Early town planning legislation in Nova Scotia: the roles of local reformers and international experts.
Grant, Jill L. ; Vissers, Leifka ; Haney, James 等
In 1912 Nova Scotia was the second province in Canada to adopt a
town planning act. Just three years later, the province substantially
revised its act under the guidance of Thomas Adams, town planning
advisor for the Commission of Conservation. The article examines the
context within which Nova Scotia adopted and then overhauled its early
planning legislation. While Canadian planning history generally credits
Adams with rewriting the legislation, the article documents the
mechanisms through which key local actors drove provincial policy.
Changes to provincial legislation in Nova Scotia in 1915 reflected the
confluence of national interests, international town planning expertise,
and local reform agendas.
En 1912 la province de Nouvelle-Ecosse fut la deuxieme au Canada a
adopter une loi de la planification municipale. Seulement trois ans plus
tard, la province revisa substantiellement sa loi sous la direction de
Thomas Adams, le conseiller de la planification municipals pour la
Commission de la conservation. L'article examine le contexte dans
lequella Nouvelle-Ecosse adopta et revisa sa premiere loi de la
planification. Alors que l'histoire de la planification a Canada
attribue a l'expert international Adams la reecriture de la loi,
notre article suggere que des acteurs locaux efficaces faciliterent le
changement de politique dans la region. Les changements aux lois
provinciales en Nouvelle-Ecosse en 1915 refletent une confluence de
facteurs contextuels dont les interets nationaux, les experts
internationaux de la planification urbaine, et les objectify mis en
avant par reformateurs locaux.
Town Planning: An Idea Is Born
Modern town planning was born in Canada during the Progressive Era
(ca. 1890 to 1920). Concerns about the problems of cities had become the
subject of discussions in men's clubs and women's groups
across the country. The "long crusade to purify city life" (1)
had commenced in earnest. Reformers described town planning as part of a
progressive solution to urban problems related to poor housing,
sanitation, and moral failures.
From 1896 to 1910, powerful forces pushed for beautification of
civic centres as local leaders sought to make Canadian cities seem
cosmopolitan. (2) Some cities established guilds or leagues committed to
beautification and advocating projects of civic grandeur. (3) In 1905,
for instance, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Board of Trade formed a
citizens' committee (which by 1907 became the Civic Improvement
League) to push for improvement. (4) Inspired by the City Beautiful
movement in the United States, the idea of planning monumental and
memorable civic centres suited the boosterism of the times. (5) Local
entrepreneurial and professional elites pursued strategies and
advertizing campaigns to ensure that cities grew quickly by attracting
immigrants and industries. (6) Such activities fuelled speculation in
land that burned across western Canada until 1913. (7)
Progressives began promoting town planning in Canada as early as
1905, when projects such as Letchworth Garden City took shape in
Britain. (8) In 1909, the Canadian government created the Commission of
Conservation, headed by Clifford Sifton, to lead Canada in efforts to
ensure the conservation of resources. (9) The commission hired Charles
Hodgetts as medical officer. Hodgetts promoted planning extensively in
the period from 1910 to 1914, seeing it as essential to improving the
health of urban centres. (10) Like other medical experts of his era,
Hodgetts believed that planning offered useful tools for improving urban
life and municipal management.
Following adoption of town planning legislation in Britain in 1909,
British ideas proved increasingly popular in Canada. The commission and
other organizations sponsored lecture tours by prominent British
authorities and planners to disseminate scientific approaches to town
planning. (11) Town planning promised to apply the principles of
scientific management to reform urban conditions. Early in the 1910s,
Canadian provinces began to pass legislation to enable town planning.
New Brunswick moved first, passing an act in April 1912, followed in May
1912 by Nova Scotia and in 1913 by Alberta. (12) Only three years later,
in April 1915, Nova Scotia adopted a new town planning act. This article
explores the history of that abrupt transition, the characteristics of
the legislation passed, the motivations of the actors involved, and the
context within which the acts were adopted.
While planning history has generally credited the international
town planning expert Thomas Adams, town planning advisor to the national
Commission of Conservation, with almost single-handedly writing and
rewriting legislation in Canada in the late 1910s, a review of events in
Nova Scotia reveals the catalytic role played by local reformers eager
to see town planning implemented as a means to improve the city of
Halifax. Little has been written about the early history of town
planning in Nova Scotia, with the 1912 act often overlooked in
discussions of reform during the era. (13) Both the 1912 and the 1915
acts featured noteworthy innovations in town planning. Although the
bills failed to produce the desired results--that is, town planning
schemes did not result--they reflected the political, social, and
professional concerns of the times.
