Conservation of Existing Housing

Abstract

Conservation as a term in the field of city development is not yet clearly defined, but its evolutionary stage is such that one can predict with some certainty what it will be accepted as meaning within a few years. Within the past few years, it has been used to describe many municipal activities and programs, and it has been used synonymously with many other terms in the rapidly developing field covering governmental action to improve housing conditions. This semantic confusion has hindered communication among those groups interested in greater municipal concern over housing conditions and has frequently created antagonisms and overemphasized differences. Although this semantic confusion is unfortunate, it is understandable; the major groups that have evidenced interest in the field-including private business groups, planners, housers, and municipal officials-are quite divergent. Frames of reference differ among such groups as do their basic aims and goals. Each group tends to develop its own special terms-terms which tend to have esoteric meanings within the group. Communication among the groups is not great. In fact, several of the groups take diametrically opposed positions on major housing questions. This opposition tends to create suspicion of the other's aims and to preclude, or at least strongly discourage, agreement among the groups on aims, means, and terms. But now that there is a definition of conservation in the Housing Act of 1954 (infra note 3; ?311(c), 42 U.S.C.A. ?I460(c) (Supp. I954)) and since cities are beginning to increase their housing improvement activities, these various terms are beginning to acquire generally accepted meanings. The use of a single term to define both a program and a particular action is not as prevalent as it once was, and one finds greater precision in their application. But some confusion still exists, and since this symposium on planning law has several articles in which these terms are used, it is well to define them carefully. Conservation is a program to maintain the economic and social values of a neighborhood and, where desirable, to improve those values. Conservation accomplishes these aims by maintaining and improving the physical standards of the neighborhood -both private and public. Its aim is to maintain and improve the quality of the area's housing and public improvements. Its approach is neighborhood improvement -not just the improvement of a single structure-and it is concerned with basically sound neighborhoods-neighborhoods that are worth conserving. In accomplishing * A.B. 1940, M.A. 1943, University of Chicago. Planning Analyst, Milwaukee Board of Public Land Commissioners, 1944-1947; Milwaukee Municipal Reference Librarian, I947-I948; Assistant Director, Urban Redevelopment Study, I948-I950; Field Representative, Division of Slum Clearance and Urban Redevelopment, Housing and Home Finance Agency, I950; Assistant Director, National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, since 1950.