It is entitled: "Greenbelt Towns, a Demonstration in Suburban Planning," and it is the basic program.

To obtain a large tract of land, and thus avoid the complications ordinarily due to diverse ownerships; in this tract to create a community, protected by an encircling green belt; the community to be designed primarily for families of modest income, and arranged and managed so as to encourage a family and community life which will be better than they now enjoy, but which will not involve subjecting them to coercion or theoretical and untested discipline; the dwellings and the land upon which they are located to be held in one ownership, preferably a local public agency to which the Federal Government will transfer title, and which agency will rent or lease the dwellings but will not sell them; a municipal government to be set up, in character with such governments now existing or possible in that region; coordination to be established, in relation to the local and State governments, so that there may be provided those public services of educational and other character which the community will require; and, finally, to accomplish these purposes in such a way that the community may be a taxpaying participant in the region, that extravagant outlays, from the individual family income will not be a necessity, and that the rents will be suitable to families of modest income.

To develop a land-use plan for the entire tract; to devise a system of rural economy coordinated with the land-use plan for the rural portions of the tract surrounding the suburban community; and to integrate both the physical plans and the economies of the rural area and the suburban community.

This was issued in September 1936.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you see anything in what you have read that would prevent the town from having adequate facilities?

Mr. MYER. I do not. And I think the town does have reasonably adequate facilities. If it has not, there are ways and means so those can be provided.

Mr. BALLINGER. That puts you on record. You mean for a town of 7,100, 15 facilities are adequate for that population?

Mr. MYER. Well we have a project called Fairlington that has none. Fairlington is a pretty sizable project of 5,000 units, much more than this, and they have no facilities.

Mr. BALLINGER. Does that please you? Do you think that is a satisfactory condition?

Mr. MYER. The point I would like to make is that there are other stores, other places here and there, even in Washington D. C., where people can get service.

Mr. BALLINGER. Yes, but I mean

Mr. MYER. I am simply saying I do not think they are so limited that people are suffering because of service.

Mr. BALLINGER. Does there exist a restaurant in this town?

Mr. MYER. That I do not know off-hand.

Mr. BALLINGER. Does it have a shoe store?

Mr. MYER. It has a shoe repair shop.

Mr. BALLINGER. It sells baby shoes, but not adults shoes?

Mr. PATMAN. Wait. What was the answer to that? Did he answer? Mr. MYER. I do not know the answer off hand, except I do know there is a shoe repair shop and they sell some shoes. How generally they sell, I do not know. Will you tell me?

Mr. ASHELMAN. Up to 8 or 10 years old. We have a plan for providing these services under construction.

Chairman PLOESER. The witness will answer.

Mr. ASHELMAN. He asked me.

Chairman PLOESER. He is not conducting the questioning.

Mr. ASHELMAN. I am sorry.

Mr. MYER. I am sorry.

Chairman PLOESER. That is all right. That is a natural mistake. Mr. MYER. Am I not able to call on a little help, Mr. Chairman? Mr. BALLINGER. Is there not a haberdashery shop?

Mr. MYER. I guess Iwill have to get some of my own folks around

me.

Chairman PLOESER. Mr. Myer, I have no objection to your asking him on the side.

Mr. MYER. Well you whisper to me next time.

Mr. ASHELMAN. All right.

Mr. BALLINGER. Is there a haberdashery shop there?

Mr. MYER. There is a valet shop.

Mr. ASHELMAN. They have neckties.

Mr. MYER. By "neckties" I do not know the pattern. I would be glad to develop for the record any details. I have not gone through these stores. I have gone through them, but not with the idea in mind of answering this kind of detailed questions, Mr. Ballinger.

I would suggest that Mr. Ashelman, manager of the consumers cooperative would be in a much better position to answer this type of questions than I am.

I will try to do it, and get the information if you want me to, but I do not run the services out there. I am simply the landlord for the Government.

Mr. BALLINGER. Yes, but this is a Government project, and are you not in a position where you have to look out for the welfare of these people, since you control the land and also the opportunities for the business?

Mr. MYER. I am in the position that any other landlord would be in as far as trying to provide reasonably adequate facilities and to carry on the business of that project.

