The New York herald., 1922-05-11
SAGE PLAN ADDS 800
TOWNS TO NEW YORK.
Would Include Trenton, West
Point, Bridgeport and All
Long Island.
LOOKS FAR TO FUTURE
Foundation Lays Ground for
Developments to Help Co.
ordinate Growth.

A most ambitious city planning
scheme was launched last night by the
trustees of the Sage Foundation at a
meeting held in the Engineering So
cieties Building on West Thirty-ninth
street. The plan contemplates compre-
hensive. coordinated development OF
New York and the adjacent territory
within lines extending from the far end
of Long Island, through Bridgeport.
West Point and Trenton, to the New
Jersey shore. More than 800 cities.
towns and villages are embraced within
the area.
While the announcements made were
purposely vague. the preliminary work
has not only been undertaken by the
Sage Foundation. but is well advanced
in some of its phases, and 1t is the ex-
pectation of those behind the plan that
a complete organization for the carry
ing through of all the necessary ad
vance work will be completed this fall,
and that in about two years a definite,
well worked out proposal. covering all
of the essentials, will be submitted to the
city authorities.
Generally speaking the plan is to make
this city and the adjacent territory a
better place to live in and to work in.
There are within the area about 100000
people. 1t is proposed that the coopera-
tion of these people be enlisted and it
was with a view to launching the project
and calling 1t to the attention of the
public generally that last nights meet
ing was held. At the meeting there was
no mention either of the financial as
poets OF so gigantic a project nor of the
political questions involved. The pur-
pose OF the meeting was thus stated by
Robert w. de Forest, president of the
Sage Foundation: ITO tell those whom
We have invited what the Russell. Sage
Foundation is doing to develop a COM
prehensive regional plan of New York
and its vicinity and to invite their CO.
operation"
Back to the Plan of 1911.
Mr.. de Forest volunteered the state
ment that the carrying out of the pro-
Ject was far beyond the resources of the
sage Foundation. saying that all that
organization could wisely do was to out
line an initial plan and rely on the CO.
operation of others to carry it out He
also made known the fact that public
officials had not been asked to act on
the committee because in the course of
things they would have to pass officially
on the plan when It was prepared Then
Il
Norton. chairman of the committee on
Plan of New York and its environs
Mr.. Norton, who was for some time
active In the city planning work done in
Chicago first read the plan ITSELF
printed document prefaced with the
record OF the Commissioners who
planned New York's street system in
1911. and laughed at the idea of the
open spaces beyond Harlem ever being
tnl taI NJ.
Sage had explicitly requested that por-
tion of the income of the foundation
should be exclusively used for the benef1t
OF New York city and its vicinity and.
said that the trustees had set aside a
sum sufficient with the contributions of
interested citizens to meet the necessary
expense of developing the plan. On the
committee, of which he is chairman, he
said. are Mr.. De Forest. Frederic a.
Delano, John M. Glenn. Dwight w. Nor
row and Frank l.. Polk. Frederick p.
Keppel Is secretary. The committee. Mr..
Norton said. had approached its work
by first organizing a series of surveys
to establish basic facts and fundamental
conditions.
Seek the Great Planner.
He went on to point out the danger
OF the announcement arousing too great
expectations of developments In the near
future. and then said that the physical
survey had been going on for a year.
under the direction of Nelson p Lewis
former chief engineer OF the Board of
Estimate, and that studies as to popula-
ton and many maps had been completed
The legal inquiry he said, had likewise
been under way some time. with Edward
VI. Bassett. former chairman of the
Zoning Commission, in charge of the
work. Mr.. Norton spoke of the great
number OF questions that would natural
ly arise in this field as we'll as in the
field of social and living conditions.
AS counselors and advisers the COM
mttee, Mr.. Norton said. had Eihu Root.
Herbert Hoover. Alfred r. Smith. A. c.
Bedford, Irving T. Bush. William Fell
loves Morgan. Frederick b. Pratt. Nicho-
las Murray Butler. Mrs. Otto Wittpen.
Hugh Frayne, Virginia Gildersleeve.
Morgan J. O'Brien. Amey AIdrich, H.
John j. Carly, Frances Perkins, Lawson
Purdy. Mary e. Drier, Felix Warburg,
Darwin p. Kingsley and Lillian Wald.
Group judgment was required to carry
out the idea he said. and unquestionably
In time the one man, the Planner, would
be found.