64 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



them is so great that the buildings on the lots have to be congested; and 

 they have not given convenience, because the paving has to be defer- 

 red so long, owing to their great superficial area, that they remain 

 great wildernesses of mud or dust, according to the season of the 

 year. In most cases the lanes remain unlighted, unpaved, and a 

 dumping ground for garbage. Indirectly they produce bad sanitary 

 conditions, because the cost of the streets reduces the amount avail- 

 able to spend on the dwellings. 



The chief advantage of the rectangular plan is, unfortunately, 

 that its uniform lot sizes and dimensions assist speculation in land. 

 It suits the interests of speculating owners, who act without 

 regard to the public welfare. Starting with the unit laid out by the 

 surveyors in the first instance, the city or town is gradually developed 

 in separate pieces, without any one piece having a definite relation 

 to the other pieces. 



Effect of Rural on Urban Planning 



The influence of the system of laying out land for agricultural 

 purposes on the system of laying out land for building purposes is 

 seen in all countries, but probably the most direct connection between 

 the rural and urban systems of survey is to be found on the American 

 continent. The rectangular system of lay-out of the city and town 

 in the United States and Canada has been less a matter of choice, 

 by those who laid out the land for building, than a matter of evolu- 

 tion from the square mile section to the right-angled building lot. 

 Some of the critics of the kind of rectangular plan which has prevailed 

 on this continent seem to overlook this fact. The criticism of Mr. 

 H. R. Aldridge,* that the plans of American cities are "little better 

 than block plans of sites, planned grid-iron fashion to facilitate the 

 operations of speculators in real estate," is largely true. But the 

 origin of the plan seems to have been the rectangular system of sur- 

 vey in rural districts, and this was not deliberately designed to facili- 

 tate speculation although one of its results was to do so.f 



We thus see the important connection between rural planning and 

 city or town planning, and between rural planning and speculation in 

 building lots. The greater part of new development in the future 

 will take place on what is now rural territory under the adminis- 

 tration of rural councils. These councils are now layijng the founda- 

 tions of the future extensions of cities. They have the power to 



* "The Case for Town Planning," page 109. 

 t See footnote page 45. 



