No abstract

No abstract

The importance of this standard State zoning enabling act can not well be overemphasized. When the advisory committee on zoning was formed in the Department of Commerce, the proposal to frame it received unanimous support from the public-spirited organizations represented on the committee and other groups interested in zoning. The urgency of the need for such a standard act was at once demonstrated, when, within a year of its issuance, 11 States passed zoning enabling acts which were modeled either wholly or partly after it.^Similar acts have been introduced in four other States, with the prospect of more to follow.The discovery that it is practical by city zoning to carry out reasonable neighborly agreements as to the use of land has made an almost instant appeal to the American people. When the advisory committee on zoning was formed in the Department of Commerce in September, 1921, only 48 cities and towns, with less than 11,000,000 inhabitants, had adopted zoning ordinances. By the end of 1923, a little more than two years later, zoning was in effect in 218 municipalities, with more than 22,000,000 inhabitants, and new ones are being added to the list each month. În this rapid movement the fundamental legal basis on which zoning rests can not be overlooked. Several of our States, fortunately, already have zoning enabling acts that have stood the test in their own courts. This standard act endeavors to provide, so far as it is practicable to foresee, that proper zoning can be undertaken under it without injustice and without violating property rights. The committee did not make it public until it had given it the most exacting and painstaking study in relation to existing State acts and court decisions and with reference to zoning as it has been practiced and found successful in cities and towns throughout the country. Prac-^By 1925 the following 19 States had used the standard act wholly or in part

No abstract

No abstract