The Washington herald., 1922-07-02
.zONINC SYSTEM IS
DECLARED BEST In
COMMITTEE REPORT
Property Values Stabi'
lized by Building Regu-
tions, Bulletin Shows.

How the great economic loss re-
sulting from the scrapping OF
buildings in "blighted" city dis
tricts can be eliminated through
the use of the zoning system Is
outlined by the advisory committee
of the division of building and
housing, Department of Commerce,
in the second article Of a series on
the subject
A "blighted" district is described
as one. originally developed for
residence or industry, in the future
of which people have lost conf
dence because of the encroachment
of inappropriate structures.
Property and Health.
Suppose you have just bought
some land In neighborhood of
homes and built a cozy little
house." the article says. There
are two vacant lots south Of you.
II your town is zoned no one can
put up q large apartment house on
those lots overshadowing your
home, stealing your sunshine and
spelling the investment of twenty
years saving. Nor Is anyone at
liberty to erect a noisy, malodor-
Gus public garage to keep you
awake nights or to drive you to
sell out for half what you put into
your home.
IF a town Is zoned property
values become more stable. mort
| gage companies are more ready to
lend money and more houses can
be built.
"A zoning law, II enacted in time,
prevents an apartment house from
becoming giant airless hive,
housing human beings like crowd
ed bees. 1t provides that buildings
may not be so high and SO close
that men and women must work in
rooms never freshened by sunshine
or lighted from the open sky.
Cost Of Living Reduced.
by zoning millions of dollars of
waste from the scrapping Of build
ings in blighted districts may be
eliminated. The causes of such
scrapping are manifold. The most
familiar case is that Of q residen-
tial disrtict into which there have
begun to creep various uses threat
ening rapid destruction Of its value
| for residences, such uses as spo-
radio stores, or factories. or cheap
| roomlng houses.
TT is not that . few such inap-
propriste uses really spofl the dis
trict, but that people. having lost
confidence, start a panic, like a
run on the bank. Hundreds of
them hurry up to unload their
properties at . sacrifice for any
kind Of use. no matter how objec-
tionable to their neighbors-and
the blight is on.
Dwellings worth in the aggre-
| gate millions of dollars for the pur-
poses for which they were built
and physically At to serve those
purposes for many years to come
with a moderate investment in al
terations and improvements, are
thus annually abandoned to pur-
poses for which they are unit. or
are left to stand practically idle.
Public Services Reduced.
Expensive public services Of
water, gas. electricity, sewers and
transportation are maintained at
great waste in order to get through
the 'blighted' district to the more
distant and newly fashionable loca-
ton.
The total economic loss Is enor-
nous. and this loss and the risk OF
1t are paid by the people. in the
| price Of house rents or otherwise,
as inevitably as they pay the price
| OF the enormous fire losses either
| directly or through insurance.
Proper coming cuts these losses
at their source. Just as proper
building regulations and fire pro-
| lection cut FIRE losses at their
| source.
Again, miles of streets and sew
ers and other utilities. such as are
| ordinarily built when land Is newly
subdivided for dwellings, need
| never be constructed II we know
that these areas will be devoted