FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY PAUL V. MCNUTT, Administrator CIVILIAN CONSERVATION CORPS JAMES J. MCENTEE, Director ADVISORY COUNCIL James A. Ulio, Brigadier General CONRAD L. WIRTH Representing the Secretary of Agriculture CHESLEY W. BAILEY Representing the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. Price $1.00 UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1941 SB 482 A29 FOREWORD The importance of parks and recreation in our national life, and the responsibility of government to provide recreational facilities, have become increasingly recognized in the last few years. The President expressed this trend when he recently said: "It is coming to be realized more and more that in the improvement of our American civilization we cannot stop at hospitals and schools any more than we can confine ourselves to strictly economic subjects. Recreation in its broad sense is a definite factor in the improvement of the bodies and minds of our future citizens.” During the last 7 years the Federal Government has acted in partnership with the State and local governments in the planning and development of park and recreational systems, areas, and programs throughout the country. Such cooperation was authorized on a permanent basis by Congress in the Park, Parkway, and Recreation Study Act of 1936 (49 Stat. 1894), under which a Nation-wide study is being made to ascertain the needs of the people, and provide for their requirements through coordinated, correlated action by all agencies involved. Everything that a public agency does has its basis in legislation. In the past, government agencies and other bodies responsible for or interested in promoting the park and recreation movement have been impeded to no inconsiderable degree by the lack of any reference source to the laws relating to the subject matter. This digest is intended to fill that need. HAROLD L. ICKES, Secretary of the Interior. III INTRODUCTION One of the most productive activities of the National Park Service in recent years has been its cooperation with the States and local governments in planning and developing park and recreational areas and facilities. In this connection the Service has undertaken a number of special studies for the benefit of all agencies concerned with this program. It is with pleasure that we present this volume containing a digest of the laws relating to local parks and recreation, to fill a long-felt need. It is hoped that agencies of government and other interests will find it a useful auxiliary in prosecuting their own programs and in continuing to cooperate with each other. NEWTON B. DRURY, Director, National Park Service. IV PREFACE This digest is the result of an effort to bring together in a single volume an abridgement of the general laws of the several States and Territories relating to local parks and recreation. It reflects an examination of the laws enacted through the 1939 legislative sessions. Some omissions should be noted. Planning, zoning, and subdivision laws, public works projects, general civil service provisions, and condemnation and assessment procedures have not been treated. Charters granted by special legislative acts and charters adopted under home rule authority should be consulted for park and recreation provisions. In the arrangement of the material no particular formula has been followed, the convenience of the reader being the only test applied. Citations are carried so that the reader may readily find the complete text of a particular law. It is obvious that in a compilation of this character errors have been made. It is hoped that they have been reduced to a minimum, and that such as may be discovered will not be so numerous or so serious as to lessen materially its value as a reference work. WASHINGTON, D. C., 1940. R. A. V. V |