56 HEIGHTS OF BUILDINGS COMMISSION 



would impose burdens on private owners disproportionate to the public gain. 

 Such regulations would therefore be unreasonable and void. It seems that 

 classification or exemption essential to the reasonableness of a regulation is 

 itself reasonable. This principle constitutes an adequate justification for 

 districting. 



While a specific regulation taken by itself may not seem to have a very 

 direct relation to the purposes for which the police power may be invoked, 

 yet when taken as a part of a comprehensive plan for the control of building 

 development throughout the entire city, its relation to such purposes may be 

 unmistakable. Grant that a comprehensive system of districting is essential 

 to the health and general welfare of the city and it follows that every specific 

 regulation that is an essential part of such comprehensive system is justified 

 under the police power. 



Necessity for Districting 



In this country comparatively little use has been made of districting. 

 It has been carried out most fully in certain European cities. It is coming 

 to be recognized as essential to well ordered, purposeful, economic and 

 socially beneficial city growth. Haphazard methods of city construction 

 result in a minimum of convenience with a maximum of cost to the public, 

 and in general, to the individual as well. 



The welfare of the people of a city is very largely dependent on the 

 skill and foresight with which the city has been built. Upon this depends 

 their opportunity for agreeable and remunerative occupation, for the enjoy- 

 ment of leisure and the creation of a home. If factories and offices are dark 

 and poorly ventilated, the worker suffers in health and comfort. If dwell- 

 ings are huddled together without adequate provision for open spaces and if 

 dwellings, stores and factories are thrown together indiscriminately, the 

 health and comfort of home life are destroyed. 



It will pay a city to attempt by every available means to conserve the 

 health and general well-being of its inhabitants. This means increased 

 productivity and increased productivity means higher wages for the laborer, 

 higher profits for the employer and higher rents for the real estate owner. 



The need for the creation of special restrictions for special districts is 

 most clearly exemplified in the case of suburban residence districts. Here 

 real estate developers have often found it profitable to secure control of 

 large areas in order by restrictive covenants to insure to intending pur- 

 chasers of homes the creation and maintenance of a residence section of a 

 certain desired type. The surroundings and neighborhood are all important 

 in securing desirable home conditions. Unless the general character of the 

 section is fixed for a considerable period of years no one can afford to build 

 a home. If he does build, a change in the supposed character of the neigh- 

 borhood through the building of apartments, stores or factories may render 

 the location undesirable for a home of the character he has built and thus 

 greatly depreciate his investment. 



