Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections: The Real Estate Record

Real estate record and builders' guide: [v. 94, no. 2438: Articles]: December 5, 1914

Text version:

REAL ESTATE AND NEW YORK, DECEMBER 5,*1914 lllllllllillilllilillH^^^^^ ......Ilillllllllillllllllillilllilill......llllilllilK I CITY PLANNING IN NEW YORK CITY The City Controling Its Own Destinies—A Recent Charter Amendment Has Placed the Movement Under Official Auspices I 1„„, By GEORGE B. FORD* 1 I THE City of New York has officially recognized city planning. In fact, city planning work has become an integral part of the city government. A little over a year and a half a,go, in March, 1913, Hon. George McAneny, then President of the Borough of Man¬ hattan, took the first official step toward the recognition of city planning by the appointment of a commission of nine¬ teen citizens to advise with the Bo^rd of Estimate and Apportionment on the regulation of the height, size and ar¬ rangement of buildings. They presented suggestions for an or¬ dinance limiting the maximum height of all buildin.gs. This is now before the Board of Aldermen. Furthermore, they urgently recommended two amendments to the Charter of the City of New York. One of these charter amendments grant¬ ed the Board of Estimate and Appor¬ tionment the power to district the city by different height and area regulations in different parts of the city, and the other amendment allowed them to dis¬ trict the city according to use of prop¬ erty. These amendments also provided that the Board of Estimate and Appor¬ tionment should appoint an advisory cominission of citizens who would study the subject in detail, hold conferences and hearings, and report back to the Board of Estimate and Apportionment a plan for their consideration. These two amendments passed the Legislature at Albany and became a law in May, 1914. Inception of the Movement. Meanwhile, when the new administra¬ tion of New York came into power on January 1, 1914, Mr. McAneny, now President of the Board of Aldermen of New York, recommended that one of the standing committees of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment be a committee on the City Plan and that all larger matters which affected the map of the city, other than those relating to transit and port and terminal facilities, should be referred to this committee. It consists of Mr. McAneny, as chair¬ man, and the five borough presidents as members. Each of the five Borough Presidents has had since 1902 a topographical bureau in his own borough, and all mat¬ ters of purely local improvement, or changes in the map of the borough, have been worked out and passed upon by the local bureau. Furthermore, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment has had s'nce the consolidation of the city a Bureau of Improvements in charge of Nelson P. Lewis as chief engineer. He passes upon all the local improvements from the standpoint of the interest of the whole city and presents a plan for the distribution of the paying for the work. In addition, he has developed a broad plan of general thoroughfares for the whole city. *CnnsuUant to the Committee on City Plan of the Board of Estimate.—Paper read at the annual meeting of the American Civic Association, at Washington, December 2. All of the above bureaus continue, but now all the more important improve¬ ments which are of more than local character are referred to the new com¬ mittee on the City Plan. This com¬ mittee has offices in the Municipal Build¬ ing, where a staff is employed on its work with Robert H. Whitten, formerly librarian-statistician of the Public Serv¬ ice Commission, as secretary, and George B. Ford, secretary of the Heights of Buildings Commission of 1913, as its consultant. Under the authority granted it by the charter amendments, the Board of Esti¬ mate and Apportionment appointed a commission called the Commission on Building Districts' and Restrictions. This commission of sixteen members, of which Edward M. Bassett is the chair¬ man, is the direct successor of thc Heights of Buildings" Commission of 1913, and its function is to continue the program of the former-commission. An appropriation has been put at its dis¬ posal and when it has reached definite conclusions, it is to report back to the Committee on the City Plan of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. Meanwhile the latter committee has placed at the disposal of the commission its staff and rooms and material in the Municipal Building. The New Advisory Commission. The Committee on the City Plan has also appointed an advisory commission of twenty-four members, which is known as the Advisory Commission on City Planning. Charles D. Norton, who took a prominent part in the working up of the great plans for Chicago under the auspices of the Commercial Club there, is the chairman of this commis¬ sion, and Frederic B. Pratt, of Brook¬ lyn, who has been chairman for a num¬ ber of years of the City Planning Com¬ mittee of Brooklyn, is vice-chairman. The functions of this commission are to consider and rep^ort back to the Com¬ mittee on City Plan on such matters as the latter committee may refer to them and also the commission is at liberty to consider and report upon such other city, plannin.g matters as it believes should be brou,ght to the attention of the Committee on the City Plan. In other words, it is free to do creative city plan¬ ning work. ,As in the case of the Commission on Building Districts and Restrictions, the Committee on the City Plan has put its offices and staff at the disposal of the Advisory Commission on City Planning. Tendencies of City Growth. Aside from the routine work, which is comin.g up constantlv before the Com¬ mittee on the City Plan of the Board of Estimate and Apportionment, the staff is devoting most of its attention to the collection and presentation in graphic form of fundamental data showing the tendencies of growth of the city. For example, they are taking the population data from the censuses of 1910, 1905. 1900 and 1895. in as small units as they exist, and are showing upon compara¬ tive maps by dots and otherwise the distribution of population at these periods with a view to showing the ten¬ dencies' of change and growth. On a corresponding series of maps they are showing from data obtained from real estate and insurance atlases of the city at dififerent periods the trend of distribution of buildings by dififerent kinds of use and size throughout the city. Again they are showing the dis¬ tribution of transit and transportation facilities at periods corresponding to those of the building and population data with a view to showing the efifect of transit on the growth of the city. Again, they are making complete time zone and fare zone maps of the city to show the effect of the distance and the time people have to travel and the fare they have to pay on the character of development in any given district. Again, they are showing the distribu¬ tion of property values throughout the city on a series of maps based upon the assessed valuation per foot of property and, in conjunction with this, they are showing the relative value of improve¬ ments as compared with value of land in dififerent parts of the city. They are also showing the distribu¬ tion of factories of different kinds and the distribution of the working or day population of the city from data se¬ cured from the Department of Labor. They are also showing the distribution and intensity of use of the various waterfront and terminal facilities of the city, and the facilities for the transpor¬ tation of goods. Again they are showing on a series of maps the distribution of buildings throughout the city by height; the dis¬ tribution by percentage of lot occupied, and the distribution by character of construction. Usefulness of the Data. It is felt that the preparation of data such as the above is of the greatest use not only to the Commission on Building Districts and Restrictions and the Ad¬ visory Commission on City Planning, but to a number of the other depart¬ ments of the city in connection with the extension of their systems or work, and also to all such citizens or citizen bodies as are brought into contact with prob¬ lems which are dependent on a knowl¬ edge of the tendencies of growth of the city. In closing, I wish to say a word about the character of the above three com¬ missions. In each case the members of these commissions are men of reco,g- nized standing, leaders and authorities in their respective lines. The commis¬ sions were intentionally made large, partly so that- there could be represen¬ tatives upon them from each of the five boroughs of the city and partly so that all of the leading types of professions and business and points of view could be amply represented. The appointment of these commis- ■ sions has been justified, for, at almost no expense to itself, the city has been and is securing the best thought and time of a number of its leading citizens.