Ten Successes That Shaped The 20th Century American City

From Success #9, "Control of Land Subdivision", Gerckens write:

"From William Penn's 1683 plan for Philadelphia to the latest neo-traditional addition, the primary American town building motivation has been land speculation. In the nineteenth century this led to oversubdivision, resulting in vacant lots, undeveloped streets, and large-scale default of property to the public through failure to meet tax payments. Lots were often sold with inaccurate or nonexistent surveys, with no access to public streets, or with areas too small to be built upon. Streets were laid out with either inadequate or overly generous rights-of-way, and often on slopes too steep to be negotiated.

Laurence Gerckens is the national historian for the American Institute of Certified Planners and founder of The Society for American City and Regional Planning History.