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with the intelligent control of its street development, but of which it has not hitherto taken adequate advantage; a power that appears to be denied to the cities of every other state in the Union, although effectively used in some other countries. Pittsburgh may legally lay out a street in anticipation of a future need, and yet postpone entering upon the land for construction or for opening it to the public. Until the city legally enters on the street, the owner of the land has the free use thereof, and he receives payment only when the opening takes place; but if, in the interim, he shall have erected any structure within the limits of the proposed street, he will receive no compensation therefor when the street is opened. Although similar laws have been declared unconstitutional in other states, this provision has been sustained in Pennsylvania, and the power has been effectively exercised in numberless cases since the middle of the last century.

Philadelphia has applied the same principle to street widenings, as for example in the case of Chestnut Street. The procedure is to define a building line, set back a certain distance from the street line, and to permit no new buildings to be erected in front of that line, but to pay damages only when the power to prevent the erection of a new building is actually exercised.

The Chestnut Street widening was authorized by legislation which provided merely that the street should be widened ten feet without specifying the procedure or method of awarding damages.*

The procedure used in the widening, as above described, had apparently no other authority than the general acts under which Pittsburgh has proceeded in laying out new streets.** This application of those acts has been sustained by the courts. If it is held

* "AN ACT. -- Defining the line of Chestnut Street in the City of Philadelphia. Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is thereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the south line of Chestnut Street between the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill, shall be at the distance of (539) five hundred and thirty nine feet southward of the south side of Market Street: Provided, That this act shall not interfere with any buildings now erected on the south side of Chestnut Street. Approved the twenty-eighth day of April, Anno Domini 1870.

"AN ORDINANCE. -- To provide for the widening of Chestnut Street on the City Plan: Section 1. The Select and Common Council of the city of Philadelphia do ordain that the Department of Surveys be and is hereby authorized to revise the City plan so as to make Chestnut Street from the Delaware River to the Schuylkill River of the width of sixty ( 60) feet, widening equally on both sides from the old center line. Section 2 After confirmation and establishment of said building lines it shall not be lawful for any owner or builder to erect any new building or to rebuild or alter the front of any building now erected, without making it recede so as to conform to the lines established for a width of sixty (60) feet. Approved the thirty-first day of March, A. D. 1884. SAMUEL G. KING, Mayor of Philadelphia."

** Act of December 20, 1871, Pamphlet Laws of 1872, p 1390 and Act of May 16, 1891.

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Last modified on 22-Dec 1999
Design format: copyright 1997-1999 Bruce S. Cridlebaugh
Original document: Frederick Law Olmsted, 1910