Planning of public works can be made effective only in so far as it is
given official status, yet few cities, counties, or states have enacted the neces-
sary legislation enabling them to adopt official plans.
The United States Chamber of Commerce therefore endorses the policy
of properly legalizing the preparation and adoption of official plans by properly
constituted planning boards having jurisdiction in their respective areas of
Government, and urges local chambers of commerce to initiate and support
the necessary legislation and adoption of such plans, and also through their
own organizations or in cooperation with independently organized citizen
groups to give the necessary citizen support.
PLANNING BOARD JUSTIFIES ITS EXISTENCE
The Planning Board of Brookhaven Town, Suffolk County, the largest
township in the state of New York, was appointed June, 1931, and rendered
its first progress report in August, 1933. At that time, it presented to the
Town Board a map of the town and demonstrated graphically the need for
the control of new land subdivisions, the designing of the ultimate develop-
ment of the thoroughfare system, and the necessity for zoning. After study-
ing the report and on viewing evidence of the accomplishments of the Planning
Board, the Town Board immediately passed a resolution adopting the map
presented, as the official map of the town, created the Board as a Zoning
Commission, gave them authority, by law, to control the subdivision and
platting of land, and complimented the Board upon the excellent progress
achieved.
Rules and regulations governing the subdivision and platting of land are
now in effect, the zoning and arterial studies are being developed together,
and it is expected that early next year the preliminary report and zoning
ordinance and maps will be completed and ready for public hearings.
Some time ago, strong opposition sought to have the Board abolished
as an unnecessary expense, but so effective has been the work of the Planning
Board that the members of the Town Board and the great majority of the
taxpayers consider it one of the most essential departments of the town
government.
JOHN E. HOLLAMAN,
Consultant.
1A. resolution adopted at the twenty-second annual meeting of the United States Chamber
of Commerce, May 1-4, 1934.
134 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
ZONING A SMALL TOWN
In no place will well-enforced zoning show more effectively its beneficial
effects than in a small town of property-owning and home-loving citizens.
The idea of zoning Dansville, N. Y., originated with the local Board of
Trade. This organization decided that a zoning law was necessary to prevent
many abuses which could not otherwise be regulated.
After three years of study of zoning laws of many villages and small
cities, and after consultations with the United States Department of Com-
merce and the State Housing Bureau, the committee of the Board of Trade
having the matter in charge submitted a draft of a zoning ordinance to the
Village Board of Trustees. A Planning Commission of five members — all
working without compensation — was appointed. Later, a zoning law and
map were adopted after careful criticism and correction by Mr. Edward M.
Bassett. The village now has an ordinance well adapted to its needs and
welfare.
A zoning ordinance is much more difficult to enforce in a small town than
in a large city because all the residents of a small community are friends and
neighbors, and when an infraction is to be corrected or a permit denied, the
Commission is generally proceeding against one whose friendship it values,
or whom it dislikes to antagonize. This is an important reason for the ad-
ministration of a zoning law by a commission and its enforcement officer, —
thereby taking the law out of politics.
Dansville has been especially fortunate in having a sympathetic Board
of Trustees, and an enforcement officer who understands the theory of zoning,
and knows the law and enforces it impartially, without fear or favor. In
most cases of argument he has been called upon to use only moral suasion
and to explain the intent of the law.
Any law, to be enforceable, must have public accord. When the zoning
ordinance was first enacted it was considered by many as revolutionary and
an invasion of the private rights of property owners and tenants. However,
during the seven years the ordinance has been in effect, it has, by the Com-
mission's impartial and strict enforcement, gained the respect, admiration,
and confidence of the citizens. To-day there are only two uncorrected zoning
violations.
The zoning law has been the means of conserving property values by
confining business and industry to the sections designated for those purposes
and by keeping residence districts free from the invasion of garages, gasoline
filling stations, factories, and small neighborhood stores in dwellings, and
other home occupations which tend to spring up during a depression. The
law has also put an end to sporadic curb stands and similar ventures, thereby
reserving business for the people paying rent, who in turn help landlords to
CURRENT PROGRESS 135
meet the taxes which are essential for the conduct of any municipality. Street
curbs and parkways are free from signs and other advertising, thereby giving
the village a very fine appearance.
Zoning is as necessary for the future preservation of real-estate values
and furtherance of beautification in small villages as in large cities.
E. R. GRISWOLD,
Chairman, Planning Commission.
ITHACA, TWENTY-FIVE YEARS FROM NOW
A PRIZE-WINNING HIGH SCHOOL ESSAY1
When a fellow has lived, is living, and intends to live many years in any
one city, he often visualizes its future. There is a certain section of Ithaca,
bounded by Cayuga Street, Seneca Street, Aurora Street, and Court Street,
which I would like turned into a civic center. It would contain a park, play-
ground, parking area, hotel, Y. M. C. A., churches, and public buildings
such as the post office, court house, jail, fire house, and town hall. The
streets would be widened and parking prohibited in them.
The first change comes in the post office. This federal building is a "talk
of the town." It is very nice to look at but much too small. True, one can
go into it at certain times and not meet a soul, but at rush hours every day,
people wait impatiently in line. If you don't believe this, go there at noon
or around three-thirty in the afternoon. I have hit upon the plan of building
an entirely new building to occupy the corner diagonal to the post office.
This property is now owned by Ithaca College which has been hoping, since
the time of Mr. William Egbert, to move to south hill. With the money for
this site and those others desired in this section, this dream may become
a reality.
'S NOTE. — -This is the winning essay in a contest for high school students, spon-
sored by the Ithaca (N. Y.) Planning Commission and the Superintendent of Schools, unre-
vised except for some abridgment to meet the space requirements of the issue. We have not
reproduced the interesting accompanying sketches. The author of the essay, Mr. Holland
C. Gregg, was sixteen years old and a student in the Junior class at the time of the contest.
Out of the more than one thousand essays submitted, two hundred were sent to the
Planning Commission for the selection of the best nine. First and second prizes and honor-
able mentions were awarded. In addition, certificates of merit were presented to the writers
of the two hundred best essays. These certificates state:
"In recognition of the genuine interest shown by the pupils of the schools of this city
in the preparation of the essays on 'The Future Ithaca,' written by them in the Spring of
!933> and in appreciation of the excellent and practical suggestions made by many of the
writers the City Planning Commission of Ithaca, New York, awards this certificate to - —
— whose essay was deemed worthy to be brought to the attention of the
city officials charged with developing the city plan. The Commissioners feel it is as significant
as it is encouraging that the children of our city understand its needs and that they are giving
intelligent thought to its well being."
Mr. George S. Tarbell, Chairman of the Commission, states: "It was a great thing for
the school children and a great thing for the City to get the children interested in city planning
and the future of their home city. Would it not be desirable for other cities of our country
to get the school children interested in the subject of city planning?"
3a
136 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
The old post office building should not be destroyed. Its windows are
large and its general plan perfect for a new city library. The government
has hoped to put in a new post office and with a willing buyer in the city
government, it would be quick to act. The parking space behind it should
be left to allow people to park at their best advantage without the use of
police officers to direct.
Ithaca needs a new hotel. How often have friends of mine shortened
their stays in Ithaca because of the lack of a quiet, modern, well-run hotel.
The prices of Ithaca's better hotels are exorbitant. This refusal of tourists
to stop, causes a great loss to merchants and theater managers of our city.
Why not persuade the Cornell Hotel Management College, which only has
a chance to teach by example one night a year in an ideal hotel, to become
partial or whole owners? A hotel such as I have designed might accommodate
the large number of tourists who would surely be interested. The student
agencies, such as the florists and cleaners could occupy the stores for their
down town customers. A move such as this would create a better under-
standing between the Cornell faculty and city officials. This building should
be placed on the south-west corner of Tioga and Buffalo Streets, now occupied
by Stagg, Thaler and Stagg, attorneys; and the Girl Scout Headquarters.
These two concerns could be housed in an office-apartment building to
be situated on the south-east corner of Tioga and Court Streets, now owned
by the conservatory. These apartments would be small and ultra-modern,
containing "one-room suites" for teachers and small families, large apartments
for bigger families, and offices on the first and second floors. The expenses
of this building would quickly be overcome. The land would be cheap since
Ithaca College would have to move on account of the government taking
over their most valuable property. Occupants would come because of the
convenient location. Lawyers would like offices opposite the Court House.
Behind this building one of the projected municipal parking areas might
be placed.
When Ithaca College moves way up on to south hill the question arises
as to where they may give their plays and speeches. Probably they will have
a theater much like the one at Willard Straight Hall for small performances.
If Ithaca had a large well equipped theater down town they could give their
best performances down there. Cornell clubs used the Lyceum theater regu-
larly, and generations of high school seniors graduated from its stage.
Prominent Ithacans once were members of the Lyceum Company. The
Lyceum was well managed by M. M. Gutstadt, its first manager, and by the
Shuberts of New York. If such people were interested in a theater for a town
the size of Ithaca in 1893, certainly people could be found to run one to
accommodate the population of Ithaca from 1933 to 1958.
CURRENT PROGRESS 137
A likely spot for a theater of this sort would be opposite the Crescent
Ball Room. This space is now taken up by frame buildings of the worst type.
Today, Ithaca is much better off than many cities its size. Marked
improvement is seen every year and I'm sure any one of these suggestions
or all of them would accent this improvement. The plan as a whole, however,
is best, for the individual suggestions overlap, the post office makes Ithaca
College get out which will want also to sell its other property down town for
the office building and hotel. The post office also leaves a place for a library.
And a theater offers a place for both amateur and professional entertainment.
The streets could be improved by prohibiting parking on them and forcing
cars into municipal areas.
HOLLAND C. GREGG
FUTILE TOWN PLANNING
There is something fundamentally defective in the existing scheme of
town and country planning. The planner often makes forecasts of the future
population of his area. His usual procedure is to project into the future the
rate of growth of the past few decades; he thus reaches totals for a few decades
ahead which are double or treble those of the existing population. It is
probably no exaggeration to say that these plans in the aggregate are assum-
ing that the population of the country will double or treble in a period during
which, in fact, it is almost certainly going to decrease to some considerable
extent.
In the absence of planning, local authorities would, no doubt, attempt
to induce industrialists to settle in these areas with the laudable intention of
trying to do something for their unemployed. As a result of this system of
planning, local authorities are encouraged to magnify their activities. The
existence of empty spaces reserved for industry leads to the conviction that
it is a duty to fill them. In consequence we have the extraordinary spectacle
of local authorities trying to attract industrialists in competition one with
another, and offering such financial and other baits as they can — a condition
of things which is the very negation of any kind of planning.
If experts were drawn in there would be an end of the absurdity of plan-
ning for tens of millions who will never see the light of day. If industrialists
were drawn in, then planning would go forward in concert with those who
have the power to withdraw the opportunities for employment for a whole
town or district. If they are absent from the councils of those who plan,
planning must be ineffective and may be merely a farce.
PROFESSOR A. M. CARR-SAUNDERS,
In The Manchester (England) Guardian Weekly,
January 12, 1934.
138 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
FREEWAYS, LINEAR ZONING, AND
SUBDIVISION CONTROL
During the past year, Los Angeles County has made noteworthy progress
in the establishment of a freeway, linear zoning, and increasingly effective
land subdivision control.
There is now in the process of development a freeway from the center
of Los Angeles to the center of Pasadena, involving four bridges and two rail-
road separations which, if adopted, will bring the centers of these cities many
minutes closer together and will provide a park-like drive in keeping with the
modern trends of highway design without intersecting cross traffic.
The coordination of the highway plans of the forty-four cities in Los
Angeles County so as to permit a systematic flow of traffic without congestion,
and the construction of new highways are continuous processes. It is essential
at all times that the areas through which important highways pass be pro-
tected against injurious uses of property, such as auto-wrecking establishments
and unneeded filling stations. This protection, with a vast amount of other
work which definitely preserves property values, is provided for by the de-
tailed zoning carried on in the office of the Los Angeles County Regional
Planning Commission. Two outstanding projects of this nature during the
past year, involving the protection of the two new highways which enter
Pomona, one on Fifth Avenue and the other on Holt Avenue, for a total
length of about thirteen miles, were accomplished through the adoption of
a new type of zoning protecting roadside development along state highways
a thousand feet back from the property line and preventing the erection of
billboards and commercial structures. This is the first attempt that has been
made to utilize this type of zoning, and great care must be exercised to see
that the regulations are equitably administered.
As a result of the New Year's floods in Los Angeles County, some suits
have been filed against the County for damages, on the grounds that the land
in the flood beds and the washes should not have been subdivided and build-
ing within these wash areas should have been prevented by the County.
This has brought to a head the desire of several county departments interested
in such matters to take a more definite stand against such unwise develop-
ment. Apparently the County does not have actual authority fully to prevent
the use of lands subject to flood. However, the Subdivision Committee
representing the Drainage, Road, Flood Control, and Planning Departments
has recently refused approval of two tracts on the sole ground that the land
is unsuitable for occupancy because of inadequate drainage. What the final
result of this action will be we cannot foresee, but the County has definitely
gone on record as opposing the development of such lands.
CHARLES H. DIGGS,
Director.
ZONING ROUNDTABLE
Conducted by EDWARD M. BASSETT
ZONING AND THE STATE PLAN
To-day in this country the word "planning" is used to cover so many
fields that there is real danger of its becoming meaningless. Subjects that are
perfectly comprehensible become mysterious when they are made part of a
complex whole. When this whole includes not only the demarcation of land
areas, but assessments, taxation, budgeting, acquirement of land, housing,
traffic control, and other fields that have always been considered matters of
governmental administration, it becomes confusion worse confounded.
For the purpose of this analysis, let us omit the word "planning." Every
plan, if it is, in truth, a plan, can be shown on a map or several maps. If it
cannot be so shown, it is not a plan. This statement applies to the plan of
a house, a city, a region, or a state. The plan of a house can only be shown
by one or more maps of the contemplated house. But we are concerned with
the demarcation of land areas for the benefit of the community. So we will
eliminate from our discussion structures, both public and private.
What city land areas are stamped by the community with different
characters for community purposes? They are streets, parks, sites for public
buildings, zoning districts, public reservations, and routes of public utilities.
These are all, at present. There may be others in the future. The freeway
will probably be another. All can be shown on a map or maps.
It is interesting that prior to the establishment of zoning about 1916
all these land areas had to be acquired. Zoning districts are the only land
areas demarcated by the community by stamping police-power regulations
upon them.
What state land areas are to be stamped by the community with different
characters for community (state) purposes? Areas intended for acquirement
will be the same as in cities: streets, parks, sites for public buildings, public
reservations, and routes of public utilities. Public reservations will be of
more numerous kinds than in cities. They will comprise areas for forests,
animal sanctuaries, water supply, moisture preservation, and airports; sub-
marginal areas formerly open to occupation and agriculture; and soil rehabili-
tation areas (to be sold later by the state when problems of erosion, run-off,
and curable sterility have been solved).
Privately owned land areas will also be demarcated for regulation. This
will be a form of zoning but one not confined to height, bulk, and use of
buildings. Zoning such as is commonly practiced in municipalities will prob-
139
CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
ably not be adopted by states because of the danger of state districts clashing
with municipal districts and because the voters will insist on local autonomy
in zoning for height, bulk, and use. But zoning as now practiced is the pre-
cursor of the state area demarcation. All the court requirements of valid
zoning will apply to the state districting. The new regulations must be
reasonable and not discriminatory. They must have a substantial relation
to the health, safety, morals, comfort, convenience, and general welfare of
the community.
What will these state regulated districts comprise?
(1) Forests, subject to regulations requiring preservation, orderly cut-
ting, and replanting.
(2) Swamp areas on tops of watersheds for moisture preservation.
(3) Slopes denuded by run-off, with regulations requiring terracing,
planting, or other treatment.
The above private-land districts are for illustration only. There may
be possibilities of non-agricultural areas or non-residential areas. There will
be great danger here of upset by courts on the ground of arbitrariness. Land
will have an extremely low value where such districts are proposed and public
ownership will often be more practicable.
Outside of the state plan, uniform regulations under the police power
will exist, — for instance, taxation of billboards on private land. But these
are not part of the state plan because they cannot be shown on a map
Studies are essential, but studies never become a plan until they head
up into dynamic maps.
E. M. B.
SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY PLANNING
One of the significant features of the 1934 Summer Session of
Teachers College, Columbia University, will be a series of confer-
ences on critical issues in American education.
During the day and evening of Friday, July 20, there will be
a conference on "Educational Plant Planning with Special Refer-
ence to Its Relationship to Modern Community Development."
In addition to this specific subject, trends in residential housing,
in planning for recreational programs, and in commercial and indus-
trial development will be discussed by workers in their respective
fields. There will probably be exhibits of plans and studies showing
desirable relations between the school system and other elements
of the city.
H. K. M.
! LEGAL NOTES
! Conducted by FRANK BACKUS WILLIAMS
I ^
NOTES AND DECISIONS
PRIVATE DEED RESTRICTIONS
In modern housing developments of the better class the subdivider
usually resorts to private covenants in order to insure that the lots shall be
of a sufficient minimum size; and these covenants, in the deed, and to some
extent made a part of the plat from which the lots are sold, are for the benefit
of the owner of any lot and may be enforced by him against any other lot
owner as well as against the original vendor. Such covenants are said to
"run with the land."
A recent Connecticut case1 interpreting such a covenant holds that the
sale of lots with reference to a map upon which they are platted does not
create on the part of the vendor an implied covenant that the size of the
remaining lots upon the map will not be changed.
It follows that the erection of a house on a subdivided lot is not a viola-
tion of the covenant that only one house shall be built upon a single lot when
the subdivision of the original lot did not violate the covenant that no house
should be built on a lot with a frontage of less than 100 feet or an area of
less than 9000 square feet.