In 1913 Sifton and Hodgetts at the commission began trying to hire
an expert in town planning. (14) Adams arrived in Canada in fall of
1914--two years after Nova Scotia adopted its first planning act. Adams,
a British planner who helped implement the 1909 British Town Planning
Act through his work for the Local Government Board, was judged the best
candidate. (15) Hodgetts and his colleagues described Adams as the
"highest authority" on the topic of town planning. (16)
Canadian reformers advocating town planning were delighted with
Adams's arrival because they saw expert knowledge as essential to
urban transformation. (17)
What role did Adams pay in revising Nova Scotia's legislation?
According to his biographer, Adams took the lead in revising Nova
Scotia's "unwieldy and irrelevant" 1912 legislation and
substituting his own model planning act in its place. (18) The next
sections of the article examine the role of international experts and
local reformers in some detail to consider the local dynamics at play in
legislative development and change in Nova Scotia. It briefly reviews
the character of the legislation to identify the implications of the
revisions. While Adams clearly lent weight to the process of revising
the act and provided direction for the text, local reformers were
pivotal creative agents who initiated and facilitated the effort to
develop and adopt town planning legislation in ways not previously
documented.
Nova Scotia in the 1910s
While most of the country crested the wave of immigration between
1896 and 1913, the Maritimes were "scarcely warmed by the boom.
(19) The population growth and inflation in land prices that hit the
west bypassed Nova Scotia. The largest city in the region. Halifax, was
increasing in population, but not as quickly as other cities in Canada:
its size ranking was steadily dropping. (20) Halifax had a history of
economic strength during wartime, as its harbour accommodated convoys
and its shores hosted troops and those provisioning the war effort.
During times of peace the city languished, as its economy relied on
shipping, resources, and finance. (21) The region industrialized during
the mid-nineteenth century as tariffs supported domestic industries in
areas such as sugar, cotton, and steel production. (22) By late in the
nineteenth century, however, the centre of economic gravity in Canada
moved west to where land was opening and migrants were flowing.
Industrial enterprises began leaving Nova Scotia, lured by access to
markets and capital in central Canada. The end of protective tariffs and
rail subsidies helped to undermine the early economic advantages eastern
Canada enjoyed. By the 1910s, power brokers in the east were feeling
increasingly marginalized and anxious to take steps to improve regional
prospects. (23) Eastern cities, like those in other parts of Canada,
were struggling to cope with problems of disease and poverty associated
with urban living.
The reform movement got off to an early start in Halifax. Organized
groups--from temperance societies, to the Anti-Tuberculosis League, to
the Board of Trade, to the Local Council of Women--pushed local
government to beautify, clean up, and otherwise reform the city. (24) In
November 1905 the Board of Trade formed a committee on civic
improvement. (25) By 1907 the committee had transformed into the Civic
Improvement League (hereafter called the League): it would remain a
vital force in the city until 1917. (26) The League included influential
professionals. businessmen, and community leaders, largely from the
wealthy south end of the city. (27) The opinion leaders of the
League--Robert McConnell Hattie (journalist), Reginald V. Harris
(lawyer), Frederick H. Sexton (principal of the Technical College),
William Dennis (publisher of local newspapers), and George Everett
Faulkner (insurance broker, president of the Board of Trade in 1908,
(28) Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly from 1906 to 1920,
speaker of the house in 1910-1911, and minister without portfolio from
1911 to 1920 (29)--set about publicizing the need for beautification and
other improvements in the city. In March 1908, on returning from a trip
to England, Sexton delivered a lecture on "The Picturesque
Suburb," wherein he emphasized the importance of planning, not
simply beautification. (30) Beginning in July 1910 Harris wrote a
regular column--under the nom de plume Wilfred Y. De Wake--on civic
affairs. government reform, and tenement housing in the Halifax Herald
and Evening Mail. (31) Extensive newspaper coverage of League activities
promoted the message.
