CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING 315 



may be mentioned in the order in which they should 

 be taken. 



(1) A visit to the property and a talk with its 

 owner and the city authorities regarding proper 

 sizes of lots, width of streets, probable requirements 

 for school grounds, parks and other public needs. 

 Some cities now require that a certain percentage 

 of the land be set aside for parks or playgrounds. 

 While such a provision is better than none, it would 

 not always result in choosing land that is best adapted 

 to park purposes. 



(2) Assuming that the general problems mentioned 

 in (i) are satisfactorily settled so that the only ques- 

 tions remaining are those of actually planning for 

 streets and lots, the next step would be the prepara- 

 tion of a plat based on a topographical survey. Such 

 a plat should show the lie of the land by contour lines, 

 the contour interval depending somewhat on the 

 nature of the land and the character of the proposed 

 development. Usually, it is from one to five feet. 

 The contour intervals should be uniform so that the 

 contours will indicate at a glance the relative steep- 

 ness of the surface in different parts of the property. 

 They would show at once the location of ravines and 

 other inequalities. 



