Results that Talk.

Progress, Volume XV, Issue 1, 1 September 1919, Page 599

Results that Talk.

Continuing, Mr. Harwell said:— I 'A case in point was'that quoted recently by me, where plans of a proposed subdivision in the distinct of West Torrens were revised by. the department under his charge. The result that in an area of less than 120 acres the selling frontage was increased by over 1,500 ft., while simultaneously five acres were dedicated for parks and open spaces, and, in addition, a site for a new railway station and its approaches. A later instance is that'of a garden suburb plan which has been completed recently for one of the suburban districts, and affects another area of 120 acres. The land, as proposed to be subdivided originally, gave a total of 20,597 ft. in selling frohtage, without any provision for open spaces or sites for public purpose. In the garden suburb plans the Town Planner has increased the selling frontage to 21,408 ft., notwithstanding that, in addition, 10| acres (9.5 per cent.) have been dedicated from the total area for .school site, public buildings, parks, &c. These plans are private at the present time, but an announcement in connection with the proposed garden suburb will be forthcoming later, They do not refer to those proposed for the Mitcham Garden Suburb, the details of which are, as yet, incomplete. < Adoption of Town-planning Methods by Real Estate Men. “If the application of townplanning methods to real estate means important financial savings and economies in local government administration, plus a gain to the owner and the community, then clearly every real estate agent should be alive to their importance. This has already occurred in New South Wales, where' Mr. Henry Halioran, one of the leading real estate agents in that State, has, during the past two years, wholly abandoned ■ old-fashioned checkerboard methods of ‘subdividing’ in favour of modern ‘planning.’ The sale plans of estates issued by his firm show curved as well as straight streets, recreation reserves, sites for public purposes, and a business-like appreciation of the commercial as well as the social importance of townplanning.” In conclusion, he said: Why we should continue to go on manufacturing obsolete types of subdivisions when up-to-date enterprise can show us something better, is inexplicable unless it be that the force of tradition and faith in the world’s oldest type of townplan ' still holds sway in South Australia. It cannot surely be that we adhere to checkerboard plans because they are believed to have been originated by the Chinese many thousands of years ago, when towns and streets had to be laid out in accordance with astronomical laws concerning the movements of the stars, and, in conformity with commands direct from the celestial heaven itself? l It is more likely that modem owners and agents, whether they revere ancient traditions or otherwise, have not yet fully grasped the true meaning and value of townplanning to those whose business' it is to lay out and develop suburban lands to their best economic and social advantage.”