The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1915-07-12

Organization Of City Plan Authority
Should Be Within the Powers Of Ev-
cry City, but lts Creation Should Be
Permissive and Not Mandatory.
The necessity Of organizing the
growth of cities under some sort of
city plan and the possible functions of
a city planning Office co-ordinated with
the city government as the best means
of assuring harmonious development
were discussed by Robert Whitten,
secretary Of the committee on the city
plan of the board of estimate, in an
address on ''The Constitution and Pow
ers Of City Planning Authority at
the national conference on city u
ming recently held in Detroit. II. lid
in part: f., -. ~
"City planning involves the creation,
adoption and revision Of tentative
comprehensive plan for the physical
development of the city and the cor
relation Of particular improvements by
whatever authority originated with the
requirements of the comprehensive
plan. The comprehensive tentative
plan should include at least the follow
ing: Streets, parks, Fairgrounds, trans
1t, grouping Of public buildings, rail-
roads, waterways, terminals, markets
q M no Sf1S0 90 oik
purpose Of regulating the height, area
and use Of buildings.
"The creation of comprehensive ten
tative plan involves, first of all, care
full study of future growth and re-
quirements. In order to plan for the
present and for the future a picture
is needed Of what the city will or
should look like in twenty-five, fifty or
| a hundred years, when it has several
times its present population.
"A comprehensive tentative plan hav-
ing been worked out and tentatively
adopted, the next step is to secure the
| correlation of particular Improvements,
by whatever authority originated, with
the requirements of the comprehensive
| plan. AS this comprehensive plan
touches so many phases of municipal
| activity, an efficient administrative or
ganization to secure the desired cor
relation is a, most difficult problem.
"PrOvisiOn must also be made for
the revision Of the tentative compre-
| hensive plan. No amount of planning
| can avoid the necessity for a cOnsid-
| erable amount Of reconstruction and
change. When invention and discov-
cry are changing the methods Of work
! and of living throughout the world it is
idle to think that we can so judge the
future that our present plans for the
city's development will not require
change and modification.
"The ultimate development in any
large city may well be city plan Of
fee that will have primary control of
the development and administration,
but not of the adoption or confrma-
| tion of the city plan. This city plan
Office may be an executive department
| in one city andta bureau Of the board
of estimate or other governing COM
mission in another city. The city plan
! Office may have associated with it an
advisory commission of citizens or Of
citizens and officials. The city plan
| Office will develop the data required
for comprehensive planning, will Gre
ate a plan showing the future phys
ical development of the city and will
| submit to the regularly constituted
governing authorities of the city such
parts of the plan as seem desirable for
adoption and confirmation as the tenta-
tive official plan of the city. All mat
| ters affecting the city plan will be re-
ferred to the City plan office for in
| vestigation and report before being
acted upon by the general governing
authority. The city plan office will
make recommendations for the con-
tinuous development and revision of
the tentative official plan.
"The organization of city plan au-
| thority should he within the powers OF
every city, but its creation should be
permisSive and not mandatory. More
| over, the composition and powers OF
the city plan authority should not be
limited by state statute except in the
most general terms. The city should
have the utmost freedom to enact,
amend or abolish it's city planning or
ganization. This freedom Of action
and Capitalization of responsibility are.
even more essential to efficient city
government than is city planning it.
self"