Mr. BALLINGER. Well, do you think, or have you formed any opinion about it, do you think that the existing facilities are adequate for the size of the population, assuming that the whole town wanted to use them? Do you think they would be adequate?

Mr. MYER. I have not formed any opinion about that. We have this process of study at this time, new plans that might be developed for future development, and possible sale of Greenbelt. We have hesitated to move in with the possible redevelopment plans until we have made a resurvey as to commercial facilities or otherwise. This whole thing is in the process of study at this moment, and I have not formulated any opinions until that study is complete.

Mr. MADDREN. Mr Myer, you mentioned that this survey that is in the course of preparation now of the facilities—how long has that survey been going on?

From correspondence from the file it appears to be that over a year ago applicants were written letters informing them that a survey was in progress.

The

Mr. MYER. I am afraid you misunderstood what I said. The survey is not that limiting that I am talking about. survey that we are making has to do with the possible future development, and with Greenbelt and all its aspects, involving the question

of further residence development as well as other commercial facilities, and looking at the possible sale of the town, and as to how it may well be sold, and it includes some very complex factors such as the question as to how you can widen the tax base and put it on a sounder tax structure and base, because most of them have a rather narrow base, purely residential areas.

So that the whole survey is tied in with a general pattern and is not limited to the question as to whether or not immediate additional services services were needed.

Mr. BALLINGER. Has Federal Public Housing, since it has administered the first contract and signed the second one with Greenbelt Consumer Services been opposed to the admission of private interest into the town?

Mr. MYER. I do not know the answer to that question because I have been with Federal Public Housing about a year. There is no position at the moment opposed to entry of private business into the town. We have continued the contract which was in existence because it was a satisfactory one. We are open-minded about this whole ques

tion.

Mr. BALLINGER. Have you not received some letters which ask you for an opportunity to go into the town?

Mr. MYER. We have received a great many letters, copies of which you have all been supplied with, with the exception of a few, and we supplied an additional summary in the last day or two regarding additional ones we found in our files.

Mr. BALLINGER. I wish at this point, Mr. Chairman, to read into the record a letter from Safeway Stores, dated July 30, 1946. Chairman PLOESER. So ordered.

Mr. BALLINGER. The letter is as follows:

GENERAL FIELD OFFICE, FEDERAL PUBLIC HOUSING AUTHORITY,

Washington, D. C.

(Attention: Mr. Oliver C. Winston, Director.)

GENTLEMEN: This corporation is very interested in considering placing one of its complete food and meat market stores in your Greenbelt, Md., housing subdivision. It is our opinion that your tenants in this area should be afforded an opportunity to have competitive merchants in their neighborhood.

We would appreciate very much your advising us whether or not we can be given an opportunity to consider such a proposition.

I wish also to put into the record the reply of Federal Public Housing, signed by Oliver C. Winston, director, general field office. Chairman PLOESER. So ordered.

Mr. BALLINGER. The letter reads as follows:

DEAR MR. KAYHOE: This is in acknowledgment of your letter of July 30, in which you express an interest in placing a Safeway food and meat market store in our Greenbelt project.

We are at the present time beginning studies looking to the future development and eventual disposition of the various properties at Greenbelt. We appreciate your interest in this community and at the appropriate time will be glad to give consideration to your proposal.

Now Commissioner, at the time that Safeway wrote you a letter asking for an opportunity to get in Greenbelt, were you at all familiar with the situation in Greenbelt regarding the food store?

Mr. MYER. I was not because that was before my incumbency in the PHA. I was not responsible for it at that particular time.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you think anybody in Federal Public Housing was aware of that? They must have been.

Mr. MYER. Aware of what?

Mr. BALLINGER. That there were inadequate food stores in the town. Mr. MYER. An inadequate food store in the town?

Mr. BALLINGER. Inadequate from the standpoint of space and size. That they needed badly a new food store.

Mr. MYER. I am sure that that was the case. They did understand that the space was limited, and negotiations were then under way with the cooperative as regards the leasing of land in order to construct a new building. A lease which was later signed.

Mr. BALLINGER. Did you sign that lease?

