Such is the system which, originally established for the city of Paris, has now been extended to many of the other important cities of France, and under which many of their great improvements have been carried out; and such a system should, it would seem, if fairly and judiciously applied, be ample to our needs.
In the draft of an act herewith submitted we have, in substance, adopted this plan, and believe that it will be time enough to consider adopting a more comprehensive scheme if the plan proposed shall, after a fair trial, be found insufficient to our needs.
It would appear that, in order to give such a system its full value and effect, its operation should be extended to parcels of land comprised within the limits of streets which are discontinued in consequence of the laying out of new streets, so that such parcels could be united to the land abutting thereon.
This has been found to be advisable in the practical application of the law in France; and in the plan for such a law, herewith submitted, we have attempted to make such additional provision.
With regard to the provisions as to taking the land of an adjoining owner who does not accept the city’s offer to sell to him the parcel which the city has acquired outside of the limits of the proposed public work, it should be added that in our opinion such takings would in practice be of quite rare occurrence. Such owners are usually desirous of acquiring parcels which give them access on new or widened highways, if this can be done at fair prices, but are unwilling to pay the exorbitant prices which are often asked for such parcels. As the very fact that a residue or remnant of a lot had under the proposed act been acquired by the city would show that it had been adjudged that the remnant was by itself unsuited for the erection of buildings, the only uses that could consistently be made of it would either be to leave it open, thus destroying the utility of much of the street frontage, or to unite it with the adjoining property; and, were the owner of the adjoining property to feel that the only possible courses open to the city were either to leave the lot vacant or to sell it to him, he probably would offer but a nominal sum for it.
The purpose of these provisions, therefore, is to enable the city to receive fair prices for these remnants, and to control the character of their development.
We have been urged to consider, and have considered, the desirability of insisting on certain architectural requirements, to ensure greater symmetry and harmony in the constructions which front on and frame our principal avenues. It has seemed to us that such requirements could not well be embodied in such an act as we have submitted, and were probably beyond the scope of our mandate. We have, however, provided that, in disposing of any land acquired outside of the lines of the new street, the city might impose restrictions thereon; and it is our expectation that in framing those restrictions due regard would be had to ensuring the architectural symmetry of the new street.
It would, in our opinion, often be of great benefit to the city to impose such restrictions for a limited term of years upon all property abutting on a new or widened street; and this might be done, whether any portions of such property were acquired by the city or not; in other words, even were the street to be laid out under the present highway acts. While it might not be desirable to attempt to embody the details of such restrictions in a general act, the power to impose such reasonable restrictions as should be found necessary to ensure the architectural symmetry of the new street might be conferred by a general act, containing provisions for the payment of the damages, if any, resulting from the exercise of such powers.
It should be noted that this question has been successfully dealt with in connection with the new streets of London, by requiring that the façade plans and elevations of the new buildings to be erected thereon should be submitted to the approval of the municipal authorities, which approval, however, is not to be “unreasonably withheld”; and providing for a decision on the plans by an umpire, viz., an architect selected by the president of the Royal Institute of Architects, in case the city and the private owners failed to agree.