CHAPTER VII— FUTURE CHANGE AND DEVELOPMENT OF 

 DISTRICTING PLAN 



The Legislature by a recent amendment to the districting provisions 

 of the Charter (sections 242a, 242b) has provided a definite method, under 

 appropriate safeguards, by which the Board of Estimate may amend and 

 supplement any general districting plan that it may adopt. This amendment 

 was drafted by the Commission and approved by the Board of Estimate. 

 It is essential to the success and future development of any districting plan. 



The districting plan submitted has been evolved after a careful study 

 of existing conditions and tendencies and a careful estimate of probable 

 future needs and requirements, both of the city as a whole and of each 

 particular section. There is no thought, however, that the plan now pro- 

 posed can be complete and final for all time. There are doubtless errors 

 and omissions that will be brought out only by actual operation. Moreover 

 it is recognized that any plan of city building must be modified and supple- 

 mented with the growth of the city and the changes in social and economic 

 conditions due to the progress of invention and discovery. 



" No limit can be set to the growth and expansion of the city. No 

 amount of planning can avoid the necessity for a considerable amount of 

 reconstruction and change. Regardless of the requirements of an increas- 

 ing population, the city structure must change to conform to the changes 

 in the economic and industrial world. The city is but an expression of 

 the existing economic, commercial, industrial, social and political organiza- 

 tion. When invention and discovery are changing the methods of work 

 and of living throughout the world, it is idle to think that we can so judge 

 the future that our present plans for tne city's development will not require 

 change and modification. The ' once for all ' method of city planning is 

 therefore impractical. We cannot adopt a plan and make that the Pro- 

 crustean mold for all future time. The plan must develop and change 

 with the advance of civilization. City planning to be effectual must be 

 sustained and continuous. It is never completed." 1 



Even now it is clear that the present plan must be supplemented and 

 changed when plans for certain fundamental factors affecting the physical 

 structure of the city have been definitely worked out. Among these factors 

 are, a comprehensive plan of port and terminal development, a plan of park 

 development in Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond, a plan for future exten- 

 sions and surface line feeders for the dual subway system. 



Moreover the present plan has been developed along quite broad 

 general lines with the belief that after its adoption it would be further sup- 

 plemented by more restrictive provisions in various areas. A more intensive 



1 Robert H. Whitten, in Development and Present Status of City Planning in New 

 York City, p. 18. 



