Evening star., 1950-09-18
Needed Leadership IN Planning

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Organization yesterday of Regional Psan-
ming Council, representing planning agencies
in the Metropolitan Area, may fill the vacuum
created by failure of Congress to expand and
TO strengthen the National Capital Park and
Planning Commission.
Legislation to accomplish these aims is
bottled up in the House District Committee
after having been approved by the Senate 1t
is dead duck for this session. The result has
been deplorable failure in planning reflected
in the cold turn-down given by Congress to
hastily prepared dispersal" scheme under which
the Government was to spend about $140 mil
lion in expanding the Federal establishment in
to adjacent Maryland and Virginia, constructing
connecting highways and other appurtenances
1t is to be hoped that this newly formed
Regional Planning Council will grow in strength
and influence The Budget Bureaus $140 million
scheme, the cold reception it received in Con-
gress the fact that it was being presented with
out the thorough understanding of it's purposes
by citizens of nearby communities-all these
things represent lack of sound planning. If the
deficiencies thus shown are not remeded, we
shall witness a hodge-podge development of
the National Capital in which many avoidabe
mistakes will be made.
The National Capital Park and Planning
Commission, created with such hope and en-
thusaSm after World War I, should be the
leader in orderly planning for Washington and
its environs But the commission is losing
prestige 1t lacks effective leadership. 1t has
more critics than friendly champions in Con-
greSS 1t has been unable even to get it's
Greater Washington Plan printed at the Gov
ernment Printing office. The men who brought
1t into being are here no longer and their
successors have failed to win enthusiastic sup
port in what they are seeking to do.
That is one explanation of why the so-called
dispersal plan was hurriedly presented to Con-
greSs, at the tail end of a long session, by the
General Services Administration and it's Public
Buildings Service instead of by the planning
commission. Nothing had been done in advance
to prepare either Congress or the adjacent
communities for this plan The manner of its
presentation created suspicion, and the multi
plicity of its aims tended to confuse instead
of inviting confidence in the amount of thought
that lay behind it.
The plan as a matter of fact, was curious
combination. 1t was based in its general con-
cept on the imprinted plans of the Park and
Planning Commission. 1t was prompted in part
by the real emergency faced by Public Buildings
Service in trying to find office space for an i'm
mediate increase in Government personnel of
about 1900. The Public Buildings Service has
little available space, but there are 10000 en-
ployes working in temporary buildings and these
are deteriorating rapidly, the expense of main
tanning them is high and the facilities they pro-
vide are Inadequate Public Buildings Service
wanted to empty the temporary buildings, tear
them down and provide space for their occu-
pants, along with newly hired employees in build
ings erected outside the District. The National
Security Resources Board, charged with RESPONSE
bility for thinking up what to do if bomb hit
Washington wanted to provide escape quarters
outside the District for such important agencies
as the FBI the Central Intelligence Agency, Joint
Chiefs of Staff and even Congress. So all of
these aims were thrown into the $140 million
package, which was given a cold reception in
Congress.
When this plan, with changes is presented
to Congress again, it should enlist the support
of planning agencies. 1t should follow in detail
a carefully prepared master plan for develop
ment of Washington and the Metropolitan Area.
It's main purpose should be to provide for orderly
development of the American Capital not to
provide some eXpedient method of scuttling and
running should Washington be attacked. If the
newly formed Regional Planning Council can as
sumo the leadership in regional planning that is
now lacking, it's formation is significant and
important development.