LAND SUBDIVISION 291 



terms.* The sacrifice of land salable as lots has been found in a number 

 of cases very much more than offset by the greater value of the re- 

 maining lots due to the social and recreational advantage of the presence 

 of the club. If an area of notable natural beauty occurs in the tract, 

 the development company may endeavor to turn this over to the city as 

 a park, in order that it may constitute a permanent attraction to pro- 

 spective purchasers. A viewpoint commanding a notable prospect 

 may be similarly set aside, being a considerable asset to the develop- 

 ment without any great sacrifice of land area. Perhaps space for a 

 public park may be similarly given or sold cheaply to the city, even 

 where no special natural beauty exists, if this comes in proper relation 

 to the whole city plan. 



By his planning of roads and lots, by his provision of a certain kind Restrictions 

 of utility and beauty throughout a subdivision scheme, the land de- 

 veloper may in certain ways determine and stabilize the character of 

 the development, but whatever may be done to the land before its sale 

 in lots, it will still be in the power of the individual lot owners, by what 

 they build and how they use their property, to make or mar the excel- 

 lence and permanence of the whole undertaking. In practically all 

 subdivisions of any importance, therefore, restrictions of some kind are 

 incorporated in the deed of the lot as a condition of purchase, which 

 attempt to preclude certain uses of the lot detrimental to the neighbor- 

 hood. And the presence of these restrictions governing all the sur- 

 rounding lots operates to raise the value of each lot much more than it 

 is reduced by the diminution of its own possible uses caused by the re- 

 strictions. The particular uses which are precluded by restrictions 

 should of course differ with the particular type of development to which 

 they are applied. It is very desirable, if the lots are at all small, that 

 the purchaser should be bound not to further subdivide his lot, for this 

 would introduce a different and cheaper type of development which 

 would injure the value of adjacent lots. This same consideration 

 applies to the lots remaining unsold in the hands of the development 

 company. The value of each lot bought is increased by the under- 



* In the Kansas City "Country Club District," which Mr. J. C. Nichols has 

 developed, the land for the Country Club was leased to it without rent for twenty-five 

 years. 



