Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-27
PLANNING IDEA
PROVIDES SAFETY
anchorage" Town Designed
to Safeguard Children
and Pedestrians.


planning from the ground up" in
such o way as to take care OF motor
vehicle traffic and still safeguard chill
dren and pedestrians, is described by
the Planning Foundation Of America
in a report made public In New York
today.
Hailed as zone of the most signifi-
cant achievements In recent city plan
ming" this town. as described in the
foundations report, is attracting the
attention of realtors and city planners
In the District of Columbia and else
where throughout the country.
Outstanding features of the town are
the unique arrangements for traf1c and
the safeguarding OF pedestrians.
ITO separate definitely the trafnc
streets of these 'Tlade-to-order' towns
from the residential. garden spaces; to
provide a complete system OF safety
short cuts and foot way from the homes
to the stores, the school and the rail-
road station, and to weave a parkland
pattern through the town so that open
space for play or rest is nowhere more
than a few feet away from ones door
step-these," says the report, land other
motor-age innovations amount to new
conception In town building"
Residential Subdivision.
rs mot an old town with new improved
parts" nor a residential subdivision.
cts entire plan is new" continues the
report. land provides for complete self
contained community accommodation
for fixed prospective population"
The foundation points out that city
plans have secured a definite legal
status through recent statutory enact
ments In several States, as result OF
which planning commissions now have
O wider control of city and town de-
velopment and can forecast what I'M
provementS should be made and how
they should be programmed and bud
The kind Of town that Is being
planned and built, the report says, is
designed to At into ''up-to-date" sub
urban life as much as modern kitchen
Is equipped to take advantage of the
last word In electric inventions for
cooking, for washing dishes and for re-
frigerating groceries. Radburn, N. j.,
Is cited as an example Of this "adapta-
ton of modern means to modern
needs"
It is too soon, according to the found.
alton, to rate the social or financial
success Of this new type Of suburban
town, but their plans and purposes have
already won international attention"
People Appreciate Plan.
Apparently the people appreciate
this unique opportunity for safe and
agreeable living" continues the report.
1--WE are informed that of the f75
one-family houses built in Radburn In
1929, l42 have been sold. All Of the
two-family houses built to be rented
and occupied. The apartment house
group, finished in the late Fall OF 1929,
has 90 suites ranging from two to five
rooms, of which IS are already rented.
New model towns Of this type offer
q promising method Of thinning out the
oyercrowded metropolitan centers. The
unincorporated territory just outside
the city's limit, once almost no mans
land has become the city'S last chance
for distinctive planning whether for
such made-to-order towns, industrial
villages, for traffic approaches, park
WAYS or wild forest reservations. Ideally,
there should be local plans for the little
city, metropolitan plans for the bigger
city, county plans for the rest OF the
county's area and the utmost co-opera-
ton among all planning agencies.
Plan Given Legal Status.
1.-THE past year has also furnished
strong evidence that planning has be-
come less feverish and spasmodic
impulse d1lo paw va
municipal administrative progra m s.
Colorado and North Daktoa, following
the earlier example Of New York and
California, have passed laws which
give o legal status to an ofiicial plan
adopted by q local government by rec
o9nizing the need of q master plan as
O guide In the city's development and
% establishing the local planning COM
mission as considerably more than an
advisory board. Under these laws,
physical improvements affecting the
plan Of the city must have the ap-
proval Of the planning commission. I'm
provements which. in the Judgment Of
planning commissions, are inconsistent
with the master plan, can be carried out
only by o two-thirds vote Of the legiS-
lative council Of the municipality.
"A few years ago q city plan or q
report containing the recommendations
Of q planning commission too often met
the usual fate Of good advice. There
was always faction to point out the
enormous bulk outlay necessary for car
Yying out the recommendation. Now
IN essential part Of all plan reports Is
o financial program for the execution
Of major improvements. Recommends
tions are grouped as to urgency, and
tentative budgets for hve-year planning
periods are presented. 1t Is o new and
growing practice for cities to budget
their 1ong-term capital expenditures
and the planning commissions financial
programs are invaluable as basis for
such budgets"