HOUSING REFORM FORD. 753 



Irregular lots on winding streets can be rendered economical and 

 exceedingly beautiful if developed cooperatively in the manner 

 already described. The British copartnership garden suburbs are so 

 planned and yet are able to house workingmen at current rates. 



PUBLIC SUPERVISION OF SUBURBAN DE\T2L,0PMENT. 



If your city is to determine its housing development, it is essential 

 that there be a municipal commission empowered to establish (sub- 

 ject to district referendum) the building zones of the city, to pass 

 upon, and, if necessary, reject plans of land companies for estate 

 development, to determine also the direction, width, paving, and 

 planting of new streets, with power to inaugurate schemes and 

 enforce its decisions in so far as they affect vitally the welfare of the 

 community. There should be a permanent city plan conmiission 

 for the metropolitan district, even if the suburbs of the city are not 

 all (as they should be) incorporated within the political city. There 

 is much European precedent for the establishment of such commis- 

 sions with power. German cities are so provided. English cities, 

 under the town-planning act of 1909, may secure power to regulate 

 the methods and extent of development of land likely to be used for 

 building purposes within, or in the neighborhood of, their area. 

 They also have power to limit the number of buildings which may 

 be erected per acre and the height and character of those buildings. 



In America city-planning powers of this type are already being 

 given by provincial governments of the cities of Canada. In Ontario, 

 for example, local town-planning commissions have power to pass 

 on all lot distribution of towns of 50,000 inhabitants or more, and 

 cities may plan for the area within 5 miles of their limits. No 

 lots may be sold until such plans are approved. The value of this 

 power is reduced in so far as the promotion of workingmen's sub- 

 urban homes is concerned by the requirement that all streets shall 

 be at least 60 feet wide. The provinces of western Canada have given 

 quite similar power to their cities. In the States, somewhat similar 

 powers have already been granted to cities in Pennsylvania and Wis- 

 consin. And that power under the Wisconsin law regarding the 

 platting of land near cities, adopted in 1909, extends to all land 

 within H miles of the limits of such cities. 



THE COST or COTTAGE CONSTRUCTION. 



Suburban development will be encouraged not only by keeping 

 low the price of land and restricting its use but also by any reduction 

 that can be made in the cost of constructing cottage homes for work- 

 ing men. In general it is possible to construct tenement houses which 



44863°— SM 1913 48 



