Planning Division, thus linking together regular departments which in many other states still act independently. This division, advised by Mr. Arthur Shurtleff, has recently prepared important plans for traffic arteries which will require regional support. Likewise Philadelphia is the heart of a regional project embracing the Tri-State Metropolitan Area. A citizens' committee reported in November 1924 as to a preliminary survey of the problems of the district which embraces over 200 governmental units within 25 miles of Philadelphia on both sides of the river. As a result of the committee's good work there is being formed a Tri-State Federation, of which the first conference will be an important event of 1925. A regional report for Chicago has been issued. A movement has developed for regional coöperation between St. Paul and Minneapolis.

The Detroit Metropolitan area is being studied to secure more administrative unity in the far-reaching plans for Greater Detroit. Much has already been accomplished towards the establishment of the plans. Milwaukee's regional work continues. The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission has progress to report in the application of the "Interlocking Specifications" drawn up in 1922, and a splendid record of regional coöperation of officials, engineers, special committees, and others.* Under the auspices of the Commonwealth Club a similar movement is under way for the San Francisco region. In Ohio there is a new official county planning commission, emanating from the planning activities of Toledo, appointed April 1924, for Lucas County. Trumbull and Cuyahoga counties secured Planning Commissions before the close of 1924. Passaic County (Paterson), N. J., is organizing for regional planning.

One of the most noteworthy regional achievements of the year is the formation of the Niagara Frontier Planning Association, a voluntary body but including important local officials. Without waiting for the necessary enabling legislation now being sought by the Association, by mutual agreement a Niagara Frontier Regional Planning Committee has been formed, the members appointed by six common councils and twenty-two village boards, and the Boards of Supervisors of Erie and Niagara Counties. This success has inspired the Albany Capital District to undertake an Association to be heard from in 1925.

New York has now a strong State Federation of Planning Boards, formed at a Conference in Buffalo in June, 1924, under the auspices of the Bureau of Housing and Regional Planning presided over by Mr. Clarence Stein. The Bureau issues a Bulletin now graduated into printed form and is the moving force in the regional associations in process of formation. The Bureau's older neighbor, the Massachusetts Division of Housing and Town Planning, is very active, its field agent Mr. Hartman is giving local aid, and the bulletins of the Massachusetts Federation of Planning Boards for 1924 are of great practical value. At the Federation's annual conference held at Worcester 37 out of 76 planning boards reported.

The sixth Ohio State Conference on City Planning at Columbus, also in October, reported 23 Ohio municipalities with planning commissions, besides the county commissions already mentioned, 12 cities with plans completed or in preparaSee also account by Mr. Pomeroy on page 49.

tion, and 12 cities with zoning ordinances in effect. Recent word from the Conference Secretary, Miss Rumbold, indicates an important law extending benefit assessments on the calendar for 1925. Indiana, referred to above, is making a fine start to overtake Ohio in state-wide interest. Iowa has a splendid record for the year, of meetings, city planning and zoning work initiated, and an association monthly bulletin edited by the Secretary, Mr. Wallis, which is of far more than local use. The League of Kansas Municipalities is actively interested in city planning. The California Conference on City Planning, meeting with the League of California Municipalities, is alive but itself somewhat dormant, overshadowed by the regional associations. Pennsylvania activities have received a setback in the drastic curtailment of appropriations for the valuable work of the Bureau of Municipalities, which it is hoped the new year will see remedied.

State programs involving large planning problems should be especially noted for 1924: state and county park systems in New York; roads in Connecticut following the Highway Survey; forests in Connecticut and Massachusetts; highways in New Jersey, especially as affected by the New Hudson tunnel; and Giant Power in Pennsylvania, where a new feature was coöperation from a committee of the American Institute of Architects (Mr. E. H. Bennett, chairman) in considering certain esthetic aspects of power development.

Comprehensive City Plan Reports.

The report to the Springfield Planning Board by the Technical Advisory Corporation, with Mr. Olmsted as special adviser, is a mine of technical information and a monument to the enterprise of the Board. The notable report to the Memphis City Plan Commission by Mr. Bartholomew begins with an interesting organization chart, and contains chapters on legislation, finance, and origin and distribution of L. C. L. freight which should be especially remarked. Even more than in Springfield, the Memphis projects are actually in process of execution. Both reports have interesting illustrations, particularly the "before and after pictures" in Memphis.

