Plan and Art Commission Act. No. 3. The New York City and Village Planning Law. No. 4. The New York City Art Com- mission Law. No. 5. Planning Provisions of the Charter and Or- dinances of Cleveland, Ohio. No. 6. The Pennsylvania General Plan Act. No. 7. The Pennsylvania Planning Act for Third Class Cities; the Provisions for Approval of Plats. No. 8. Planning Provision of the Pennsylvania State Highway Act. No. 9. The Proposed Massachusetts Metropolitan Planning Act. No. 10. The Pennsylvania Suburban Metropolitan Planning Act. No. 11. The New York-New Jersey Compact for Planning New York Harbor. No. 12. The New Jersey County_Planning Act. No. 13. The Cali- THE LAW OF CITY PART I GENERAL PRINCIPLES CHAPTER I SCOPE Definition of City Planning.-City or town planning1 is the guidance of the physical development of communities in the attainment of unity in their construction. Wherever in any locality a sufficient concentration of population has occurred to create complexity, here will be found a network of interests, each seeking its expression in the physical life of that locality; and it is the task of city planning, either by prevention or by cure, to bring these interests into harmony, in the unity of that locality.2 'In England, where the word "town" means any collection of buildings however large, the science is called town planning; while in the United States, where the larger aggregations are generally referred to as cities, the expression city planning is the one generally employed. The phrase town planning is in common use in Canada and Massachusetts. 'The extent to which city planning should go into detail, is governed largely by practical considerations. The "Introductory Statement" of the American City Planning Institute, based upon the report of a sub-committee of which Frederick Law Olmsted, Esq., was chairman, says on this subject: "2. City Planning . . . is concerned with the territory occupied or to be occupied by any community and with prospective physical alterations in that territory and the objects upon it, in so far as such alterations can wisely be controlled or influenced by concerted action in the interest of the community as a social unit. "3. No prospective physical alteration is so small, so localized, or so Planning Small Places.-In this country the planning of localities is usually referred to as "city" planning. This is no doubt due to the fact that until recently all our planning legislation, recognized as such, applied only to cities, and interest in planning was confined almost exclusively to large cities. In specialized in technique as to be excluded merely for that reason from the scope of city planning, provided it can wisely and effectively be controlled in the common interest. . . . "5. In theory there are no limitations to the extent of coördination desirable among the diverse planning activities which shape the physical growth of a community or to the desirability of estimating future contingencies and taking account of them in planning; but practically there are decided limitations upon the amount of time and effort which can be withdrawn from the vital business of getting things done for the sake of study and of planning what to do and how best to do it. "a. The so-called 'practical man' is apt to underestimate the value of far-sighted, deliberate and well-coördinated planning; while the socalled 'theorist' is apt to overestimate the extent to which such planning can profitably be carried and to underestimate its cost in delays and in dissipation of energy which might be producing more immediate practical results. The well-balanced city planner, along with his broad grasp of underlying theories, recognizes that practical results year in and year out are the final test, and shapes his work accordingly. "b. It is important therefore to apply sound, clear, penetrating common sense to the problem of how far it will pay to go with investigations and planning, under any given conditions, before proceeding to the execution of plans. "6. The classes of specific planning problems which are most distinctively matters of city planning are: "a. Those which lie so much outside of the fields effectively covered by existing specialized planning agencies that the community is likely to suffer from their neglect. Such specialized fields include, for example, sewerage, water-supply, parks and rapid transit. "b. Those in which a close coordination of planning in separate fields of technical work is likely to secure advantages commensurate with the effort of obtaining such coördination. "c. Those in which the permanent interests of a community justify the framing of plans for specific improvements in such a manner as to meet not merely the immediate objects of the improvements but also the contingencies of a remoter future or community needs which are only indirectly connected with those objects. "7. Merely to deal with problems of the above classes as they arise in the course of community growth is city planning of an opportunist sort. But constructive city planning requires also that many such problems, long before they become acute, shall be anticipated and considered under the impulse of imagination applied toward the attainment of the larger social objectives of the community.. "9. Just as city planning must unite the points of view of many technical specialists in approaching its problems and must balance a regard for immediate expediency with a far-sighted outlook to the future, so it must appreciate at their full importance and must adequately harmonize, in every one of its problems, the requirements of convenience, healthfulness and efficiency in operation, of orderly and beautiful appearance and of economic ability to meet the costs." Germany the planning provisions apply both to small and to large places and planning is carried on in both. In this country, too, in several of our states planning laws for towns and villages have recently been passed, of which, however, little use has as yet been made. It is essential that every locality in which any degree of concentration has occurred or may be expected should be regulated in its growth; the smaller the place the greater being the opportunity of planning. For this reason it has been suggested that a name be selected for the science which would not by implication exclude the guidance of the growth of the small locality. Probably as good a name for this purpose as any would be "community planning," if indeed it is really worth while to attempt to supersede the expressions now in general use. Planning for the Community to Come.-In the United States we are apt to think only of the planning of communities already in existence, and in practice we rarely attempt to guide their growth until they have already attained a considerable size. This is a grave mistake. For good or for ill, as soon as two roads of a given width cross at a given place and angle, and a building starts at the intersection, important features of the future community, its life and growth, have been carelessly, perhaps, but in all probability irrevocably fixed. The British planning acts of 1909 and 1919, and the statutes in many other parts of the British Empire modeled on them, provide for the planning not only of "any land which is in course of development" but of land which "appears likely to be used for building purposes." This clause has fortunately received a broad interpretation in England, and land there has been planned under it which will not, in all probability, be built on for fifty or a hundred years. Nevertheless, for much of England the provision comes too late. In Canada and other parts of the Empire, under similar provisions, more may still be done; but nowhere does it assure all that is necessary, and the attempt is constantly being made by statutory amendment and improved practice, to plan future building land earlier and more generally. |