NONCONFORMING USE
It is the policy of the zoning law to eliminate nonconforming uses as
soon as this may reasonably and justly be done. Where, therefore, a permit
for a nonconforming gasoline station is granted, it should be temporary and
should provide that when the neighborhood develops so that the property is
reasonably susceptible of being applied to a conforming use it must, on the
application of the authorities or anyone interested, be removed.2
VISION CLEARANCE
Within the last few years many statutes have been passed for the purpose
of preventing the obstruction of the view of automobilists at sharp curves
in the highway, at highway intersections, and at railroad crossings. Many
of these statutes forbid the erection or maintenance of billboards within a
^ickson v. Noroton Manor, Inc., 171 Atl. 31 (Supreme Court of Errors, Conn., Feb. 8,
1934).
2New York — People ex rel. Arseekay Syndicate, Inc., v. Connell, 270 N. Y. 232
(Supreme Court, App. Div., March 16, 1934). To the same effect is the case of People ex rel.
St. Albans-Springfield Corporation v. Connell, 257 N. Y. 73.
141
1 42 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
certain distance of such points, either on the roadway or on private land
bordering it. Often these statutes are applicable only to territory outside
cities and villages. There can, of course, be no doubt of the validity of these
statutes in so far as they affect public land. With the exception of an Okla-
homa case,1 which would seem to sustain them as applied to privately owned
land, there seem to be no decisions with regard to these statutes. Similar
statutes forbid hedges or fences above a given height at such points. Rarely
do these statutes attempt to prevent buildings or similar durable and more
expensive improvements at such places. A recent South Carolina decision2
holds that such a statute amounts to the authorization of the taking of prop-
erty without compensation and is unconstitutional.
Interesting in this connection are the statutes forbidding danger or
directional signs with advertising on them, erected by private parties. The
basis for this prohibition evidently is that such signs tend to confuse or mis-
lead the motorist; and the same argument may be made for the prohibition
of all commercial advertising at dangerous points.
There can be no doubt of the fact that the prevention of signs obstructing
the view at dangerous points is in the public interest. The only question
upon which there can be doubt is whether statutes forbidding such signs on
private property are an undue burden upon the landowner and therefore,
being unreasonable, are unconstitutional. The argument in favor of the
reasonableness of forbidding the lesser obstructions, while allowing the more
substantial ones, is persuasive and may perhaps be expected to prevail. In
some jurisdictions, however, vision clearance is authorized by eminent domain,
with compensation.3
F. B. W.
1Gibbons v. Missouri, Kansas and Texas R. R. Co., 285 Pac. 1040 (Supreme Court,
March 1 1, 1930).
2Henderson v. City of Greenwood, 172 S. E. 689 (Supreme Court, Feb. 5, 1934).
3New Jersey — Frelinghuysen v. State Highway Commission, 152 Atl. 79; Pennsylvania,
1932 no. 313.
INDUSTRIAL DECENTRALIZATION
We find that, as yet, the very popular idea of industrial decen-
tralization remains an almost unanalyzed concept of something
that might be desirable. ... If we are going to find out how good
the idea really is, if we are going to determine the arrangements
which must be made to bring it about, and if we are going to en-
courage or introduce the forces which will cause it to happen in
the way we find we want it to happen, a big research and plan-
ning job has to be done. — JACOB L. CRANE, JR., at the Chicago
meeting of the American City Planning Institute, June 16, 1934.
*•'
1 N. C. C. P. & A. C. P. I. NEWS
Conducted by FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Secretary
CHICAGO MEETING OF THE INSTITUTE
JUNE 15-16, 1934
The fortieth meeting of the Institute, and the first to be held in Chicago,
successfully inaugurated the new policy of holding at least one session during
the year in the Middle West. Thirty members attended and inspected the
new fabricated houses and other planning features of the Fair on the first
day of the session, and listened to talks on "The Russian Program of City
Rebuilding" presented for Leo Rosenberg by Flavel Shurtleff ; "The Chicago
Public Housing Program" by Coleman Woodbury, Secretary of the Illinois
State Housing Board; and "The Design of the Century of Progress Exposi-
tion" by C. W. Farrier, Coordinator of Design and Assistant Manager of the
Exposition.
Saturday morning there was an exclusive membership meeting devoted
to a discussion of the Committee's report on Institute Reorganization. The
conclusions will be reported in the next issue of CITY PLANNING. State Plan-
ning was the subject of the afternoon session with papers by several con-
sultants for state planning commissions, Irvin J. McCrary for Colorado,
S. Herbert Hare for Missouri and Iowa, L. Segoe for Kentucky and Ohio,
and Jacob L. Crane, Jr., for Illinois and Wisconsin.
1934 PLANNING CONFERENCE
The annual meeting of the National Conference on City Planning will
be held probably late in October. The Directors will meet in June to deter-
mine the place and program.
F. S.
Cities are often destroyed by what the learned attorneys call
"Acts of God," but they are rarely created in that way. —
L. DEMING TILTON in "Building a Beautiful Community". Re-
printed from the South Coast News, March 16.
143
BOOK REVIEWS & LISTS i
Conducted by THEODORA KIMBALL HUBBARD \
THE REBUILDING OF BLIGHTED AREAS: A Study of the Neighbor-
hood Unit in Replanning and Plot Assemblage. By CLARENCE
ARTHUR PERRY. Architectural and planning studies under the direction
of C. Earl Morrow. New York, Regional Plan Association, Inc., 1933.
59 pages. Illus., maps and plans, tables. 11 j x 8| inches. Price $2.00.
The present is most opportune for such a study in the housing field,
since the lagging of the durable-goods industries is becoming increasingly
recognized as one of the major drawbacks to recovery. Thus an objective
study of the type here proffered is most welcome, not only from the more
obvious sociological viewpoint but also from the economic, as a potential
means for the stimulation of business activity and reemployment.
The book contains two main divisions: the first includes a general state-
ment of the problem of the blighted area and a detailed description of such
an area with specific recommendations for its reutilization ; the second out-
lines the difficulties encountered in the assembly of land for such a program.
The basic assumption of the program — the demarcation of the size of
the area to be rehabilitated as that which would require one elementary
school unit — may be open to some question on the ground that most of the
successful redevelopments of deteriorated streets, alleys, and smaller areas
that have been carried out have involved the concerted action of more or
less congenial groups of people. There are few tangible criteria for procedure
in the development of harmonious communities, but the subject, although
perhaps more of an art than a science, is a very important one and will have
a distinct bearing on the success of the program proposed.
From the financial viewpoint, the proposed development presents a
number of points which should perhaps receive additional attention, refine-
ment, or explanation. In the capital cost account, there is no allowance
stated for the cost of obtaining the money required for the project, — a sum
which may reach considerable proportions, possibly even greater than the
excess sums over and above the assessed values that may have to be paid
for the land involved. This same item will likewise affect the capitalization
account, and it is a moot question where sufficient financing can be secured
for a project of the type outlined, at the present writing, particularly as
regards equity money.
The income account obviously cannot be fully analyzed nor discussed
without first-hand information on the locality. However, it can be questioned
144
BOOK REVIEWS 145
whether the vacancy allowance is adequate. Of course this allowance for
vacancy may be sufficient after the project has had an opportunity to get
well under way, but it may be necessary to set up as a development cost an
interim allowance to carry the project along until such time as the develop-
ment may attain a self-supporting occupancy. This could well be included
as a legitimate capital cost.
The expense account is a most interesting one, but the adequacy of the
provisions for depreciation and obsolescence would seem open to some ques-
tion. An amortization of two per cent on the mortgage is provided, but this
would amount to only about one and seven-tenths per cent of the total cost
of the building. Although, under the scheme of operation that is implied, this
amortization would be equivalent to a compounding fund for the preservation
of the integrity of the investment and so tend to offset the effects of deprecia-
tion and obsolescence, nevertheless more complete safety would require this
to be increased somewhat.
The acquisition of sites for a development of this type constitutes one
of the principal uncertainties of the program. When every inducement tends
to foster delays and "holdouts" on the part of the more acquisitive owners,
the promoters of such a project, caught between the expense of buying "hold-
outs" at "nuisance" values or having recourse to perhaps equally unsatis-
factory legal processes (if these are made possible for such corporations) are
faced with a very real and knotty problem. However, it is possible that some
public-spirited promoter may undertake such a program, and instead of
receiving a block of promoters' stock, usually the perquisite of the enterpriser,
may be willing to turn it over on a share basis to the landholders who are
willing to cooperate, as an inducement and a reward. Nevertheless, a recal-
citrant minority may remain to be dealt with by some other method. No
solution is proffered for the problem of the mortgagees, particularly when
they are trustees or other individuals or corporations bound by many legal
restrictions or subject to surcharge.
The solution of the problem proposed by Mr. Perry involves largely the
proposition that more equitable and prompt legal machinery may be set up
to enable condemnation and acquisition of land, and that the owners of the
required sites may be induced to cooperate and to pool their individual in-
terests in the general program, through some form of education along the
lines of the advantages that may be obtained thereby. Thus, in this phase
of the problem at least, the solution implies a progressive evolution rather
than an attempt to propound some panacea developed in one bold stroke.
Granted that the magnitude of the program is large, it is hoped that it
can be further adjusted and developed as a laboratory test and as a guide
to the rest of the country. The Russell Sage Foundation and the Regional
Plan Association can well be congratulated on this timely study.
ALEXANDER B. RANDALL
146 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
A SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS BIBLIOGRAPHY
Compiled in
The Library of the Schools of Landscape Architecture
and City Planning, Harvard University
By KATHERINE MCNAMARA, Librarian
BAKER, O. E. Rural-urban migration and the national welfare. (Annals of the Association
of American Geographers, June 1933; vol. 23, no. 2 [whole number], p. 59-126. Maps,
charts.)
BlSCHOF, JOSEF. Die Stadtrandsiedlungen Falkensee, Falkenberg, Blankenfelde bei Berlin.
(Monatshefte fiir Baukunst und Stadtebau, Oct. 1933; vol. 17, p. 433-438. Illus., plans.)
BISHOP, WARREN. Putting city workers back on the farm. (Nation's Business, Nov.
1933; vol. 21, no. n, p. 16-17, 54, 56-57. Illus.)
BORSODI, RALPH. The factors in the quest of comfort: I. The homestead. (In his This
ugly civilization, N. Y., Harper & Brothers, 1933, chap. 15, p. 310-339.)
— . Flight from the city: the story of a new way to family security. N. Y., Harper &
Brothers, 1933. 194 p. Illus., plans.
Subsistence homesteads: President Roosevelt's new land and population policy.
(Survey Graphic, Jan. 1934; vol. 33, p. 11-14, 48- Illus.)
BlITTENHEIM, H. S. Subsistence homesteads, in his article: Trends in present-day city
and regional planning in the United States, 1933. (City Planning, Apr. 1934; vol. 10,
p. 66-69.)
Discussion of Division of Subsistence Homesteads, U. S. Dept. of the Interior; The North
Carolina and Dayton projects.
CALIFORNIA. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE. DIVISION OF LAND SETTLEMENT. [Re-
port.] (In Eleventh annual report of the California Dept. of Agriculture, 1930; pub-
lished as the Monthly Bulletin of the Department, Dec. 1930; vol. 19, p. 789-796.)
ClIRISTALLER, WALTER. Anwendung der Theorie auf die siedlungsgeographische Wirk-
lichkeit. (In his Die zentralen Orte in Siiddeutschland, Jena, Gustav Fischer, 1933,
p. 137-164.)
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR. [Series of twelve articles on subsistence homesteads
movement.] (Christian Science Monitor, Feb. 5-Feb. 17, 1934.)
COLONISATION [sic] OF THE UNEMPLOYED. (Housing and Building, 1932; vol. 4,
no. i/ 2, p. 39-69. Illus., plans.)
Colonization in Russia, Germany, England, and Austria.
DURYEE, W. B. A living from the land. N. Y., McGraw-Hill Book Co., Whittlesey House,
1934. 189 p. Illus., plans, tables, cross sections.
GERMANY: law dealing with the development of land for the building of residential colonies
(passed Sept. 22nd, 1933). (International Housing Association. Information, [circa
Mar. 1934, p. 14-15].)
Text of article also in French, p. [21-23].
GERMANY: small suburban settlements and allotments for the unemployed. (Journal of
the Town Planning Institute, Sept. 1933; vol. 19, p. 245-248.)
HOLLANDS: caracteres remarquables des nouveaux logements ouvriers construits a Amster-
dam. (International Housing Association. Information, [circa Mar. 1934, p. 16-18].)
A note from I let Bouwbedrijf, Dec. 1933.
HOMESTEAD NOTES (monthly), Sept. 1933 to date. Suffern, N. Y., Ralph Borsodi and
Associates, no. i, Sept. 1933 to date.
ITALIE: defrichement et colonisation des Marais Pontine. (International Housing Associa-
tion. Information, [circa May 1934], p. 14-15.)
BOOK REVIEWS H7
ITALY: improvement of the land and residential colonies: drainage of the Pontine Marshes.
(International Housing Association. Information, [circa Mar. 1934, p. u].)
A note from Union Internationale des Villes et Pouvoirs Locaux, Document no. 55, Nov. 1933.
JOHNSON, ALVIN. The happy valley. (Yale Review, June 1933; vol. 22, p. 678-690.)
Discussion, from the economic and idealistic viewpoints, of farm settlements by artistic and
intellectual people.
KOCHER, A. LAWRENCE, and ALBERT PREY. Subsistence farmsteads. (Architectural
Record, Apr. 1934; vol. 75, p. 349-356- IHus., plans.)
Proposed plan for subsistence dwellers, and status of existing subsistence homestead projects.
KUNZE, WALTER. Der Stadt-Landkreis: ein kommunale Notwendigkeit. (Monatshefte
fur Baukunst und Stadtebau, Apr. 1933; vol. 17, p. 191-192.)
LAND SETTLEMENT for unemployed. (Monthly Labor Review, Oct. 1933; vol. 37, p. 834-
841. Table.)
Land settlement in Germany, Italy, and New Zealand.
LAND SETTLEMENT in the Irish Free State. (Monthly Labor Review, July 1933; vol. 37,
p. 54-56.)
Data from report made at request of Bureau of Labor Statistics, by Benjamin M. Hulley,
American consul, Dublin, Nov. 25, 1932.
MlGGE, LEBERECHT. Kolonisation oder Stadtebau? (Gartenstadt, June 1930; vol. 14,
no. 1-3, p. 9-13-)
NATIONAL HOMESTEADING. (Homestead Notes, Feb. 1934; no. 6, p. 1-2, 7.)
NOLEN, JOHN. The landscape architect in public works: Division of Subsistence Home-
steads, Department of the Interior. (Landscape Architecture, Jan. 1934; vol. 24, p. 82-83.)
ON SETTLING at home. (Country Life [London], Nov. 1933; vol. 74, p. 460.)
Small land holdings.
THE PRESIDENT'S new relief policy. (Survey, Mar. 1934; vol. 70, p. 72.)
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS in subsistence-homesteads movement. (Monthly Labor Review,
Feb. 1934; vol. 38, p. 245-253.)
RELIEF OF UNEMPLOYMENT through land colonization in Canada. (Monthly Labor
Review, May 1933; vol. 36, p. 1041-1050.)
RUCKMAN, JOHN H. What types of small subsistence farms are economically and socially
sound? (National Real Estate Journal, Oct. 1933; vol. 34, no. n, p. 33-34.)
RURAL HOUSING. (Millar's Housing Letter, July 17, 1933; vol. i, no. 40, p. 4.)
Lists four types oi rural housing being considered by the Division of Subsistence Homesteads.
SAASSEN, DR. Stadtsiedlung — Stadtrandsiedlung. 7. Die Stadtrandsiedlung. (In Bruck,
W. F., ed. Die deutsche Siedlung, Miinster i. Westf., Verlag der Forschungsstelle fur
Siedlungs- und Wohnungswesen, 1932, p. 95-120. Plans.)
SIEDLUNG ROMERSTADT: Anzahl der Wohnungen 1220. (Das Neue Frankfurt, Apr.-
May 1930; vol. 4, p. 76-84. Illus., folded map, plans, chart.)
SUBSISTENCE FARM project organized. (American Forests, Sept. 1933; vol. 39, p. 423.)
Brief note on Federal organization.
SUBSISTENCE FARMS for ex-coal miners; and, Significance of West Virginia project.
(Millar's Housing Letter, Oct. 23, 1933; vol. 2, no. 2, p. 7-8.)
SUBSISTENCE HOMES and the national forests. (American Forests, Feb. 1934; vol. 40,
P- 69.)
SUBSISTENCE HOMES succeeding in British forests. (American Forests, Feb. 1934; vol. 40,
p. 86.)
SUBSISTENCE-HOMESTEAD program started in West Virginia. (Engineering News-Record,
Jan. 11, 1934; vol. 112, p. 48.)
Reedsville, W. Va., project.
148 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADING conference at Dayton, December 8-10, 1933. (Ohio State
University. Engineering Experiment Station News, Dec. 1933; vol. 5, no. 5, p. i.)
National Conference on Subsistence Ilomesteading, under auspices of Unit Committee of the
Dayton Council of Social Agencies.
SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS. (Housing Information Bureau. Monthly Letter, May I,
1934; vol. 2, no. 8, p. 4-5.)
Note concerning projects in Illinois, South Carolina, and Texas.
SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS. (Planning Broadcasts, Dec. 1933; no. 6, [whole number].)
Article based on manuscript prepared by John Nolen, Special Consultant to the Subsistence
Homesteads Division of the Department of the Interior. Also reprinted as Bulletin of the
National Conference on City Planning.
SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS. (Survey, Jan. 1934; vol. 70, p. 23-24.)
Work of the Division of Subsistence Homesteads, with account of Tygart Valley, W. Va., and
Dayton, Ohio, projects.
SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS. (Survey, Apr. 1934; vol. 70, p. 135.)
A list of approved projects to date.
SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS, PWA. (Civic Comment, Oct.-Jan. 1934; no. 45, p. 4-5.)
Account of organization and work of Division of Subsistence Homesteads.
SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS projects, aiming to provide, not merely a living, but a life
worth living. (American City, Feb. 1934; vol. 49, no. 2, p. 75, 77.)
SURVEYORS ARE SWARMING over a West Virginia farm which the government has selected
as a $250,000 homestead laboratory. (Architectural Forum, Nov. 1933; vol. 59, p. 430-
431. Illus., portrait.)
TAYLOR, A. D. Subsistence homesteads, in his article: Notes on Federal activities relating
to landscape architecture. (Landscape Architecture, Apr. 1934; vol. 24, p. 171.)
TERPENNING, WALTER A. Rural village, new model; What good rural planning can do
for the countryside. (Survey Graphic, Oct. 1932; vol. 21, p. 474-475, 486-488. Plans.)
THOMAS, EDGAR. The economics of small holdings: a study based on a survey of small
scale farming in Carmarthenshire. With a preface by C. S. Orwin. Cambridge, [Eng.],
The University Press, 1927. Tables.
U. S. A.: The "Back-to-the-land movement" in U. S. A. Subsistence homesteads. (Inter-
national Housing Association. Information, [circa May 1934], p. 7-8.)
U. S. CONGRESS. 69TH. 2ND SESSION. HOUSE. Reclamation and rural development
in the South: letter from Secretary of the Interior transmitting a report of special ad-
visers of their investigation of reclamation and rural development in the South, and a
report on swamp and overflow lands in the Yazoo Basin, Miss. Washington, Govt.
Printing Office, 1927. 2 vols. Map, tables. (House document no. 765.)
Contents: Part I. Rural development in the South; Part II. Swamp and overflow lands in the
Yazoo Basin. See especially Colonization of cut-over lands, vol. 2, p. 77-78.
— . 7oTH. 1ST SESSION. SENATE. Southern Reclamation Conference: proceedings
of the Southern Reclamation Conference held in Washington, D. C., December 14 and
15, 1927, under the auspices of the Department of the Interior . . . and of the Bureau
of Reclamation. . . . Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1928. 92 p. Illus. (Senate
document no. 45.)
7iST. 2D SESSION. HOUSE. Creation of organized rural communities to demon-
strate the benefits of planned settlement and supervised rural development. Washington,
Govt. Printing Office, [1930]. 15 p. (Report no. 870.)
U. S. DEPT. OF THE INTERIOR. DIVISION OF SUBSISTENCE HOMESTEADS. General
information concerning the purposes and policies of the Division of Subsistence Home-
steads. Washington, The Department, Nov. 15, 1933. 13 p. (Circular no. i.)
— . Memorandum for the press. [Washington, The Department], Sept. 28, 1933
to date. Mimeographed.
— . [Miscellaneous bulletins]. Washington, The Division, [1934]. Mimeographed.
Contents: Some financial aspects of subsistence homesteads; Some facts about subsistence
homesteads; What are subsistence homesteads?
BOOK REVIEWS 149
U. S. TO BUILD SUBSISTENCE HOMES: projects for New Jersey, Ohio and West Virginia
are announced by new Federal Homestead Corporation. (National Real Estate Journal,
Jan. 1934; vol. 35, no. i, p. 23-24. Illus.)
WILSON, M. L. A new land-use program: the place of subsistence homesteads. (Journal
of Land and Public Utility Economics, Feb. 1934; vol. 10, p. I-I2.)
— . The place of subsistence homesteads in our national economy. (Journal of Farm
Economics, Jan. 1934; vol. 16, no. i, p. 73-84; with discussion, by C. C. Zimmermann,
p. 84-87.)
Discussion also reprinted. Abstract of address reprinted in mimeographed form by U. S. Divi-
sion of Subsistence Homesteads.
WlNEY, HAROLD E. [Subsistence homesteads in Dayton, Ohio.] (In Proceedings of I5th
annual meeting of Ohio State Planning Conference, 1933, p. 3.)
Also reprinted in part in Regional planning notes, Los Angeles County Regional Planning Com-
mission, Mar. 1, 1934.
OTHER RECENT PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED
CITY PLANNING is glad to receive for listing in this department pamphlets and
documents of professional interest to its readers. The publications it thus receives
are filed for permanent reference in the Library of the School of City Planning of
Harvard University.
AKRON (OHIO) REAL ESTATE BOARD. HOUSING COMMITTEE. Housing survey of
Akron, Ohio. Akron, The Board, Sept. i, 1933. 53 pages. Mimeographed. Price JSi.oo.
BORST, OTTO. Die Verkehrsentwicklung der Stadt Ulm. Ein Beitrag zur Landesplanung.
Esslingen a.N., Verlag der Burgbiicherei, n.d. 59 pages. Maps and plans (one folded).
Price RM 7.
BRIGHTON, HOVE AND DISTRICT (ENGLAND) JOINT TOWN PLANNING ADVISORY
COMMITTEE. Town and Country Planning Act, 1932 — Interim development of land.
Brighton, The Committee, July 1933. J pages.
BROOKHAVEN (N. Y.) PLANNING BOARD. Rules and regulations for the subdivision and
platting of land. Brookhaven, Jan. 1934. 16 pages. (John E. Hollaman, consultant.)
BRUCK, W. F., Editor. Die deutsche Siedlung 1932. Miinster i. Westf., Verlag der For-
schungsstelle fiir Siedlungs- und Wohnungswesen, 1932. 260 pages. Illus., plans. Price
RM 4.8o.
COMMONS, OPEN SPACES AND FOOTPATHS PRESERVATION SOCIETY. Footpath
maps and surveys: why and how to make them. London, The Society, [1933]. 8 pages.
Price 3d.
— . Parish councils and the Rights of Way Act, 1932. London, The Society,
['933]- 8 pages.
The Rights of Way Act, 1932. An explanation of the Act as affecting the
proof of dedication of highways with special reference to the powers and duties of local
authorities. London, The Society, [1933]. 8 pages. Price 3d.
CONNECTICUT STATE PLANNING BOARD. Statements. Jan. 8, 1934 -date. Mimeo-
graphed.
CRANE, JACOB L., JR. Comprehensive planning for the development of Illinois: a pre-
liminary report on state planning. [Chicago], Illinois Chamber of Commerce, The Civic
Development Committee, 1934. 54 pages. Maps, plans, graphs. Mimeographed.
DANSK BYPLANLABORATORIUM. Beretning om Dansk Byplanlaboratoriums Virksomhed,
I93I-33- K0benhavn, 1934. 78 pages. Illus., maps and plans.
I5Q CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
DAYTON (OHIO) CITY PLAN BOARD. Housing survey: city of Dayton, Ohio. Dayton,
J934- 95 pages. Illus., maps, plans, graphs. Planographed. (Civil Works Administra-
tion Project No. 4013.)
DES MOINES (IOWA) CITY PLAN AND ZONING COMMISSION. Annual report, 1933.
J934> f°r the fiscal year ending March 31, 1934. Des Moines, The Commission, 1934.
21 pages. Mimeographed.
ELIOT, CHARLES W., 2ND. Planning a better country. Reprinted from Engineering News-
Record, Feb. 8, 1934. 2 pages. Map.
FRED L. LAVANBURG FOUNDATION. Practices and experiences of the Lavanburg Homes.
New York, The Foundation, 1934. 16 pages. Illus.
Copies may be obtained from Abraham Goldfield, Executive Director, 132 Goerck St , New
York City.
GARDEN CITIES AND TOWN PLANNING ASSOCIATION. Proposals for the building of
garden cities: evidence presented to the Government Committee on Garden Cities.
London, The Association, [1932]. 20 pages. Price is.
GOLDFIELD, ABRAHAM. Towards fuller living through public housing and leisure time
activities. New York, The National Public Housing Conference, 1934. 55 pages. Illus.
Price 25 cents.
GREAT BRITAIN. MINISTER OF HEALTH. Town and country planning, England and
Wales. The Town and Country Planning Regulations, 1933, dated July 27, 1933, made
by the Minister of Health under the Town and Country Planning Act, 1932. London,
H. M. Stationery Office, 1933. 25 pages. Price yd. (Statutory rules and orders, 1933,
no. 742.)
GlJTHEIM, F. A. Regional planning by the Federal Government. [Washington], Editorial
Research Reports, Vol. II, no. 2, July 10, 1933. [17] pages. Price $1.00.
HERBERT, P. A. Rural land zoning. In Michigan Commission of Inquiry into County,
Township and School District Government, Michigan Local Government Series, Dec.
1933. Illus.
HUNTINGTON (N. Y.) PLANNING BOARD. Master plan report. [Huntington, The Board],
June 7, 1933. 16 pages. Illus. (Richard Schermerhorn, Jr., consultant.)
IlILDER, JOHN. A housing program. Boston, Boston Housing Association, March 1934.
22 pages. Mimeographed.
INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR HOUSING AND TOWN PLANNING. International
glossary of technical terms used in housing and town planning. London, The Federa-
tion, [1934]. 77 pages. (Special report no. 2.)
In English, French. German, and Italian.
LEWIS, CHARLES F. Who will rebuild our cities — business or government? Reprinted
from The Pittsburgh Record, University of Pittsburgh. 2 pages.
LEWIS-DALE, H. ANGLEY. Aviation and the aerodrome: a treatise on the problems of
aviation in relation to the design and construction of aerodromes. Philadelphia, J. H.
Lippincott Co., 1932. 168 pages. Illus., plans (part folded). Price $6.00.
LOW-COST HOUSING AND SLUM CLEARANCE: a symposium. Law and Contemporary
Problems, Vol. I, no. 2, March 1934. Durham, N. C., Duke University School of Law.
Price 60 cents. David F. Cavers, Editor.
Contents: A century of the housing problem, by Edith Elmer Wood; I lousing the poor: mirage
or reality, by Carol Aronovici; Urban housing and land use, by Herbert U. Nelson; The regional
approach to the housing problem, by Earle S. Draper and Tracy B. Augur; Housing as a political
problem, by Ernest J. Bohn; The drafting of housing legislation, by Ralph K. Chase; Financing
slum clearance, by George W. Warnecke; The relation of housing to taxation, by Harold S.
Buttenheim; Housing projects and city planning, by Alfred Bettman; Land assembly for hous-
ing developments, by Coleman Woodbury; A note on the power of the Federal Government
to condemn for housing, by Robert G. Seaks; Control of housing administration, by Walter H,
Blucher; The housing authority and the housed, by Charles S. Ascher,
BOOK REVIEWS 1.51
LUTHARDT, [WlLHELM]. Landesplanung Ostthiiringen, 1927-1932. Leipzig, Eduard
Gaeblers Geographisches Institut, 1933. 2 vols. Illus. Price RM 12.
Vol. I, text; Vol. II, maps.
MASSACHUSETTS. HOUSE NO. 1024. An Act relative to restricting use of buildings and
premises, bulk of buildings and occupancy of lots in the city of Boston. 1934. 3 pages.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. Course in city planning: [announce-
ment]. Boston, The Institute, School of Architecture, 1934. 4 pages.
MELLEN, J. A., Compiler. State primary and secondary highway system in Los Angeles
County. Los Angeles, distributed through the courtesy of the Civic Development &
Real Estate Dept., May 1934. [26] pages. Mimeographed.
The report shows the amount of work and the estimated cost to bring each section of the county
highway system up to accepted state standards. This is an official report resulting from a
general public demand for such a study.
MENHINICK, HOWARD K. Urban planning symbols: a compilation of the symbols used
in city and regional planning in the United States. A preliminary report to the Special
Committee on Standard Symbols, Scales and Terminology for Planning Use, of the Board
of Surveys and Maps of the Federal Government. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Univer-
sity School of City Planning, 1934. 185 pages. Illus. Typewritten.
Not available for distribution.
MID-CHESHIRE (ENGLAND) REGIONAL PLANNING COMMITTEE. Town & country
planning in Mid-Cheshire (Region No. 3) with the object of promoting convenience,
health and amenity within the region. Explanatory memorandum. Weaverham, The
Committee, 1933. 12 pages. Map. Price 3d.
MILTON (MASS.) BOARD OF SURVEY. Rules and regulations. Milton, The Board, July
14, 1932. 13 pages. Illus.
MILWAUKEE (Wis.) BOARD OF PUBLIC LAND COMMISSIONERS. Taking stock: [re-
port on a comprehensive survey of the number and location of vacant parcels of land
and front footage available for development in the variously zoned use districts within
the city limits]. Milwaukee, Apr. 1934. 5 pages + map. Tables. Mimeographed.
(Chas. B. Bennett, city planning engineer.)
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF HOUSING OFFICIALS. Demolition of unsafe and insanitary
housing: an outline of procedure for a comprehensive program. Chicago, The Associa-
tion, 1934. 35 pages. Illus., plans. Lithoprinted. Price 25 cents; free to public officials.
— . Public housing surveys: an outline of survey and planning procedure for
low-cost housing. Chicago, The Association, March 1934. 20 pages. Illus. Litho-
printed. Price 25 cents; free to public officials.
NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION (INTERNATIONAL). Advance publica-
tion of the report of the Committee on City Planning and Zoning. Boston, The Associa-
tion, 1934. 31 pages. Illus.
NATIONAL RECREATION ASSOCIATION. The leisure hours of 5,000 people: a report of
a study of leisure time activities and desires. New York, The Association, 1934. 83
pages. Mimeographed. Price $1.00.
NAVIN, REV. R. B., and OTHERS. An analysis of a slum area in Cleveland. Cleveland,
Ohio, Metropolitan Housing Authority, 1934. 27 pages. Folded map.
NEDERLANDSCII INSTITUUT VOOR VOLKSHUISVESTING EN STEDEBOUW. Jaarvers-
lag over 1933. Amsterdam, [1934]. 17 pages. Mimeographed.
"THE NETHERLANDS ABROAD" ASSOCIATION. The story of the Zuiderzee Works:
fresh fields and polders new. The Hague, Official Tourist Information Office, n.d. [26]
pages. Illus., map.
NEW JERSEY. COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR SENATE No. 154. An Act to create
a state planning board and prescribing its powers and duties. Adopted Apr. 9, '1934.
3 pages.
152 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 3
PACIFIC NORTHWEST REGIONAL PLANNING CONFERENCE. Proceedings of the first
Pacific Regional Planning Conference at Portland, Oregon, March 5-7, 1934. Portland,
Pacific Northwest Regional Planning Commission, 1934. 131 pages.
PASSAIC COUNTY (N. J.) PLANNING ASSOCIATION and THE REGIONAL PLAN ASSO-
CIATION, INC. Passaic County and the Regional Plan: just what this great enterprise
means to the county and particularly to the community in which you live. Paterson,
N. J., and New York City, 1934. 28 pages. Illus., map, folded plan. Price 20 cents.
PATCH, BUEL W. Editorial Research Reports, Vol. II, nos. 3, 15, and 19. [Washington],
Editorial Research Reports, 1933. Price $1.00 each.
Subjects: Public works and national recovery; Land settlement for the unemployed; and Fed-
eral home loans and housing.
RABUCK, A. J. A zoning manual for Wisconsin cities and villages, including a skeleton
zoning ordinance. Madison, Wis., League of Wisconsin Municipalities, May 1934. [15]
pages. Price 50 cents. (Supplement to May 1934 issue of The Municipality.)
RAYMOND, JEAN. Guide pratique de 1'urbaniste. Paris, Dunod, 1933. 246 pages. Illus.
Price 45 fr.
REGIONAL PLANNING FEDERATION OF THE PHILADELPHIA TRI-STATE DISTRICT.
Nature's plan for parks and parkways — recreational lands in the Philadelphia Tri-State
District. Philadelphia, The Federation, 1932. 36 pages. Illus., folded and colored plan.
RIDLEY, CLARENCE E., and GRIN F. NOLTING. The municipal year book, 1934: an
authoritative resume of activities and statistical data of American cities. Chicago,
International City Managers' Association, 1934. 256 pages. Price $4.00.
To be reviewed.
RUTGERS TOWN CORPORATION. Rutgerstown and Queenstown, low cost housing projects
for the average man. New York, The Corporation, [1934]. unpaged. Illus., folded
map, plans, graphs.
SAENZ, AARON. Governar a la ciudad es servirla: informe. Mexico, Federal District, 1934.
74 pages. Illus., plans.
ST. PAUL (MINN.) COMMITTEE ON ADDITION PLATS. Report. March 21, 1933.
7 pages. Mimeographed.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY (CAL.) PLANNING COMMISSION. Proposed subdivision ordinance
for San Diego County, Cal. [San Diego], Apr. 1934. 25 pages. Mimeographed. (L.
Deming Tilton, consultant; L. W. Dewall, engineer.)
SIMON, SIR E. D. The anti-slum campaign. London and New York, Longmans, Green
and Co., 1933. 206 pages. Price $1.20.
SOUTH EAST KENT REGION (ENGLAND) JOINT TOWN PLANNING COMMITTEE.
Are you building? [8] pages. Map, plans.
SYDENSTRICKER, EDGAR. Health and environment. New York, McGraw-Hill Book
Co., Inc., 1933. 217 pages. Graphs, tables. Price $2.50.
To be reviewed.
TOWN PLANNING INSTITUTE (GREAT BRITAIN). Questions set in intermediate exami-
nation, July 1933. 6 pages. Illus.
