96 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



The question of the difference in cost of labour and value of 

 money does not affect the main point illustrated by the above com- 

 parison, namely, that the English workingman has in this case over 

 50 per cent more than the Canadian workingman to spend on his 

 home; he pays for his sanitary fittings and solid brick construction 

 out of what he saves in cost of land and development. The workingman 

 in Canada has too much to pay for the site of his home and he either 

 pays too much for local improvements or goes without them. In 

 the majority of cases he accepts the latter alternative, and, what he 

 saves by doing so, he pays in extra cost of land due to the inflation of 

 values by speculation. Cheaper housing in Canada cannot be ob- 

 tained without a more economical and better planned system of streets. 



Roads and Air Space Around Buildings 



Reference has been made to a principle that has often guided 

 municipalities in determining width of roads, namely, that the road 

 has to be wide in order to secure sufficient air space around the build- 

 ings. In some districts it is laid down that roads have to be wide 

 for purposes of air space, and yet the owners of the land are allowed to 

 build up almost every available yard of their site with the buildings, 

 and there is a complete absence of air circulation except in the streets. 

 We have already seen that more air space can be secured around build- 

 ings with narrow streets than with wide streets. We have to recognize 

 that provision of air space is entirely separate from the question of 

 street width, and that more air space should be provided by those 

 who erect the buildings. Streets are for the purpose of giving facili- 

 ties for circulating traffic and for providing access to buildings, and 

 they should be designed for that purpose only. 



Heights of buildings should have some relation to the 

 width between buildings, and in rural areas a low standard of 

 height can be fixed with advantage to owners of land. This is 

 needed not only to secure light and air, but to prevent traffic conges- 

 tion in the suburbs in towns and on rural territory surrounding them. 

 We should determine the question of light and air to buildings by 

 fixing a minimum distance between all buildings on opposite sides of 

 streets without regard to the width of the street itself, by limiting 

 the amount of land in the subdivision which should be occupied by 

 actual building and by requiring a minimum angle of light to all 

 windows. (Figure 26.) Apart from special cases, where the evil of 

 high buildings has already been established, no buildings should be 

 higher than the width of the streets facing them, and rural municipal- 

 ities at least have power to adopt this standard. Ample justification 



