Excerpt from Commission on Building Districts and Restrictions: Tentative Report, March 10, 1916

The present almost unrestricted power to build to any height, over any portion of the lot, for any desired use and in any part of the city, has resulted in injury both to the health, safety and general welfare of the city and to real estate and business interests. Light, air and access have been impaired by high buildings, by failure to provide adequate courts and yards, by the proximity Of inappropriate or nuisance build ings and uses. A certain degree of order and system in building develop ment is essential both from the point of view of public health, safety and welfare and that of the conservation of property values.

In working out a districting plan, the Commission is planning the future city. In city building, as in most things, even a poor plan is better than no plan at all. A city can, if necessary, accommodate itself to the crudities and imperfections of a physical plan just as it can adapt itself to the rivers, hills and valleys that form its physical environment but haphazard city development without any plan or control is ruinous. Of course, even without a plan, there are strong social and economic forces that tend to a certain degree Of order and segregation in building development. But these natural forces are not strong enough to pre vent haphazard development - to prevent the invasion of a district by inappropriate uses that are destructive of the highest use of the district.

They are certainly not strong enough to ensure the building of the city in a stable and orderly manner and with some regard for the amenities of city life.

The bigger a city grows the more essential a plan becomes. Traffic problems, the congestion of population, the necessity for an intensive use Of land, the magnitude Of the property values affected make the control of building development more and more essential to the health, comfort and welfare of the city and its inhabitants. New York City has certainly reached a point beyond which continued unplanned growth cannot take place without inviting social and economic disaster. It is too big a city, the social and economic interests involved are too great to permit the continuance of the laissez faire methods of earlier days. There is too much at stake to permit a mere habit of thought as to private property rights to stand in the way of a plan that is essential to the health, order and welfare of the entire city and to the conservation of property values.

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