The New York herald., 1922-10-15
ZONE LAW HAS NEW
RESTRICTED AREA
City Provides sF' District to
Guard Residence Zones
More Carefully.
BY EDWARD NJ. BAssETT.

S0WNo0t tO Two 6OWtW2 OOWU8to0tVU.
Every one is familiar with the Z dis
trfct in zoning. 1t has been considered
tho detached house residential district
for villa homes. Large z districts were
placed on the area map In the original
Eoning. These were mainly In Flatbush.
Bay Ridge and Riverdale During the
past six years these districts have been
very popular and successful. Their sue
cess has prompted many other localities
to petition the Board Of Estimate to
alter the area map so as to place their
land In the T. district. Great additions
to the p districts were made throughout
Flatbush. F1atlands. Rockaway. Manhat-
tan Beach. New Utrecht. Richmond Hill.
Glen Morris and The Bronx.
Recently the Board Of Estimate made
provision in the zoning resolution for
still more carefully restricted residential
district. This is shown as district r on
the area coming map. New houses In
this kind OF district must have yards
on each side Of the house. Each OF
these side yards must be at least five
feet wide. Each house must have a
front yard of at least fifteen feet. The
portion Of the.jot that can be covered
with new building In the r district is
approximately Is per cent. less. than is
permitted in the p district
Although this new era district called
r was designed to I'LL q demand felt by
seashore districts that desired to prevent
the congested construction OF bungalows,
nevertheless 1t Is available for every
suburban part Of Greater New York.
Six years ago when the zoning plan was
adopted II was unknown how far the
courts would approve its various provi-
sions. Since then, however. zoning or
IN hnx roN wr,tt6 &l,n< L.
approval, not only In this city and State
but throughout the United States. The
courts have shown that they will support
reasonable coming. The remarkable de-
gree Of approval Of coming by the people
and tho courts prompted tho Board of
Estimate to go somewhat further than
was deemed prudent In the beginning.
and the new + district Is the result.
1t has become apparent that the
owners OF large areas in the Suhurbs
desire to build small detached homes.
What they have lacked in the past II
an assurance that these homes would be
permanently protected. They were
afraid to build small homes If. when
private restrictions expired, tho neigh
borhood would be invaded by stores,
factories and apartment houses. Much
Of the building since the war in the out
lying boroughs has been of small de-
tached one and two family houses.
Sometimes even In an p district a
block front is injured by some builder
who does not observe the building limo
that has been generally adopted and
who pushes his new building out to the
street line. This hurts all the homes
on the block 1t would be well for
owners Of partly vacant localities to
consider whether. instead OF petitloning
to have their areas placed in an zone.
1t would not be well for them to petit
tion for an r zone. Some of the exist
ing = zones are well adapted to become
F zones. and II the property owners in
these localities desire to prevent vacant
lots from building up In a way that
can be a damage to the development
they would be well advised to petition
to have their localities placed In the
new r district. The interest Of the
board Of estimate in the coming plan
and their desire to carry out its Intent
are shown by the amendment creating
this new r district.