Along with national agents such as the Commission of Conservation
and the governor general, the League helped bring American and British
experts to Halifax in 1910 and 1911. John Nolen, an influential
landscape architect from Massachusetts, visited in September 1910 to
talk about planning and beautification. (32) In October 2010 Henry
Vivian, a member of Parliament from Britain who was involved with the
Local Government Board administering the 1909 town planning act there,
delivered a blistering speech suggesting that the slums of Halifax were
far worse than those found in Britain. (33) Vivian's call for town
planning and a code of bylaws for minimum standards of health
invigorated the reform movement in its efforts to initiate action in
Halifax. Shortly thereafter the League released illustrations by local
architect Andrew Cobb for improvements to parts of the city centre,
which members suggested could be "part of a comprehensive city
plan." (34) It approached city council in December 1910 to appoint
a commission to investigate developing a comprehensive plan for Halifax.
(35)
Lobbying continued through 1911. Hattie gave a speech in January
1911 arguing again for a comprehensive plan. (36) For a week in March
1911 the League presented a conference on civic awakening and uplift
with speeches by John L. Sewall from Boston's civic uplift
campaign. (37) A motion passed at the concluding session called for a
comprehensive city plan for Halifax. (38) In 1911 Reginald Harris
successfully ran for council. (39) The fall of 1911 witnessed concerted
efforts to lobby Halifax city council to prepare a plan. Two weeks of
articles titled "City Planning" ran in the Daily Echo. (40)
On 14 November 1911 after Hattie read a paper on comprehensive
planning at a League meeting at the Board of Trade, the session ended
with a resolution to ask city council to create a Board of Improvements
to begin a planning scheme. (41) To continue the momentum, the Daily
Echo published Hattie's paper over several days. (42)
As members of the League pulled out all the stops in trying to
convince a recalcitrant Halifax city council to hire staff and begin
planning, the Union of Canadian Municipalities adopted a resolution at
its annual meeting in November 1911 which a local paper published:
"That in view of the rapidly increasing growth of our cities, and
the grave inconvenience resulting from haphazard division of real
estate, the various Provincial Governments and urban municipalities be
most earnestly urged to pass such legislation, and to make such
arrangements, as will result in the immediate making, adoption and
prosecution of a city plan for each growing community, governing the
lines of expansion and developments." (43)
British landscape architect and planner Thomas Mawson addressed
city planning on 28 November 1911, (44) and local papers continued to
run features related to town planning through the end of the year. (45)
None of the myriad efforts seemed to inspire Halifax council to act.
Refusing to give up on their ambitions, local reformers began developing
other strategies to encourage town planning. Creating appropriate
legislation to reform local government and enable town planning was high
on their agenda.
The first town planning act in Nova Scotia passed the provincial
legislature in May 1912, (46) the same month as a bill reforming Halifax
council's governance structure to a Board of Control system. (47)
Hattie, Harris, Faulkner, Cobb, and others associated with the Civic
Improvement League and the Board of Trade played key roles in bringing
the legislation forward. (48) Local actors had already begun taking
steps to initiate town planning in Nova Scotia two and a half years
before the commission appointed a town planning expert to do the same.
In the process of forging legislation appropriate to what they saw as
local needs in Halifax, these local reformers pioneered new approaches
for the fledgling discipline.
Act 1: Town Planning Act, 1912
Thomas Adams's biographer, Michael Simpson, detected a strong
adherence to British precursors in early planning acts in Canada:
"The all-conquering British influence led to three provincial
planning acts--in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia (1912) and Alberta
(1913). Slavish copies of the British act of 1909, adopted hastily and
without adequate means of implementation, they were failures." (49)
Such analysis minimized textual differences between the acts and
cast little light on why the early legislation had limited impact. This
section briefly examines the provisions of the 1912 Nova Scotia act and
contrasts elements with the British version. (50)
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Table 1 provides a simplified overview of some differences between
the town planning acts discussed here. The 1909 act adopted in Britain
(51) permitted towns to prepare planning schemes for areas of new or
pending development: that is, it focused on suburbs. (52) It facilitated
a highly ordered and bureaucratic process whereby the central
government's Local Government Board (and its staff) would be
involved at all stages of enabling, approving, regulating, and
arbitrating town planning schemes. (53) An extensive document laying out
many details of how town planning would work, the act specified that
local authorities might reclaim a share of improved land values
resulting from a town planning scheme, and provided mechanisms for
compensation for those whose properties may be adversely affected by
certain elements of a scheme.
