The Citizen's Library of Economics. Politics and Sociology EDITED BY RICHARD T. ELY, Ph.D., LL.D. Professor of Economics in the University of Wisconsin. New Series THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT. BY BENJAMIN P. DEWITT, M.A., LL.B. THE SOCIAL PROBLEM. BY CHARLES A. ELLWOOD, PH.D. THE WEALTH AND INCOME OF THE PEOPLE OF THE BY RICHARD T. ELY, PH.D., LL.D.; RALPH H. HESS, PH.D.; THE WORLD WAR AND LEADERSHIP IN A DEMOC BUDGET MAKING IN A DEMOCRACY. BY MAJOR EDWARD A. FITZPATRICK. THE VISION FOR WHICH WE FOUGHT. BY A. M. SIMONS, B.L. CITY MANAGER IN DAYTON. BY CHESTER E. RIGHTOR, B.A. THE MARKETING OF WHOLE MILK. BY HENRY E. ERDMAN, PH.D. POPULAR GOVERNMENT. BY ARNOLD Bennett Hall, B.A., J.D. THE NON-PARTISAN LEAGUE. BY ANDREW A. BRUCE, A.B., LL.B. THE LAW OF CITY PLANNING AND ZONING. BY FRANK BACKUS WILLIAMS, A.M., LL.B. PLANNING AND ZONING BY FRANK BACKUS WILLIAMS, A.M., LL.B. Of the New York Bar New York 1922 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and printed. Published November, 1922. Press of J. J. Little & Ives Company New York, U. S. A. Am. Instit. of Arch. 1-12-25 INTRODUCTION BY AUBREY TEALDI Professor of Landscape Design, University of Michigan. City Planning in its broad modern sense is a very recent development in America. Less than three decades have passed since the first conscious effort was made to prepare a comprehensive plan for the improvement, embellishment and future development of a large city. However, only within the present century has the movement become at all general. During this time many cities, both large and small, in every section of the country have grappled with the problem of their economic, hygienic and æsthetic development. At first the movement in civic improvement was mainly confined to the idea of the City Beautiful so that the plans and reports dealt mostly with parks, civic centers and other specialized features that made their appeal through that idea, each one excellent in its way, but fulfilling only a narrow purpose too often totally unrelated to the city as a whole. It was not till later that the less showy but fundamental questions such as transportation, water supply, sewerage systems, etc., were taken into consideration as essential parts of civic improvement. Even then the reports too often illustrated and placed great emphasis upon city embellishment and improvement in other countries without making due allowance for the local conditions and specially for the legal status of city planning in those countries. In general it may be said that in the earlier planning reports the legal side of city planning was given little or no consideration. The result was a failure, either wholly or in part, to accomplish their purpose. This failure was easily traceable to the lack of legal foundation for carrying out the plans recommended in the reports. The need of a sound legal basis for city planning in the United States soon became apparent. In fact it did not seem an exaggeration to say that the most important profession in connection with city planning was the law, and that the lawyer, at least for the time being, was the one most fundamentally concerned with its progress. While it is evident that city planning cannot be a one-man's concern, and that for the best accomplishment it must be the result of the united efforts of the lawyer, the engineer, the landscape designer, the architect, the economist and others, it is still true today that in most cases without the efforts of the lawyer the others would be helpless. And it will continue to be true until such time as that sound legal basis has become an accomplished fact. City planning as a science and as an art has been taught for some time at more than one American University, but generally until quite recently the legal side of the question has not been given the prominence that is essential. It was this consideration that in 1915 suggested a course of lectures on city planning law in connection with the instruction in city planning at the University of Michigan, where one of the aims was to spread a knowledge of the elements of the subject more widely rather than confine it to the students of any one depart ment. With this end in view Mr. Frank B. Williams of the New York Bar was invited to deliver a series of lectures at this institution. Mr. Williams was particularly well qualified to act as leader in this pioneering movement. As a student of city planning law his experience had been wide. He had founded and was Chairman of the City Planning Committee of the City Club of New York, he was director of the Municipal Art Society of New York, Member of the General Committee of the National Conference on City Planning, had been sent abroad by the City of New York in 1913, and again in 1914, to investigate and report on building regulation and zoning, and had drafted the New York City Planning Law of 1913. Mr. Williams accepted the invitation and was appointed non-resident Lecturer in City Planning Law in the Department of Landscape Design; the lectures were delivered |