The series of separate special reports likewise by Mr. Bartholomew to the Toledo City Planning Commission, parts of a comprehensive study, are summed up in the Commission's Progress Report of 1924, which contains also the Harding Memorial Bridge report. The City Plan Commission of Duluth has just issued a report of its activities since its creation including the preparation of a comprehensive plan by its own staff with advice from Mr. Bartholomew in the later stages. Early in the year the Taxpayers League of this city published "An Inventory of Proposed City Projects-What do we want?-What do we need? What can we afford?" Without comment the components of over $38,000,000 of improvements were checked against the bonded debt of the city.

The Boston City Planning Board is responsible for a most valuable Compendium, in which federal, state, municipal, or private reports and studies relating to the commerce and industries of Boston are digested. The bulk of the studies relate to physical improvements, with a section covering the progress of city planning

and the work of the City Planning Board from the beginning. The new Boston Official Year Book also contains an excellent statement from the Board on city planning in Boston, and the Board's ninth annual report includes a brief study by the late Nelson P. Lewis on existing conditions and city planning program.

Another important compiled report for a city where much has been accomplished is Mr. Fisher's for the Rochester City Planning Bureau covering 1918-1922. The narrative and forecast are amply illustrated, and the editorial work by Mr. Hungerford has produced a more than ordinarily distinctive volume. The operation of the Bureau is worth study because of unusual powers given to the Superintendent of City Planning. A report is included from Professor Swain for an industrial railway in the abandoned Erie Canal with photographs showing progress of construction.

The official city paper Denver Municipal Facts published the report made to the City Planning Association by McCrary, Culley and Carhart, “A City Plan for Half-a-Million Population", which is timely with the official zoning studies. The report gives a praiseworthy list of city planning accomplishments in Denver since 1900, although without a comprehensive program.

The Allentown reports by Mr. Haldeman issued by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Municipalities are units in a comprehensive study of the city and region begun in 1923. The Passaic comprehensive report by the Technical Advisory Corporation to the City Plan Commission covers an area which under the adopted zoning ordinance should never carry over 125,000. Mr. Crane's Development Plan for Williams Bay, Wis., auspices of the Village Planning Committee, deals with a village popular as both a summer and winter resort, and best known for the great Yerkes Observatory.

The North Adams (Mass.) Planning Board report for 1923 contains a survey by Mr. Nolen (taking on after Mr. Thomas Adams) and an outline program for future work. Other preliminary survey reports at hand are three by the Technical Advisory Corporation for New Bedford and Somerville, Mass., and Elizabeth, N. J.; by the City Planning Committee of the Plainfield Chamber of Commerce for Plainfield, N. J.; by the American Civic Association, Washington Committee of 100, under the chairmanship of Mr. Delano, for the Federal City, including nine special sub-committee reports.

The Youngstown Planning Commission report for 1920-23 reviews the good work in street studies and approval of plats carried on since its establishment. The published street and bridge studies by Mr. Swan for the City Planning Commission of New Brunswick, N. J., are taken from the comprehensive report in press. Other 1924 comprehensive or preliminary reports still going through press at the time of preparing this survey are for Cincinnati and Worcester (Technical Advisory Corporation) Sarasota, Fla. (Nolen), Springfield, Ill. (West), Canton, O. (Knowles), Malden, Winchester and Dedham, Mass. (A. A. Shurtleff), Wakefield, Mass. (Comey), and Belleville, N. J. (Swan).

Zoning and Platting.

The zoning progress of the year has been astounding. The figures of the Department of Commerce show that over sixty municipalities adopted zoning ordinances in 1924, bringing the total number up to about 320. At last reports, 33 states had zoning enabling acts. Among the important cities zoned in 1924 were Boston and its neighbor Cambridge, Albany, Utica, Wilmington, Del., Columbia, S. C., Cincinnati, Davenport, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Kan., Omaha (revised ordinance), Bismark, N. D. and Portland, Ore. Notes on the important zoning decisions of the year will be found in Mr. Williams' department in American City and Municipal Index.

The Boston ordinance is based on most thorough studies directed by Mr. Comey. It provides for single-family residence districts as have also a considerable number of smaller Massachusetts communities. The Supreme Court of the State has declared that such regulation is constitutional in the memorable decision of last October.* Nearly 20 of the 40 municipalities in the Boston Metropolitan district are now zoned, a higher record than that of Los Angeles County, Calif., where 16 out of 44 cities had zoning ordinances in November, 1924.