U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE. BUREAU OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS. Natural
land-use areas of the United States: [a map]. Washington, Government Printing Office,
1933- C"ne Page> colored and folded. Price 50 cents.
Source material listed on back.
WHITE, MAX R. Water supply organization in the Chicago Region. Chicago, The Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, 1934. 170 pages. Maps. Price $2.00.
To be reviewed.
ZlMMERMANN, ERICH W. World resources and industries: a functional appraisal of the
availability of agricultural and industrial resources. New York, Harper & Bros., 1933.
842 pages. Illus., maps, and plans. Price $5.00.
Town PI
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CITY PLANNING
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Vol. X OCTOBER 1934 No. 4
CONTENTS
State Park and Recreation Planning . . . HERBERT EVISON 153
Securing Public Support for Planning . . . BRYANT HALL 164
EDITORIAL . . . . . . . . . .176
CURRENT PROGRESS: — C.W.A. and the Kenosha City Plan — Highways, Zoning,
and Tree Planting — A Resolution — Radio Addresses on Land Use Plan-
ning— An Older City Looks Ahead — Recent Planning Developments in
New York City — A Bureau of Community Planning . . .177
ZONING ROUNDTABLE: — Gasoline Stations ...... 184
LEGAL NOTES: — Reasonableness . . . . . . .186
N. C. C. P. & A. C. P. I. NEWS: — Conference on City, Regional, State, and
National Planning . . . . . . . .187
BOOK REVIEWS & LISTS: — Reviews — Recent Publications . . 190
Published Quarterly at n Oak Street, Augusta, Maine, by
CITY PLANNING PUBLISHING CO.
GENERAL OFFICE: 12 PRESCOTT STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
HENRY VINCENT HUBBARD, EDITOR HOWARD K. MENHINICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
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at Augusta, Maine, under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879.
CITY PLANNING
OFFICIAL ORGAN
AMERICAN CITY PLANNING INSTITUTE
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CITY PLANNING
QUARTERLY
VOL. 10 October 1934 No. 4
STATE PARK AND RECREATION
PLANNING
By HERBERT EVISON
Executive Secretary, The National Conference on State Parks
THE state's definite and admitted concern with recreation1 has
revealed itself principally in two directions, establishment
and operation of state parks, and provision of opportunity
for hunting and fishing.
In actual practice, few terms are so loosely used as "state
park," which may designate a 6o,ooo-acre section of the Black
Hills of South Dakota, a 25-acre camping ground in Michigan,
and a half-acre Indian mound in Columbus, Ohio. It covers a
multitude of sins in land selection. On the other hand, Massa-
chusetts refuses to accept it at all; she has true state parks but
attests her independence and individuality by calling them reser-
vations.
The state's interest in providing opportunities to hunt and fish
is expressed in far-flung systems of game preserves, game farms,
relatively few public hunting grounds, and hatcheries and rear-
ing ponds that do their best to provide fish with which to restock
streams and lakes at a rate commensurate with that at which six-
or seven- or eight-inch specimens are removed by the fisherman,
in extensive game and fish studies, and in the exaction of a fee for
the privilege of hunting or fishing.
The states had been building highways for a long time before
any considerable number of road builders could be brought to
admit either that their handiwork had any recreational importance
xAn article adapted from a recent lecture at the Harvard School of City Planning.
153
154 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
or that recreational value was a factor to be considered in the
selection of highway routes. The philosophy of road building was
expressed largely in the axiom that a straight line is the shortest
distance between two points and in the engineering principle that
cuts should balance fills, — let the cuts cut what they may. It is
gratifying to find Michigan and Illinois buying 2oo-foot rights of
way for their trunk highways and, in the case of Michigan at least,
planting the roadsides with pleasing informality; the Pennsylvania
Highway Department removing advertising signs by the thousand,
once or twice a year, from their rights of way but not, alas! from
adjoining properties; Massachusetts insisting that the public in-
terest and the public power extend beyond the highway onto
private property in the control of offenses to the eye; and a number
of states employing landscape architects to safeguard the esthetic
amenities of their highway systems. These are a few examples of
what appears to be a growing trend, which it is to be hoped will
ultimately gain sufficient popular and legal support to eliminate
the rural billboard and make possible the assertion of some degree
of control over rural commercial structures.
Accepting the broad implications of the word "recreation,"
many states have accepted varying degrees of responsibility
toward places of historic interest. Richard Lieber, who built
Indiana's system of state parks, has insisted that nobody has any
business selecting or developing or operating state parks who has
not a live historic sense.
The state appears likely to concern itself in the future with
what may be a new classification of recreation area, — a product
of the national program of submarginal land purchase, — which is
known to those who are working with them as vacation or rest
areas, designed primarily to provide vacation opportunities for
children or for families in the low-wage group. These places may
fit directly into a broadened state park picture. Part of the same
program are such widenings of our highways as will provide places
in which to eat a roadside lunch somewhat separated from the rush
and roar of highway travel. Oregon, Michigan, and New Hamp-
shire are among the states which have considerably anticipated
the Federal Government in this field.
STATE RECREATION PLANNING 155
LACK OF ADEQUATE PLANNING
I do not think that any of us can contemplate the present
picture of state recreation planning with any particular satisfaction.
Under the impetus of Emergency Conservation Work, the recrea-
tional holdings of the states have been greatly expanded during
the past year; some extraordinarily valuable properties have been
acquired; and, on the whole, I believe the results have been defi-
nitely worth while. But with the exception of one or two states,
this whole expansion has been characterized by planlessness;
purely local pressure, arising out of the desire to draw the motorist
and his money, has been responsible for much of it; and some of
the new areas are almost certain to prove liabilities rather than
assets. Unfortunately, there are still a number of park agencies
which have not learned that parks are one form of gift horse whose
dental apparatus needs the most thorough and skeptical exami-
nation.
Park enthusiasm and park acquisition have far outrun realiza-
tion of the need of planning the acquisition programs or of plan-
ning the parks themselves. The National Conference on State
Parks, for the past five years, and the National Park Service,
since the establishment of the CCC (which is now working in about
250 parks), have concentrated chiefly on the necessity of sound
planning for individual parks rather than on state-wide or region-
wide park and recreation planning.
The number of states that can be said to have done any real
planning in connection with the task of building up their park
systems and with the other phases of their responsibility in the
field of outdoor recreation can be counted on the ten fingers, with
a few fingers to spare. The result is that there are in the United
States, I venture to estimate, at least three hundred areas called
state parks that don't deserve the name.
BRIEF HISTORY AND ANALYSIS OF STATE RECREATION
PLANNING
There is not time, nor is there any good reason, to attempt
here to give a complete history of state recreation planning. The
best approach to the subject appears to be to examine some of the
156 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
results of it, and to try to reach certain conclusions from them,
starting clear back in the Nineties with Charles Eliot's study1 that
resulted in the creation of the Boston Metropolitan Park system.
This appears to have been the first real expansion of park plan-
ning beyond the boundary of a city.
So far as I know, Mr. John Nolen's Wisconsin study,2 under-
taken in 1908, was the first state-wide park survey. Mr. Nolen
limited his selections rather severely, but his limitations were all
sound. His report contains several remarkable features character-
istic of early park studies; among other things, a good deal of
space was given to a justification of the then rather novel idea of
having state parks at all.
Mr. Albert Turner, who is still Field Secretary for the Con-
necticut Park and Forest Commission, made a one-man survey3
for the Nutmeg State more than two decades ago. His report is
a readable, wise, and philosophical piece of work; especially worth
reading and pondering is that portion of it setting forth his bases
of selection.
In Massachusetts, the report of the Committee on the Needs
and Uses of Open Spaces4 seems to have been a workmanlike job,
interesting chiefly because of its concern with a wide variety of
types of public reservations, and its recognition of the recreational
significance of other properties than those of the more or less
generally accepted park type.
New York's studies, in i^i25 and I924,6 were useful in focus-
ing attention on the state's needs and in providing arguments for
voting park purchase bonds, but they were quickly outmoded by
such studies as those of Mr. Olmsted in California and Mr. Crane
in Iowa.
^Report of the Landscape Architect. (In Boston, Mass. Board of Metropolitan Park Com-
missioners, Jan. 1893, pp. 82-110.)
2State Parks for Wisconsin: report of landscape architect. With letter of transmittal by
State Park Board. [1909.]
'Connecticut. State Park Commission. Report for the Fiscal Year ended Sept. 30, 1914.
(Public Document no. 60.)
4 Report. Boston, [State Printer], 1929.
6New York State Association. Committee on State Park Plan. A State Park Plan for
New York, with a proposal for the new park bond issue. Dec. 1922.
•New York State Association. Committee on State Park Plan. The State Park Plan for
New York revised to show progress to date with the proposal for the new park bond issue; id ed.
Jan. 1924.
158 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
By contrast with the work of Mr. Nolen and Mr. Turner,
Mr. Olmsted's report on his California State Park Survey1 was
made in the full flower of the automobile age and for the state
where the bloom was richest. It was made in anticipation of the
immediate expenditure of a large sum of money on the purchase
of parks, — large, at any rate, for the now dimly remembered days
of 1928. Though it is known as the Olmsted survey and much
of its study and all of its conclusions are his, it was organized on
a scale and in a way that differed greatly from any that had pre-
ceded it.
The act authorizing the undertaking called for a survey "to
determine what lands are suitable and desirable for the ultimate
development of a comprehensive, well-balanced state park system,
and to define the relation of such a system to other means of con-
serving and utilizing the scenic and recreational resources of the
state; . . . ." The magnificent sum of $15,000 was made avail-
able by the act to defray the cost of conducting the survey.
The survey report, published in 1929, is one of the classics of
state park literature. No man who knows it well can be said to
be seriously lacking in knowledge of the state recreation problem.
I believe the greatest service it performed was to call attention to
the large field of action that lay open to the state outside of state
ownership, in safeguarding its recreational resources.
It is particularly interesting to contrast the machinery of early
surveys with that utilized in this one. Associated with him the
Director had a central office staff of three landscape architects.
As a means of getting a "first line" on park possibilities, the state
was divided into a number of districts, in which were utilized the
services, unpaid, of nearly 150 men and women, who poured their
suggestions into the central office. These "advisers" were supple-
mented by a smaller group of unpaid "regional reporters" who
made special examinations and reports on suggested areas. They
gave the hundreds of proposed parks a valuable preliminary sift-
ing; the final sifting was done by the central staff and, largely, by
Mr. Olmsted himself.
Approval or disapproval, in this as in every other study, had
1 Report of State Park Survey of California. 1929.
STATE RECREATION PLANNING 159
to proceed upon some definite basis of selection. Here it is, as
set forth in the report:1
1. They [the state parks] should be sufficiently distinctive
and notable to interest people from comparatively distant
parts of the state to visit and use them, not merely good
enough to attract people from the region in which they are
situated and merely because of the absence of more interesting
areas within easy reach. Also they should, in general, be
situated beyond the limits of urban and suburban communities
which have sufficient population and wealth to assume the
obligation of providing parks that would be mainly serviceable
for the daily use of their own citizens, even though of inci-
dental value to people of distant communities.
2. They should be characterized by scenic and recreational
resources of kinds which are unlikely to be reasonably well
conserved and made available for enjoyment under private
ownership, or which under private ownership are likely to be
so far monopolized as to make it seriously difficult or impos-
sible for the ordinary citizen to secure enjoyment of them,
except at a cost in time and money disproportionate to the
cost of providing that enjoyment through state parks.
3. They should be as nearly as possible just sufficient in
number and extent and character to meet the prospective
demands of the people for the kinds of enjoyment which they
can provide, and which cannot or will not be supplied by such
other means as local parks, national parks and forests, and
the use of scenic highways. . . .
4. They should be geographically distributed with a view
to securing a wide and representative variety of types for the
state as a whole, and at the same time making a reasonable
assortment of them equitably accessible to the people in each
part of the state. . . .
Mr. Olmsted, primarily concerned with state parks, went be-
yond them to consider their relationship to the other recreational
resources of California and the need of public action to protect
these other resources.
Iowa, in 1931 and 1932, made an exhaustive state park study,2
probably as complete as any yet undertaken by any state. This
study is equally notable for the fact that it was integrated with
^•49, 51-
2See "State Planning in Illinois and Iowa," by Jacob L. Crane, Jr., in CITY PLAN-
NING, Apr. 1932, pp. 89-98.
i6o _ CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
an effort virtually to determine how much and what kind of Iowa's
land should be publicly owned; what public uses should be pro-
vided on areas in public ownership; what their official status should
be; and what control over or cooperation with the private land-
owner was necessary or desirable in the public interest and for the
various conservation purposes, — all set forth in the Iowa Twenty-
five Year Conservation Plan.1
Let us note briefly the essence of the Iowa recommendations
as to areas to be chosen primarily for recreational use. The triple
classification recommended — state parks, state preserves, and road-
side parks — is important.
The report sets up these requirements for a state park:
It must have scenic quality.
It must have woods.
It must have water.
It must, except in unusual circumstances, have not less than
five hundred acres of land and preferably not less than one
thousand.
It must provide for certain forms of active recreation in a
setting of relatively unspoiled natural conditions.
The parks should be spaced not more than approximately
eighty miles apart, in so far as it is possible to find sites qual-
lified for state park purposes in that pattern of distribution.
They may be spaced at closer intervals to include outstanding
areas.
With the majority of these requirements, few of us, I think,
are disposed to quarrel. As to minimum acreage, — the more I
study state parks the less I think of attempts to establish acreage
limits, which, it seems to me, must be determined in each individual
instance by the area's own peculiar character of terrain and scenic
features, and particularly by expected volume of use.
I am frank to say I think even less of any proposal for spacing
parks, as a general principle of park selection. It assumes, in
general (what is actually pretty much the case in Iowa and a few
other states), an evenness of distribution of outstanding scenic
areas that is, in the case of most states, decidedly contradicted by
L. Crane, Jr., and George Wheeler Olcott. Report on the Iowa Twenty-five Year
Conservation Plan, prepared for the Iowa Board of Conservation and the Iowa Fish and Game
Commission. 1933.
STATE RECREATION PLANNING
161
the facts. Its principal fallacy, however, is that while it may
make a pretty pattern on a map, it fails to take cognizance of a
number of factors such, for instance, as population distribution.
Further, it implies a certain dead level among the above-average
scenic areas, and fails to take account of the actual wide varia-
tion— even in Iowa — of quality and hence of drawing power among
areas suitable for state park status under the requirements set forth
in the report.
Courtesy of Herbert M. Blanche
Enfield Glen State Park, New York
The Iowa Conservation Plan would supplement these parks
with an additional group of holdings to be known as "preserves,"-
scientific, historic, forest, scenic, lake, power pond, and sanctuary.
In the report are no less than seventy-eight preserves, by contrast
with seventeen state parks, recommended for retention or acquisi-
tion by the state.
I have been trying for years to find a proper and satisfactory
designation for those state-owned areas which correspond in gen-
eral to what Mr. Crane calls a preserve. If his designation is to
162 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
be adopted, its application would appear to be logically limited
to areas in which the element of preservation is not only dominant
but virtually exclusive, — as in the case of Indian mounds and his-
toric structures, for example, — and in these cases the state's hold-
ings should be limited to these objects and only such surrounding
lands as are required to provide a satisfactory setting.
Permit me to make this observation relative to the third
classification, "roadside parks," selected for the picnicker's use, or
for day, or part-day, outings. In the selection of them, the best
landscape visible from the road should be very carefully avoided.
I am all for extending highway rights of way any distance to pre-
serve scenic values needed for their contribution to the enjoyment
of highway travel, but most of it should be limited to eye use.
The picnicker should be invited back from the road, for his own
benefit, chiefly, and he should be discouraged from the use of
bordering areas of special loveliness. He and his halted car con-
tribute nothing of beauty; his intensive use of an area beside a
stream or waterfall or in fine old forest will soon spoil it. In
support of that contention I call attention to certain redwood
groves in northern California, and Kent Falls in Connecticut.
ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF A STATE
RECREATION SYSTEM
Let me summarize, as briefly as possible, the essential features
of any sound and complete planning for state participation in the
provision of outdoor recreation. Such planning should contemplate
inclusion of the following:
The highways — selection and construction of scenic routes of
parkway character, and the protection, by ownership, easement,
exercise of the police power, or any other method, of such landscape
features as may be enjoyed as an incident to the use of any highway.
Highway parks or "highway havens" — attractive but preferably
not highly scenic, largely distinct in character and purpose from
those areas which are maintained in their natural condition or
developed to present an attractive appearance, purely to be seen.
State parks — to include the choicest obtainable examples of
natural landscape with which may be joined a reasonably wide
STATE RECREATION PLANNING 163
variety of active recreational use, as well as other areas of fairly
distinguished landscape character and of high value for certain
types of outdoor recreation, extensive and intensive, the latter
quality arising in varying proportions out of inherent character-
istics of the land itself and out of its location with respect to using
population. The presence of features of scientific, historical, or
archaeological significance adds definitely to the value of a state
park but should not be a determinant in its selection.
State monuments or preserves — places of high scientific, his-
torical, or archaeological significance, wholly or almost wholly free
from active recreational uses.
State recreation grounds — areas of value almost solely for
active recreation, chiefly those fronting on water and for that
reason capable of supplying a large recreation return.
State trails — largely provided through easements on private
property and designed to provide, in varied and attractive sur-
roundings, means for foot or horse travel either along existing
vehicular travel routes or entirely separated from them.
Public forests and game preserves — providing a varying degree
of quantity and quality of outdoor recreation, a use subordinate
to the primary purposes for which they are established.
Game farms and fish hatcheries.
