Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1915-06-09
AUSTEN MGREGOR DESCRIBES
CITY PLAN WORK IN NEWARK

usually appointive, it would pe con-
trary to the principles OF good gov
ernment to vest it with power OF ao-
solute veto, although the power TO IN
vestiqate and report only is 1nsuff1-
cient and tends to belittle the value
| of the work in hand The desirability
| of having a body which is free from
political or other bias which can
| freely express views and opinions
| upon the greatest problems Whleh
| concern the present and future pny-
sical welfare of the municipality, Is
apparent though unusual me au-
thority to supervise the design and
regulation of all public buildings,
bridges, statues, etc, also the super
vision of land subdivisions are I'M
portant functions which could wen
be placed in the hands of the city
planning agency, subject to the veto
of the executive governing body.
Among the other powers and
duties of the city planning agency,
concerning which 1t should nave
authority to recommend only, should
be any public or quasi-public i'm
provement having to do with the
physical development of the city.
This would include everything to be
contained in the comprehensive plan,
as for instance
''(a) Street system, (b) parks, play
grounds and recreation system, tc)
transit and transportation. (d) rail
and water terminals, (e) markets,
60 districting of city for the purpose
of regulating height, area and use OF
buildings, (g) housing, (h) official
city map (unless already provided by
other city Department..
''ThprA will he a VarNino degree of
work to be done under each of the
above subjects, according to the
specific problems of that community
and the degree to which the munici-
pality has progressed along these
lines.
Program of Procedure.
"As previously stated one of the
most important functions of any city
planning program is the publicity
campaign. After the agency has been
formed and placed upon q working
basis it is almost impossible to put
too much emphasis upon publicity,
for upon the degree to which the citi-
zen public is cognizant of the value
and necessity for a Well-defined policy
of public improvement depends the
manner in which the plan will be re-
ceived and adopted. An intelligent
plan can only be prepared after OBJ
tanning an intimate knowledge of
actual conditions. Such knowledge
usually can be secured by the collec-
tion of the proper data.
Therefore, the work OF the city
planning agency consists of two i'm
portant parts, publicity and the col
lection of data, which can be con-
Quoted simultaneously After the
knowledge of various phases of the
work is obtained it would seem ad-
visable to publish separate reports
from time to time to supplement- the
work of publicity. A second purpose
is thus accomplished by gradually
acquainting the citizen public with
conditions of which none are too
familiar, so that when the time for
presenting the tentative plan has
come there will be an enlightened
public opinion properly prepared to
receive the facts which are presented.
Otherwise the effect is apt to be too
staggering for complete comprehen'
sion.
After the presentation and re-
vision of the tentative plan the final
plan should be prepared and pre-
sented in the form of a program of
procedure whereby the whole may be
completed within given period. This
would anticipate a certain amount of
WOTk 10 De accompanied uuTlIlS tdCll
year. Such a proposed plan would
presuppose a minute study of the
financial condition Of the municipal
ity and outline in detail a program
of financial transactions incident to
the accomplishment of the completed
plan.
ITO conclude, it has been the aim OF
the speaker to present such answers
to the questionable received from the
committee in charge of this work as
have suggested themselves with par
ticular reference to the experience OF
the Newark City Plan Commission,
AS in all work it is impossible to ac-
complish desirable things without
here and there an occasional error.
/ do not hold the Newark City Plan
Commission up to you as model OF
virtues
81 do say this, however, If city
planning agencies can convince the
citizen public that the public i'm
provements which they know are de-
sirable can more properly be obtained
in a practical and systematic manner
which is most heartily our aim in
Newark, and, Furthermore, if these
agencies can assist such accomplish
ments their usefulness can never be
questioned and the American munich
pality will know less of chaos, ineffi-
cheney and politics, more Of dignity
and amenity."