1959 11-09
ar_~_a__ !~_i.__ ~r_i~ :r___...
u
Zonin Commision Nieetin c led o ord ~r by the Chairman. W .D, I~ia e
(Zonin
Uther Commissioners Prese
- -- -
present: Vernon Sc i~d
-
en D "_
rev A.I ~b , R.~. °itman ~a1
T
;. Lhomas 'r;alter Tee h lun
er P-! er.
s & } c• H.J. o
s --'arold
I
Stewa ~~~
Ra1~_ _ 4~
ndel
PScCu
r Grant Ambrose D
n Sto
e
b Moore.
I Grant I
s Ambrose ex lained th
auth
grit
f the zoning corcunitt
e.
i
the
-
~ f
lenis
lature there was ass
d a 1
w iv
i -
n Cities authcrit~* _
o a _
mint
zonin
7 Viand p j~anning commission, t set ut to iorderly plan the dev to e t of the
-
~
~munic - --
!
~pality, and the area
adjac -
i
rt to
the municipality,
i
D
ian Ifayes stated that
this
o?n,iis
ion does not have th
rid
t to
cif,-
'v;hat y_re of building shal be e ected outside of Iieridian. It c an hoi ever approve
for di approve a platt £or subd 'visio presented for a pro alb h wi ir. the
I
munic
~tpality ai:d within o
mile
f the
Cit Limits.
~'h~Cit~ attorne sta ed th t tk~e ~ s o;~ld 'oe t d
_
_ ~
cf re
Safet ~
luirem_ents for s bdiv'
' t a fig, }Iealth I
sions
S
co s'
-
~ of wa etc..
~~lr~iriportant b'ect
t _
c' - ___
~_
the blic to rotect th r ~`
he Chairman~_Dean Ma- t S a
~plan
r ~e board of the form' of t'.i' sion a d
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I
work
rith them and to sha
e an
el s
t at the m'°ht have
o
f
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other owners within this a. ea,
he Cit•- attorne sta ed th t in the lenislature wave theCo~ t the
autho itv to re are Codes for B ild; 3lectrica etc
n I
h
T
It was mentioned that the Restrictions we~late in coming. The Sieretary read
~Il~e
an arti~~e about the populatian growth in the Urban area. this is filed in minutes,
2.
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TIC NATIONAL MUNICIPAL POLICY
Patrick Healy, Jr.
Executive Director, American Municipal Association
M;~
.' . .
Recently I was a member of a panel at a conference in New York City along with Pro-
fessor Phillip Pd. Y.auser, Chairman of the Dapart,'~ent of Sociology of the University
of Chicago. He gave some interesting statistics about people in terms of world popu-
lation trends. Five thousand years ago in the Neolithic period there were an esti-
mated 10 million people on this earth. In the Christian era, 2,000 years ago, there
were 350 million people. By the beginning of the 17th century there were 500 mil-
lion, and as of 1950 2.5 billion people were on this planet, The increase has been
1~, annually, but now the increase is 1,7~ annually. By 1980 tyre will be 4.2 bil-
lion people, end if you extend this percentage 3:icrease to the year 2500 there will
be 25 trillion people on this small globe,
Now let's take a look at what is taking place in the United States.
In the past ten years the urban areas of this country have absorbed an astonishing 48~
of the nation's total population growth. Today they are reaching out for fresh land
at the rate of a million acres a year. Some of this urban growth and expansion is
cai:sed by the more than $30 billion annual capital outlays for exp~sion of private
industry. A great deal of it is the result of about one million new housing starts
each year.
When the World Mar II babies start getting married, new housing starts will go to an
estimated two million units annually, starting about 1964 or 1965. By 1975 we can
expect that another 50 million people will have crowded into urban areas, Twenty
million more wor)cers will be added to the rush hour ,jam. More people, more jobs,
higher incomes and more leisure will mean constantly increasing traffic, Over 100
million motor vehicles will be on the road.
In the Q,000 or 5,000 years of recorded history you probably cannot pick out at~y ten-
year period that produced such dynamic change as will the next ten years, The auto-
mobile, the atom, and the explosion of population are causing new ways of life--a
revolution right before your very eyes, This might be rightfully referred to as the
urban see,
The impact of all this is on the cities, But most cities and towns and suburbs are
forging ahead v~ithout plena. Many are in the midst of a building boom that is com-
pounding congestion where the problem has already reached crisis proportions, The
/p
I,~ ~
~~/
-2-
headlong rush to build has left little time or thought for the esthetics and amenities
of living or for the bold concepts of urban design dictated by unparalleled economic
growth and by changing technology.
Heavy concentrations of people and industry and obsolete patterns of development have
spread blight and decay over great areas of urban land, One-third of the urban popu-
lation is housed in substandard buildings, Open space in cities has all but disap~
peered, and with it the light and air and opportunities for recreation,
The escape to the fringes has been less than successful, Suburban blight is spreading
into once pleasant neighborhoods from the unsightly roadsides that have proved bad for
traffic, bad for business, and bad for the community. The automobile has transported
slums to the suburbs and the small towns.
Fortunately the urban picture is not all black. Progressive municipal officials are
studying urban problems, receiving information, developing solutions, and obtaining
action through cooperative municipal effort, both at the state and national levels.
