Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-12-20
Report Of the Special Board Of Trade
Committee.
THE SUBJECT EIHAUSrIVELY TREATED
Many Objections Are Met and Re-
pied To.
A MENDM ENTS ADVISED

Sepu Tdul anu d. Is. w inner, Will make
report at the meeting of the full board. to
be held at the Builders Exchange tonight
at 100. Their report has been distributed
to the members of the board. 1t is as fol-
lows:
tine undersigned, being a special COM
nittee appointed for the purpose of consid
ering and reporting what, if any, amend
ments should be made to the act of Con-
gress approved March 9, 1898, entitled AN
act to provide permanent system of high
ways in that part of the District of Column
bia lying outside of Cities respectfully sub
init the following report:
when the committee was appointed liti-
cation was pending in the courts Of the
District of Columbia which involved the
constitutionality of the act as whole and
of a number of its separate provisions. 1t
was manifestly impossible to make an in
telligent report as to proposed amendments
until those questions should be determined;
and even after the validity of the act had
other questions remaining to be settled in
the two cases which had been taken to the
Supreme Court. But the time has now ar
rived when. in the opinion of the commit
tee, the matters referred to 1t should be
acted upon and final conclusion reached.
ITO a proper understanding of the high
" ay act of 1893 it is necessary to recall the
circumstances which led to the preparation
of the original bill under the direction of
the board of trade. ard to its final passage
in an amended form by both houses of Con-
gress. The late Senator Harris, on behalf
of the Senate committee on the District of
Columbia. on the 10th of February, 1882, in
reporting fayorably the board Of trade bill,
with certain amendments relating to the
details of the bill, set forth some of the
circumstances which had led that commit
tee to the conclusion that the bill should
be passed. In that report he said:
by an act approved August y. 1888. en-
lnI An, ont rl.fn no Iix-iS nf
land within the District of Columbia It
was provided. among other things, that
"'No future subdivision of land in the
District of Columbia without the limits of
the cities of Washington and Georgetown
shall be recorded in the surveyors office Of
the said District unless made in conform
ity with the general plan of the city of
Washington
Did Not Conform.
1.-THE evil which this act was intended to
remedy was that various persons owning
land lying on or near the boundary of the
city of Washington had. from time to time.
made and recorded in the surveyors office
subdivisions which did not harmonic with
ach other, and in most instances did not
conform to the plan of the city. The plan
of the city itself mad been laid out under
the direction of President Washington with
great care and on grand scale, such
try. There was no occasion to provide for
city streets beyond the boundary until
about the year 1865, when the city OF Wash
ington began to extend beyond the limits
marked for it on the plan adopted by
President Washington
From that time until the passage of the
above mentioned act of 1883 each land
owner laid out the streets upon his prop
erty to suit himself. The result was that
the city proper was in danger of being sur
6ad nv ct appIip1 villages with laby-
rnth of streets. narrower in general
than those in the city, in many instances
not being extensions of the city streets.
and even not conforming to each other.
Had there been at this time in existence a
map upon which the streets of the city
were projected through these lands the
land owners would, no doubt have adopted
the streets laid down on such map; but as
there was no guide for them to follow. each
man did what seemed to himself most TO
his own interest; and worse than TINS, tne
principal avenues of the city were not eX-
tended, because no single land owner was
prepared tc donate to the public the large
proportion of his land which would be re-
CURED in the projection of such avenues.
1.-The act of 1888 put stop to the re-
cordng of subdivisions in the surveyors
office unless they had been made in pur-
suance of general regulations prescribed
by the Commissioners, which required that
they should conform with the general plan
of the city.
I'm may instances this resulted in requir-
ing owners of land lying some little dis
tance from the city to so subdivide their
land that the streets thereon will be on
the line of the extension of city streets,
but which will not connect with the streets
of the city because of some intervening
subdivision made prior to the passage of
said act and not conforming to the plan
of the city. In other cases the land owner
has been required to lay out his street of
the same width as the corresponding street
in the city, while between him and the city
tI.x, h. !,
quired to make it where it passes through
his land.
Furthermore. the question whether
certain subdivision is in conformity with
the general plan of the city is a matter
requiring the exercise of judgment, and
subdivisions under the act of 1888 are
approved from time to time by the Com
missioners during the course of years. the
same Commissioners are not in office all
the time, subdivisions are scattered around
through the District each one Of which has
been held by the proper authorities to be
in conformity with the general plan of the
city, which do not in all cases conform
with each other. lateral street in one
part of the District, when projected, will
not strike the corresponding lateral street
some distance away. Even where two such
subdivisions some distance apart are made
ard approved at the same time by the same
Commissioners there is now no means pro-
vided for projecting the street on the
ground as to make the two correspond
ing streets in the subdivisions on the same
line. This requires q large expense, and
neither the funds nor the machinery has
been provided for doing this; so it is fire.
quently advisable to defect one or more
streets or avenues, as was done in the orig
inal plan of the city proper; but it is mani
testify impossible in recording scattered
subdivisions at different times to make
such reflections SO as to make them corre-
spond with each other and unite them all
in a harmonious whole.
For all these reasons the committee Is
Of opinion that Congress should now enact
a law which will provide for extending the
plan of the city of Washington to the limits
If the District of Columbia. Indeed, the
passage of the act Of 1883, and the require
ment of that act that subdivisions should
conform to the plan of the city, without
regard to whether they conform with ad-
joining or intervening subdivisions. consti-
tuted, to some extenN, at least, a pledge on
the part of Congress that this would be
done; and until this shall be done it will
be impracticable to provide a proper sys-
tenn OF sewerage and water supply for that
part of the city which lies outside of the
original plan. for, manifestly, sewers and
water pipes should not be laid through the
misfitting subdivisions in question until
their lines shall have been rectified. as 9th
erwise great and unnecessary expense will
he incurred