THE NEW SUBURBIA 453 



territories not under the governmental jurisdiction of the metropoli- 

 tan area have refrained from contributing to a program of this kind 

 by not requiring subdivision regulations and by permitting any kind 

 of development along a roadside without subdivision regulations, to 

 become the breeding ground of the new slums. 



We have a national committee, of which I am co-chairman, that 

 is making an effort to curtail some of the activities of the farm pro- 

 grams and the HHFA in furnishing loans and grants for the building 

 of a water system so that land owners in these areas can produce a 

 lot without any community facilities for a price one-fourth to one- 

 tenth the cost of a lot inside the metropolitan areas of the same kinds 

 of land, but whose cost is affected by community facilities that are 

 required by subdivision regulations for standard procedure in 

 housing. 



The absence of housing and building codes of this nature is such 

 that the developers of this substandard housing can advertise their 

 lots and market them to people who will start their own residences 

 and be 20 years in the building thereof along the roadside and 

 through empty fields that do not have any road patterns except 

 where a bulldozer may have cut a trail. 



The utility districts that are established through State laws and 

 the Federal grants through various programs under the guise of 

 furnishing water to farm areas which should be done permit the 

 same areas to be developed in this type of substandard housing. 



There are three counties adjacent to Davidson County where the 

 population density has been building up as a result of these kinds 

 of programs to the extent that we have made repeated protests to the 

 Federal agencies involved and have approached many of our Con- 

 gressmen and Senators in an effort to require that some type of work- 

 able program be developed in any area wherein these grants and/or 

 loans are given, so as to require that standard type of housing be 

 initiated and that nothing be done in behalf of substandard housing 

 cutting into the natural beauty of the surrounding lands. 



Considerable gains could be made if the various Federal agencies 

 would enter this as a requirement prior to any loan or grants being 

 made. 



The use of the interstate highways as they are completed is ac- 

 celerating this abuse of our land patterns and our natural beauty. 

 It certainly is necessary that every effort be made to correct this 

 before it accelerates under the new highway programs. 



