RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 220 



requirements some will be much wider than is demanded under exist- 

 ing by-laws but others, where the traffic needs will be small, may be 

 quite narrow, and, in the interests of economy, should be narrow. 

 In the past such roads have been made wide for the purpose of secur- 

 ing air space to the buildings erected on their frontage. This pur- 

 pose, however, is much more cheaply and effectively secured by fixing 

 the distances between the buildings and the amount of a lot that can 

 be built upon, than by creating wide streets. It has been shown that 

 the making of wide streets causes the owners of lots fronting upon 

 them to crowd buildings on these lots, with the result that unhealthy 

 conditions are created as a direct consequence of a law that is intended 

 to prevent these conditions. Under a development scheme mini- 

 mum distances are fixed between the buildings on both sides of a street 

 without regard to the width of the street, so that the air space is not 

 secured at the expense of a wide street. Moreover the density of build- 

 ing on a lot may be prescribed, so that air space is secured at the side 

 and rear of the building as well as on its frontage — a matter which is 

 usually neglected. The objects of sanitation may also be secured 

 by preventing residences being erected on swampy areas or being 

 mixed up in an indiscriminate way with factories. The standards 

 prescribed for height, character, sanitary arrangements, and situation 

 of buildings in a rural area would vary according to the character of 

 development and would naturally differ in purely rural areas and in 

 those areas being developed in sub-divisions round cities and towns. 



(c) Amenity — Amenity means "the quality of being pleasant 

 or agreeable" — a quality which is of recognized value as an asset in 

 maintaining prosperity in a district, although it has been, and still is, 

 the subject of some scorn on the part of certain people. Whatever 

 is needed to make the development of an area, or the surroundings of 

 the buildings within an area, pleasant or agreeable to the inhabitants 

 would appear to be the object in view under this heading. Fre- 

 quently a whole district is spoiled by the disorder and unpleasantness 

 introduced into it by one individual, over whose acts the rest of the 

 community have no control. 



There is not the objection to the word "amenity" that then- is 

 to the word "beauty." It is more comprehensive and relers t<» a 

 quality in buildings and their surroundings which can be easily defined. 

 A home may be pleasant and agreeable to the general public and 

 to the owner and yet not "beautiful" in the eyes <>f the artist ; but a 

 scheme may provide for the preservation of a fine group <•! tred as 

 a purpose of amenity which would secure beauty as well as amenity. 



