2i8 PARKS 



way of this type, bearing in mind that the main plantations can usually 

 overhang the roadway and that at least one additional row of trees with 

 adequate space for full foliage development can be secured on the sidewalk 

 toward the private property. 



The advantages of such a border road are normally, in the case of a 

 parkway of this type, quite secondary and subordinate to its prime purpose, 

 but they are often considerable. For example: 



(a) If no means of vehicular access to abutting private property 

 is provided along the border of a parkway, experience shows that such 

 property is almost sure to be developed with the backs (or sometimes 

 sides) of buildings toward the parkway, and that it is only in the most 

 exceptional cases even of very high class residential development that 

 such rear premises are not more disagreeable in appearance than the front. 

 Where the enclosing screen plantations of the parkway are absolutely 

 perfect in effectiveness, this may make no difference in the value of the 

 parkway for its prime purpose. But such perfection is rare, and in so far 

 -as the abutting buildings are glimpsed through or over the plantations the 

 usual ragged back-side effect is distinctly more objectionable than that of 

 fronts. 



(b) Back yards in immediate contact with park plantations offer the 

 temptation to trespass, to throw rubbish over the fence, and to other things 

 which complicate the problem of policing and maintenance. 



(c) The property abutting on a parkway is normally more valuable 

 if it can be said to front on the parkway and has convenient access by a 

 street or roadway which is physically integral with the parkway. Of course, 

 from this point of view, considering solely the value of the abutting prop- 

 erty, even more valuable than a border street would be the privilege of 

 using the main drive of the parkway itself as a frontage and approach 

 street with only a short space intervening and with no plantation that 

 would obscure the view from the private property of all that is pleasant 

 to see in the parkway. Such an arrangement, with the parking of cars 

 by the abutters on the main drive and with frequent paths and garage 

 entrances cutting up the space between the main drive and the private 

 property, is obviously very injurious to the prime purpose of the type 

 of parkway we are considering and should not be conceded unless abso- 

 lutely unavoidable. If permitted it must be recognized as a serious even 

 though unavoidable defect. In other words the prime purpose should not 

 be avoidably sacrificed to a secondary and incidental value. 



(d) Because of the value of frontage even on a border street of a 

 parkway, agreement to provide for such a street often makes it possible to 

 secure a greater total width of land for the same cost, or otherwise to secure 



