| Per cent of increase in value of site | Sites which increased in value as specified | ||
| Less than 25 per cent | 91 | ||
| 25 | and less than | 101 per cent | 154 |
| 101 | and less than | 201 per cent | 94 |
| 201 | and less than | 301 per cent | 42 |
| 301 | and less than | 401 per cent | 43 |
| 401 | and less than | 501 per cent | 17 |
| 501 | and less than | 601 per cent | 18 |
| 601 | and less than | 701 per cent | 10 |
| 701 | and less than | 801 per cent | 12 |
| 801 | and less than | 901 per cent | 10 |
| 901 | and less than | 1,001 per cent | 6 |
| 1,001 | and less than | 1,501 per cent | 11 |
| 1,501 | and less than | 2,001 per cent | 10 |
| 2,001 | or more | 19 | |
| Total | 537 | ||
The dates of acquisition of the sites considered in the table varied from 1812 to 1900. Of the 406 pieces of property which showed no increase over purchase price, 230 had been acquired since 1900.
The committee pointed out that the city could do a great deal of purchasing for its park and playground accounts, even in comparatively unsettled districts, and these holdings would have influence in the carrying out of a city plan. The same is true of the purchase of land for school house sites. It has been very generally agreed that at least 30 square feet should be provided for every pupil registered in the city schools, but it is safe to say that very few cities have bought land to this amount. In 1905, Manhattan borough, New York City, lacked 65 acres for school houses alone on this basis. Almost 3000 acres were needed for playgrounds in boroughs outside of Manhattan, while Manhattan itself was hopelessly behind its recreation requirements. It would be a very good investment for New York as well as for any other city in the United States to buy school house sites at 43 cents a square foot, the price for which they can be bought in the borough of Richmond, instead of at $10.69 per square foot, which they cost in Manhattan.[7]
But it is impracticable to determine far in advance exactly which will be the best sites for schools and which for other purposes. All that can be safely said is that the total land needed for miscellaneous local uses will be at least equal to a certain minimum, and the acquirement of that minimum area by the city from time to time as favorable opportunities arise is a wise policy—provided that its ownership by the city does not withhold it for a long time from economic use pending its assignment to definite public service.
Both San Francisco and San Diego have saved considerable money by the inheritance from their Spanish founders of so-called “pueblo lands,” which they have in part used as parks and public building sites, in part have sold, and in part retain as an unapportioned reserve. Chicago’s investments in sites on Dearborn, State, and Clark Streets are returning large dividends and would yield much more if the rentals were graduated in accordance with increasing ground values. Los Angeles is proposing to use some of its landed inheritance for a housing experiment. If its plan is carried out, the city would loan the land, and the construction and maintenance of the houses be privately financed.
Limitations in law and practice on the power of the city to acquire land are for the protection of the tax payers against official extravagance and corruption. But finance commissions have well checked many kinds of municipal waste, and they can as effectively prevent a misuse of the purchasing and condemning power. City building can undoubtedly be carried out more economically through the purchase of a reasonable amount of land by the municipality for a reserve account.
THE ACQUISITION OF LAND FOR AN ESTHETIC PURPOSE
By an amendment to the charter of the city of St. Louis in 1901, the right was given the municipal assembly of St. Louis by ordinance to “prohibit the erection or establishment or maintenance of any business house or the carrying on of any business vocation” on property fronting on a boulevard which might thereafter be opened.[8] By an act of the legislature of Massachusetts in 1898, buildings “now being built or hereafter to be built, rebuilt or altered” on land abutting on a public square known as Copley Square, in Boston, were limited to the height of 90 feet.[9] By a bill presented in the national house of representatives in 1910, the commissioners of the District of Columbia were authorized to designate certain streets or avenues within the District as Class A highways, and on such highways to establish certain special restrictions which might include the prohibition of any kind of business, and might require that buildings should be of certain height, certain materials of construction, and of such architectural design “as shall secure the beautiful and harmonious appearance, as viewed from the public streets, of all structures to be erected or altered on land to which said restrictions shall apply.”[10]
In all this legislation provision was made for compensation to owners for the right in land thus taken, and herein the legislation partakes of the character of ordinary eminent domain statutes. But the interference with private property which this legislation authorized is at least an unusual application of the power of eminent domain, if not an extension of it for a new purpose.
The condemnation of private property for parks, playgrounds, and boulevards has been upheld as justified in the exercise of the power of eminent domain, but the decisions are for the most part very careful to point out that esthetic purposes were merely incidental, allowing the inference to be drawn that the taking would not be justified for purely esthetic reasons. Under the legislation cited, developments of private property may be to a considerable extent controlled, bill-boards may be abolished, structures may be limited in height, the design of private buildings may be modified, solely in the interest of the public’s sense of beauty.