History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I, Part 47

Author: Bruce, William George, 1856-1949; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 818

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"The industrial districts are designed to include all classes of industries that have hitherto been allowed within the city limits, residences only being excluded, both because such districts are apt to produce very bad conditions for homes, and because the latter may interfere seriously with the successful development of an industrial area. These industrial districts comprise broad belts of land through the Menomonee Valley and south along the lake, now largely occupied by factories; narrow strips along the Milwaukee River south of Riverside Park, and along the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway on the west side of the city; these being confined practically to existing plants. And a third type of districts which in most cases constitutes the beginning of a long industrial belt following the railroads out into the country, for example, north of Keefe Avenue and south along the Kinniekinnie, these pro- viding sites appropriate for the modern type of industries covering areas of relatively cheap land reasonably close to large residential communities. In applying the use of restrictions an exception is made in the case of existing buildings and uses, which do not conform to the requirements of the district in which they are placed."

Heights of Buildings .- "In each of the four classes," continues the re- port, "Imildings are Imited to heights appropriate to the type of buildings now prevailing or to be expected to prevail in the future in the particular district. * * In the 125-foot district the 'tower building,' so-called, in which a portion of the structure rises several stories above the main body, is permitted, with the tower occupying one-quarter of the lot to the height hitherto in effect for all buildings, namely 225 feet. This district includes tlie central business section, the wholesale section, and the great industrial areas of the Menomonee Valley and lake front. Although few such high buildings are anticipated in the industrial districts, occasional high indus- trial buildings will hardly be likely to be injurious in these. In the downtown section it is expected that many of the future buildings will be able to reach the height set, so that eventually the business section will be dignified and

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BRIDGE AND RIVER AREA STUDY FOR THE COMMERCIAL CENTER OF MILWAUKEE Designed by Alfred C. Clas. architect

PROSPECTIVE MILWAUKEE-CITY PLANNING AND ZONING 507

harmoniously developed, with every property used to its full capacity con- sistent with similar uses by its neighbors, instead of the present haphazard situation of four or five very high buildings interspersed with about twenty- five other buildings of a height suitable for the Milwaukee of the future. and hundreds of small buildings searcely more than 'taxpayers' for the valuable land they occupy.

Further Details of the Plan .- " In a belt outside this district of maximum building height lie most of the 85-foot districts, adapted to the hoped-for light manufacturing development of the central district and a part of the south side, and to the larger apartment houses up to six stories high within this district. along Grand Avenue and on the east side, where they are already being built in numbers. Another group of 85-foot districts comprise the narrower indns- trial belts and the outlying industrial districts, in which buildings as high as this will not be unsuitable though it is believed that most of the indus- tries will be housed in very low buildings occupying large tracts.

"The 60-foot districts provide for an extension of moderate sized build- ings along a few of the principal thoroughfares and a similar extension of moderate sized four-story apartment houses through much of the west side and a portion of the east side, as well as narrow strips along certain 85-foot industrial distriets where such buildings would not be injurious and would in effeet produce a desirable barrier shutting off the industries.

"The 40-foot districts include all that part of the city where single and two-family dwellings are the standard. Business streets in these districts are inelnded, since their buildings in most cases back upon residence property and the tendency of other cities to create three- or four-story slum tenements over stores is not developed in Milwaukee. Since all residences for more than one family are limited to two and a half stories with no independent apartment in the one-half-story. all apartment houses, so generally a nuisance in home districts, are excluded.

Area Districts .- " The regulations for the four classes of area districts are designed to establish and perpetuate conditions of adequate I'ght and air, avoid congestion wherever possible, and to prevent an undue decrease in light and air and an increase in congestion in those sections where intensive build- ing has already become general. These results are brought about by an exten- sion of the principles established by building codes of the city and of the state industrial commission. Windows required by the city building code, equaling in area one-tenth of the floor space of the room, must receive light and air from yards and courts whose sizes are governed by progressive regu- lations. These open spaces extend from the ground for residential buildings. elsewhere from the top of the first story. Similar restrictions fix the per- eentage of the lot to be occupied and, except in the inner distriets, the num- ber of families per acre.