This then makes possible effective action at the local level,
I refer, of course, to the organization and utilization of the various state municipal
leagues and of their national association,
Today there are leagues in 44 states, including Alaska, They combine in their member-
ship a total of 13,000 cities, towns and villages. In addition to their basic function
of representing the municipal viewpoint before their state legislatures, they provide
various other services, including the holding of annual state wide conferences, re-
gional meetings, training programs, preparation of model ordinances, research reports,
the publication of periodic bulletins, newsletters, and, in many cases, magazines.
Some leagues provide specialized services on such matters as zoning, charter writing,
personnel selection, and group insurance, They serve as a clearing-house of infor-
mation on municipal government matters in their states, answering thousands of in-
quiries annually from aayors, managers, city clerks, and other local officials on a
variety of problems, They employ 251 persons on their staffs, working for the best
interests of municipal government, To finance these organizations requires $2.2 mil-
lion annually,
The American Municipal Association started out in 1924 as-an association of the state
leagues of municipalities that were then in existence and operated on a voluntary
basis, mainly as an annual conference for municipal league directors, until 1932. On
January 1 of that year, with the aid of a foundation grant, it opened permanent head-
quarters with a full-time staff in Chicago and shortly thereafter opened a branch
office in l7ashington. This situation was reversed in 1954, with the headquarters now
in Plashington and Chicago as the branch for research and technical service. Cities
were first admitted in 1947 to membership on a direct basis, and starting in 1955 those
having a population of more than 50,000 or the ten largest in the state regardless of
size can be direct members of AMA, provided they ere members in good standing of their
own state league. The Association is now entirely self-supporting from membership fees
both from the state leagues of municipalities and from some 250 cities directly.
AMA publishes twice a month the American Municipal News and once a month a trade bul-
letin for league staffs called Focus. In addition, it publishes research and tech-
nical reports for city officials and administrative aids for state municipal leagues.
. • - 3 - •
The American municipal Association has been spectacularly successful, particularly in
the last few years, on legislation before the U. S. Congress. A few examples are a
four-year program and appropriations for construction and improvement of municipal
airports, the 13-Yew' Program for a :rational, interstate system of highways including
urban connections, federal aid for constructing municipal sewage treatment plants, and
federal aid for urban renewal. These accomplishments are due to the magnificent
cooperation of mayors and other municipal officials when called upon by AlatA or their
state municipal leagues.
The P.merican municipal Association, if properly operated, can be the leader in the
future development of municipal government in the United States. To take this leader-
ship, An;E1 has a program and policy which, if carried out, will be worthwhile not only
for municipal governments but also for the citizens. The Association has been con-
ceived in its broadest aspect and deals with the really important matters which con-
cern municipalities as part of a democratic government. Its officers and executive
coimnittee have determined that the Association will grow and fill its proper place
best if it works on the important, over-all needs of the municipalities and does not
restrict its activities merely to those things which are more nearly in the nature
of day-to-day services to its members, even though a great deal of its staff time is
devoted to such services.
In other words, the National Municipal Policy is the chief vehicle for the Future
growth and development of the Association, and all activities are built around this
Policy, After adoption by the membership through their representatives, it includes
those broad, fundamental objectives which contribute to the development of good munici-
pal goverrunents and the respect and appreciation of government by the citizens,
The elements of the National Municipal Policy vary from time to time and now include
20 or 25 individual items such as the extension of home rule, the place of municipal
government in a democratic society, metropolitan area government, relations between
the federal, state and local governments, adequate municipal revenues, the allocation
of activities betvreen the various levels of government, citizen instruction in govern-
ment, the structure of local government, and several other urgent matters such as
housu?g, transportation, municipal credit, compensat;ion of municipal employees, mwuici-
pal airports, urban redevelopment, grants-in-aid, and urban decentralization.
The National Municipal Policy is amended or added to ut the annual convention of A~1A
which is called tine American Municipal Congress.* Municipal officials from arty town
or city that is a member in good standing of its own state league are entitled to
attend and participate in this conference, Resolutions or statements of policy origi-
nating from the membership must be submitted to AA.7A's CJashington headquarters not later
than 30 days in advance, Exceptions are those which emanate from the standing or
special committees which meet at the Congress itself, If these are approved by the
Resolutions Committee, they are submitted to the floor for debate and action by the
delegates, each member league having 10 votes and each direct member city one vote,
* Times and places of future American Municipal Congresses:
1959, Denver, November 29 - December 2
1960, New YorL- City, November 27 - November 30
1961, Seattle, November 26 - November 29
1962, Philadelphia, November 11 - November 14
1963, Detroit, November 10 - November 13
1964, Miami Beach, November B - November 11
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The voting delegates must be designated in advance by the members and certified by the
Credentials Committee, It sometimes happens that one person is designated to cast all
ten votes of a member league, and in the past this has caused some confusion when there
has been a division of opinion on a proposed policy and the voting has been by voice
vote (as prescribed by l4dA's Constitution, "unless a roll call or written ballot is
demanded by five or more voting delegates").
An exception to the procedure for submitting resolutions as outlined above is provided
in f11i~r1's Constitution. Vlith the consent of two-thirds of the voting delegates present
and voting, resolutions on national municipal policies, including national legislation
affecting cities, may be presented on the floor by any voting delegate,
A two-thirds majority of all votes cast is necessary to adopt resolutions on national
municipal policies, Decisions on other matters are decided by a majority of the votes
cast,
Thus, formulation and execution of National N~unicipal Policy is a democratic process.
It constitutes the basic plan around which all municipalities and associations of
municipalities will move forward together, It is the guiding light for the program
of the Association and provides the continuing direction and purpose which APJiA needs.
-.