446 CONFERENCE ON NATURAL BEAUTY 



From the fact that we are holding this conference, and from the 

 many critical statements made over the past two days, it is clear that 

 we are not satisfied with many aspects of our urbanized environment. 

 The various speakers of the other panels have made most excellent 

 suggestions of ways of preserving, using, and rectifying our environ- 

 ment. From their many ideas, we can see a bright prospect if we 

 can guide or direct this enormous building and rebuilding activity 

 which we have going on today, and which will accelerate even more 

 with the pressures of population and economic growth. 



For the sake of brevity, I should like to summarize my remarks 

 to make the following very general points : 



The present suburban sprawl is the result of our programs and 

 policies to date. Therefore, we can expect our future suburbs to 

 be pretty much like what they are today unless the effects of the 

 economic forces and public policies determining the forms of these 

 suburbs are modified. 



Much of this growth will take place at the fringe of the existing 

 metropolitan centers as simple expansion. The form, the character, 

 the quality of this growth will reflect all of the multitudinous forces 

 acting upon it the caprice and demands of the market, the controls 

 and permissibility of the local zoning and subdivision controls, the 

 legal and financial requirements of leading institutions, local bodies, 

 county, State, and Federal programs, and, to only a very slight de- 

 gree, the taste of architects and designers. 



New effectiveness, perhaps along the lines of the Muskie bill, must 

 be given to planning and carrying out policies on a regional basis 

 extending far beyond the local municipal bounds. From a com- 

 munity point of view, a well-designed plan which preserves the nat- 

 ural beauty of the streams, valleys, the wooded slopes and other such 

 scenic areas needn't be any more costly or extravagant than our cur- 

 rent way of doing things. 



William H. Whyte in his booklet Securing Open Space for Urban 

 America makes a convincing case for the use of scenic or conservation 

 easements as a technique whereby the community may acquire lim- 

 ited development rights from the owner for the public good. 

 Coupled with his excellent suggestions should be, however, a corollary 

 or complementary provision of permitting increased densities in other 

 areas. Large lot zoning, used by many communities, of itself is 

 more often than not destructive of the very value it seeks to preserve. 