Table 1: comparing early legislation on some important features
Great Britain Nova Scotia town Nova Scotia town
housing, planning act, planning act,
town-planning, 1912 1915
etc., act, 1909
Statute 9Edw. Vll Ch. 44 2 Geo. V Ch. 6 5 Geo. V Ch. 3
Synopsis The act permitted The act was a The act was a
towns to prepare stripped down and beefed-up version
planning schemes decentralized of the British
for areas of new version of the '909 act. It made
or pending British 1909 act. planning
development under II empowered local compulsory,
the authority of governments to enabled plans to
conditions and prepare and adopt extend to any
procedures set planning schemes land, and
and managed by for areas of new established
central or pending provincial
government. development. oversight and
approval.
What was the Under the Local governments The commissioner
governing authority of were delegated of public works
authority for Parliament, the responsibility. and mines for
planning? Local Government The province had a Nova Scotia was
Board of the limited role: for to appoint a
national example, dealing town-planning
government with disputes or controller to
enabled plans, approving schemes manage the
approved plans, and provisions oversight of
and set where lands planning. The
regulations and affected crossed commissioner had
provisions. The municipal overall
act enforced jurisdictions. responsibility to
central control. enable and
approve plans and
set regulations
and procedures.
Who had A local authority The act (section The act required
authority to authorized by the 3) provided that each local
make a town LGB would develop "any city, town or authority nil to
planning the scheme. municipality may establish a Local
scheme? prepare" a scheme Board that would
and develop include
regulations and councillors and
provisions. ratepayers to
prepare a town
planning scheme.
Was town The act enabled The act enabled In section 4.(1)
planning but did not but did not compel the act specified
compulsory? compel planning. planning. that "each Local
Board shall
within three
years after the
passing of this
Act prepare a set
of town planning
bylaws for
adoption in ts
area."
What areas Section 54(1) Section 2 of the Section 5(1)
could be said a planning act indicated that permitted town
covered by a scheme may cover a planning scheme planning schemes
town planning "any land which could cover "any to include "any
scheme? is in course of land which is in land," not simply
development or the course of undeveloped
appears likely to development or areas.
be used for appears likely to
building be used for
purposes." This building purpose.
may include
neighbouring
areas or some
developed lands
if authorized by
the LGB.
What was the Section 54(1) Section 2 Section 5(1)
purpose of noted the described the described the
town "general object "general object of "the genera
planning? of securing securing suitable object of
proper sanitary provision for securing proper
conditions, traffic, sanitary sanitary
amenity, and conditions, conditions,
convenience in amenity and amenity and
connexion with convenience in convenience,
the laying out connection with including
and use of the the laying out and suitable
land, and of any use of the land, provision for
neighbouring and of any traffic in
lands." neighboring connection with
lands." the laying out of
streets and use
of the land, arid
of any
neighbouring
lands for
building or other
purposes."
What role did Although the act The act did not Section 3(2)
planning did not discuss discuss planning required that the
experts planning experts, experts. provincial
play? the extensive controller be "a
role of the Local competent
Government Board engineer or
suggested a architect," while
significant role section 3(3)(b)
for central staff compelled each
planners. local board to
appoint a
qualified person
as town planning
engineer,
architect, or
surveyor.
Who Section 58(3) The act did not Section 13(4-7)
benefitted permitted the discuss recovering permitted the
from responsible property value local board to
betterment? authority increases. recover half the
producing a plan property value
to recover half increases
the value of resulting from
property the scheme.
increases Schedule C item
resulting from a (19) of the act
planning scheme. echoed the text
The Fourth of the UK 1909
Schedule item act.
(19) of the act
enabled the Local
Government Board
to develop
regulations
seeking
compensation for
increased value
on lands being
inherited.
How was Section 59(2) Section 12(2) Section 14(2)
compensation indicated that echoed the repeated the
limited? property was not language of the language of the
deemed 1909 act, with 1909 and 1912
injuriously minor changes. acts with an
affected by plan important
provisions about addition about
the space around "the use of
buildings, the buildings." While
number of earlier
buildings, or the legislation
height or talked about the
character of use of land, this
buildings. is the first
reference to the
use of
buildings.
How was the The Local The act had little The act had
act Government effect. No little effect.
implemented? adopted planning schemes The provincial
regulations and were implemented. government did
procedures. Some It was repealed in not provide the
towns developed 1915. resources to
schemes. The act implement the
was amended act. Although
several times, some towns began
and replaced in planning schemes,
1919. it appears that
none completed
the task. It was
replaced in
1939.
