without delay. This may be considered as a piecemeal process, but one which has proved effective. Some of the larger projects which have been carried out or are in process of completion since the creation of the City Planning Bureau, which were either recommended or approved by the Bureau, are the following: 1. The acquisition of the abandoned Erie Canal lands through the city and adjacent towns for a distance of about 13 miles, from the State, at a cost of about one and a half million dollars. 2. The construction of a Rapid Transit and Industrial Railway in these abandoned Erie Canal lands for a distance of about 81⁄2 miles, providing two main tracks for rapid transit of the interurban, and some of the local trolley lines, and also two main tracks connecting all of the railroads within the city with industries now established, or that may be established, on the line of the old Erie Canal lands. This work is now all under contract. A portion completed through the central part of the city provides an additional thoroughfare of about 34-mile in length and 100 feet wide. This additional street has been in use for over one year. It is expected that the entire project will be completed within the next year; the total estimated cost being about seven million dollars. 3. The comprehensive street plan provided for the creation. of a main thoroughfare paralleling Main Street upon the north. The expense of completing this street was so large that is was impracticable to take up the whole project at once. The city has, however, completed a connection of University Avenue with Andrews Street, making a new direct link in this future main thoroughfare, with the result that a very large step toward relief of traffic conditions has already been made. 4. A new bridge across the Genesee River affording a connection between a popular section on the west side of the river with the main part of the city on the easterly side of the river, has been located and the property necessary to provide suitable approaches thereto secured. It is expected that the bridge itself will be constructed in the near future and thus afford great relief to the northern portion of the city. 5. A wide boulevard was a part of the general plan of the City Planning Bureau. The property necessary for the western portion of this boulevard, from the New York Central Railroad northerly to the city line, has nearly all been purchased, at a comparatively small price. The westerly portion, from Chili Avenue to Genesee Valley Park, has already been completed, and ordinances have been adopted and a part of the property acquired on the southerly part of the city from Genesee Valley Park easterly to the city line. 6. The property on the westerly side of South Avenue between the street and the city's Erie Canal lands, has all been acquired, which provides for widening South Avenue from Court Street to Mt. Hope Avenue, a distance of about 1,800 feet. The remaining portion of the land not required for street widening was taken under "excess condemnation." The superintendent of the City Planning Bureau, since its organization to August 1st, of this year, has approved of 317 street openings, having a total length of over 56 miles, about 40% of which were dedications by the property owners, and the remainder by ordinance of the Common Council. Forty-four (44) street extensions, having a length of about 12 miles, have also been approved by the superintendent, about 16% of which was by dedication, the remainder by ordinance. The action of the superintendent in these matters, except in small subdivisions, which complied with the general plan adopted by the superintendent and approved by the City Planning Board, has been specifically considered and approved by the Advisory Board. The total number of subdivisions approved by the superintendent during the year 1923 and 1924, and to August 1st, 1925, amount to 884; many of which were outside of the city. CHANGES IN ZONES, AND EXCEPTIONS The Advisory Board also acts in a similar capacity to Boards of Appeals in other cities. For this purpose it gives hearings relative to exceptions in Use Zoning, either upon the request of the superintendent or upon the request of a property owner dissatisfied with the action of the superintendent. The superintendent, with the approval of the Advisory Board, may also make changes in the zones for different uses, and for that purpose the Advisory Board also gives hearings. A large part of the time at the meetings of the Advisory Board is taken up by the consideration of requests for an excep tion or a change of zone. All these matters are carefully considered and often referred to a committee of the Board which makes a personal examination of the premises. SET-BACK LINES-EXCESS CONDEMNATION Legislative amendments to the City Charter in 1921 permit the city to acquire, under condemnation proceedings, such rights. or easements as are necessary to provide for set-back lines. The city also has power to acquire, by purchase or condemnation proceedings, more property than is needed for the actual construction, widening, extending or relocating public streets, etc., provided, however, that the additional land and property so taken shall be not more than sufficient to form suitable building sites abutting on such public place or street. WIDTHS OF PAVEMENTS AND SIDEWALKS The Bureau is also given authority to fix the widths of pavements and sidewalks in ordinances for the improvement of streets. SUBDIVISION MAPS APPROVED It was also made the duty of the Bureau to approve of all maps of subdivisions of lands to be filed, before being filed with the County Clerk and before the owner should sell or convey any portion of the tract in the subdivisions. ZONING The Bureau of City Planning has authority to zone the city only for "Use." The Legislature of 1921 authorized the Common Council to zone the city for height and bulk of buildings. A provision of this Act required the recommendation or approval of the superintendent of City Planning before any ordinance should be adopted. VIOLATIONS, HOW PUNISHED The original City Planning Act of 1917 was strengthened by amendments to the City Charter in 1921, making violations of the City Planning rules, regulations, etc., a misdemeanor, and also permitting the city to restrain violations of such rules and regulations by injunction. The operation of the Bureau has been generally satisfactory. The high character and standing of the members of the Advisory Board remove all suspicion that any interest actuated the Board except that of the public good. DISCUSSION MR. HATTON: May I ask one thing? It occurs to me from that paper that the committee, through its executive officers, in performing that work, transferring that canal into a highway, and other things, is that a fact or does it come under the city engineer? MR. FISHER: The actual carrying out of the work comes under the city engineer. The ordinance and appropriation of the money has to be passed by the common council, but the planning is done by the Bureau. The common council has no authority to widen a street unless approved by the City Planning Bureau. THE CITY PLAN AND COMMUNITY CONSCIOUSNESS By James B. Weaver, Member Town Planning Commission, Des Moines, Iowa I am to speak of the evolution of community consciousness through city planning in a municipality located in the heart of the middle west. It is not my intention to enlarge upon the per capita wealth, or the agricultural pre-eminence of the State, or upon the reflection of these in many directions in the life of Des Moines. I desire rather to note how, in spite of her full share of the materialistic absorption common to American cities, and which was a natural accompaniment of the speed of development of the middle west, the thoughts of the men and women of an Iowa city have, from first planning in disconnected and opportunist fashion, come at last in a fine unity of spirit and action, to face with an eager enthusiasm the great step now being taken. Superbly situated at the junction of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers, and thus embracing wooded valley and hill lands of great natural beauty, the district at date of its first plat, 1846, was ripe for a plan that could have given her a pre-eminence in the Mississippi Valley as distinct as that borne now for more than a hundred years by the nation's capital. Nor can we too often revert to the vision, the prescience, the courage of George Washington in effecting the plans of Major L'Enfant for the capital city. To have planned for a hundred years ahead, for the days when the random settlement along the coast would grow into more than a hundred millions of people, and when the tangled unpromising wilderness along the capitol building should flower into a far-flung vision of beauty that ranks with the fine achievements of the old world, is proof of greatness in Washington hardly less convincing than are Valley Forge, Yorktown and the Constitutional Convention. Yet, not to have so dreamed for Des Moines, March 10, 1846, when the reign of the Indian officially ended and civil life began, is of course not ground for criticism. It was very human and practically the universal course, for who in the wildest flights of fancy could have foreseen the development of the 177 |