Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 94, no. 2426: Articles]: September 12, 1914

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REAL ESTATE AND NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 12, 1914 ipWIiiiiH I PROTECTING RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS m Methods Employed in Various Cities Where Efforts Have Been Made to Confine Industrial Concerns Within Prescribed Zones'^' s By LAWRENCE VEILLER | r\OES the constitutional right to life, ^-^ liberty and the pursuit of happiness include those important considerations which our English cousins in their re¬ cent town planning- legislation refer to as the "amenities"? It is only in very recent years that we have been conscious of the necessity of doing something to protect our citizens in the enjoyment of the right to lead a quiet, contented, rational existence and bring up their families free from the noise, discomfort and nerve-racking at¬ mosphere whicli generally surrounds our industries. During the last few years in a few of our larger cities we have awakened to the folly of this disorderly and thought¬ less method of living and are beginning to ask ourselves whether these discom¬ forts of living are really necessary after all. Property Restrictions. From the earliest days even in Ameri¬ ca those of us who have not been espe¬ cially enamoured of noise and of a hurly burly life, have sought so far as mere man could, acting alone and without the powerful support of government, to con¬ trol his own neighborhood and protect the home and where he expected to bring up a family and live for the rest of his life. And so we find for many years in America an efifort through pri¬ vate covenant or what is popularly known as "property restrictions" to se¬ cure the result desired. Unfortunately this method which has been followed to a greater or less de¬ gree throughout all parts of the country has not proved entirely satisfactory, being a private arrangement between in¬ dividuals, and being only a mutual agreement or contract, it has proved to be easily dissolvable. Furthermore, in many of our States the courts have held that property restrictions imposed some years back by the then owners of prop¬ erty are no longer binding and of effect when the neighborhood conditions have changed and when the succeeding prop¬ erty owners have desired to dissolve the terms of such agreement. Private covenant having proved i..- eflfective, the use of the police power of the State has finally been sought. How far the police power will stretch in America is still a question to be decided. That the police power cannot be stretched to cover merely aesthetic con¬ siderations is clear from the decisions of our courts. As yet no one has sought to define the meaning of that important term "gen¬ eral welfare." It is a most important one for those interested in progress. I take it to be the American equivalent of our English city planners' ''amenity." What Has Been Done. Such efforts as have been made in the United States to extend the use of the police power in this direction have all been within the past few years, the earl¬ iest attempt having been made in the State of California five years ago. Here •From paper at the Sixth National Conference on City Planning at Toronto. in 1909 the first effort to establish resi¬ dential districts and to exclude there¬ from certain industries was made in the city of Los Angeles. In the year following a similar at¬ tempt was made in Michigan, in the city of Grand Rapids, and more recently, .viz., in 1913, there seems to have been an epidemic of regulation of this kind, the States of New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois having all passed legislation of this nature. So far as I can ascertain, all these va¬ rious attempts were made in an unre¬ lated way by each State, without knowl¬ edge of what the other was doing; in fact, in most cases I believe without knowledge of what California had done four years previous. California Leads, The Los Angeles ordinance differs in many respects from the districting plans of other cities in that it lays the greater emphasis upon the establishment of in¬ dustrial districts, whereas the schemes embodied in the laws of other states concern themselves with residential dis¬ tricts. The difference, however, after all. is chiefly a question of emphasis. The entire city of Los Angeles, with the exceptio!! of two suburbs, is divided into industrial and residential districts. In addition to the industrial districts there are what are termed "resident ex¬ ceptions;" in other words, small spots where certain unol)jectionable industries are permitted. The industrial districts vary greatly in shape and size. The largest has an area of several square miles and measures five miles in length and two miles in width. The smallest district comprises a single lot. As a whole the industrial districts are grouped in one part of the city. The "residence exceptions" are small, with the exception of one which is about a half mile in area. None of them covers a greater area than two city blocks and in many cases each does not occupy more than one or two lots. The Vm^ that is drawn between the industrial district and the residential dis¬ trict in the Los Angeles scheme is that all kinds of business and manufacturing are permitted without restriction in the industrial districts, while in the residen¬ tial districts certain specified businesses of a_ distinctly objectionable nature are prohibited. Those industries which ave not enumerated in the prohibition are permitted. Manufacturing Forbidden. In the residential districts all manu¬ facturing but that of the lightest kind is forbidden, but less offensive business and manufacturing establishments which are excluded from the residential dis¬ tricts may be carried on in the "residence exceptions," which seem to be a sort of "twilight zone" between the two ex¬ tremes. A distinctive feature of the Los An¬ geles scheme is that certain industries, even if already established in the resi¬ dential district before the district is cre¬ ated, are to be excluded; that is, it be¬ comes unlawful to maintain these indus¬ tries even though they may have been in operation for many years before the dis¬ trict was created. In Michigan in 1910 the Common Couiicil of Grand Rapids, without any specific authority from the Legislature, passed an ordinance establishing resi¬ dence districts, and subsequently this ordinance was amended by creating ad¬ ditional residence zones. The validity of the ordinance was attacked in the courts and the Superior Court of Grand Rapids held that the ordinance was un¬ constitutional and void, among other reasons on the ground that "such ordi¬ nance constitutes a taking away of the property of relator without due process of law, in violation of the provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Con¬ stitution of the LInited States." The Legislature of Wisconsin in 1913 passed an act authorizing cities of 25,000 or more to set aside exclusive residential districts. The act thus affects the cities of Milwaukee, Green Bay, La Crosse, Madison. Oshkosh, Racine, Sheboygan and Snperior. At about the same time that the State of Wisconsin was acting, the State of Minnesota was taking similar action. The Legislature of that State in 1913 passed an act empowering cities with a population in excess of 50.000 to estab¬ lish exclusive residential and industrial districts. Acting under authority of this law the City Council of Minneapolis on February 28, 1913. passed an ordinance establishing certain residential districts. So far as we can ascertain, thc validity of this ordinance has not as yet been tested. The State of Illinois in the same year also passed an act empowering cities to establish residential districts and ex¬ clude therefrom certain other classes of buildings, but this was vetoed by the Governor upon an opinion from the At¬ torney-General that such an act would be unconstitutional. New York State Acts. At the same time the Empire State of New York was taking similar action. In the Housing Law for Second Class Cities will be found a similar plan for the es¬ tablishment of residential districts. In that act a plan is provided for the estab¬ lishment of "residence districts" and the erection of any buildins- other than a private dwelling or two-family dwelling in such districts is prohibited. The resi¬ dence district may be made as small as one side of a city block. Acting under authority of this law the cities of Syracuse and Utica have passed ordinances establishing such residential districts. New York City has also taken similar action within the last two months, the Legislature of 1914 having passed an en¬ abling act authorizing the Board of Esti¬ mate to divide the city into districts and to regulate the use of buildings in each district on a different basis. A commis¬ sion is to be appointed by the local au¬ thorities of New York City to determine the boundaries of districts and to work out the details of this plan. What, it may be asked, are the im¬ portant considerations to be borne in mind in seeking to utilize the police