LAND SUBDIVISION ^77 



are, the more per square foot will be received for the land sold as lots. 

 Second, there will be for sale proximity to town. Other things being Proximity to 

 equal it is an advantage to everyone to be able to get rapidly from his 

 dwelling to the business or down-town districts of the city. Plainly 

 the smaller the lots are and consequently the more of them there are, 

 the more people are provided with proximity to town, and thus, so far 

 as this factor goes, the higher can be the total selling price of the land. 

 Third, there is for sale convenience, that is, ease of access to the lots Convenience 

 by the local roads, convenience of shape of lot, convenient relation of 

 the slope of the surface of the lot, if there be any, to its probable use. 

 In attaining this convenience probably some extra expense in road con- 

 struction will be incurred, and perhaps fewer lots will be produced 

 than might otherwise be obtained. Fourth, there is for sale social Social 

 desirability, perhaps the most important and least predictable of all the ^"^'' * ''>' 

 characteristics that make land salable. The desirability of the ad- 

 joining land will usually be a principal factor, but the size of the lots 

 and the restrictions will have considerable influence. The kind of 

 selling campaign and the social status of the first few people who buy 

 lots will also tend to determine the social desirability of the whole 

 property. Fifth, there is amenity, that is mutual unobnoxiousness, the Amenity 

 avoidance of anything in the construction, development, or use of the 

 buildings and grounds of one property detrimental to its neighbor. 

 Large lots will evidently make this more easy, but restrictions as to 

 size, appearance, and cost of buildings and their location and use will 

 do much towards amenity even with small lots. And then there will 

 be for sale beauty. The decision as to what kind of beauty is to be Beauty 

 produced will be one of the fundamental decisions to be made before 

 the scheme can be at all decided on. If there exists considerable natural 

 beauty of pleasant hillside and great trees, and if the lots may be made 

 large enough so that the natural surface of the ground may be to a great 

 extent preserved, then there may be chosen a development of winding 

 roads, of informal planting, of lots so arranged that the lot units and 

 the landscape units coincide as far as may be possible, and the house 

 locations may be so taken as to do the minimum of damage to the natural 

 landscape. If this kind of beauty does not naturally exist, it may 

 nevertheless be chosen as a type to be approximated in the new develop- 



