Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-06-11
"HAPHAzARD CITY"
CAPITAL IS CALLED
MISUNDERSTANDING Expert
Dumfounded, He Tells
Boardroom Meeting.

In a haphazard manner, Harland
Bartholomew, city planning expert.
| told several hundred persons who
District building last night to hear
of the plans for coming the National
! Capital.
Il was dumfounded to find how
haphazard the National Capital has
grown" said the expert. pointing to
| a map which showed how business
and commerce have spread out into
| residential sections"
Washington is beginning to get in
! the big city class. Mr. Bartholomew
continued but has not yet suffered
development Of industry in relldenti n
areas.
He believes. however. that Washing
ton IL on the verge Of such q situA-
ton. To emphasize his point he call
ed attention to the rapidly with
which garages are being established
In home neighberheeds,
MIR. Macfarland's Statement.
An interesting development at the
meeting was the statement Of former
Commissioner Henry b. F. Macfar-
land that the Commissioners who held
office ten years ago endeavored to get
a law from Congress to regulate the
use of buildings in various sections
of the city.
A regulation limiting the height Of
buildings was enacted at that time.
but the constitutional lawyers in Con-
gress felt that 1t would be going too
far to limit the uses Of property. the
former Commissioner stated. That
however. was before Honin6 hAd been
attempted anywhere. Since that tins
dozen Of the largest American cities
have begun to take up xoninG.
land. ito see our hopes being fulfilled
today"
Values Not Reduced By Z0nlng.
tholemew stated that while Eoning
may deprive some property Of It's
speculative value, he has yet to hear
OF single instance In ST. Louis-his
home city-where the fair value Of
property was reduced by coming.
On the contrary, he said. coming sta
bilizes values. 1t guarantees the resi-
Dental sections against the encroach-
mant of business, md II gives the bust
ness men equal assurance that the
commercial sections will not develop
into residential districts.
Col. kutx Makes Suggestions.
Lieut.. Charles W. Kutz, chairman Of
the coming commission, introduced
Mr.. Bartholomew. and after the ex-
pert had finished Col Kutz made q
brief talk for the benefit of the adj
visory committees. which were ap-
pointed to obtain the sentiment Of
their neighborhoods as to what height.
use and area restrictions they want
applied to their property.
He urged each committee to hold
an organization meeting, to add to the
conmtffaa IL Thought advisable and
to study the coming law carefully. The
Commissioners. he said, will soon be
able 10 furnish each committee with
j map showing what classes OF build
ings now exist in their localities.
From a study Of these maps, the col
onel said, the people WILL be able to
tell whether their section Is likely
to grow into a residential or COM
mercial area.
Although the zoning commission is
required by the law to hold formal
hearings before declaring the zones
in effect. the commissioner said he
hoped that the residents OF the va
rious sections will iron out differences
of opinion before the public hearings.
To Respect Wishes Of Residents.
Col. Kutz said the coming commits
sion wants to zone each section in &C
cordance with the wishes of the resi-
dents so long as those wishes do not
interfere with the general plan for
the development of the city.
Mr.. Bartholomew made two points
clear: The coming regulations will not
require the removal Of establishments
already in existence, and will not de-
prive the city of space in which in
dustry and business may develop.
He said that in drawing up the zone
regulations for Washington the local
commission will take advantage Of
the mistakes made in other places.