Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-12-20
need OF CITY
PLAN IS URGED
UPON MALLEN
w. r. Met arity, Mana
ger of c. of C., Asks
Valley Towns To
Build Correctly

-hINAdl 70 Inc ntIdlQJ
McALLEN, Dec. 20.-The necessity
q city plan for the future develop
men. OF McAllen was stressed in an
address by ". r. Mccarthy, secretary
~ the local chamber of commerce
before the Rotary club at their We'd
resdsy meeting. Mr.. Mccarthy has
Tor some months been studying
various books and authorities rela-
tive TO city planning and to famil-
iarize himself with ideas Of city
rlsn engineers he attended the City
Plan convention at Dallas several
months ago.
Mr.. Mccarthy said, "From the time
that McAllen received its first char
ter Until now, the principle of spend
ing home money at home has never
been lost sight of by those interested
in public affairs. IL has always been
believed that a dozen palm trees have
more real value and will do more to
stimulate growth than would a page
advertisement IN any newspaper or
magazine. This is the altitude which
caused the development OF modern
city planning.
Master Plan Needed
"Gutzon Borglum, world famous
artist and sculptor, recently said.
You city planners must drop your
theories, your statistics that you can
work cut anytime in your library and
find the soul Of your city. You will
find Y in two or thre people. Get
them and their ideas-thcn build
your city. You will create some
thing human and beautiful. The
citizens will turn their pockets in
side out to help you. The question
Of handling traffic il secondary. II
merely involves getting more floor
space Carrying out the idea Of Mr.
Borclum the city OF McAllen
time ago employed an expert, Major
Woods Of Dallas, who drafted a plan
for this city.
"a master plan for any city is
necessarily Of considerable volume,
as it must include several major
points, chief Of which are. a traffic
street plan; n comprehensive coming
plan and IN ordinance limiting use Of
buildings; transportation plan cov-
eriug railway terminals, aviation
fields. bus lines, etc; a school play
ground and recrcational plan; a park
system plan and a plan for public
architectural groups. covering civic
renters. municipal, state and federal
buildings.
Need Park System
"McAllen or any other town would
be better off with a comprehensive
coming ordinance setting forth the
type and use of building which would
he permitted on any given location.
Such an ordinance should also speci-
fy building lines on each street ir
the town. These regulations would
not only bring about a more dcsir-
able development but also protect
present property owners.
"Much work must also be done o n
McAilen's park system. IL may be
stated rs a good city planning doc
trine. that a city should have ap-
proyimately 10 per rent of its area in
parks and should have one acre Of
park FOR every $50 If its population
and the parks should be distributed
40 that all parts % the city would be
served. While il is often impossible
for cities TO buy sufficient land suit
ably located 20 attain the proportion
mentioned. but there arc ways IN
which without cost the proportion OF
parks TO our total area could be
greatly increased. In eases IN which
subdivisions are brought into the
city. s 10 10 PER cent Of the total area
81 each subdivision could be required
for psr. purposes. Such land should
he decided to the city for public use
with no revision clause. OF course,
even under our enabling acts. We
could not legally insist on the deed
inc ~ such land. but IL could be
demonstrated to the owners that the
remaining acreage would be of more
value through the Identification Of
that part decided TO the city.
Law Aids Planning
Fairly safe predictions can be
made a. TO the direction in which a
city will grow and il should be pos
tihls 70 acquire land for park pur.
poses A q comparatively low figure
per scre. As a matter Of fact il
might Re possible for a city to acquire !
rs parks n no cost by the %exredient
OF purchasing twice as much land
as would actually be needed and sell
one-half az il for either business or
residential use, after the anticipated
gruvth had developed.
"tltv planning as we know u to-
day. ir Of comparatively modern
growth. The National City Planning
Conference held its Goth annual con-