CHAPTER II— NECESSITY FOR A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN OF 

 CITY BUILDING 



City planning is a prime need of our city. It is plain common sense 

 to have a plan before starting to build. City building is no exception to the 

 rule. Haphazard city building without a comprehensive plan is ruinous. 



The bigger a city grows the more essential a plan becomes. Traffic 

 problems, the congestion of population, the intensive use of land, the magni- 

 tude of the property values involved, make the control of building develop- 

 ment more and more essential to the health, comfort and welfare of the 

 city and its inhabitants. New York City has reached a point beyond which 

 continued unplanned growth cannot take place without inviting social and 

 economic disaster. It is too big a city, the social and economic interests 

 involved are too great to permit the continuance of the laissez faire methods 

 of earlier days. 



As has been stated by the Committee on the City Plan of the Board of 

 Estimate : l " With or without a comprehensive city plan, the city will 

 probably spend hundreds of millions of dollars on public improvements 

 during the next thirty years. In addition, during this same period, property 

 owners will spend some billions of dollars in the improvement of their 

 holdings. To lay down the general lines of city development so that these 

 expenditures when made will in the greatest possible measure contribute 

 to the solid and permanent upbuilding of a great and ever greater city — 

 strong commercially, industrially and in the comfort and health of its 

 people — furnishes the opportunity and the inspiration for city planning." 



While city planning includes the street and block layout, park and 

 recreation system, location of public buildings, sewerage system, water 

 supply, transit and transportation systems, and port and terminal facilities, 

 these constitute but half the problem. The way in which private property, 

 which occupies almost two-thirds of the entire area, is developed is of at 

 least equal importance. No plan for the development of public facilities 

 can be complete and effective unless there goes with it a comprehensive 

 plan for the control of building development on private property. 



A street layout planned for a five-story city may be wholly inadequate 

 for a ten-story city. Street capacity adapted to the convenient movement 

 of traffic of all kinds is of supreme importance to the prosperity of the 

 city. Street congestion means loss of economic efficiency and is a menace 

 to public safety and order. We cannot hope to plan an adequate street 

 system unless some limit is placed on the height and character of the 

 buildings that the street system is to serve. 



A street and block system that is best suited to a residence section 



may be entirely unsuited to the needs of a commercial or industrial section. 



Certain types of industries are best served by large block units and broad 



'Development and Present Status of City Planning in New York City. 1914, p. 12. 