"The A districts include practically all heavy industry seetions and the central portion of the city. Yards and courts are optional, depending on the design of the building and position of windows, but on interior lots buildings requiring light and ventilation from outside may not occupy more than 90

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LAKE SHORE DRIVE AND PARKWAY EXTENDING FROM THE NORTH TO THE SOUTH LIMITS OF THE CITY Designed by Alfred C. Clas, architect

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BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF MILWAUKEE'S PROPOSED PARKWAY

Thirty miles of parked driveways, encircling the city and for the most part outside its present limits, are provided for in the plan of which the accompanying bird's-eye view is a reproduction and which has been submitted to the county board with the approval of the county park commission. These drives follow the courses of the Milwaukee, Menomonee and Kinnickinnie rivers and their tributaries, and connect the proposed Lake Drive, the civic renter and Milwaukee parks, touching all of the city's suburbs. It is proposed to acquire the banks of the rivers and ereeks where needed, plant them with trees and shrubbery and restore them as near as possible to their natural condition. Two large traets, one northwest and one southwest of the city, will be reforested and made natural parks, Swamps along the line of the driveway are to be converted into lakes, which will serve as reservoirs to equalize the flow of water in the creeks and rivers. This will form Milwaukee's future park system. It is proposed to begin by buying the north bank of the Menominee Valley south of the western end of Vliet Street.

PROSPECTIVE MILWAUKEE- CITY PLANNING AND ZONING 509

per cent of the lot above the first story. The few new residential buildings that are likely to be built in this area are treated as though in the next class.

The B, C and D Districts .- "The B districts inelude the large commercial and light manufacturing areas, and certain adjacent apartment house areas where conditions of intensive building permitted by the present building code have already become general. Rear yards of 15 feet are required and wider for high buildings, side yards and courts if provided must be sufficient in size to insure a rather meager supply of light and air. Not over 70 per cent of an interior lot may be occupied nor more than 85 per cent of a corner lot.

"The C districts, bounded roughly by Cleveland Street on the south, Twenty-second Avenue and Thirty-fifth Street on the west and Keefe Avenne and Park Place on the north, are laid ont to include the great arras residential for the most part, already built up so as to occupy from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of the blocks, largely on lots abont 30 feet wide. Rear yards must be 20 feet wide or more, and other open spaces are to be so regulated as to insure fair light and ventilation. To perpetuate the open character of the streets and front yards in those bloeks in which a set-back is generally adhered to, it thereafter becomes the rule to which all must conform.

"Not over 50 per cent of an interior lot may be oeenpied nor more than 60 per cent of a corner lot, and not more than fifty families may be housed per acre, thus preventing serious congestion.

"Within the city limits the D districts ocenpy a relatively small belt ou its edge, but it is contemplated that such districts will be almost universal for residential neighborhoods outside the present city line.

"Rear yards must be at least 25 feet wide; and side yards 6 feet wide: there must be at least one side yard on every lot, and required windows must open on yards-not on courts. Not over 30 per cent of interior lots may be occupied nor more than 40 per cent of corner lots; and there shall not be more than twenty families per aere. These provisions are designed to fit closely the prevailing tendency towards lots 40 by 120 feet, with a single or two-family house thereon and will protect all such neighborhoods against the intrusion of any more congested type of development, thus insuring ade- quate light and air in practically all suburban neighborhoods. When com- bined with modern ideas in the arrangements of streets and open spaces these will be in effect garden suburbs, in which it will be a lasting satisfaction to own a home or own an interest in a cooperative group, an ideal generally acknowledged as fundamental to the highest type of eitizenship."