Public shooting grounds — which may be combined in the same
area with the public forests, but which are wholly incompatible
in purpose with the purposes of parks and preserves.
The status of all these areas can be satisfactorily determined
only after an exhaustive and intelligent search for all areas of
possible value in any of the classifications listed and after a careful
weighing of their values for all purposes. Such search and study
involve utilization and coordination of the services of a wide variety
of specialists and agencies. They must be coordinated with sim-
ilar undertakings carried on by cities, counties, regions within the
state, states, and adjoining states.
In all our work with state parks and preserves, let us plan on
ample lines, get more than we need rather than less, and, in the
case of naturalistic areas, place them in the hands of those who
will lovingly and understandingly guard their natural character.
SECURING PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR
PLANNING
By BRYANT HALL
Research Engineer, Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission
THE object of this paper1 is not to establish the importance of securing
public support for planning. No one who has the slightest famili-
arity with the planning movement, or, indeed, with any phase of
governmental activity, can fail to agree that progress beyond a certain point
is impossible without active understanding and intelligent interest on the
part of the citizens concerned. The writer desires to point out the essentially
dual character of the problem and to indicate the need for a technical approach.
This objective will have been attained if he can clear up certain confusion
arising from what someone has aptly called "the mania for immediacy," and
can assist technical men in the planning field in organizing this vital part of
their work along definite and proven lines.
PUBLICITY FOR CURRENT WORK
Procedure must be varied according to the time element involved in the
results desired. First, there is a procedure where quick results are sought as,
for example, in securing or maintaining a planning budget for the current
year, in furthering the passage of some particular legislation or ordinance for
immediate use, or in promoting some particular project which is ready,
timely, and economically sound. In such cases, a long series of newspaper
or magazine articles or a campaign of lectures in public schools would ob-
viously be of little value. Personal appeal must be made to those individuals
in whom the power to do the thing desired is concentrated. Certain organ-
ized groups which can be quickly convinced of the merits of the proposition
may be swung into line. The characters of individuals may be studied and
appeals made to each based upon those features most likely to secure favor-
able action.
This is a problem in psychology. It involves a study of human beings.
It means that planners must know how to change their methods of approach
in accordance with the individuality of each person with whom they have to
deal. It will avail nothing to discuss esthetic objectives with a legislator
whose mind is set upon how to insure his own reelection; nor will it help to ex-
plain the engineering merits of a project with masses of statistical informa-
tion before a group of women whose primary interest is in how that project
will affect the safety of children at school. This sounds elementary, but it
may safely be said that much good work in planning has been shelved because
the expert who produced the plan has resolutely closed his eyes to the neces-
sity of working with people instead of merely telling them flatly what they
need and ought to have.
1Presented before the California Planners' Institute.
164
MOST PEOPLE WOULD OBJECT TO THIS
SORT OF ARRANGEMENT IN THEIR HOME
REALIZE
THE DISADVANTAGES OF THE SAME
LACK OF ORDER IN THEIR COMMUNITY
THK REGIONAL PLA/M/SI/SG COMMISSION COUNTY OF Los A/MGE LI-IS.
Posters of this character are very effective in establishing planning as
a normal, necessary activity.
1 66 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
PUBLICITY FOR THE FUTURE
The situation is quite different when we approach the problem of build-
ing up, over a period of months or years, general civic consciousness and pride
and understanding which will bring continued and lasting support to every
phase of the planning movement. This does not mean that the methods
just mentioned will be abandoned; on the contrary, every quick campaign
for immediate support is a step, and a valuable one, in the long-time process.
However, many additional types of procedure are available when the pur-
pose is to secure the eventual establishment of a permanent staff, or to main-
tain loyalty to an adopted plan, or to obtain a definite long-term budget of
public works. Here we must fit ourselves for a prolonged and, in fact, an
endless campaign. Here we must plan the work of securing public support
over a period of time just as carefully as we plan the community itself.
We must use all means available, and undertake ultimately to reach all the
people. We must "think and plan and talk and make news for the papers
not only in terms of months and years, but with foresight and patience
sufficient for decades."
METHODS
In the selection of methods, we must be ready to change our tactics in
accordance with our purpose. For reaching key people, the most effective
means will always be personal contact through conversation (not casual—
but planned), correspondence, and committee work. A somewhat larger
group of cultured and influential people may be reached through periodicals
and books; some of this group will even be interested in the maps, plans,
and technical reports which are the work tools of the profession. But not
many! Much energy is wasted, and money, too, in preparing for distribution
material which the recipient, however intelligent in other fields, is unprepared
to digest and absorb into his consciousness. Let us build rather for confidence
in the technical men employed and in the soundness of the procedures set up,
and count upon this cultured group to defend and support them without ne-
cessarily studying out the technical details of what we are undertaking to do.
When we seek the eventual support of the great masses of the citizens,
we must depend upon the utmost simplicity of the material used. This may
be disseminated through the newspapers, over the radio, or by mail cam-
paigns in special cases. Drawings, posters, photographs, models, and other
exhibit material are also useful at times.
BASES OF APPEAL
Professor Overstreet has ably outlined the various psychological bases
of appeal.1 I will mention a few of the more important ones. The instinct
of self-preservation may be used in connection with facts tending to prove
1See list of suggested references.
SECURING SUPPORT FOR PLANNING 167
that planning reduces the danger of disease through land overcrowding and
that it actually saves money to the citizens. The love of home is another
strong impulse and mothers particularly will respond to anything that will
protect or improve home conditions, even where the betterment will be
enjoyed only by coming generations.
Imitativeness is a strong impulse with many, and others will respond
actively to a challenge calling forth the competitive spirit and the desire to
outdo, or at least to do as well as, neighboring communities. Mature minds
will be touched by an appeal to the constructive impulse. They are interested
in accomplishments and in the achievement of civic objectives. They like
such slogans as "Building Better Cities." Everyone enjoys things which
appeal to his imagination, and here the poster can be made to have tremendous
personal interest through such headings as "Safety or Sorrow" or "When It
Strikes Home" or "Our City— Dallas."
USE OF TECHNICAL SKILL DESIRABLE
I shall not in this paper undertake to tell how all these things should be
done. I merely wish to point out that the doing of them does require a vast
amount of skill of a very special kind. It is my belief that proper publicity,
not only in the planning field but for all public service, will not be obtained
until we have imitated private business methods. The successful large-scale
business man recognizes the need for special skill in this work, and spends
money for trained assistants in planning his advertising campaign. The
critics of government and those who think of all government service as a
needless burden on the taxpayer's back, spend money freely in publicizing
their destructive attacks. It is going to be necessary in the future for govern-
ment to employ equally skilled persons to inform the public about the work
it is doing. Those who pay the bills are entitled to this attention.
Meanwhile, members of technical planning staffs, members of planning
commissions, and citizens who believe in the value of planning must do what
they can as amateurs in this difficult business of informing the public. Certain
characteristics of good publicity may, however, be mentioned here.1
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD PUBLICITY
It has been well said that the first assumption in preparing material for
publicity should be that "the reader is twelve years old and does not wish
to read it!" If we wish to overcome this preliminary obstacle, we should see
to it that what we send out possesses the following characteristics.
Attractive — Striking colors, interesting pictures, catchy phrases, sharp
contrasts, all are means of drawing attention. Avoid being technical, shun
tables of statistics, and let out of your office nothing gray, monotonous, or
dull, whether written, spoken, or drawn.
HDf particular value for those interested in pursuing the subject further is Publicity for
Social Work, by Routzahn and Routzahn. See list of suggested readings.
^68 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
Brief — It is better to convey a single idea to the person whose attention
has been thus arrested than to risk losing every advantage by the attempt
to be too specific, too detailed, or too long-winded.
Convincing — Every piece of publicity should be carefully studied by
someone other than the person who prepared it, — someone with a critical
frame of mind who will report as to whether the material presented is such
as truly to convince him in the matter. Sometimes the change of a single
phrase or the revision of certain lines in a drawing will make a marked differ-
ence in this respect. Only experienced and helpful criticism will serve to
teach this.
Dynamic — The appeal of the moving picture as compared with the "still"
is well understood. This quality of motion can be attained in written articles
as well, if the qualifications of suspense, action, and a story-like denouement
are worked in. Many drawings can be so executed that there is a line of
movement for the eye to pass from one feature to another, which is almost
the equivalent of action in the picture itself. Sometimes an arrow or, in
exhibits, a ribbon joining related items can be effectively used to give this
quality.
Positive — It is always better to suggest a good action than to criticize
a bad one. A news item crediting a subdivider with an excellent piece of
work done in cooperation with the planning commission is vastly preferable
to one telling of successful action against an unscrupulous land speculator.
Avoid the negative altogether, or follow it immediately with something posi-
tive. Photographic "horrible examples" are sometimes needed, but they
should always be accompanied by contrasting pictures showing the result of
good taste or careful planning. It is better to say "regulation of land sub-
division" than "subdivision control," and it is better to say "zoning protects
the home" than to speak of "zoning restrictions."
Visual — The pictorial method of presentation should be utilized to the
utmost. Even the printed article should, wherever possible, be accompanied
by illustrations which will impart to it some of the qualities referred to above.
In times to come, much greater use than at present will be made of the mov-
ing picture itself in the presentation of community values in planning. Mean-
while, let us not despise the photograph nor overlook the possibilities of car-
toons and display posters.
Timely — Much effort may be wasted by placing material before the
public at an inopportune moment. The time to put planning values in con-
nection with a civic center before the people is when their interest is definitely
turned toward that problem by some immediate necessity, such as the con-
struction of a city hall or court house. The time to talk grade separations is
when accidents have focused public attention on the danger of grade crossings.
The need for subdivision regulation will be more easily impressed upon a
people who have seen the folly of a feverish overproduction of lots and build-
;
•"' ,'r* ' ---^a) 1- — \ -J ':;-,> N£Y'-*
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f ../> .mf ^?^- v*2?3^rojK
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: A: .>;.&•- - - ^
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Perspectives assist those not technically trained, to visualize projects
whose completion must require a long period of years.
I7Q CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
ings than it would upon those same people when they are actually engaged
.in an insane orgy of real-estate speculation. Watch for human-interest angles.
The appointment of a new member of a planning commission or staff or some
other item of human interest concerning the personnel may make a story
about the work of the commission itself timely.
Repetitive — It is impossible to place enough emphasis on the importance
of repetition. No advertising campaign (and, after all, the problem of obtain-
ing public support for planning is in many respects identical with the problem
that faces the advertiser of a commercial product) can accomplish much
through a single presentation. The story of parks and zoning and highways
and planning must be told and retold, and told again, until the people come
to take it for granted that planning is a natural and generally accepted part
of our community life. Immediate objectives may be attained by a single
interview, or a single mailing of circulars, or a single forceful address at some
critical meeting. But the long-term objectives can be reached only by repeat-
ing these things again and again. A public official known to be lukewarm
on the subject of planning has been observed to accept it as inevitable and
necessary after receiving for three consecutive years a brief mimeographed
bulletin telling of the activities in connection with planning throughout the
nation.
Inspiring — Every item of material used in securing public support for
planning should appeal to the finer instincts. It should be in good taste,
well planned, neat, and accurate. It must be all of these if it is to be worthy
of a place in this most worth while movement of our times. One final quality,
intangible and difficult indeed, but none the less important, is that of creating
the desire to act, the desire to serve. Sometimes a question or a statement
in the second person singular or a reference to the urgency of the matter at
hand may serve as an inspiration, and bring the dead to purposeful life.
For those who feel the need of actual illustrations of all the points men-
tioned, let me remind them that every planning office, and, indeed, every
home contains innumerable illustrations of good and bad efforts at securing
support for one cause or another. The examination of these in the light of
the desirable characteristics mentioned will provide ample food for construc-
tive thought, indicating in a general way the relative value of each.
VARYING THE APPEAL
We have referred briefly to some of the bases of appeal, the media that
may be used, and the characteristics of effective material. Proper selection
from among these means and methods must be made, depending upon the
group or class of individuals which a given effort is intended to reach. In the
case of officials, personal contact and the psychological approach are indi-
cated. The same is true to a large extent in dealing with key men and impor-
tant organizations.
The issuance of these Planning Notes, now in their seventh year, is a
definite part of the long-term policy of the office in which they
are prepared by the author of this article.
172 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
Obviously the eight learned professions which have much to gain from
the successful initiation of good planning in a community must be approached
each in a different manner. The architect will respond to the imitative
appeal. The engineer may be reached through the constructive impulse he
typifies. Followers of law, medicine, and education have special interests in
planning, although they are frequently unaware of the fact. An appeal to
each, to be successful, must have its foundation in an understanding of just
what that relationship really is. Experts in the fields of economics, of govern-
ment, and of sociology will actively sponsor and help to advance the cause
of planning if it is presented to them not as a problem in architecture or in
engineering but as a problem in human relations. The success or failure of
the planning movement may depend upon our ability to think these matters
through, to produce clear and effective statements of these relationships, and
to see that the influential men in these eight great professions decide to ally
themselves with us.
Special types of material must be prepared to enlist the aid and support
of the women of our communities. Consideration must be given to the possi-
bilities of reaching the students in our schools, and of arousing in them a
militant spirit of civic consciousness. Indeed, every citizen must know the
value of planning. He may know nothing of its technique, but it is not
impossible to convince him that planning pays in money, in convenience, in
health, and in the durable satisfactions of life.
AGENCIES
For the present, we must depend primarily for carrying on this vital
phase of planning activity, upon the members of paid technical staffs and
upon the members of planning commissions themselves. In some commun-
ities, active citizens' committees or inspired individuals will do great things,
but this will not at first be a dependable source. I can think of no finer nor
more important activity for a newly formed planning commission than to
spend, if need be, its entire time during the early months of its existence in
the development and carrying out of a careful and thorough program for
reaching the entire community with the story of what planning is. No com-
mission which does so need worry about the possibility of securing the very
moderate amount of financial support necessary to establish planning in that
community upon a sound basis thereafter. Every technical staff, be it of
one man or twenty, must allot a portion of its time and effort to getting
public support, or it will achieve but few of its objectives. So much for the
agencies available for immediate action.
For the long pull, there may be added the efforts of those who are striv-
ing to introduce material into the civics courses of our public schools, the
efforts to organize planning upon a national scale through the establishment
of the National Resources Board by the Federal Government, and the activities
i?4 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
of such organizations as the American City Planning Institute, the National
Conference on City Planning, the American Civic Association, the California
Planners' Institute, and the California County Planning Commissioners'
Association.
As a final word, and to complete the picture, brief reference should be
made to a further field, hitherto untouched, which contains great possibilities
for the popularization of the theme of planning. This is the field of fiction.
Just as Harriet Beecher Stowe's great novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, played its
part in the abolition of slavery, let us hope that someone may provide a
dramatization of the conflict between narrow or selfish interests that would
continue the hodgepodge antiquated development that unfortunately charac-
terizes our cities to-day and the forces that would build for to-morrow a city
of order, convenience, comfort, and beauty.
SUGGESTED REFERENCES
Prepared jointly by the author and Miss Katherine McNamara, Librarian of the School
of City Planning, Harvard University.
ANDRESS, BART. Collective bargaining with public opinion. (Survey, Dec.
15, 1932; vol. 68, p. 676-679. illus.)
BROWN, CAREY H. Getting community support. (In Proceedings of 24th
National Conference on City Planning, 1932, p. 105-110.)
HUBBARD, THEODORA KIMBALL, and HENRY VINCENT HUBBARD. Educat-
ing the public to support city planning. (In their Our cities to-day and
to-morrow: a survey of planning and zoning progress in the United States,
Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1929, p. 77-100. illus.)
KIMBALL, JUSTIN F. Our city — Dallas: a community civics. Dallas, Tex.,
Kessler Plan Association, 1927. 384 p. illus., maps.
— . Spreading the gospel of city planning. (In Proceedings of 20th
National Conference on City Planning, 1928, p. 137-141.)
KIMBALL, THEODORA. Helps in conducting publicity campaigns for zoning.
(Landscape Architecture, July 1922; vol. 12, p. 274-277.) Also preprinted.
A revision of this was published in her Manual of information on city planning
and zoning, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1928, p. 33-37.
LOHMANN, KARL B. Educational and promotive work in city planning. (In
his Principles of city planning, New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1931,
p. 363-372. illus.)
LOMMEL, G. E., and F. G. BATES. A city planning primer. Lafayette, Ind.,
Purdue University, July 1925. 31 p. illus., plans. (Engineering Exten-
sion Service, Bulletin no. 11.)
MOODY, WALTER D. Wacker's manual of the plan of Chicago; municipal
economy. Especially prepared for study in the public schools of Chicago,
auspices of the Chicago Plan Commission. [Chicago, Printed by H. C.
Sherman], 1912. 147 p. illus., plans. 2d rev. ed., 1916.
SECURING SUPPORT FOR PLANNING 175
— . What of the city? America's greatest issue: city planning, what it
is and how to go about it to achieve success. Chicago, A. C. McClurg
& Co., 1919. 441 p. illus., plans (one folded).
NETTLETON, TULLY A. Is city planning news? If not, why not? (In Pro-
ceedings of 22d National Conference on City Planning, 1930, p. 198-210.)
NOLEN, JOHN. The importance of citizens' committees in securing public
support for a city planning program; with discussion, bibliography. (In
Proceedings of 16th National Conference on City Planning, 1924, p. 28-
52; with discussion, p. 52-55, and bibliography, p. 56-57.)
OVERSTREET, H. A. Arousing the public interest in city planning. (In Pro-
ceedings of 20th National Conference on City Planning, 1928, p. 125-136.)
ROUTZAHN, MARY SWAIN, and EVART G. ROUTZAHN. Publicity for social
work. New York, Russell Sage Foundation, 1928. 392 p. illus., charts.
