once the land seemed inexhaustible the whole vast sweep of the american continent three million square miles of the richest land on earth a land of quiet main streets rolling farm lands plains forests and mountains a land with elbow room with unlimited space for our towns our cities and our people to grow but within a single generation we have learned a hard lesson that the land is a limited resource just as the air can be polluted water supplies wasted so our land can be dissipated and despoiled today the land surrounding our metropolitan areas is being swallowed up at the rate of one million acres a year by factories shopping centers highways housing developments and more housing developments how did it happen in the span of a single generation what can be done to reverse the tide and preserve the land how did it happen let's examine the typical metropolitan area of the 1920s just a generation ago here at the heart of the city a concentration of shops business offices hotels apartments factories farther out pleasant middle income residential areas rapid transit lines fanning out in a half dozen directions to the city limits a few miles beyond a ring of sleepy little towns that housed local tradespeople and upperincome businessmen from the city each suburban town had its own government its own community services there was no overall planning agency for the area no one foresaw the need for such an agency neither the city nor its satellites prepared for change because none of them expected change not even when the family car arrived on the american scene in a big way bringing new homes new families to the suburban fringe depression halted that first tenant of expansion throughout the 1930s and world war two brought housing construction to a standstill for first half of the 1940s then they came back from the war fifteen million gis clamoring for new homes and a piece of land in the country almost overnight suburbia was born a half million homes sprang up around the country in one thousand nine hundred and forty six nearly a million in one thousand nine hundred and forty seven a million in one thousand nine hundred and forty eight still more in one thousand nine hundred and forty nine one thousand nine hundred and fifty the empty farm lands the quiet towns and villages surrounding the city found themselves in the midst of a roaring housing boom new developments on every hand some wellplanned welldesigned blending naturally into the terrain some seemed to have been thrown together in monotonous rows as the project builders raced to keep up with the demand for more and more homes where the families moved the trade and service facilities followed and the factories moved with them land costs soared everywhere the old rule of thumb that land represents ten of the cost of house and lot went by the boards the ratio climbed to fifteen in some places to twenty and more squeezing hard on the limited budgets of home buyers and the builders moved farther and farther out in search of good development land bypassed expensive or difficult terrain leaving undeveloped islands behind them wherever the new subdivisions went they created problems for the unprepared communities of the new suburbia more taxes for more and more schools roads sewer and water lines more of everything to service the swelling population the hardpressed communities finding themselves in a new environment of metropolitanization looked for a remedy in their only weapon control of the land through zoning and subdivision ordinances throwing up in effect a chinese wall of restrictive regulations to halt or slow down the incoming tide of new housing zoning laws originally designed to police the use of land were contrived to raise higher and higher the minimum size of lots to prevent the building of the lower cost homes that were most desperately needed to keep the invaders on the other side of the wall the combination of genuine financial need and the desire to preserve a countrylike atmosphere not to become citified together with a certain amount of snobbery led to a shifting of payment for many community services from the municipality to the new home buyer through the subdivision developer larger lots wider streets waste where conservation is needed up goes to the cost of local government paid by the new home buyer and all taxpayers where do we go from here is the extension of the urban sprawl that now besets our metropolitan centers the best or even the only means of proceeding or are there more intelligent more effective means of channeling and guiding the immense new increases in population all forecasts say will surely occur to illustrate the magnitude of the problem if the new york metropolitan area continues to grow at present rates and under present large lot zoning regulations by one thousand nine hundred and eighty five all the land within fifty miles will be built up the united states population now stands at one hundred and eighty five million in just five years it will reach two hundred million today more than sixty of our people live in urbanized areas and an estimated ninety of future growth will take place in those same metropolitan areas so perhaps it is time to pause and take stock to look ahead to the needs of the future to consider new approaches to the use of our land perhaps to reexamine some discarded concepts the picture is not entirely black there are stirrings of hope in many areas where thoughtful planners architects builders developers are at work on the problems of the land cooperation is growing among the varied elements of our metropolitan areas the national association of home builders and the urban land institute have joined forces to study land planning concepts and new ideas that could be applied to residential use of land to see what can be done to preserve the values of a countrylike atmosphere while accommodating necessary growth in an effective development pattern government and private groups concerned with the problem have lent their support the study has produced scores of ideas but no final answers except to demonstrate the need for more and more research but already it has spotlighted major areas that show promise for the future that merit further exploration one such area is the largescale planned unit development where the basic planning unit is the integrated community instead of the individual lot here the development of a given area is planned from the very beginning as a balanced community detached homes townhouses highrise apartments shopping centers schools parks and play areas the planned unit development provides for variety in design in building densities in family income levels in family sizes it meets overall zoning requirements individual lots are not straitjacketed into rigid sizes another is the cluster method here the homes are grouped close together around access courts leaving the remainder of the tract in its natural state here again the developer and planner are concerned with overall density rather than individual lot sizes the cluster offers relief from the familiar monotony of the standard tract development makes possible economies through concentration of utilities and street improvements the cluster permits the use of rough wooded terrain that often could not be developed conventionally wooded and park areas are preserved for community use still another approach to better land use might be found in the townhouse nothing really new here it's the old row house that fell into disfavor years ago because poor designed illplanned grouping made it a monotonous eyesore on our city streets but ingenuity imagination and skilled design can restore dignity and attractiveness to the townhouse service features on the street side living areas and terraces opening on a fenced yard or garden or a common open space in the rear economical effective use of the land there are many ways to use the land in better fashion than we have better uses of the culdesac to break up the rigid subdivision pattern separate pedestrian and auto traffic loop streets and circular streets but the chinese wall remains the new concepts and innovations demand for their success a new kind of thinking in our zoning boards greater flexibility a recognition of the need for diversified communities they demand vastly improved subdivision regulations that will meet the actual needs of the land and the people that will relate the kind cost of land improvements to the building sites and their intended use new methods of land usage may be more attractive than the old practices that have wasted so much of our land in the planner's eye they may be essential but what of the costs are they within our reach detailed research is needed into the comparative costs of new and conventional methods in terms of street frontage water and sewer lines maintenance of municipal services and what of the legal problems that inevitably accompany change the innovator who seeks a new use for the land is often caught in a maze of local complexities that can frustrate his every move overall reform of our land use practices demands a thorough legal analysis to determine the best procedures for resolving such questions as the use of easements maintenance of common areas frontage on nondedicated streets and many many others finally there must be public acceptance of new ideas in the marketplace the planner's brightest dream must come to nothing if it meets with public rejection broad market research is essential to measure the degree of acceptance for variations from the traditional pattern of community development to determine local and regional preferences planning alone is not the final answer to the crisis of our land but without wise and farsighted planning there can be no answers how wisely or wastefully we use the heritage of our land is not solely the responsibility of the planner the developer the builder the community official it is a responsibility of all of us who are the american community in many places across the country individual builders architects planners are putting the new ideas to work pioneering better uses of the land but we have made only a beginning our research must be broadened and deepened it must reach into new and untried areas the effort will be costly and it will require the active and continuing participation of all elements of the community but in the end all will benefit in better homes better communities a better america as our heritage to the future