The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-01-28

Health, property values and the
future Of city are all vitality al
fected by the intelligent coming ana
planning of a city, Edward II. Ben
nett, in charge of the planning OF
Rock Island, points out in special
article in a current issue or the
Illinois Journal of Commerce.
Sketches for the correct coming
of Rock IS}and and plans for the
layout of the city have about oeen
completed by Mr.. Bennett and ms
firm partner, W. z. Parsons, and at
the next meeting of the Rock Is
land city planning commission, an
ordinance providing for the zon1ng
of the city will be discussed. The
commission will present the ordln-
ance to the city council for acton
at a later date.
Plans to zone the city so that the
residential, civic, industrial and ed
ucationaI districts are grouped to-
gether will somewhat follow the
plan given below in Mr.. Benefits
article.
1t is the object of city planning
to provide for an orderly develop
ment of the city's expansion: 10
create civic beauty, and to assem-
BILE the whole city into fine entity
Zoning is fundamentally connect
ed with all other factors OF CITY
planning. Like all city planning
matters, it is a great human prob
/ lem. Good city building means good
man building, Present conditions
of our cities to some extent are re-
Z III e. oct ut
not alone in laboring classes but
in all others. In a city, morale is
as important as it is in the army.
! There are greater contrasts IN large
! cities. greater evils to overcome.
| The influence of surroundings IS
paramount. eImproved conditions OF
! living will be powerful agency IN
! checking the social upheavals or
! today.
There are ct least a score OF
! American cities of 100000 or more
people. With but few exceptions,
have they not rather gathered IN
! strength from the adjacent terri
tory than given out any strength
! Do they not consume rather than
produce, devour rather than create
More specifically, spreading With
out shape or form, they destroy the
wealth OF natural beauty of their
sites without thought of Offering
human art to replace it. To offset
this is the purpose of city planning.
Govern Private Property, Too.
AS city planning includes the lay
out and control Of everything of a
public nature. including streets,
blocks, public buildings, and trans
portation and terminal systems, sc
it must include the control of de-
| velopment Of private property. In
the matter of private property con-
troll. coming is resorted to. Cities
in Illinois can, under newly defin-
ed police power, restrict the use OF
| private property to that to which
the property is best suited. All
these restrictions imposed on prt-
vate property must be done as de-
fined by the law, in the interests
of the health. morals, safety and
general welfare of the community
Private property has been esti-
mated to occupy more than two
thirds of the entire area of a city
It's real value is greater in proper
ton and these values should be
protected. In Chicago the assessed
valuation of property in 1920 was
more than S1.576, 100000. not in,
Guiding railroad properties, making
the real estate and improvement
values approximately $4,000 900, 900
Approximately $1,000, 100000 ha:
been spent in building development
in the last 10 years in Chicago or
| industry. business and housing con
struction. 1t is probable that equip
ment expenses will amount to 2;
per cent additional on an average
Thus the total expenditure in 81
years, including the last 10 years