The Portland ordinance, drawn by a joint committee of the City Planning Commission and the Portland Realty Board, passed by an overwhelming majority, is of particular interest because of the failure of the previous ordinance on popular referendum. A follow-up study of the ordinance is being made by the City Club. Two leading western cities have ordinances under way, Denver and Salt Lake City. A local enabling act of July 1924 (the first passed in New York State under the Home Rule constitutional amendment) makes it possible for Buffalo to go ahead with zoning as part of her comprehensive program. The situation in Philadelphia remains practically unchanged, although the Zoning Commission has made a restudy of the entire city. A new enabling act including provision for a Board of Appeals is sought for in 1925 and may break the deadlock. Several Michigan cities have ordinances in progress with the advice of Mr. Phillips of Detroit or Mr. Root of Flint.

The year's successful administration of the Providence zoning ordinance is attributed to the excellent work of the Board of Review, described by Mr. C. H. Fisher in the American City, November, 1924. No case has been brought before the courts, and out of 4177 building permits there were only 71 appeals to vary. The Board of Zoning Adjustment is having marked success in Boston. A full account of the preparation, passage, and administration of the Boston ordinance may be expected in the City Planning Board's Final Zoning Report, off the press about March 1, 1925.

The unfortunate court experience of Baltimore, coming on top of the New Jersey decisions, has nevertheless left undaunted the Baltimore Zoning Board, which has succeeded in having an emergency ordinance passed until new legislation can be secured. In St. Louis unscrupulous builders have proceeded * See Mr. Bassett's letter of comment published in American City, February, 1924.

to put inappropriate buildings in home districts since the zoning principle has been temporarily nullified by the Missouri courts. The public will undoubtedly force a way through the intolerable situation thus created.

The New Jersey tangle culminating in the Nutley decision and now ameliorated by the new enabling act of 1924 (modeled on the Department of Commerce Standard Act) is discussed at length in Mr. Bassett's invaluable new pamphlet "Zoning Practice in the New York Region" published by the Regional Plan of New York. Among other important points brought out in connection with his revised Enabling Act for Zoning is the desirability of securing legislative authority for density regulations; and the application of these to New York is recommended to reduce congestion further than is possible under the present ordinance passed in 1916. Mr. Bennett's Davenport report is counted as 1925 news. Two more of Mr. Whitten's excellent zoning reports have appeared in 1924, for Cranston, R. I., and West Hartford, Conn. (ordinances passed in both places.)

In the West Hartford report there is a section, "Comprehensive Development Plan for Unbuilt Areas", in which Mr. Whitten tries to make zoning lead up to the adoption of a plan to combine zoning, platting and general planning powers in controlling the development in unbuilt areas. This idea was further developed in his paper before the A. C. P. I. last December and provoked lively discussion.

The numbers of cities which now have control over platting and land subdivision has increased* materially. It is hoped to have statistics compiled on this subject during 1925.

Location of major thoroughfares and of parks and playgrounds on the official map of unbuilt areas and the enforcement of this map is a subject of prime importance. The contribution of Mr. Bassett to the latter subject at the Recreation Congress at Atlantic City last October, based on his Regional Plan of New York work, was published in fuller form in Playground, Jan. 1925. Judge Nichols' contribution to the former subject is discussed in Mr. Williams' Review. Although it is customary for the municipality to determine only major streets, the New Jersey communities Belleville and Glen Rock have had complete street plans prepared by Mr. Swan, including minor residential roads. A somewhat different procedure with the same end in view is reported from Cincinnati and St. Louis where the Planning Commissions have replotted free of charge various wrongly platted subdivisions.

Street Congestion and Major Thoroughfares.

Street traffic and street congestion have been the real storm center of city planning this past year. In December there was held in Washington the first National Conference on Street and Highway Safety, called by Secretary Hoover, at which the eight committees appointed by him earlier in the year made reports. The report of the Committee on City Planning and Zoning, including in its membership some dozen men from the American City Planning Institute, with Mr. Ihlder as Secretary, demonstrated the relation between city planning and a permanent * See also the article by Mr. Williams, page 52.