Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/114

NEW IDEALS IN THE PLANNING OF meet larger needs. The responsibility of the city planning agency is not only to show the soundness of its suggestions for the physical improvement of a city, but also to present a plan for financing them.

The principal methods available for financing great public projects of cities are bond issues, special assessments, and excess condemnation.

The limit of a city's borrowing ability, that is, the amount of net indebtedness which cannot be exceeded, is generally fixed either in the state constitution or city charter, as a certain per cent of a city's assessed valuation. This percentage varies greatly, being as high as ten, and as low as two. Where the limit of bonded indebtedness is under five per cent of the assessed valuation, the requirements of municipal life, according to American standards, can scarcely be provided. It has become a general practice in defining what is meant by net indebtedness or borrowing ability to exclude the bond issues which are made for self-supporting utilities; for example, for water and lighting.

The terms of years for which bonds should be issued for various city purposes is an important factor in their actual cost, and the amount that can be safely issued. This is well illustrated in a paper presented at the Sixth National Conference on City Planning by Andrew Wright Crawford, of the Philadelphia Bar, in which he pointed out that the efficient life of a thing constructed by the proceeds of municipal bonds should measure their term. In determining the length of the efficient life of a municipal improvement, city planning is indispensable. Hence, the issuance of city bonds calls for city planning as a prerequisite. As illustrations of his method, he proposes that bonds for parks might run seventy-five or one hundred years; for street pavement, in the neighborhood of fifteen years; stone and concrete bridges, seventy-five years, etc.