The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-07-13
Article No. 5
HOW A PERMANENT ZoNING
LAW WORKS

HOW A PERMANENT ZONING
Law WORKS
'When fortune means to men
most good, she looks upon them
with a threatening eye. -
Shakespeare, king john act
/ III! scene w.
Delays have dangerous ends. /"
King Henry vi, act III; scene
LII.
Much more has been, can be
and ever will be said on zoning.
Wherever it has swept a thinking
city il has busted many an error
out.
It will act as marvellous and
a certain tonic to rejuvenate Key
West.
May these prescriptions fall
not on sterile soil!
Let as see what benefits may
be confidently expected; let us
see how city planning works.
The edict has gone forth that
Duval street is too narrow. It is.
If in five years when the Road to
the Mainland is opened you of
today are going to shout from the
Ihousetops when the first motor
cade comes through-if you are
planning now to keep time with
the throb of the band on that
new anniversary date--if you are
big enough to vision Key Vests
f.'Main Street" of the future, can
you not see that twice as wide
will then be even too narrow? /
can.
Z zoning will cure DuvaI street.
1 1t may take years to do it, but
with a zoning ordinance in eff
feet and were sweeping fire
at work the minute after the law
is signed, then and there the or
dinance would wipe away all
care about sufficient traffic
space.
This hinges solely on the es-
adjustment of a setback or q
building line. If a building line
were in effect today and an old
building were to be torn down to-
morrow morning, the coming or
dinance would say: "Set back
the new one twenty feet" So in
the case if the building further
up the street, or on the other
side. So in case of a fire.
The buildings with the excep-
ton of the new San Carlos
Theater are in the majority of
cases, old. The new hotel, La
Concha, have not seen.
If it has any setback from the
inner line of the sidewalk what
ever ten feet or twenty-five
problem would solve itself there.
IF it has no setback, public
opinion and public funds would
carry it back were it, in time, the
sole projecting structure on Du-
val street
"A building restriction as to
setback works silently, like
thought, but it gains a civic vic
tory as the months and the years
march by.
Few streets in Key West will
be wide enough, when the sun of
prosperity smiles. Let every
other, or every third street in
parallel, be tentatively widened
by building restriction which
forbids encroachment within,
say, ten or twenty feet of the in
ner sidewalk bound.
AS old houses are replaced by
new and modern ones. reconstruc-
ton will be forced back to a line
determined by the office of the
engineer. When the last of the
line is in bounds, the city authori-
ties will take the sidewalks on
either side, replace them with
mari and asphalt, thus widen the
streets, and construct new walks
where run new margin lines
This IS not a question of day:
but it is simple process and it
is working like yeast in zoned
towns and cities everywhere.
AS Key West grows. business
will grow; homes viii grow, i'm
creased fire and police protection
win be imminent; more children
will demand more school facili-
ties, more parks. more artificial
pools. more public water front
age. 1EOre homes win make more
business
But segregate them; mark out
business areas up along the is
land at a few central residential
points. Prepare under the zon-
|ing law for Fairgrounds in def
mite districts; take vacant land