SURRATT, JOHN E. Education for city planning. (In Kessler Plan Associa-
tion. For success in city building, Dallas, Tex., n.d., p. 4-8.)
THOMPSON, HOLLIS R. Public support for the planning program, how it can
be secured and maintained. (In League of California Municipalities.
Dept. of City Planning. Proceedings of 34th annual convention, San
Diego, 1932. p. [20-21].)
U. S. DEPT. OF COMMERCE. DIVISION OF BUILDING AND HOUSING. ADVISORY
COMMITTEE ON CITY PLANNING AND ZONING. A city planning primer.
Washington, Government Printing Office, 1928. 18 p.
WOODWARD, SAMUEL B. Methods of winning public support for a city plan-
ning program. (In Proceedings of 14th National Conference on City
Planning, 1922, p. 182-185.)
The experience of Worcester, Mass.
PLAYGROUNDS AND JUVENILE WELFARE
There is an obvious and logical relationship between lack of
playground facilities and juvenile delinquency, although we have
no figures to prove the fact. ... In 1929 there were as many as
4566 children injured or killed in Greater New York while they
were playing in the streets, and most of them were ten years of age
or under. In analyzing these accidents the [New York] City Club
found that the greatest number occurred in districts that had very
little playground space. You could not ask for better proof of the
need of playgrounds. — From "Regional Planning Notes" of the
Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission, June 7, 1934.
EDITORIAL
LEST WE FORGET
As we extend the frontiers of our knowledge and professional
practice into the realms of large-scale regional, state, and national
planning let us not fail to hold the substantial gains we have
already made with much pain and labor in the field of city planning.
The need for this planning is greater to-day than ever before.
Zoning ordinances, made obsolete by new developments in the use
of this tool, by population changes, and by more rational recogni-
tion of the possible uses of land, call for revision. The enormous
toll of traffic delays and deaths demands a basic solution for the
traffic problem based on new highway designs and new control of
the uses of abutting property rather than the host of ineffective
palliatives that have been applied since cities first found them-
selves face to face with the traffic ogre. Municipal housing pro-
grams to start the wheels of the construction industry and to
eliminate the unlivable houses which constitute perhaps the out-
standing social evil of our day cannot go forward successfully
without the counsel and assistance of the planner.
Revolts against steadily mounting taxes will force substantial
economies in the day-to-day replacements and improvements in
cities. It is axiomatic that a truly economic development of the
physical plant is possible only for a planned community, yet many
municipal officials still need to be educated to the fact that their
unwillingness to devote reasonable sums of money to planning is
a penny-wise, pound-foolish procedure. If the vital need for fore-
sight and forethought is demonstrated there is no doubt that
necessary funds for planning can be found. We shall probably
have relief workers with us again this coming winter. It will be
the profession's own fault and the communities' losses if a reason-
able proportion of these relief expenditures is not devoted to
accomplishing some of the thousand and one planning tasks that
require only labor and supervision.
Here, in the field of city planning, are tasks for giants at a
time when there are all too few giants in the land!
H. K. M.
176
I CURRENT PROGRESS
I Conducted by JOHN NOLEN and HOWARD K. MENHINICK
LAWRENCE VEILLER HAROLD S. BUTTENHEIM
} ARTHUR A. SHURCLIFF CHARLES W. ELIOT sd
GORDON J. CULHAM L. DEMING TILTON
i
C. W. A. AND THE KENOSHA CITY PLAN
The city plan of Kenosha was adopted in 1924. In its final form, it
represented several years of intensive study by a citizen plan committee work-
ing under the direction of a competent consultant. Broadly speaking, this
plan set up a program of public improvements which had as its object the
control and direction of future public works, including the necessary financing.
It also provided for the continuous extension of that program and its proper
coordination.
For the successful carrying out of the city plan it was essential that there
be on hand at all times a schedule of future public works so that necessary
improvements might be planned far enough ahead to determine accurately
the value of the projects and provide for their financing. Such a schedule
was on hand when the CWA was organized. It can easily be seen that at
the time orders were received to place men at work, it was merely a matter
of allocating them to previously planned projects included in the city plan.
No time was lost looking for something to do, and men went to work imme-
diately on jobs the usefulness and value of which had been determined, in
some cases, several years ago.
The CWA program in Kenosha included such city plan projects as in-
creasing the accessibility and usefulness of parks, the opening, widening, and
extension of major streets, the completion of the civic center, lake shore pro-
tection, street tree trimming, and playground improvement. Approximately
thirteen hundred men worked on such projects throughout the whole first
CWA period.
All the projects discussed below were contemplated under the city plan,
and are city projects only, — no county projects are included. They may be
classified as follows:
Recreation. This group includes projects which had to do with the
further development of parks now in use, involving road building, grading,
stream control, and the construction of baseball diamonds, football fields,
tennis courts, and retaining walls. This work has appreciably increased the
recreation facilities in accordance with population demands.
Parks. Under this heading is included work done in parks where prac-
tically no development had taken place because the City had so far been
financially unable to open and develop these areas, although they were badly
needed. The parks thus affected were areas purchased in accordance with
177
178 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
the city plan proposals. This work includes surveying, mapping, road and
parkway building, landscaping, grading, lake shore protection, and the con-
struction of shelters and necessary park buildings.
Civic Center. The completion of the civic center was accomplished by
the removal and relocation of the old post office building, and the extension
of 56th Street at a width of 132 feet to make a continuous street through the
civic center area into the business district. This completes one of the largest
and most important of all the city plan projects.
Major Streets. Sheridan Road is one of the great highways between
Milwaukee and Chicago. The demands upon the City's finances compelled the
cessation of the development of this highway some time ago. As a PWA
project, this thoroughfare has now been widened, opened, and extended both
north and south so as to make it practically a new and additional traffic-way
through the city.
Administration. Under this head is organized a corps of technicians for
the purpose of developing and making the necessary plans for future work.
Included in this set-up were civil engineers, rodmen, architects, draftsmen,
and clerks. The man-hour consumption for all projects amounted to 607,615
man-hours, which at the local rate represents an expenditure for labor of
approximately $340,000. These figures extend through February 15, 1934,
the end of the first CWA period. The work done, including such construction
as was undertaken with salvaged materials, represents a value of about
$700,000 to the City of Kenosha. These are expenditures which the com-
munity would have been compelled to provide for in the future by taxation.
Kenosha is now in a position to profit by and enjoy these improvements
many years in advance. This is an accomplishment which may be credited
directly to ten years of comprehensive planning.
FLOYD A. CARLSON,
City Plan Engineer.
HIGHWAYS, ZONING, AND TREE PLANTING
Fresno, located in the geographical center of California and the distribut-
ing center for the rich San Joaquin Valley, has been making gratifying progress
during the last four or five years on its city planning program.
Two outstanding accomplishments have been recorded within the past
three years. The first was the construction of an underpass under the Southern
Pacific railroad tracks on Belmont Avenue and a traffic circle for the proper
distribution of north- and south-bound traffic on the state highway and east-
and west-bound traffic on Belmont Avenue. This was a complicated engi-
neering problem, inasmuch as traffic distribution and a grade separation had
to be handled as a unit, but it was worked out successfully and has solved
a most trying traffic difficulty at the north entrance to the city. The cost
Traffic Distribution and Grade Separation
Courtesy of Fresno County Chamber of Commerce
Photographs by Laval Company, Inc.
Widening of an Important Highway
TWO RECENT PLANNING PROJECTS IN FRESNO
i8o CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
was $250,000, which was divided between the Southern Pacific Company,
the State of California, and the City of Fresno.
Probably of greater importance, however, has been the widening of U. S.
Highway No. 99 through the city. This project, at a cost of $400,000, is now
being brought to a successful conclusion. It includes not only the widening of
eleven blocks on Broadway, one of the principal business streets, but also
four blocks on Divisadero Street and three blocks on Cherry Avenue, some-
times known as South Broadway, making eighteen blocks in all. Divisadero
Street was widened 30 feet, while Broadway and Cherry Avenue were widened
10 feet, bringing the width of the streets from curb to curb to 62 feet.
Another progressive step has been a tree-planting program which has
been carried on for almost five years. The Forestry Department has developed
its own nursery and has planted between ten and twelve thousand trees.
Diseased trees to the number of almost six hundred have been removed in
this campaign of beautification. The task of planting all parking strips in
Fresno is now considered eighty per cent complete.
Steady progress has been made in the matter of zoning, which has stabi-
lized residence values by eliminating the threat of encroachment of industry
in certain sections of the city, and in the industrial areas has resulted in
ample trackage, heavy hauling pavement, and heavy sewer and heavy-duty
electrical equipment. In addition there have been provided truck routes and
numerous street openings, and the municipal airport has been expanded.
Z. S. LEYMEL,
Mayor.
A RESOLUTION
Whereas the Home Owners' Loan Corporation has been authorized by
Congress to loan money for the purpose of reconditioning properties of home
owners in financial distress, and
Whereas, recent surveys of certain slum or blighted areas of several of
our large cities have disclosed the large increase in both the fire losses in, and
the cost of providing fire protection for, such areas as compared with the
cities as a whole, as well as the considerable increase in crime, vice, delin-
quency, disease, and in the cost of police, welfare and other services in each
such area as compared with the entire city,
Therefore, Be It Resolved, that the Board of Directors of the National
Fire Protection Association, an organization devoted to the conservation of
life and property from fire, recommends to the Home Owners' Loan Corpora-
tion the rejection of all applications for reconditioning loans applying to
property situate in such areas as are classified as slum or blighted districts
destined by Housing and/or City Planning and Zoning Authorities for clear-
ance, re-planning and/or re-zoning, excepting, however, such properties as
CURRENT PROGRESS
are approved by the said authorities for modernization or replacement, and
that the National Fire Protection Association offers its services to the Home
Owners' Loan Corporation and local authorities in connection with the classi-
fication and rehabilitation of such areas from the viewpoint of protection of
life and property from fire.
Be it further Resolved, that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to
the Home Owners' Loan Corporation and drawn to the attention of Housing
and City Planning and Zoning Authorities.
Adopted recently by the Board of Directors
of the National Fire Protection Association.
RADIO ADDRESSES ON LAND USE PLANNING
An interesting series of papers on Land Use Planning was given during
the summer on the "March of Progress" program of the California State
Chamber of Commerce over radio station K.P.O. from San Francisco on
Tuesdays from 8 to 8.15 P. M. The following program was presented.
June 27. "An Introduction to Land Use Planning," by Mr. Hugh R. Pomeroy, Plan-
ning Consultant to California County Planning Commissions.
July 10. "Why We Have a Land Use Problem," by Dr. Carleton Ball, Bureau of
Public Administration, University of California.
July 17. "What Has Happened to Land," by Dr. Carleton Ball.
July 24. "Agriculture in Land Use," by Mr. G. M. Peterson, Professor of Agricultural
Economics, University of California.
July 31. "Forests in Land Use," by Mr. Gary Hill, Senior Forester, California Forest
Experiment Station, Berkeley.
August 7. "Recreation in Land Use," by Dr. E. P. Meinecke, Principal Pathologist,
U. S. Forest Service, San Francisco.
August 14. "The Erosion Problem," by Mr. C. J. Kraebel, California Forest Experi-
ment Station.
August 21. "Taxation and Finance in Land Use," by Dr. M. R. Benedict, Agricultural
Economist, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California.
August 28. "Regional Phases of Land Use Planning," by Mr. P. V. Cardon, Land
Policy Division, AAA.
September 4. "Land Use Surveys of California Counties," by Dr. David Weeks, Agri-
cultural Economist, Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, University of California.
September 1 1. "What California Should Do about Land Use," by Mr. L. Deming T Iton,
Consultant, State Planning Board, Sacramento.
L. D. T.
AN OLDER CITY LOOKS AHEAD
The City of Easton, situated at the fork of the Delaware and Lehigh
Rivers on the eastern boundary of Pennsylvania, and having a population of
34,000, established a Planning Commission in January, 1914.
Since Easton is an old city, founded in 1752, little could be done to alter
the developed portion of the town, so the Commission immediately turned
182 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
its attention to the sections lying just outside of the city limits but still within
the territory controlled by the Commission. Lot and street plans, which,
when completed, formed a comprehensive layout for these outlying areas,
were submitted to the Commission for approval.
Easton is now completely zoned by virtue of a zoning ordinance adopted
in August, 1928, after long months of study by the Commission and its con-
sulting engineers. The citizens, with but few exceptions, are well pleased
with its workings, as the comparatively few complaints show.
Since the city is located at the junction of U. S. Highways No. 22 and
No. 611, the traffic problem is naturally a serious one, and the members of
the Commission are constantly working with city officials in an effort to
improve conditions. Much time and study are now being given to the new
proposed highway bridge crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey. The
location of the entrance to the structure has not yet been definitely deter-
mined, but the Commission is doing everything in its power to have the
bridge so designed and located as properly to take care of the ever-increasing
traffic and serve the citizens of this community.
C. E. ROGERS,
Secretary, City Planning Commission.
RECENT PLANNING DEVELOPMENTS IN
NEW YORK CITY
Shortly after taking office last winter Mayor LaGuardia appointed a new
Mayor's Committee on City Planning for the City of New York. This Com-
mittee, like its predecessor of the previous administration, is an extra-legal
body, of seventeen citizens and officials under the chairmanship of the Presi-
dent of the Board of Aldermen.
The Committee early resolved upon two principal courses of action:
(1) to take steps looking toward the early establishment of city planning upon
a satisfactory legal basis, as part of the city government; (2) to carry forward
in whatever ways might prove practical without a public appropriation basic
studies looking toward the preparation of a comprehensive plan for the city,
such as would greatly expedite the work of the official planning body once
it was established.
The first of these aims is already well advanced through the work of a
Sub-committee on Legislation. It is anticipated that a bill will be introduced
either in the local municipal assembly this fall or in the state legislature next
winter.
In the meantime the Committee has determined upon a program of
studies and is using the resources both of the regular city departments and
of work-relief personnel to carry them forward. The office of the Chief Engi-
neer of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, supplemented by a number
CURRENT PROGRESS 183
of relief workers, is bringing up to date essential maps and presenting on them
information about public works and services of all types. A separate work-
relief project recently established directly under the Mayor's Planning Com-
mittee is taking advantage of the information recently gathered by the Real
Property Inventory to present graphically on maps of uniform scale informa-
tion about the existing development of private property in the city. This
information, when coordinated with that on public property and improve-
ments, will present a picture of the city such as has never been available before
for planning purposes.
LAWRENCE M. ORTON,
Secretary, Mayor's Committee on City Planning.
A BUREAU OF COMMUNITY PLANNING
On May 22, the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois established
a Bureau of Community Planning.
The need of such a bureau was brought to the attention of the University
during a one-day conference on New Planning Opportunities in Illinois, held
at the University last January. It was demonstrated that in the execution
of public works with funds provided through Federal or State agencies, lack
of foresight in planning and resulting confusion were everywhere apparent,
due largely to lack of adequate planning supervision and direction.
The Bureau was set up with the following five principal objectives:
1. To act as a purely public-service and educational agency designed to
stimulate and promote public interest and intelligent procedure in
community planning.
2. To carry on research (by the use of professors and qualified graduate
students) in the field of community planning.
3. To gather data in this field and to make background surveys pertinent
to the intelligent planning and development of Illinois communities.
4. To summarize and bring to the attention of the people the results
of such research.
5. To offer certain consultation service to communities who wish to
organize local planning agencies or facilities.
It is not the intention of those in charge of the Bureau to participate in
physical community planning nor to offer any technical service which is
normally performed by professionally trained people.
The staff of the Bureau consists of a Director and the faculty in Land-
scape Architecture, with advising specialists from the departments of Geology
and Geography, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, Agricultural Eco-
nomics, Law, Accountancy, Architecture, and Engineering.
REXFORD NEWCOMB,
Dean, College of Fine and Applied Arts,
University of Illinois.
• - - ~
i ZONING ROUNDTABLE
i Conducted by EDWARD M. BASSETT
i !
GASOLINE STATIONS
Gasoline stations figure numerously the country over in zoning adminis-
tration. Some say they receive too much attention. This is not so. Zoning
came just in time to control gasoline stations. If it had come twenty years
later, our cities would have been nearly ruined by them. Most cities saved
the situation just in the nick of time.
How has this control grown up and has it developed any principles?
Greater New York probably illustrates this development as well as any city,
although nearly every great city of the country now has a well-devised zoning
method of regulating these stations. When zoning began in Greater New
York in 1916, gasoline stations were permitted in business districts although
excluded from residence districts. About eight years later they were excluded
from business districts because it was found that they caused great and
unnecessary injury by settling in the wrong places. Consequently the un-
restricted districts were the only districts where they could go as a matter
of right. Of course, they were needed in other districts, but only in selected
spots where they would not hurt. Fortunately the methods of the Board of
Appeals and the rulings of courts have kept pace with the pressure for more
stations. The Board allows them as exceptions in residence districts very
infrequently, but in business districts numerously, confining them, however,
to suitable places. The Board will not allow a station to locate in a business
street where women do their shopping, but there are always parts of these
streets where the surroundings permit stations.
The environment is the criterion employed by the Board in making a
variance permit for a station. Sometimes in a residence district a nonconform-
ing garage or factory will adjoin a vacant lot so that the lot can hardly be
used for anything but a gasoline station. Such a situation is very rare because
residence districts are strictly protected, but in a business district there are
usually nonconforming industries. These often make possible a station loca-
tion next door or on the opposite side of the street. If a station is on one
corner, another will be allowed on an opposite corner. Some criticize this,
arguing that the Board should space garages so that there will be enough but
not more than enough for the territory. The question for the Board is not
what sort of station distribution is best for the city but whether a certain
location will unduly hurt surrounding property if used for a station. Courts
insist that a landowner can rightfully demand a station permit if his land
cannot be used for anything else.
