TOWN PLANNING IN UNITED STATES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 118, 16 February 1928, Page 10

TOWN PLANNING IN UNITED STATES

$ COMMUNITY AT ST. FRANCIS WOOD PICTURESQUE SUBURB OF A GREAT CITY (Written by Dr. J. Hight, Rector of Canterbury College, for The Dominion.) Most foreign observers of contemporary American life, and those Americans themselves who realise the value of art, bemoan the concentration of the mass of the people and the leaders whom the crowd is prone to follow on the sordid task of money getting and the crudity and ugliness that mark much of the citizens’ daily man-made environment. But they detect f.igns of an awakening public, consciousness of the vanity and emptiness of life without beauty, and among these no other is so prominent as the keen interest that is shown in many States in devising and executing schemes of "town-plan-ning,” especially in residential suburbs and small urban communities.

To a certain extent this activity has been forced upon the public by the pressure of population in and near the large cities; but it goes beyond the mere provision of healthy living conditions and seeks to satisfy the aesthetic sense and the demand for conditions in which the individual may have the opportunity to exercise his own creative artistic faculties. California, with its very large and very rapid increase of population and the necessity of creating new urban areas, is one of the States where town-planning is making great progress. The “realtors” of California, especially in the southern region near Los Angeles and San Diego, have won notoriety for their exploitation of the thousands of newcomers from the northern and eastern States, but there are some of them who deserve great credit for their vision and leadership in the laying out of the “tracts" in which they speculate. Many of the suburbs of Los Angeles and the sylvan country towns adjacent, with their broad, smooth-paved and beautifullywooded avenues, their parks and playgrounds, spacious squares and circles, owe much to the initiative of some of the much-abused "real estate men.” Their work is having a truly educative effect on the public, and the day is not far djstant when public opinion will no longer tolerate the haphazard cutting up of vacant land for sale according to the whim of the individual owner and without regard to the common interest of the neighbourhood, cither material or otherwise. A Residential Park. Wo may take as an example of the way in which the estate men themselves have entered into the town planning movement, the enterprise of a company which has resulted in endowing San Francisco with one of its most beautiful lesidential suburbs on the city side of the Bay. One of the chief town-plan-ning exports describes St. Francis Wood as superior, both from utility and artistic consideration, to any other residential park in the United States of America, and deserving close study by all interested in community development. The land was bought in 1912 by a development company from the owner of Sutro Forest, a largo plantation of Australian eucalypti, made about 1894, in the south-western part of San Francisco, and lying on the slopes of the Twin Peaks ridge, now about twenty minutes by tram from tile “downtown” centre.” Four years were spent in designing the plans before tbe first subdivision was made. The best landscape gardeners, engineers, and architects were employed. The street plan was drawn by the engineers, who laid out the Metropolitan Park system of Boston Three beautiful drives connect with the boulevard .system of the city, these and the curving streets fit the hillside contours with . peculiar grace; and each building site is so outlined as to secure the maximum of sunlight and long distance view. The first impression one feels when entering St. Francis Wood is that of a beautiful park with charming homes partially disclosed among the trees. Every mad is lined with parkways, hanked with shrubs gathered from many countries, and brilliant with flowers. Alongside many of these footways the Australian pendulus eucalypti and New Zealand veronicas contribute much to the general effect. There are nearly twenty acres of parks and parkways in all, or more thnn an eighth of the total area, perpetually reserved for the use of the residents, in whose association their ownership is vested. There are two laree playgrounds—garden and lawns—for children, and a set of tennis courts. The suburb is close to the bench, and to two fine golf links, a consideration that weighed in the original selection of the site. Nuisances Barred. The sylvan and colourful aspects of the suburb are intensified by the garden surroundnig each home. No lot is less than forty feet wide; each house stands on its own lot, secure in the possession of privacy, air, and sunlight, the very antithesis of the apartment rooms of the dense city areas. Restrictions operate to bar shops, nuisances, flats and. apartment houses, so that property is protected against depreciation of value from the encroachment of undesirable neighbours. The Californian climate, the deep blue air and ocean, the forested hills, the brilliant sunshine, are reminiscent of the Mediterranean, and Professor Howard'and Henry Gutterson, who designed the gateways, the fountains, pavilions, stairways, and balustrades adorning the main drives and. the central "circle,” found their inspiration in the architectural monuments of Italy. The walled terraces and fountains of St. Francis Plaza recall the Boboli Gardens at Florence, the lampposts are from Venetian models, and the sidewalks have Roman affinities. To minimise the risk of damage to streets and monuments, and of disfigurement by municipal service installations, made piecemeal, gas mains were laid on both sides of each street instead of in the middle, and waterpipes laid to every lot in advance of paving Electric and telephone wires are conducted underground. The architectural treatment is free from monotony, but every i-uilding harmonises with the others ill a very pleasing manner. Groat care has been bestowed oft styles, colour schemes, and material as well as on landscape, and grouping. All 1 uilding must be in accordance with certain regulations, and annroved by the supervising architect of the company and the restrictions committee of the association comprising all the owners on the area. A sum of fifteen dollars must he paid into a fund for replacing planting damaged during the construction of the building. The restrictions prohibit nuisances limit houses to one-family residences, require a uniform set-back of the houses to give ample front garden space, and free space on both sides extending their full length, regulate the maximum height of. fences, if any, and impose a, tax or lien on the property for the upkeep of the streets and open spaces. They in no way hamper the owner in the design or arrangement of liis house, but exclude ugliness and incongruity, producing an architectural harmony peculiarly restful and refreshing. Self-iniposed Tax.

