176 COMMISSION ON BUILDING DISTRICTS 



Stables and garages 



Livery stables and public garages should also be prohibited in the 

 business districts. Both depreciate property values. The Concourse in The 

 Bronx is an illustration of a thoroughfare laid out as a fine residential 

 boulevard, which has been ruined by the invasion of public garages. This 

 is particularly the case in the vicinity of Fordham Road, where a half dozen 

 public garages have been built. Here, instead of the fine residential develop- 

 ment which was expected, cheap tenements are being built. Public garages 

 and stables should be obliged to go into the unrestricted districts. The 

 unrestricted districts are so situated that this limitation would not incon- 

 venience the business of either stables or garages. 



Private garages and stables need not, however, be restricted to the unre- 

 stricted districts. They do not interfere with business. 



Statement ey the Reverend William J. Stewart, Managing Director, 



Allied Catholic Cemeteries, April 18, 1916 

 Injury done by chemical factories 



Chemical factories should be restricted in the vicinity of Calvary 

 Cemetery. We know that they do irreparable damage to bronzes, to Carrara 

 marble statues, to granite foundations, to grass and trees. We know that 

 for a fact, but when we go to the authorities of these factories to make a 

 protest and ask if they cannot do something and get their chemists at work, 

 the same as they did in some other chemical factories, and use the wastage 

 over again that comes from the chimneys, they say, " well, prove to us that 

 we do it and we will stop it." Well, now, they ought to be able to prove it. 

 We can see the damage done. We know that on the bronzes there is a 

 verdigris and there is a peculiar scale on the vegetation. We have difficulty 

 in making the grass grow. All our trees are dying. We cannot make it 

 what we would like to make it, park-like and a breathing place for the 

 people. It is really dangerous for people to travel at certain times of the day 

 to Calvary Cemetery on account of those acid fumes. 



Statement by Herbert S. Swan and George W. Tuttle of the Staff 



of the Committee on City Plan, March 15, 1916 

 Relation of height and area regulations to sunshine 



The building requirements in Manhattan have in the past been so lax 

 that it is safe to say that a preponderating majority of rooms in the existing 

 shops, factories, offices and apartments receive absolutely no direct sun- 

 shine on the shortest day in the year. 



The height and area regulations now being considered will have the 

 tendency of remedying this condition. By limiting the height of buildings 

 with reference to the street width and by requiring all windows to open 

 out on either streets or open spaces of a prescribed size the zone plan will 

 provide a larger supply of direct sunshine not only in the interior of all 

 new residence and business buildings but also in the streets. 



The following paper shows the relation of these provisions to the dura- 

 tion and quantity of direct sunshine obtained under different conditions at 

 New York City (40° North Latitude) as on December 21st. 

 Length of shadow cast by different skyscrapers 



At noon on the shortest day in the year the shadows of different sky- 

 scrapers envelop large areas. The Adams Express Building, which is 424 



