Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/97

CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES by proximity to existing business centers. Normal business requirements are fairly well met by such lot units as those typical of New York City, which are uniformly 1OO feet deep, and 25 feet wide in Manhattan and the Bronx, and 20 feet wide in Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond.

The principal field of land subdivision, however, the class which concerns at least two-thirds of all city land, is residential property. In fact, when land subdivision is spoken of, it is ordinarily assumed that it refers to the laying out of land for dwellings. The evils of undesirable and unintelligent land subdivision in the case of residential property are also more apparent and more in the public eye, although perhaps not more important, than in the case of industrial and business property. There is a widespread feeling in this country and abroad that city planning has thought more of streets, of civic centers, of parks and playgrounds, and of other subjects, than it has of housing. The central problem of land subdivision, we believe, is public regulation, control, and restriction. In fairness to all concerned, what should the real estate operator be allowed to do in this very important matter of dividing up and selling his property, cutting up land upon which people are to dwell for ages to come, changing agricultural acres wholesale into a form from which they can be changed again, if at all, only at great cost?

The principle of restrictions in the subdivision and use of land is well understood in the United States, and very frequently applied. In fact, it is so well understood and so highly valued that it is most often applied in a surprisingly thoroughgoing way by the real estate operator in his own interest. The restrictions placed upon the purchaser in the conveyance of the property often include a long list of kinds of business which are classified as nuisances, and which may not be established or maintained upon the prop-