RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 93 



It is no answer to this criticism to argue that land is so plentiful 

 in Canada that we can be indifferent to the amount placed in streets. 

 At Akron, Ohio, the Goodyear Tire Company has developed a model 

 village in which it constructs all the local improvements in advance 

 of building development. Land is comparatively cheap in Akron, 

 as it is in most of the districts where speculation has not inflated the 

 values. But when land is cheap, it is more than ever necessary to ex- 

 ercise a proper sense of proportion in regard to the extent of land placed 

 in roads and streets. The cheaper the land, the greater the relative 

 cost of development to land value, and the greater the need for avoid- 

 ing extravagant planning and high costs of construction. 



The Goodyear Tire Company has made careful estimates of 

 the cost of the land and the cost of the local improvements. The 

 streets vary from 50 to 70 feet in width. The land costs $75 per lot, 

 and the improvements $500 per lot. It is in respect of the latter cost 

 that economy is most important, for, in proportion as streets are un- 

 necessarily wide, it is this cost which soars up out of all proportion to 

 the advantage gained and beyond the ability of the property owners 

 to pay. No community leaves its streets unpaved and unimproved 

 out of choice, and an adequate conception of the cost of development 

 can only be obtained if we assume that, wherever residences are 

 erected, the streets should be improved sooner or later. The best time 

 to improve them is when the building development takes place, and 

 the chief burden of the improvement should fall on the real estate- 

 operators. 



It is in the interests of the rural population that they should 

 control building development in rural areas for the purpose of secur- 

 ing healthy and economic conditions. There is nothing more neces- 

 sary in Canada, in the interests of production and healthy growth f 

 than the further development of the small town, the rural village 

 and the outer suburbs of the large cities. More labour is badly needed 

 in these districts and more consumers of farm produce should be 

 attracted into rural areas to be nearer to the producers. A cheap 

 and efficient system of good roads is needed to encourage more settle- 

 ment in the urban parts of rural areas, and also to make it practical 

 for the labourer to obtain good and healthy housing accommodation, 

 at a reasonable price in the small towns and villages. 



COST OF ROADS IN RELATION TO^HOUSING 



Housing accommodation is cheaper where streets, other thaw 

 main arteries, are narrower, because the cost of a site for a house 

 consists of three things: (1) The actual site which it occupies, including 