Mr. MYER. I did, November 1.

Mr. BALLINGER. November 1 of what year?
Mr. MYER. 1946.

Mr. BALLINGER All right. Here on April 30-July 30 Safeway is asking for an opportunity to build the food store out there. Now on November 1, you signed a new contract with Consumers Greenbelt Services which locks up the best area of the town for food stores, is that not right?

Mr. MYER. Well that is a matter of judgment.

Mr. BALLINGER. The best possible areas?

Mr. MYER. I suppose that you would say so since it is in the center of the old Greenbelt. There are other areas that might be served that might compare rather favorably, I should say.

Mr. BALLINGER. Well now, when you signed this contract with Greenbelt Consumer Services did you make any investigation of the financial responsibility of the cooperative to build that store? Mr. MYER. I did not.

Mr. BALLINGER. Why?

Mr. MYER. Well in the first place we have found the cooperative a very good agency to deal with. I assume that perhaps some of the other folks did.

And in the second place there is a limited period in which they could fulfill the contract or not, and if they did not, there was not very much time lost anyway.

Mr. BALLINGER. Did you make an investigation of the financial responsibility of the other tenants of the Federal Public Housing? Mr. MYER. If we have any question about them, yes.

Mr. BALLINGER. You knew that this new food store would cost a good deal of money, did you not?

Mr. MYER. Approximately $100,000 is the figure that would be required to construct it.

Mr. BALLINGER. Is there a forfeiture provision in the contract? Mr. MYER. There is.

Mr. BALLINGER. Would you mind stating to the committee what it is?

Mr. MYER. The contract provides that activities shall be started toward construction by July 1 of 1947, and completed or reasonably so by July 1, 1948, assuming that materials and other things are available.

Mr. BALLINGER. A year to build it?

Mr. MYER. That is right.

Mr. BALLINGER. Have you made any investigation to find out whether the contract has been complied with and construction has begun?

Mr. MYER. I have.

Mr. BALLINGER. Can you tell me what it consisted of?

Mr. MYER. Putting down of a well which is essential to the development of the building and of the program.

Mr. BALLINGER. And that costs approximately how much?

Mr. MYER. I do not know.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you know how much the new food store is estimated to cost?

Mr. MYER. I do not know. That is the business of the co-op. There is a provision in our lease that it would cost around $100,000. That is the only information that I have.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you know whether the work on the well has now stopped? The well is complete?

Mr. MYER. I have not checked into that, sir. They were still drilling the last I saw it. The drill was still there, and that was only a few days ago.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you know whether the cooperative has been able to raise the money necessary to build this building?

Mr. MYER. I would suggest you talk to the cooperative about that. Mr. BALLINGER. It has brought to the attention of the committee that no other construction is at present possible because the money necessary for construction has not been raised.

Mr. MYER. I have not found any reason to check into that, so long as they have complied with the contract up to date.

Mr. BALLINGER. You consider merely the drilling of the well sufficient?

Mr. MYER. I do.

Mr. BALLINGER. If the building does not start, say, within 6 months will you do anything about it?

Mr. MYER. If the building is not essentially complete by July 1 next, we will do something about it.

Mr. BALLINGER. Why do you give them a year to build?

Mr. MYER. We think that is a reasonable time nowadays.

Mr. BALLINGER. Do you think that the private business-do you feel that private business would have been able to build it in a shorter time?

Mr. MYER. I do not.

Mr. BALLINGER. No. All right; we will hold that.

Any questions you want to ask?

Mr. MADDREN. Yes. I have a letter here that I would like to read to Mr. Myer.

Chairman PLOESER. Mr. Maddren, will you speak louder, please? Mr. MADDREN. It is from Love & Bailey, attorneys at law, Leonardtown, Md.

Incidentally, it comes from the file which you provided me with. It is addressed to the National Public Housing Authority, attention Joseph C. Gray, Esq., Washington, D. C.

DEAR MR. GRAY: Pursuant to suggestion of October 23, 1946, I wish to advise you that I have a client, whose name I will gladly divulge at any time desirable, very much interested in any commercial outlets in the Greenbelt area, owned or controlled by your Authority.