106 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



designation. The provisions to be incorporated in enabling legis- 

 lation would call for the creation of mansion zones, the intent of 

 which would be to permit special consideration and broad zoning 

 exemptions, particularly of use zoning, subject to the control of 

 the planning authority or planning board. The functions of the 

 appeals body would be restricted to staying actions. The mecha- 

 nism of the ordinance would have to provide for selection of archi- 

 tectural examples based firstly on basic architectural worth, then, 

 in order, upon state of preservation, location in the community, 

 and lastly upon potential for absorption into the public or quasi- 

 public domain or into a long-term redevelopment scheme; designa- 

 tion would be by an appointive body whose members would be des- 

 ignated as the official representatives of organizations in interest 

 (that is historical societies, architectural societies, art historians, his- 

 tory teachers, horticultural societies, etc. ) by the organizations them- 

 selves. The ordinance would name the participating bodies, with 

 their consent ; the language would be permissive and not mandatory 

 upon the cooperating organization. 



The heart of the proposal would be in the variation of the use as- 

 pect so as to permit, subject to appropriate safeguards, broad lati- 

 tude in exploring ways to save the buildings on a sound economic 

 basis. Governments as first priority purchasers can well afford to 

 consider housing specialized agencies of a prestige nature in the kind 

 of quarters which these proud or once-proud buildings represent. 

 Institutions could next be polled to see if preservation could be 

 arranged by them through purchase, bequest, long-term purchase 

 options, installment purchase, or similar devices. 



Private developments would be considered as the third alterna- 

 tive and the most likely one in most instances. Individual buildings 

 on large plots or groups of mansions on large or moderately large 

 plots, so typical of these fine houses, would be designated as redevel- 

 opment districts (if private negotiation arrangements for the preser- 

 vation-designated buildings failed), thereby bringing them into the 

 public domain. Under the circumstances envisaged, cost write- 

 downs of these redevelopment areas would not be required as the 

 land so assembled would, if centrally located, normally be of higher 

 value as a large parcel than any individual holding. The participat- 

 ing entrepreneur would first enter into a negotiation agreement with 

 the municipality or county (or State) permitting him to negotiate 

 for all or most of the properties in the designated group. Prior to 