184
ZONING ROUNVTABLE 185
Many efforts have been made to employ zoning to bring about a scientific
spacing of stations, but the result is negligible. Zoning is not the instru-
mentality to force the spacing of any kind of building or use. If uses of the
same kind tend to overcrowd a locality, it is not zoning that will stop it. The
police power can be invoked for a remedy, as in case of the regulations keep-
ing liquor stores at a distance from churches, but this is not zoning.
The Board of Appeals more and more keeps stations back from the street.
Street encroachments are never allowed. Corner cut-offs are favored. All
station variance permits are subject to carefully drawn conditions. Probably
no other board of appeals in the country has perfected these conditions to
a greater degree than the New York Board. Any official elsewhere who desires
to see how far this science has been developed should write to the Board of
Standards and Appeals, Manhattan, for one or two of the latest printed
bulletins. In the early days of zoning it was not realized what tremendous
use could be made of the conditions which the Board can impose. The design
of the station is controlled. Required walls protect neighbors. Pedestrians
and vehicles are safeguarded. These conditions are enforced by courts, and
station owners find that they must obey them.
Recently temporary permits for stations have received much attention
from the Board. The practice of two-year temporary permits began about
ten years ago, by analogy with the two-year temporary-permit provision in
nearly all zoning ordinances. Then extensions of two years more would be
granted if proper. About three years ago our highest court decided that
where a highway ran through vacant land zoned for business and there was
no opportunity for the lot owner to earn except from a gasoline station, this
situation would justify a temporary permit, not necessarily limited to two
years. Taking its cue from this decision, the Board began making temporary
permits in some cases for five years. One of the arguments of the Board for
the longer temporary period is that two years is too short a time to justify
a substantial and good-looking station, and that five or even more years
should be allowed. This period is plainly not granted under the two-year
temporary-permit provision, but comes under the head of practical difficulty
and unnecessary hardship.
During the depression period the Board has been making more frequent
use of temporary permits for stations than before. Little or no building of
stores and dwellings is going on in many localities and it is thought that a
station will not be harmful if it is to come down in five years, when presum-
ably the locality will be needed for dwellings or other buildings of a restricted
class. These temporary permits are, however, playing with fire. When a
station stands for five years it tends to make its own environment, it is likely
to be perpetuated, and the result will be that the locality can never be re-
deemed. Boards should issue these permits only in the most exceptional
cases and should surround them with stringent conditions. E. M. B.
LEGAL NOTES
Conducted by FRANK BACKUS WILLIAMS
REASONABLENESS
Very generally in the United States the validity of zoning is recognized
by the courts, especially since the Euclid Village Case in the Supreme Court
of the United States. But it by no means follows that all zoning ordinances
are valid. Zoning to be legal must be reasonable. Of this principle we have
given many illustrations in this Department, and we are now able to refer to
two others.
In the Illinois city of Wheaton, Section 3 of the zoning ordinance pro-
hibited the use, 'erection, or alteration of any building in an "A" residence
district except (in part) for the following uses: (1) single-family dwellings;
... (5) boarding and rooming houses conducted in private homes where not
more than sixteen persons besides the family of the boarding- or rooming-house
keepers are furnished board, and not more than twelve persons, besides such
families, are furnished with rooms. The plaintiff, Merrill, refused permission
in an "A" residence district to change his single-family into a two-family
house, is sustained in this case1 in his claim that this section is unreasonable
and void because under it, while his neighbor might use his house to accommo-
date twenty-eight persons, he could not remodel his building for the use of
perhaps only four persons, — two in each apartment.
In a New Jersey case2 an amendment to a zoning ordinance adding one
isolated lot, surrounded by a residential zone, to a business district half a
mile away was held by the court to be void or contrary to the state law, which
provides that zoning ordinances shall create districts suited to the purposes
of the act. No doubt the decision turned to a considerable extent upon facts
in the case not fully stated, since in some cases a small isolated district would
be useful, and it would be entirely proper to create it. T. 1D ,,,
r . r>. W.
1Merrill v. City of Wheaton, 190 N. E. 918 (Supreme Court, Apr. 21, 1934).
2Guaranty Construction Co. v. Town of Bloomfield, N. J. Misc. 613, 168 Atl. 34 (Supreme
Court, July 21, 1933).
LOW-COST HOUSING EXHIBIT
A low-cost housing exhibit will be held at the New York
Museum of Modern Art from October 15 to November 15 under
the auspices of the New York City Housing Authority, the Welfare
Council of New York, the Lavanburg Foundation, and others.
186
i
! N. C. C. P. & A. C. P. I. NEWS
\ Conducted by FLAVEL SHURTLEFF, Secretary
CONFERENCE ON CITY, REGIONAL, STATE, AND NATIONAL PLANNING
Joint Meeting of
THE AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION
and
THE NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CITY PLANNING
St. Louis, Missouri, October 22nd to 24th, and
Columbia, Missouri, October 25th, 1934
Jointly with the American Civic Association, the National Conference
on City Planning is sponsoring a Conference on City, Regional, State, and
National Planning to be held in St. Louis, October 22-24, and at the Univer-
sity of Missouri, Columbia, October 25. The Chairman of the National
Resources Board, Secretary Ickes, has approved arrangements for a meeting
of the Board's Advisory Committee at the same time and place. State plan-
ning boards will participate, and the outstanding features of those preliminary
state planning reports which have been completed will be presented. Officials
of the Department of the Interior will take part in the discussions. The
United States Department of Agriculture is keenly interested in the sessions
which have to do with Land Classification, and it is hoped that Secretary
Wallace and Assistant Secretary Wilson will address the Conference.
The tentative schedule of subjects, and the speakers who have already
been invited to address the meeting, follow. Changes in the order of events
and in the list of speakers will be announced from the offices of the National
Conference on City Planning and the American Civic Association.
TENTATIVE PROGRAM
Monday, October 22nd
Morning Session
PRESIDING: Alfred Bettman, President, National Conference on City Planning
The Economic Value of a City Plan
H. I. Harriman, President, Chamber of Commerce of the United States
An Official City Plan at Work
C. A. Dykstra, City Manager, Cincinnati, Ohio
Ways and Means to Make Official Plans Effective
Discussion led by Abram Garfield, Chairman, City Plan Commission, Cleveland
Luncheon Session
PRESIDING: E. J. Russell, Chairman, Regional Planning Association, St. Louis
Address of Welcome
Mayor of St. Louis
Metropolitan Planning for St. Louis and Environs
Harland Bartholomew, St. Louis
REGIONAL PLANNING
Afternoon Session
PRESIDING: Thomas N. Dysart, President, St. Louis Chamber of Commerce
Large-scale Regional Development
Earle S. Draper, Director of Land Planning and Housing, Tennessee Valley Authority
187
£88 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
Defining Districts within a State for Regional Planning
Jacob L. Crane, Jr., President, American City Planning Institute; Planning Con-
sultant for Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin State Planning Boards
PROMOTING PLANNED LAND USES
Evening Session
PRESIDING: Dr. Francis Farrell, President, Kansas State College of Agriculture and
Applied Science
New Methods of Land Control
Dr. Francis Farrell
Rural Land Use Planning
L. R. Schoenmann, Regional Director, Land Policy Section, Agricultural Adjustment
Administration, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Urbana, 111.
Experience in Rural Wisconsin Counties
Noble Clark, Regional Director for Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, Land
Policies Section, Division of Program Planning, Agricultural Adjustment Adminis-
tration, Madison, Wis.
Experience in California Counties
Charles H. Diggs, Director, Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission
L. Deming Tilton, Director of Planning, Santa Barbara County Planning Commission
Tuesday, October 23rd
STATE PLANNING
Morning Session
PRESIDING:
Progress of State Plans
Chairmen of State Planning Boards
What Can be Expected of State Planning?
Robert Whitten, Consultant, New York State Planning Board
Luncheon Session
PRESIDING: Luther Ely Smith, Chairman, Council of Civic Needs, St. Louis
Address
Dr. Charles E. Merriam, Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago;
Member of National Resources Board
Afternoon Session: Planning tour of St. Louis and environs
SOME SOCIAL ASPECTS OF PLANNING
Evening Session
PRESIDING: Dr. Wesley C. Mitchell, Professor of Economics, Columbia University;
Member of National Resources Board
Control of Population Distribution
Dr. Carter Goodrich, Professor of Economics, Columbia University; in charge, Divi-
sion of Study of Population Redistribution, Social Science Research Council, New
York City
Advantages and Limitations of Decentralization
Dr. M. L. Wilson, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture
Wednesday, October 24th
NATIONAL PLANNING
Morning Session
PRESIDING: Frederic A. Delano, President, American Civic Association; Chairman,
Advisory Committee, National Resources Board
Aims of the National Resources Board
Charles W. Eliot 2d, Executive Officer, National Resources Board
Land Use Report
Dr. L. C. Gray, Chief of Division of Land Economics, U. S. Department of Agri-
culture; Director of Land Use Section, Technical Committee, National Resources
Board
Water Resources of the United States
Morris L. Cooke, Chairman, Section on Water Resources, Technical Committee,
National Resources Board
Best Uses of our Minerals
Dr. C. K. Leith, Professor of Geology, University of Wisconsin; Chairman, Section
on Minerals, Technical Committee, National Resources Board
N. C. C. P. & A. C. P. I. NEWS
Luncheon Session
PRESIDING: Struthers Burt, Author, North Carolina and Wyoming
Latest News in Conservation
Jay N. Darling, Chief, Bureau of Biological Survey, U. S. Department of Agriculture
Afternoon Session
PRESIDING: Arno B. Cammerer, Director, National Park Service
Recreation Areas
George M. Wright, Director, Recreation Division, Land Use Section, National
Resources Board
National Forests
Speaker to be announced
State and National Parkways
Gilmore D. Clarke, Member, National Commission of Fine Arts
Dinner Session
PRESIDING: Hon. Guy B. Park, Governor of Missouri
Addresses
Alfred Bettman, President, National Conference on City Planning
Frederic A. Delano, President, American Civic Association
Hon. Henry A. Wallace, Secretary of Agriculture
Thursday, October 25th
Thursday morning the Conference will move from St. Louis to Columbia, the seat of the
University of Missouri. A graphic presentation of the Missouri state planning program will
be given and there will be a lively discussion of the essentials for adequate state planning.
F. S.
ZONED INTO OBLIVION
It was a wise man who said, "You cannot make a silk purse
out of a sow's ear." Neither can you make business property out
of subdividers' illusions, deed restrictions, or zoning classifications.
Sound economic forces create the relatively limited frontage of any
city which can profitably be devoted to business use. Unfortunately,
most of the so-called business frontage was born of the wed-
lock between ignorance and speculation, and the naked miles of
vacant lots along our arteries of travel are mute testimony to an
economic waste of such proportions that the imagination is startled
at the farce of perpetuating this needless waste into the eternity
of to-morrow.
I regret to state that much criticism must be directly charged
to the greed of the property owners themselves, whether subdividers
of large areas or individual lot owners, whose demands upon the
authorities and the pressure used to enforce these demands have
been of such magnitude as to force the dedicating of otherwise
usable frontages to eternal wastage by improper zone classification,
thus making it possible during an active real-estate market to
exploit such land, pocket the false value created by the establish-
ment of a business zone, and depart leaving a trail of depleted
residential value in their wake. — GEORGE H. COFFIN, JR.
BOOK REVIEWS & LISTS |
Conducted by /
THEODORA KIMBALL HUBBARD and KATHERINE McNAMARA
THE CITY-MANAGER PROFESSION. By CLARENCE E. RIDLEY and
ORIN F. NOLTING. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1934.
143 pages. Map, diagram, chart, tables. 8| x 5f inches. (Studies in
Municipal Government.) Price $2.00.
The publication of the new Municipal Year Book by the International
City Managers' Association left need for separate publication of the material
dealing with the city-manager profession which had appeared in the old City
Manager Yearbook. At the same time, it was desirable to bring Leonard
White's good but now somewhat old volume up to date.1 To satisfy these
two ends the authors have brought out The City-Manager Profession.
The new volume is chiefly useful to the young man who would like to
go into city management but has no idea where to begin. Extensive statistics
on the educational and vocational background of men now in the profession
give him the best available answer to the many questions: How do I get
started? Where do I go to school? Is it true that only local men get jobs?
Must I study engineering? This job is thoroughly and impartially done by
the authors. To cite a few of the interesting facts disclosed : the trend toward
local appointments is continuing strongly (but there is good reason to hope
this is only a depression phenomenon) ; a questionnaire shows that engineering
training is not so valuable for managing cities over 50,000 as for managing
those of smaller size; and that only 30 of 365 graduates of city management
schools are now in the profession.
What might be called the political science side of this book is much less
adequately handled, perhaps in deference to Mr. White's study. Certainly
the latter should be read as an important supplement. The new book contains
an idealistic statement of the position of the city manager and of his personal
qualifications, which is best taken with a grain of salt, although it needs to
be taken. A more searching analysis of the problem whether a manager
should be a leader of the community is to be found in Mr. White's book.
European experience on this point would also prove helpful.
Charter provisions in manager cities are extensively and lucidly analyzed.
One of the most promising trends, found in a few recent charters, is the
requirement of previous managerial experience. These plus the other good
features, make the book a worth while analysis of an important problem.
GEORGE C. S. BENSON
Leonard D. White, The City Manager, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1927,
355 pp. See review in CITY PLANNING, Apr. 1928, p. 181.
190
BOOK REVIEWS 191
TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING. By PATRICK ABERCROMBIE. New
York, Henry Holt and Company, 1933. 226 pages. Illus., plans, cross
sections. 6| x 4| inches. Price $1.25.
The great significance of this convenient little volume is the inclusion of
its subject in a series for popular consumption by distinguished authors, under
distinguished editorship, comprising such works as The Socialist Movement by
Premier Ramsay Macdonald, Shakespeare by John Masefield, and Landmarks
in French Literature by G. L. Strachey, — in other words an "Everyman's
Library" covering History, Geography, .Natural Science, Philosophy and
Religion, Social Science, Literature, and Art. It is most appropriate that
Professor Abercrombie of Liverpool should have been chosen to present town
and country planning as a vital problem of society to-day. The book is success-
ful both in style and content: from it the lay reader gains a clear and vivid
idea of what town planning is, how it relates to regional and country planning
(which indeed are integrated parts of planning as a whole), and how these
are essential to the development of human environment. Although the well-
chosen examples and illustrations are selected especially for English readers,
it is to be hoped that the book will have wide popular circulation in America,
for even the most experienced practitioner will find something to pause over
and enjoy. T K H
THE MUNICIPAL YEAR BOOK, 1934: An Authoritative Resume of
Activities and Statistical Data of American Cities. Edited by
CLARENCE E. RIDLEY and ORIN F. NOLTING. Chicago, International
City Managers' Association, 1934. 256 pages. Tables. 9f x 7 inches.
Price $4.00.
This volume, an enlargement of the more restricted City Manager Year-
book which has been published since 1914, is the first of what the Editors
hope will be a series of Year Books containing comprehensive factual data
on American city government.
Planners will find useful for reference this volume's directory of city
officials and very complete information on the form of government of all
cities of over thirty thousand population, its directory of city-manager cities
and city managers, and its interesting and significant financial data for cities.
The latter are particularly valuable due to the omission this year of the pub-
lication of the Financial Statistics of Cities by the Bureau of the Census.
Among the brief papers of especial interest to planners, included under
the general heading of "Municipal Administration in 1933," are "City and
Regional Planning" by Flavel Shurtleff, "Playgrounds and Recreation" by
Jay B. Nash, and "Housing" by Charles S. Ascher. Additional papers and
selected bibliographies complete the volume.
H. K. M.
192 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
STREET TRAFFIC FLOW. By HENRY WATSON. London, Chapman and
Hall Ltd., 1933. Illus., plans, diagrams, charts, tables. 395 pages. 8| x
6 inches. Price 21s.
All large cities came into existence prior to the development of the auto-
mobile, and their street systems were designed to meet the conditions then
existing. The large number of passenger cars and trucks now plying the
streets and mingling with busses and horse-drawn vehicles, together with the
delays caused by cross traffic, have created the ever-present traffic problem.
The construction and use of time-distance diagrams, delay figures, and
obstruction diagrams are well explained in the first part of the book. The
flow of street traffic is treated in a strictly mathematical fashion with no
allowances for the behavior, or whims, of the average driver. The develop-
ment of traffic flow over roundabout (rotary) street intersections is well
handled, and the text contains numerous examples and figures that enable
one to calculate the safe speed of rotation. Designs are also shown for dif-
ferent types of intersections. The fact that in Great Britain the traffic moves
to the left makes the diagrams somewhat difficult to read at first, but this is
not a serious objection.
Two chapters deal with traffic-signal systems, including the traffic-
actuated signal, and good use is made of time-distance graphs in the con-
structing of progressive timing diagrams. Parking of vehicles — that problem
of irritation to the American motorist — is treated briefly. The portion of the
book devoted to methods of improving traffic flow is extremely practical.
The author recognizes that minor improvements should be made before major
surgical operations are performed on the street system.
The book is attractively printed and illustrated, and should find a well-
deserved place in the library of the traffic engineer and the city planner.
H. F. JANDA
URBANISTICA GENERALA, PARTEA I: Evolutia; Igiena; Economia
si Circulatia; Estetica; Legislatia. By CINCINAT I. SFINTESCU.
