The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1921-10-30
coming
INEVITABLE WITH
AMERICAN CITIES
1t Concerns Use and Con-
troll of Private Property
Plus Development.

oosttnae6 trom Page TArss.
able Improvement on the earIi.,
ones in that they provide the nee
essary machinery Of EoninE which
IL SO essential to H.
throughout the United States
We hnd that here are something
IKE thirty-nve or forty soning or
dinances in effect. and in a recen,
pamphlet published by Edward Nj
Bassett he gives a list Of the air.
ferent cities and towns which have
already passed 4bninE ordinances
There are something like 400 a.
800 cities. towns and villages tar
ing up the question Of zoning to-
day and many others are on m.
point Of starting
The courts have. been remart-
ably favorable TO zOning. Mr.. Bas
sett is the authority for the state
ment that in the eve years tina N.
zoning ordinance Of New York CITY
has been In effect there has NOT
been one single case OF opposition
on the part Of the courts, and tbere
have been about nfty cases taken
to court. and not one decision Of
the courts unfavorable 10 Eoning or
that duplicates the constitutional-
ity OF the zoning act or In any way
suggests that EoninE is unconsti-
tutionaL
Never. anywhere throughout
the country. has there been any
single court decision that would
point to the unconstitutionality OF
zoning. IL Il 10 done in a broad.
comprehensive. scientific and res-
sonable manner.
However, EoninE does not want
to be discriminatory. It must not
be discriminatory. II must be res-
sonable. The courts say that zop-
ing must be In the interest Of
health, safety, morals. general wei
fare, public convenience, public
good. the stabilizing Of property
values. the conserving Of all that is
good In existing conditions, exist .
Ing tendencies. and make for the
best future development of the
community a. q whole. II coming
is don efor the benefit Of the com
munity and is not discriminatory
IL carries a wonderful instrument
for the development OF any COM
munity.
Various cities, like Jersey Citv.
n. j. have passed piece-meaI zou-
ing ordinances, saying a little dis-
trict here shall be set apart as a
residence district, or a little dIs-
trtct here shall be set apart as q
business district, leaving all tic
rest OF the town unzoned, and the
courts In New Jersey the other da
declared that was absolutely COZ
trary to the intent and spirit u
the State enabling act and deCLar,
that the zoning act Of the city o..
Jersey City was null and void l.
cause IL was not done in the int
est Of the community as q who
but in the interest Of a few int
vidusls in q few selected parts
the town.
Ordinarily. the city council h
the right TO amend the zOniI
ordinance that Il has original
passed, but II must not be amend
too easily, and that Is the point
IN the FIVE years the zoniI
ordinance has been in effect in NJ
York City. out Of something u
10000 applications for building Dc
mits. about 40 cases have be-
taken TO the board OF estimate al 4
superintendent, asking for amen'-
ment to the Eoning ordinance, %
change q little business street f.
one block into an Industrial street
or something Of that sort. The
board OF estimate and Gpportion-
ment has granted about one-half or
them and refused the other half. but
the interesting part is this:
During the first two or three
years q great many or a great ma
tority Of the demands for a change
In the Eoning ordinance were to
LII
mess 70 industrial, or TO clGnge
from a lower height limit 10 a
higher height limit, or something
of that sort, but now the tendency
in New York City is TO stifren up
because people have come TO a real
izstion that IL is good business for
them to have coming regulations
even sitter, IL possible, than they
are today.
There has been little progress
in the form Of coming ordinances.
especially during the last two year.
zoning, IL done scientifically and
reasonably, is inevitable. Is logi-
cal and we fine, IL we think all tho
time Of what we are doing and at
for the greatest number. that the
courts must recognize II az the rea-
son why they put a district here
and another district there: that We
can make a coming ordinance that
is logical and scientific, and time
and time gain when the facts are,
prepared and presented 20 q Honin =
commission and q coming map pre-
pared, in passing upon Il, the com
mission has said:
That is obvious. When you
present those facts 20 us, Il is per
fectly obvious that the coming law
must go through. We did not think
Of Il before. We had not realized
before what this means. but Il Is
inevitable and Il Is logical that Tho
coming laws-should 60 through, a.
they are In other places
I'VE find the sentiment IN favor
OF zoning has grown so since We
started in in New York ten years
ago that, whereas, we did not con
slider we could 20 very far at that
time because we did not know how
far the courts would 60, today we
can 70 vastly farther.
we ind that we can impose
lower height limits Town after
town IL satisfied today with three
or four stories maximum height
limit. and don't have TO put in a
twenty-five story sky-scraper, As
Tulsa did, IN a district consisting Of
a lot OF low buildings, 30 that they
may think they are metropolitan
but they ind that Il Is good busl