American City Progress and the Law (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918. Excerpt: ... CITY PLANNING--BUILDING HEIGHTS AND ZONING There are at least three policies connected with the modern movement for the better planning of cities which give rise to interesting and important questions Ns of law. One of these is the regulation of the heights of buildings; another is the zoning or districting of cities for various purposes; and the third is the condemnation of property in excess of what is actually needed for specific public improvements. Limitation on the height of buildings / More than thirty years ago the legislature of the / state of New York enacted what was probably the first law in the United States dealing with the subject "I of the height to which buildings might be erected in. cities. This statute provided that in the city of New York no dwelling house or house to be used as a dwelling for more than one family should "exceed seventy feet upon all streets and avenues not exceeding sixty feet in width and eighty feet upon all streets and avenues exceeding sixty feet in width."1 Since that date a large number of statutes and ordinances have been enacted imposing restrictions upon the heights of buildings in American cities;2 but these regulations vary in both 1 Laws of New York, 1885, ch. 454.- 2 For statistics of ordinances of this kind see Koester, Modern City Plan 1 " rting and Maintenance, pp. 171-174. content and purpose. A few of them, as in the case of the early New York law just noted, impose limits on the basis of the use of the building. In others heights are regulated in accordance with the character of construction, chiefly in the interest of protection against fire. In a few of them building heights are fixed with reference to location. But a majority of these regulations simply impose a maximum limit of height, express...