CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES
In an address on City Planning Law in the United States, Frank B. Williams, of New York, has discussed the general principles, pointing out that the power to plan cities, in common with all power over subdivisions of the country or state, belongs to the state itself. In a government like ours, the sovereign states surrender to the Federal Government only the power over certain specified subjects of general concern, retaining each to itself, power over matters of state concern. In the main, municipal government including city planning is a matter to be dealt with by the individual states.
Much has been said and written recently about the right of municipalities to local self-government. Within certain limits, as yet very imperfectly defined, cities should have the power to control their local affairs, and there is a growing tendency to give them this -power in city planning, as in other matters. Legally, however, localities are entitled to exercise governmental functions only in so far as the sovereign state has bestowed them upon the city or town.
One of the big questions in legislation is the city planning agency. In American city government, almost every expansion of public activity is initiated through the instrumentality of a new board or commission. Existing officials are already loaded with work, and it is thought that they will have neither the time, the inclination, nor perhaps the ability to develop the new idea. A new commission, composed usually of unpaid members, therefore, is employed.
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