Bucuresti, Tipografia "Bucovina," I. E. Toroutiu, 1933. 803 + xliv
pages. Illus., maps and plans (part folded), tables. Price Lei 550 (85 fr.).
It is an indication of the growing recognition of the importance of a
comprehensive and scientific technique of planning that this volume of over
eight hundred pages should appear in the Roumanian language. The author,
an official of the government, professor in planning at the Bucharest Academy
of Architecture, and a vice-president of the International Federation of Hous-
ing and Town Planning, has covered all the major aspects of planning, —
historical, economic, engineering, sanitary, esthetic, and legislative. The
many diagrams and illustrations (450, including one of the Chicago Fair),
BOOK REVIEWS 193
drawn from ancient as well as from modern cities and from many countries,
make it an exceptionally useful book. The index displays a catholic acquaint-
ance with all the important authorities; there are, for instance, no less than
eight references to Ebenezer Howard, and even Howard Scott and the tech-
nocrats come in for a footnote! Such a detail as the curriculum of the Har-
vard School of City Planning is included. The French summary of forty-four
pages hardly does justice to the author's encyclopedic treatment.
His definition of urbanism as concerned with "determining and applying
the permanent relations between land, buildings and people in order to utilize
free and built-on areas for esthetic, hygienic and economic needs to social
ends" (dans V inter et social] suggests his approach to the problem. It is sig-
nificant that, after his historical account of the evolution of cities, he places
sanitary problems first. Included among these are the influence of climate,
especially sun and wind, the importance of elevation and exposure in housing,
and the application of zoning and other restrictions to assure provision of
adequate open spaces.
In the chapters on economic and traffic problems there is a detailed dis-
cussion of the relation of size to the organization and location of cities. The
author has developed, with respect to Roumania, formulae for achieving
different perspective effects in street layouts, monumental building develop-
ments, and so forth, as well as an extraordinary range of examples and illus-
trations from contemporary planning in all parts of the world. The sections
dealing with legislation include perhaps the most complete comparative digest
of existing laws and administrative practice available except in specialized
treatises. Altogether, Dr. Sfintescu has made a noteworthy contribution to
the literature of planning which desires translation to make it more widely
available.
PHILLIPS BRADLEY
HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENT. By EDGAR SYDENSTRICKER. New
York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1933. 217 pages. Maps,
charts, tables. 9j x 6j inches. (Recent Social Trends Monographs.)
Price $2.50.
Dr. Sydenstricker's monograph undertakes the original task of gathering,
digesting, and evaluating the scattered objective data on the health of popu-
lations, which reflect the fitness of the environment for human occupancy.
Since the purpose of the study was to provide a material basis for certain
opinions propounded in the more comprehensive report1 of the Committee
on Social Trends, the interpretation of "environment" is much broader than
the integration of the physical surroundings encompassed in the ordinary
conception of city, regional, or national planning. The approach is, moreover,
^Recent Social Trends in the United States: Report of the President's Research Committee
on Social Trends. 2 vols. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1933.
194 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
from the health side and follows a methodology perhaps somewhat unfamiliar
to the engineer. For this very reason, the author's opinion is more convincing
that "All evidence at present points to the conclusion that other factors have
had a far greater influence than genetic factors within the comparatively
short period of our history in determining the rate at which the American
people survive."
The implications of the responsibility of the environmental planner for
such factors in the physical environment as affect health are the principal
values of the study to the city planner. They constitute a bridge which joins
two otherwise separated fields and furnishes one of the most powerful incen-
tives for planning. Consciously or unconsciously the engineer builds health
or disease into the community. Even a faint comprehension of the accelerat-
ing changes in living conditions during the last century, in which time the
expectancy of life at birth has almost doubled, cannot fail to impress anyone
of the importance of this objective in a planned environment.
The chapter on "Environmental Changes and Health" treats of the more
familiar phases of sanitation: the reduction of typhoid and cholera through
pure water supply and adequate sewage disposal ; the retreat of malaria with
modified topography through community development; the lifting of the
threat of yellow fever by elimination of the breeding places for domestic
mosquitoes; freedom from vermin-spread scourges through facilities for com-
munity and personal hygiene; the elimination of the dysenteries through
proper production, preservation, and distribution of food supplies; and the
decline of tuberculosis, through industrial hygiene and proper housing and living
conditions, including adequate recreational facilities. These again integrate
in determining the magnitude of other health indices, until it becomes evident
that every change accomplished by the planner affects the wholesomeness of
an environment and the health of a community.
We may summarize by stating that the book is a valuable source of
statistical data and references bearing upon the pathology of the community
in terms of its anatomy and physiology. Community surgery is the only
alternative to environmental planning.
W. F. WELLS
WATER SUPPLY ORGANIZATION IN THE CHICAGO REGION.
By MAX R. WHITE. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 1934.
170 pages. Maps, tables. 8j x 5| inches. (Social Science Studies No.
XXX.) Price $2.00.
This study, which might be entitled "a study in regional disorganization
for water supply," is primarily concerned with the water-supply systems of
the Chicago Metropolitan Region. The problems of water supply are con-
sidered from a governmental point of view and become of necessity repre-
sentative of many governmental problems that are found in the metropolitan
BOOK REVIEWS 195
regions in the United States. The study is one of a series that has been pre-
pared at the University of Chicago on the Chicago Metropolitan Region.
Surveys of metropolitan governmental organization, public-health organiza-
tion, and the judicial system have already appeared; other studies in the
field of government are in preparation. Surveys of population trends, geog-
raphy, physiography, and agriculture have also received attention in pub-
lished works.
With Lake Michigan at its front door, the Chicago Region, with a popu-
lation close to five million, is one of the favored regions of the world for water
supply. Yet water supplies in the many communities that lie within this
region are often inadequate, expensive, of inferior quality, and poor in service.
Mr. White ascribes this situation to the following conditions: the responsi-
bility for supplying water in the Chicago Region is divided among 168 water
systems, 208 governments, and 1500 officials, although, from an engineering
point of view, the greater part of the Chicago Region is a potential unity for
the purpose of supplying water; effective cooperation among governments is
lacking, with resulting inferiority of service and waste of funds; the fact that
the water area lies in three states complicates the organization of water supply,
and long-time planning is almost impossible with the division of responsibility
which exists in the Region.
A comparison with the water organization in other metropolitan areas
emphasizes the disorganization in the Chicago Region and suggests possi-
bilities of reconstruction. Mr. White suggests and discusses eight alternative
plans for reorganization, as follows:
1. Voluntary cooperation instituted between governments.
2. Joint water districts created to include several municipalities.
3. Greater power and responsibility given to Chicago in supplying its
suburbs.
4. Additional authority given to Chicago Sanitary District, an organi-
zation dealing at present with the sewage-disposal problems of a
portion of the Region.
5. Coordination of water systems in Cook County.
6. Exercise of more control by the three state governments concerned.
7. Interstate action initiated to solve the problems common to two or
three states.
8. Complete unification under a metropolitan government.
Allied to Mr. White's survey of water supply are discussions of the pollu-
tion of Lake Michigan and of the organization of water-supply systems in
other metropolitan areas that have been successful in establishing their re-
gional problem of water supply on a broad governmental basis.
A bibliography, a list of municipalities in the Chicago Region which gives
their legal status, population, source of water supply, and water rates, and
an index complete the book.
GORDON M. FAIR
196 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
CASES ON EQUITY: JURISDICTION AND SPECIFIC PERFORM-
ANCE. By ZECHARIAH CHAFEE, JR., and SIDNEY POST SIMPSON. Cam-
bridge, The Editors, 1934. p. 704-976. Plans. 9| x 6| inches. Pre-
liminary Pamphlet No. 3. Price $1.50.
The legal aspects of restrictive covenants — or, as the lawyers call them,
equitable servitudes — are authoritatively dealt with in this section of the
new case book by Professors Chafee and Simpson (Part Two, Chapter III:
Section 2, pages 704-870).
Among other cases the authors have pointed out the following as of
particular interest to city planners:
The history of the vicissitudes of Leicester Square in London shows how
narrowly this great open space escaped from being turned into buildings
(pages 704-706 and 710, footnote 3.)
The case of London County Council v. Allen (page 768) held that a city
does not have sufficient interest in land which it sold, to enforce a restrictive
covenant made by its grantee when the land has passed into the hands of a
sub-grantee. This decision has been followed by several cases in the United
States (page 774, second paragraph of footnote). Consequently it would
seem important that a public housing corporation or a municipality which
sells land for a housing scheme should have statutory authority to enforce
a restrictive covenant against later owners. A clause to this effect could
easily be inserted in the housing law and an example is furnished by an
English statute (Housing Act, 1925, 15 Geo. 5, c. 14, §110).
The question of the lapse of restrictions when conditions change is covered
by a series of cases (pages 844-864, inclusive).
The effect of a provision giving a substantial fraction of neighboring
landowners the power to modify restrictions is considered (pages 864-867).
The effect of zoning laws on private restrictions is covered (page 868,
ARTHUR C. COMEY
OTHER RECENT PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED
CITY PLANNING is glad to receive for listing in this department pamphlets and
documents of professional interest to readers. The publications it thus receives are
filed for permanent reference in the Library of the School of City Planning of Har-
vard University.
ADAMS, THOMAS. The design of residential areas. Cambridge, Harvard University Press,
1934. 296 pages. Illus., maps and plans, diagrams, charts, cross sections, tables. (Har-
vard City Planning Studies, Volume VI.) Price $3.50.
To be reviewed.
AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION. American civic annual: a record of recent civic advance
with a list of who's who in civic achievement among the members of the American Civic
Association. Vol. V. Edited by Harlean James. Washington, The Association, Inc.,
1934. 278 pages. Illus. Price $3.00.
To be reviewed.
BOOK REVIEWS 19?
BOSTON (MASS.) CITY PLANNING BOARD. Report on Civil Works Administration
Project No. 3512. Boston, The Board, March 31, 1934, 296 pages + photos., maps, and
plans. Planographed.
CALIFORNIA COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSIONERS' ASSOCIATION and CALIFORNIA
STATE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. A manual of county planning. [Sacramento?],
The Association and The Chamber, March 1934. unp. Map. Mimeographed.
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE UNITED STATES. CONSTRUCTION AND Civic
DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT COMMITTEE. New opportunities for city planning:
statement for Chambers of Commerce. Washington, The Chamber, Aug. 1934. 8 pages.
CHICAGO PLAN COMMISSION. Twenty-fourth annual report for the year 1933. Chicago,
The Commission, [1934]. [32] pages. Map, tables.
COFFIN, CEO. H., JR. Zoned into oblivion: factors to be considered when zoning business
property. Los Angeles, Civic Development and Real Estate Dept., Los Angeles Chamber
of Commerce, June 20, 1934. 6 pages. Mimeographed.
DEMANGEON, ALBERT. Paris: la ville et sa banlieue. Paris, Editions Bourrelier et Cie,
[1933?]. 62 pages. Illus., plans. Price 12 fr., 50.
FAIRFIELD COUNTY (CONN.) PLANNING ASSOCIATION. New parks and homes number.
Bridgeport, The Association, June 1934. 13 pages. Illus., plans.
HARTFORD (CONN.) SLUM CLEARANCE STUDY COMMITTEE. Report on the pre-
liminary survey of housing conditions in slum areas for the purpose of laying out a slum
clearance and rehousing program in the city of Hartford, Connecticut. Hartford, The
Committee, June 1934. 52 pages + folded plan.
-HOUSING STUDY GUILD. Housing study bulletin. No. i. June 1934. New York, June
1934. Planographed. Price 20 cents a copy.
INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE URBANISMO. COMITE LOCAL DE VALPARAISO, CHILE.
Boletin no. i, July 1934. Valparaiso, Chile, July 1934.
LYNCHBURG (VA.) CITY PLANNING COMMISSION. Lynchburg city plan. Lynchburg,
The Commission, Feb. 1934. Folded plan.
MONSARRAT, GASTON. Le code de 1'urbanisme: receuil annote des lois, decrets, regle-
ments, circulaires et instructions ministerielles concernant I'amenagement, rembellisse-
ment et 1'extension des villes. Paris, Publications administrates et Bibliotheque muni-
cipale et rurale, 1933. 197 pages. Tables. Price 30 fr.
NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL. HIGHWAY RESEARCH BOARD. Proceedings of the
thirteenth annual meeting of the Highway Research Board. Part I. Edited by Roy
W. Crum. Reports of research committees and papers. Washington, The Board, 1934.
410 pages. Illus., diagrams, charts, tables.
NEW YORK. STATE BOARD OF HOUSING. Report to Governor Herbert H. Lehman
and to the Legislature of the State of New York. Albany, The Board, 1934. 62 pages.
Illus., plans, tables.
PEORIA (ILL.) CITY PLANNING COMMISSION. Traffic survey. Peoria, 111., March 1934.
8 pages, plans (part folded), tables. Mimeographed.
"POMEROY, HUGH R. Land use planning: a paper delivered at the annual meeting of the
California Planners' Institute, Bakersfield, June 2, 1934. n pages. Mimeographed.
RlNGLAND, ARTHUR C. "Bonifica integrale": the Italian national plan of land utiliza-
tion. A summarized report. [Washington, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service,
X933-] 5° pages. Illus. Mimeographed.
- ROE, H. B. Soil erosion: causes and methods of control. University of Minnesota, Agri-
cultural Extension Division, Aug. 1933. 24 pages. Illus. (Special bulletin 160.)
RUBIO I TUDURL, NlCOLAU M., and SANTIAGO RUBIO I TUDURL El pla de distribucio
en zones del territori catala: examen preliminar i solucions provisionals. Estudis fets
segons Decret del Govern de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Barcelona, 1932. 77 pages.
Illus., plans, folded map.
198 CITY PLANNING Vol. 10, No. 4
TlLTON, L. DEMING. An analysis of the Santa Barbara Airport problem. [Santa Barbara,
1934.] [43] pages. Typewritten.
Supplemented by Appendix A: California airports, municipal and commercial, a table showing
the cities having airports, their population, the form of ownership of each airport, its rating,
distance from business district, area, and length of runways; Appendix B: Statements from
cities in California showing the methods employed in the acquisition and development of airports.
— . Building a beautiful community: an address to the Orange County Plan-
ning Commission before the Coast Council on Highway Beautification in Laguna Beach
on March 8, [1934]. Reprinted from the South Coast News, March 16, [1934]. 3 pages.
State planning: [address before the] Pacific Southwest Academy (American
Academy of Political and Social Science). Los Angeles, May u, 1934. 20 pages. Type-
written.
/TRANSVAAL, PROVINCE OF. The townships and town planning ordinance, 1931. Together
with the regulations. Pretoria, The Government Printer, 1932. 41 pages. Price 2s.
In English and Dutch.
U. S. BOARD OF SURVEYS AND MAPS. Standard symbols. Washington, The U. S.
Geological Survey, 1932. i page, folded. Price 40 cents.
U. S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. DIVISION OF BIBLIOGRAPHY. List of references on
regional, city and town planning with special reference to the Tennessee Valley Project.
Florence S. Hellman, compiler. Washington, The Library, 1933. 46 pages. Mimeo-
graphed.
• UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. EXTENSION SERVICE OF THE COLLEGE OF AGRI-
CULTURE. Making the best use of Wisconsin land through zoning. Madison, The
University, March 1934. 19 pages. Illus., plans. Price 10 cents, on application to the
Bulletin Mailing Office, College of Agriculture, Madison, Wis.
WEHNER,*[BRUNO. Grenzen 'des Stadtraumes vom Standpunkt des innerstadtischen Ver-
kehrs: ein Beitrag zum Problem der Wechselwirkung zwischen Stadtebau und Verkehr.
Wurzburg, Verlag Konrad Triltsch, 1934. 85 pages. Diagrams, charts, tables.
WllITNALL, C. B. How the Kinnickinnic should look. [Milwaukee, Public Land Commis-
sion], n.d. [16] pages. Illus., plan.
— -. Open letter to our honorable mayor and Common Council of the City of
Milwaukee. [9] pages. Illus. The second open letter to our honorable mayor and Com-
mon Council of the City of Milwaukee. [16] pages. Illus., plan.
WlTWATERSRAND, TRANSVAAL. First meeting of the Witwatersrand Joint Town Plan-
ning Committee held at Johannesburg on 2nd February, 1933. Johannesburg, Radford,
Adlington, Ltd., [1933]. 18 pages.
DESIGN OF RESIDENTIAL AREAS
Of all things that contribute to the welfare of society, none is
more important than the good quality of the homes in which people
live. This does not mean that welfare depends solely on houses
being strong enough to provide shelter against the elements, but
also that they shall be agreeable enough in their environment to
give reasonable satisfaction to other human wants.
The design of homes, together with their location, approaches,
and surroundings, in well-arranged groups and neighborhoods, is
one of the most important branches of the art of city planning.
— THOMAS ADAMS.
annin
eview
(Issued from tne Department of Civic Design,
University of Liverpool)
The only English magazine devoted
entirely to this subject. It deals with the
monumental, historical, and domestic aspects.
WESLEY DOUGILL, Editor
Advisory Committee:
PATRICK ABERCROMBIE
S. D. ADSHEAD
C. H. REILLY Published at the
Editorial Offices: University Press of Liverpool
Abercromby Square, Liverpool 177 Brownlow Hill
Price four shillings a copy: fifteen shillings a volume (4 copies)
The first fifteen volumes (with the exception of Vol. I, Nos. 1 and 2 and Vol. II, No. 1) are obtainable
at 20/- the Volume, bound in fawn cloth (boarded), or 15/- the Volume, unbound.
Vol. I, Nos. 3 and 4, and Vol. II, Nos. 2, 3, and 4, 51- each.
Subscriptions may be sent to City Planning
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