286 LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



one sidewalk only may be constructed, and in rural localities separate 

 paved sidewalks may perhaps be omitted altogether, particularly where 

 the subdivision consists of large properties and the traffic is infrequent 

 and mostly by vehicle. Usually even in such cases, however, it is better 

 to have some safe line for pedestrian traffic. The sidewalk may take the 

 form of an irregular path, sometimes near the road, sometimes near the 

 property line, making its way among trees and over somewhat irregular 

 gradients, an inexpensive and appropriate arrangement persisting until 

 great increase in the traffic requires a more definite construction. 

 Lot Sizes As we have seen, the sizes of lots in a land subdivision scheme will 



be primarily determined by the mode of life and scale of expenditure 

 of the people who are to own them, and they should not vary in size 

 in any one neighborhood so greatly as to make some of them unfit for 

 the use of people of the general class for which the neighborhood is 

 designed. But within these limits some variation of size is not only 

 allowable but desirable. On an irregular topography with curving 

 roads, an attempt to make all lots of the same size will produce some lots 

 of unusual and inconvenient shape. Moreover, the people who come 

 to buy lots do not all require exactly the same thing, and a certain 

 number of lots somewhat larger and somewhat smaller than the general 

 average may perfectly well be sold to advantage before the last of the 

 lots come to be disposed of. Where there is little distinction between 

 one lot and another and few existing trees, the demand for lots of a size 

 different from the average may be met by selling two lots together or 

 even a portion of a lot if the general lot size be large enough. Some- 

 times this condition is met by having the land divided into strips of a 

 constant depth and a narrow width, for instance fifteen feet, and selling 

 to one purchaser any number of strips over a fixed minimum, perhaps 

 four. Where the lots have been designed so that their boundary lines 

 are placed and their probable house locations chosen in order to pre- 

 serve some natural beauty, this splitting of lots into small units cannot 

 readily be done. 

 Lot Width and The minimum width of a lot will be determined by the average width 

 ^^^'^ of such a house as would be built by the average prospective purchaser, 



and the advisable clearance between house and house for air, light, 

 planting, for entrance roads, or for garages or other service buildings. 