This eoneluides that portion of the report of the publie land commissioners prepared by Arthur C. Comey, consultant. Mr. Comey's report has not been followed literally but it is believed that the report furnished by him has been substantially given in the previous pages.

It will be observed that we have not attempted in this presentation to keep the zoning and city planning reports separate. The two subjects of city planning and zoning are practically identical in their ultimate objects, and if considered as a single chapter the matter is more readily comprehended by the reader.

Wise Counsels by Mr. Bassett .- In an address by Mr. Edward M. Bassett of

THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT

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PROSPECTIVE MILWAUKEE-CITY PLANNING AND ZONING

New York on the subject of "zoning," given at Milwaukee, June 22, 1920, he gave an interesting history of the movement in New York, which we add here as an important contribution to the literature of the subject. "I come here from a great city of our country to another great sister city, Milwaukee," he began, "to tell you somewhat of the mistakes, the way problems have been solved, and the great expenses caused by mistake in New York; for we all have it in mind that one great sister city can learn from the mistakes and ex- perience of the other great cities. Now, I am going to tell you a story in a simple way, in chronological order, of one of the great problems of Greater New York, and that is the problem of chaotic building.

"New York has in latter years had four great problems. The first has been its water supply. We are on salt water; Fresh water has to be brought many miles from the mountains, and the expense has run into hundreds of millions of dollars. That problem may be said to be well solved today and will probably remain so for a great many years to come. Let us pass on quickly to the next problem. New York City has been a congested and crowded city, with inadequate transportation. In that respeet its problems have been enormous, those of a long, narrow city, bound in by waterways on both sides, population inereasing and yet having to spread out along the narrow island ; because as long as New York remained a long, narrow city, it could not be an economie city nor anything but a congested city. A round city is the most economical because it has the largest area with the shortest distances to the center. * *

"You here in Milwaukee have one of the most admirable cities of the world, with its wonderful layout of diagonal streets, so located that you can gradually build out those avenues; and for each mile you go out you tap a larger and larger area of the enormously large and well located territory surrounding yon.

New York City's Problems .- " The problem of the port of New York is the farthest From solution, largely due to our being in two states, the State of New Jersey and the State of New York ; but the problem which I shall par- ticularly speak upon is the problem of chaotic building conditions, the harm that comes to a great eity from those conditions, and what can be done to get out of it in time.

"About nine years ago the great rapid transit plan was decided npon and contraets were let for subways and tunnels going to all parts of the city to spread out the population and bring better living conditions to both work- ing people and business men, because distance from one's business and From one's work is measured by time and not by geographical distance, and a city is an unsound city economically il its workingmen have to travel two, two and one-half and three hours a day.

"New York was getting tightly bound and had to expand its area. This rapid transit plan was the only solution. But after that was contracted for, a group of citizens, of whom I was one, considered that to let building eondi- tions continue as they were, so that a building of any kind could go up in any part of the eity, to any height, of any form, and to be used for any purpose, was not helping the rapid transit lay-out to solve the problem of distribution

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PLAN OF PROPOSED PRINCIPAL EAST AND WEST ARTERIES AND THEIR RELA- TION TO OTHER ARTERIES BEING CONSIDERED IN CONNECTION WITH REVISED PARK BOARD SITE Proposed by the Board of Public Land Commissioners

PROSPECTIVE MILWAUKEE-CITY PLANNING AND ZONING 513

of population. We, therefore decided to cast about to see whether anything could be done in Greater New York as a follow-up of the rapid transit plan, to see that skyscrapers were avoided and to see that congested tenement honses should not pile into those places where the plan was working best, to the end that better business conditions and better living conditions and better condi- tions all around eould be brought to all parts of our great city.

