REPORT OF COMMITTEE 'OF THE WHOLE 229 



contribution from each owner to the light and air of the block. Block 

 ventilation is essential to well ordered development. Rear yards should be 

 required wherever buildings come back to back. 



4. A building is usually appropriately located when it is surrounded by 

 buildings of similar type and use. Order in building development is essential 

 to the health, safety and comfort of the public and far from depressing 

 values or working hardship to property owners generally, will actually con- 

 serve and enhance values. 



5. The residence sections should be protected against unnecessary in- 

 vasion by commercial and industrial uses. 



6. The present congested condition in lower Manhattan constitutes a 

 serious danger to life and property. Street congestion may interfere seri- 

 ously with the movement of fire apparatus. The occupants of high office 

 and loft buildings may be endangered by fire and panic. 



These and other considerations advanced in the Commission's report 

 prove the urgent need for the adoption of a districting plan. The official 

 duties of the members of this subcommittee bring to their notice the irre- 

 parable injury that almost daily is being brought about by the erection of 

 inappropriate buildings or the establishment of business uses in residence 

 sections. The remedy proposed is timely and appears to have been most 

 carefully worked out. 



Your subcommittee was directed to consider the resolution with special 

 reference to Article IV, containing the general and administrative pro- 

 visions. The Committee has not had an opportunity to take up in detail the 

 other articles of the resolution. 



The subcommittee recommends the approval of Article IV with the 

 following changes : 



New words and phrases added by the subcommittee are in italics. Words 

 and phrases recommended for omission are included in brackets. 



Section 14. Existing Buildings and Uses : Nothing herein contained 

 shall require any change in the plans or construction of a building or in its 

 designated use for which a permit has been heretofore approved or plans for 

 which are on file in the office of the superintendent of buildings or of the 

 Tenement House Department [with the building superintendent] at the 

 time of the passage of this resolution and a permit therefor is issued within 

 three months of the passage of this resolution and the construction of which 

 is diligently prosecuted within a year of the date of [such] the permit issued 

 by the building superintendent and at least the whole ground story of which 

 shall have been completed within such year and the complete erection of the 

 building as planned shall have been effected within five years from the 

 date of passage of this resolution. 



Except as otherwise provided in Section 3-a, if a structure or building 

 now existing shall hereafter be wholly or in part removed or destroyed 

 whatsoever may be the cause, purpose or manner of its removal or destruc- 

 tion, it shall not be rebuilt or restored unless it conforms with the pro- 

 visions herein prescribed ; but nothing in this resolution shall prevent the 

 restoration of a building or industrial plant which is damaged less than SO 

 per cent of its structural parts or the restoration of a wall declared unsafe 

 bv the superintendent of buildings or by a board of survey as provided in the 

 Building Code. No building- now existing or hereafter erected shall be so 

 altered or enlarged as to bring it in violation of any of the provisions of 

 this resolution, nor shall any lot area be so reduced or diminished that the 

 unoccupied areas shall be less than required by this resolution. When addi- 

 tional stories for which plans have not been filed at the time of passage 



