METHODS OF ACQUIRING LAND
1. ACQUISITION BY GIFT, DEDICATION, OR DEVISE
There is nothing to prevent a city from taking and holding land for other than a public purpose, provided the tax payers’ money is not spent in the acquisition or holding of the land for the desired purpose. If in any specific case it were desired to grant real estate to a city for a purpose not covered in the city charter, the legislature would usually be found willing to pass enabling legislation. The character of most municipal administrations has not been promising enough to induce large holders of land to create trust estates which cities shall administer for the benefit either of all or of a certain class of their citizens; but there is nothing in legal theory which would prevent the acceptance on the part of a city, as trustee, of either real or personal property which the donor desires should be devoted to a certain use; as, for instance, to the providing of cheap and sanitary dwellings for its citizens. This is but one illustration of what might be done by the city as trustee, but the validity of any such trust would depend entirely on its administration without expense to the city.
2. ACQUISITION BY PURCHASE AND CONDEMNATION
The acquisition of land by the city for an unrestricted purpose either by gift, dedication, or devise is unusual, but its acquisition out of public revenue, for other than a public purpose either by purchase or by condemnation, is prohibited in all cities. In the latter case the city may take a fee, which is complete ownership of land, or an easement, which is the right merely to use the land for a specific purpose and one which will be interpreted as “public.” These restrictions on the right to acquire land by condemnation or purchase have a decided influence on a city plan.
RESTRICTION TO A SPECIFIC USE
If land is acquired for specific purposes in accordance with a well conceived city plan, and if the terms on which it is acquired prevent its use in any manner inconsistent with these original purposes, an important safeguard is thereby set up against an ill considered abandonment of the original plan. A subsequent administration can not then sacrifice the deliberate progress made along the lines of the original plan by confiscating any of the land so acquired and diverting it to the service of some new project which may for the moment seem more important but for which the city is unable or unwilling to buy additional land. Clearly this makes for a conservative stability of purpose which is wholly in accord with the spirit of city planning.
On the other hand the normal and healthy modification of the city plan to meet new conditions may be seriously hampered by any restriction of municipal land holdings to a specific use. Owing to the great physical changes due to the growth of a city the use for which land was originally acquired may be entirely outgrown. This situation may arise when land originally transferred to the city for park or school purposes becomes absolutely unsuited for such use and useful for another public purpose or for private corporations or individuals. It is on the one hand undesirable to devote a considerable area to a use which prevents the best all-round development of the city,—commercial, industrial, and residential; it is equally undesirable to allow a decrease in park or school lands except for the best of reasons.
Cities have adopted at times a very short-sighted real estate policy. They have sold their valuable holdings at a low figure, have seen the buyer realize a tremendous profit, and have been obliged to purchase sites at a greatly increased figure when by retaining their holdings they would have had adequate land for their needs. Buildings have been planted in parks in the supposed interest of economy, and by filling up the site the building has been robbed of distinction and the people of needed open space. Such offenses against good taste and true economy, which are two of the compounds of city planning, are committed even now when the need of parks is more fully recognized by the public and is being championed by the press. This mistaken idea of economy probably explains the location of many city halls, in cities large and small, in downtown squares where open spaces should be preserved for the benefit of the community and public buildings arranged to face upon them. Worcester, Massachusetts, used part of its old common for a city hall; Philadelphia appropriated for the same purpose one of the public squares set aside by William Penn; the city hall in St. Louis occupies six acres that were once a public square; Charleston, South Carolina, whose city hall dates from early times, took for its site one of four small parks; Pittsburgh placed on land originally used as a public square two market buildings; Delaware Park, in Buffalo, has been encroached upon by an art gallery and historical building in a manner seriously impairing its value for the purposes which controlled its original acquirement; another five-acre park in Buffalo has been used in part for a school house site.
These are instances where good city building demands the protection of the original purpose through stringent limitations on municipal authority. But it would be unfortunate if park lands or any other public lands which have become unsuited for their original purpose, or which even though still suitable would block a desirable change in the city plan, could not be diverted to a new use without too great expense or delay. Some public lands are easily leased for a long term at good rentals and may thus bring in an income which, if applied to the purpose for which the lands were originally acquired, would accomplish more than the direct use of the land itself. The return from former school house property now in the retail section of Chicago swells the school funds by $637,569 every year. The appreciation of one lot at the corner of La Salle and Adams Streets, bought for $8,750 for purposes of the water department and now occupied by the Rookery, is $2,142,000.