The Problem of Tall Buildings .- "We thought in the beginning that sky- serappers were the real problem, and the only one that might perhaps have some solution. Consequently, as a start, for we had to start somewhere, the board of estimate, which corresponds to your common council here, appointed a commission of citizens, eighteen in number, of various callings-builders, real estate owners, manufacturers, fire insurance men, bankers, architects,- to tackle that subject of skyscrapers, because the lower part of our city, and elsewhere, too, had buildings going up to unpreeedented height. Some of them were monuments that wealthy men would cause to be built to commemorate their business success, and for various other reasons. They were not commercial suceesses, because they were so exceedingly tall. In the lower part of the city especially there were canyons for streets, and the lower floors of these skyscrapers were so dark that they were actually used for storage purposes, and only the upper stories were used for offices.

"Sewers were overburdened, rapid transit lines were overcrowded. If the lower part of our city were built up entirely with buildings as high as some of them were, it would be absolutely impossible to make enough rapid transit lines to carry the occupants of those buildings back and forth. One great building held so many people that the entire original subway would need to be operated to its full capacity for twenty minutes in order to earry the occupants of that building away from there.

"And so this commission I have mentioned tackled that problem, working at such questions as building costs and operating expenses, to determine whether high buildings were sound as a business proposition ; and they ac- tually 'found that a large proportion of the buildings of New York City would pay much better if they had been lower in height.

"After two years of work the commission came to the conclusion that the skyscraper problem in New York City was only a part of the problem. It found that only about one-half of one per cent of the area of Greater New York was affected by the skyscraper problem. It speedily found from its investigations that building heights throughout the whole city were part of the problem, and that if regulation could be brought about which would help the whole city, this would be far more advantageous. Right down in the lower part of our city where many people think there isn't room for all the skyscrapers that want to go up there, it is not in fact built up with high buildings to one-quarter of the available area. They also found that not only was it a question of heights of buildings, but the use they were put to. Therefore this commission proposed a statute applying to the City of New York whereby a comprehensive remedy of chaotie building conditions could be found. Now what were those problems? I will survey a few of them.

Vol. 1-33

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A SCHEME FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE MILWAUKEE RIVER. TIHS DESIGN SHOW'S THE POSSIBILITIES OF NARROWING THE MILWAUKEE RIVER AND PARALLELING THE BANKS WITH BOULEVARDS Designed by Alfred C. Clas, architect

PROSPECTIVE MILWAUKEE-CITY PLANNING AND ZONING 515

Review of New York City's Problems .- "A private house such as may be found among the many beautiful homes in Milwaukee was purely a speculative enterprise in New York City, because five years after it was built there was nothing to prevent a garage from going up on the next lot. In the outlying parts a factory would come in a certain distriet and soon one's home was in the center of a blighted district. Garages were placed directly on the prop- erty line in private residential distriets and built out to the street line, forth- with easting ruin about them. A single garage, costing in a certain instance $40,000, cansed a loss of $200,000 in adjacent property values. Private house districts were invaded by tenement houses, tenement houses were invaded by factories, bright retail streets were invaded by factories, and in one way and another these invasions were affecting every part of the city, some- times people in whole localities would pick up their business and move away. The millions of dollars that were lost in New York City by the creation of these blighted districts can never be repaid, and in many cases families have been ruined because business left their properties and went to some other place, causing untold hardship.

"Fifth Avenue, the brightest business street in New York City, was on the way to ruin because of the invasion of sweatshops, garment makers, and so on. The way that came about was this: Fifth Avenue being a broad street, with high land values, was built up with high buildings, but it was found that there was not sufficient demand for offiees above the retail stores, so that rents were low enough to attract the garment maker, especially since he could thereby have a Fifth Avenue address. So gradually these garment makers and others wedged themselves into this bright business street. What was the result ? Crowds and crowds of garment workers went up and down Fifth Avenue, five and six abreast, daily, morning, noon and evening, erowd- ing out the shopper, and very soon the shoppers deserted that part of Fifth Avenue.

