terms. The sacrifice of land salable as lots has been found in a number of cases very much more than offset by the greater value of the remaining lots due to the social and recreational advantage of the presence of the club. If an area of notable natural beauty occurs in the tract, the development company may endeavor to turn this over to the city as a park, in order that it may constitute a permanent attraction to prospective purchasers. A viewpoint commanding a notable prospect may be similarly set aside, being a considerable asset to the development without any great sacrifice of land area. Perhaps space for a public park may be similarly given or sold cheaply to the city, even where no special natural beauty exists, if this comes in proper relation to the whole city plan. By his planning of roads and lots, by his provision of a certain kind Restrictions of utility and beauty throughout a subdivision scheme, the land developer may in certain ways determine and stabilize the character of the development, but whatever may be done to the land before its sale in lots, it will still be in the power of the individual lot owners, by what they build and how they use their property, to make or mar the excellence and permanence of the whole undertaking. In practically all subdivisions of any importance, therefore, restrictions of some kind are incorporated in the deed of the lot as a condition of purchase, which attempt to preclude certain uses of the lot detrimental to the neighborhood. And the presence of these restrictions governing all the surrounding lots operates to raise the value of each lot much more than it is reduced by the diminution of its own possible uses caused by the restrictions. The particular uses which are precluded by restrictions should of course differ with the particular type of development to which they are applied. It is very desirable, if the lots are at all small, that the purchaser should be bound not to further subdivide his lot, for this would introduce a different and cheaper type of development which would injure the value of adjacent lots. This same consideration applies to the lots remaining unsold in the hands of the development company. The value of each lot bought is increased by the under *In the Kansas City "Country Club District," which Mr. J. C. Nichols has developed, the land for the Country Club was leased to it without rent for twenty-five years. standing that the neighboring lots will be developed in a similar manner, and if this understanding exists it should commonly be given legal force by a clause in the deed of sale of each lot, or by some other legal recognition by the development company. If certain land is unrestricted, or differently restricted from the rest, it should be plainly so shown on the plan, that the purchaser may not be deceived. Some restriction of the use of the buildings and land is essential to the character of any residential development. Commercial and manufacturing activities, residential use of less desirable type, or anything which is unsanitary, unduly noisy, unsightly, or in any other way a nuisance to the neighborhood should be prohibited. Restrictions of this kind are often made elaborate and comprehensive, and it is desirable that they should be so, because upon them more than upon any other set of restrictions the success of the neighborhood depends. A standard may be set for the value and appearance of the houses: each house may be required to cost at least a specified sum or to be constructed in a specified way or designed by certain approved architects, or—and this is common- to have its plans, however obtained, accepted by the development company before the house may be constructed. The size and shape of the house may be restricted: it may be allowed to cover only a certain percentage of the lot area, or to extend across only a certain proportion of the lot frontage, or to be only so many feet or so many stories in height. The orientation of the building and the elevation of the first floor may be fixed by the restrictions. The position of the house and of other buildings on the lot may be restricted; this is perhaps the commonest restriction of all. The house may be required to be set back a certain number of feet from the street and a certain number of feet from the side lines and sometimes from the back line of the lot. This same restriction may apply to all buildings upon the lot, but often garages and perhaps other small buildings and bay windows and porches on the main house may be allowed to intrude to some extent into the areas restricted against larger structures. Minor structures may have special restrictions of their own. Garages may be prohibited within a certain distance of the street; henhouses may be relegated to the area behind the dwelling or prohibited altogether. Other structures like fences and walls may be regulated or prohibited, at least in front of the houses, in the interests of beauty and uniformity of appearance. The location of telegraph poles and similar structures may be restricted or determined. These various restrictions which are fixed by the land company are almost always arranged to endure for a limited time only. It is obviously impossible to predict in most instances, for more than twenty or twenty-five years in the future, what the desirable use of a given piece of land may be, and it is therefore too great a burden on the land to fix its use by legal restriction for a longer time. In some communities it may prove feasible to arrange for further continuance or change of the restrictions at the expiration of this time by majority vote of the owners.* In all the attempts of the land companies to assure the excellence and stability of the development under their charge they are laboring under two disadvantages. They have control only of a portion of the neighborhood and they are not themselves able to predict or directly to influence the development of neighboring property. When they have sold the last of the land, they have relinquished all power over it except as it is bound by the temporary restrictions in the deeds, and there is no organized body to take their place in caring for the property as a whole, except as this may be done by the community at large. It is evident that the city has this power, and our cities are beginning, Districting for the first time in any large way, intelligently and systematically to exercise it. The city may determine on a plan for the future development of all its holdings, it may make regulations for the uses of these holdings, confining different uses to their appropriate places, and, as the city wields a permanent authority, it may at any time modify the details of its regulations, bearing still in mind their main purpose and their part in the general scheme. In the districting laws with which we in this country are becoming familiar,† in the greater repression by community authority of individual *This point is discussed in the Proceedings of the National Conference on City Planning, 1916, in Financial Effect of Good Planning in Land Subdivision, paper by J. C. Nichols, p. 91–106, discussion, p. 106–118; and Districting through Private Effort, by Alexander S. Taylor, especially p. 180-183. † Cf. footnote on p. 281. activity which is not for the community good, we have the hopeful beginning of a sane and organized relation between land development and city planning, which will stabilize and simplify the work of real estate development and do away with a vast amount of wasted because unrelated-private effort. PART IV LANDSCAPE PARKS AND RESERVATIONS SITE Park Man's need of recreation - CLASSIFICATION OF OUTDOOR RECREATION AREAS — Their POLITAN If any community of men is to be successful and permanent, Man's Need it must provide for its members: a place to live, a place to work, of Recreation facilities for transportation, and opportunities for recreation and inspiration. In regard to transportation, water supply, waste disposal, and defense, the activities of civilized communities have long been organized on the basis that the community as a whole must perform these services for each of its members, and that each member shall contribute to the support of the whole, or at least that certain designated people should perform the services, with community support and under community regulation. In all our larger communities it has become necessary for the public to take over also the provision and supervision of certain kinds of recreation. Every one needs recreation, that is, something to do and to think of that is not work, something different from the ordinary routine of existence; and every one at times needs inspiration, that is, something to make him see the world and his place in it in some broader way, to feel the presence of the larger forces of the universe. Men's recreations |