The "declaration of conditions, covenants and charges” affecting the suburb have been drawn up and agreed to by the "St. Francis Homes Association.” The section providing for the upkeep of the "tract” is of general interest. The owners of property tax themselves up to 5 mills, about a farthing, per square foot, the sum being paid annually in advance and made a perpetual charge on the property. It may be devoted to lighting; to the improvement and maintenance cf ornamental features and streets, parks and other open spaces; to the construction and maintenance of playgrounds and other forms of community recreative efforts; to irrigation; to the pare of the Vacant

and unimproved lots; to the payment of municipal, county or State taxes and assessments on the streets and parks; to rubbish collection, street cleaning, maintenance of sewers, lighting, police protection, etc., so long as these are not provided for by the municipal authority; and to general administration. Californian concern for race purity dictates a provision preventing any person of African, Japanese, Chinese or of any Mongolian descent “from owning or leasing any of tin property, though such may be employed in the capacity of servant by any person occupying a lot.” Th© St. Francis Homes Association is a corporation in which the Owner or each lot is a stockholder. It administers the common business of the “tract or suburb, and has full power to enforce the restrictions for tuo benefit of all members. The last annual report of the St. Francis Homes Association states that there were 315 families resident in St. Francis Wood, and that nearly 17,000 dollars were to be spent in 1927 by the association on upkeep. The items of the burget show the nature of the expenditure: Architectural supervision, publication of the association magazine, automobile checking set-backs, electricity, fire alarm system, fence repairs, removing trees, spraying, Ford truck, lamps, and repairs, irrigation, insurance, planting and renewing, playground expense and equipment, tennis courts, tools, water, sundries, and administration. The association has now reached the limits of possible revenue from its ordinary tax, every square foot in the suburb'being assessed for upkeep; further revenues must come from velum tary contributions. . These will be necessary with the rising costs of administration, unless economics can bo made. Peculiar Difficulties. Attractive as these model suburbs are, their administrators have . their own peculihr difficulties. One is the question of special police protection. Those features of the suburb that are among its strongest charms attract hold-up men and house-breakers, as well as paterfamilias in' search of soul-satis-fving beauty. The plantings that are the pride of the tract provide excellent cover for thugs and burglars; hence the association is obliged to emnloy a special police officer in addition to the ordinary municipal police, defraying the cost by voluntary subscription. Thus the residents effectively escaped the thefts an<L murders which afflicted their immediate neighbours in 1926. As to whether their immunity was due to the increase in the police force or to the fact that the additional policeman was an officer of the association, and not of the municipal police, the records are silent. Another difficulty arises from the different views taken of street plantings by individual residents. The planting scheme struck me as particularly beautiful; the shrubs and trees are of many kinds, each attractive in itself, and all in harmony with one another and providing a fitting and charming setting tor the whole suburb. But some residents object to the trees planted, ask that they be removed and others substituted, a change that would disfigure the general aspect. It is only after the most careful consideration of the effect on the appearance of the entire street that the association will pronounce upon the merits of any change that may bo requested. The item for repairs to lamp posts, four hundred dollars, is indicative of i tie prevalence of reckless motoring even in the quieter pacts of San Francisco; it is necessitated by the replacement of lamps struck down by hit-and-run drivers.

These administrative difficulties are trivial in comparison with the immense gain in satisfaction of the highest kind enjoyed by the residents in this urban oasis, and the stimulating effect it undoubtedly has on public opinion to encourage efforts along similar lines. These systematically planned residential park suburbs are increasing rapidly, not only in the south and on the Pacific Coast, but in the east. An early experiment in Baltimore provided the model for schemes worked out in California and Alabama. In all cases that have come under my observation the site has been chosen for its combination of aesthetic features with those desirable in the eyes of the engineer and builder, the buildings and spacing have been carefully harmonised with Tie natural environment, very generous provision has been made for all kinds oT institutions for educational, spiritual, artistic, and recreative needs, and the formation and operation of the homeowners' associations have developed to a still more remarkable degree the pruTo of community which is a distinguishing mark of the meanest American town, and without unduly restricting the play of individual taste and imagination ns they seek to realise themselves in what should be the most intimate expression of a man’s soul— Eft home.,' •