"These chaotic conditions were causing such barm in our city that it became absolutely necessary to bring about some remedy, and the law which allowed the board of estimate to appoint a zoning commission, or as it was called then, a distrieting commission, was the attempted solution. } had the honor to be chairman of both the Heights of Buildings Commission and also the Zoning Commission. Altogether we worked seven years to solve these problems.

Remedies for the Chaotic Conditions .- "'In New York we had to bring on some solution quickly. It was not the question of doing it for our future city ; it was a question of doing it to save our city. You have the future st'll ahead of you and can prevent the dreadful mistakes and the dreadful losses which New York City was the victim of.

"This new commission proposed to utilize the 'police power,' so-called, of the City of New York in relation to the height, area and use of buildings. They did not apply condemnation beeanse condemnation implies that yon find out how much it is worth to take away part of a man's absolute control of his own property and then assess that cost on somebody else. That could never have been carried out. Nor would private restrictions do it.

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HISTORY OF MILWAUKEE

"Consequently, the city had to look to that community power, or police power, which is resorted to for the sake of health, safety, for fire protection, and which is nothing more than requiring one man or one owner to give up somewhat of the absolute control of his own property for the benefit of all the community, while he is recompensed by being protected along with all others against eommon calamities. So we decided to apply the police power in our effort to make order out of chaos.

"We did not have many precedents to go by, because precedents were mostly in Europe, where governments are without written constitutions, where the courts cannot set aside any act of a legislative body. But in our country, with our written constitutions and so on, it is possible for the courts to set aside any regulations, unless they are strictly within the recognized seope of the police power.

"Now the police power can be invoked only for the health, safety, morals. and general welfare of the community. It cannot be invoked for aesthetics alone. If invoked at all it must be done withont discrimination, with fair- ness, and without confiscation. Along those lines we gradually perfected a law which is now called the zoning law. The word zone was applied orig- inally in those European cities that had walls around them such as Vienna. When they took down those walls they would replace them with a boulevard and build outside of it a residential district, calling it the residential zone. That term has gradually been adapted in this country, and though it is not strictly applicable, it seems to suit the popular fancy better than the word distrieting, which is confused with various politieal distriets; so that now in the great cities of our country, by the aet of the people themselves, the word zoning has come to be used.

"The way zoning was accomplished in New York City was by the making of three maps, one controlling heights, one controlling areas, and one con- trolling use, whether industrial, business or residential. The requirements of those districts differ in different parts of the city, the power to do that being delegated by the state.

"The zoning resolution was passed by the board of estimate four years ago, and has been in operation since then, working admirably and smoothly. and the people of the City of New York would no more get along without their zoning law than they would without their fire protection, health de- partment or school system. There was no confiscation of existing property. a man that had his factory in a residential distriet was protected in his in- vestment. But new buildings have to conform to these reasonable and orderly requirements. Formerly people as soon as they got an ineome of $15,000 would move out of the city somewhere where they could have a home which they felt was reasonably protected.

"But today, with these private residential districts established, a man is more secure in his home and is so protected that he can leave it to his son and to his son's son. Today home localities have a greater land value. be- cause they are set apart for private homes: and corner lots that were held undeveloped with the intention of putting up corner apartments after private restrictions ran out are now being built up with better private homes than

PROSPECTIVE MILWAUKEE-CITY PLANNING AND ZONING 517

those surrounding them, and miles and miles of the streets of Greater New York are being filled with these fine, protected private homes. Furthermore, land value on the business streets are greater than they used to be, beeanse business also is protected. Fifth Avenue has been saved because manufae- turing is prevented from going further np Fifth Avenue, and by the "Save New York" movement it has actually been pressed back into the lower part of New York City. Manufacturers find their appropriate place among the railroads, waterways and water fronts where they too are protected.

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History of Milwaukee, city and county, Volume I, Part 47

Author: Bruce, William George, 1856-1949; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844 Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 818

Author: Bruce, William George, 1856-1949; Currey, J. Seymour (Josiah Seymour), b. 1844
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 818