Rather than a slavish imitation, the 1912 Nova Scotia act was a
significantly stripped-down and inverted version of its British
counterpart. Some clauses from the British act appeared with slight
modifications, but most of the earlier text was omitted. Dispensing with
the centralized authority of the British system, the act empowered any
city, town, or municipality to prepare a town planning scheme for any
land in the course of or likely to be used for development. The law thus
permitted local government considerable autonomy in local planning,
requiring recourse to the province in limited cases where schemes might
cross political boundaries or where disputes about compensation could
not be resolved. The act remained silent on many matters, including
roles for planning experts or recapturing a share of increased property
values. In setting out the purpose of planning, it added text about
providing for traffic, which had not appeared in the British law. (54)
In many ways it was a minimalist bill providing local governments with
the legal mechanisms to begin modest efforts at planning urban
extensions.
The year 1912 brought considerable change to Halifax municipal
council as a Board of Control system--with controllers acting as
municipal administrators--supplanted ward politics. Robert Hattie and
William Dennis were elected as reform members of council, (55) where
they joined Reginald Harris, who was on the new Board of Control. (56)
Council minutes (57) and Hattie's papers (58) indicate that
Alderman Hattie tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to convince the city
to hire a professional planning expert. As chair of Council's Civic
Improvement Committee, (59) Hattie presented reports and motions to
council in late 1912 and early 1913 to borrow funds to hire a city
planning expert: although his motions won simple majorities, three times
they suffered defeat under council's requirement for a two-thirds
majority on some monetary measures. (60) In opposing Hattie's
motion to borrow S4000 to hire a city planning expert, Alderman Whitman
argued that a city planner would recommend many changes and incur
expenditures at a time when the city's finances were in a poor
position and when western cities were struggling with the results of
such extravagance. (61)
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By early 1913 Halifax reformers realized that their political and
legislative efforts to get the city to begin planning were not working.
In January Hattie gave another address on the need for town planning.
(62) On 18 February 1913 George Faulkner introduced amendments to the
1912 town planning act in the legislature. (63) As presented for first
reading, the bill proposed additions to allow any city, town, or
municipality by majority vote to create a committee or commission to
prepare a plan and to provide funds for hiring experts and staff. These
clauses sought to address the super-plurality requirement that Halifax
council used to deny Hattie's motions. Other proposed sections
would have required areas in the fringe around incorporated towns or
cities to submit a plan for survey and subdivision to the city or town.
The bill would have prevented building lots from being sold or deeds
registered without such approval. For unknown reasons the bill appears
not to have progressed to third reading. (64) By spring of 1913 the
reformers' tactics were shifting to a new course of action.
In this period Raymond Unwin visited Halifax to present at the
Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities conference and to share his advice
on town planning with those interested. (65) By mid-1913, Hattie was
corresponding regularly with Hodgetts at the Commission of Conservation.
The commission was then trying to hire Thomas Adams and was developing a
model town planning act for the provinces. (66) Hodgetts first presented
the draft model act during the May 1914 National Town Planning
Conference in Toronto. Adams offered comments on the draft, comparing it
with the 1909 British act. Cautious about appearing overly critical,
Adams noted differences in land use laws and political systems between
the countries, and volunteered to work with the committee to rewrite the
legislation. (67)
Following the national conference, Hodgetts toured several
provinces to promote the model act. In a letter dated 2 June 1913,
Hodgetts acknowledged the frustration that Hattie faced in trying to get
Halifax to adopt a town planning scheme under the act, and confirmed the
need for further action. (68) Halifax Board of Control submitted town
planning regulations to council in early 1914, setting out procedures to
be used in developing a town planning scheme. (69) Events may not have
been transpiring quickly enough to satisfy local reformers, however, as
they continued to consider revising the law. Hodgetts journeyed to
Halifax in July 1914 to attend the Anti-Tuberculosis League Conference.
On 14 July 1914 the Civic Improvement League of Halifax organized a
meeting with him: its advertisement promised a "Conference with Dr.
Hodgetts Re: Town Planning" to discuss remodelling the 1912 act.
(70) At the end of the month Hodgetts met with the city planning
committee to discuss the draft act and to suggest a review committee to
revise the 1912 law. (71) By this point, local reformers had committed
to overhauling their original legislation.
On behalf of the League, Hattie followed up on the issue over the
next months, becoming the lead local agent pressing for a new act. Along
with Faulkner, Hattie formed a board of prominent reformers and
political leaders to revise the law. As Adams assumed the role of town
planning advisor in late July 1914, Hattie's correspondence with
Hodgetts gave way to a regular exchange of letters and draft legislation
with Adams. Hodgetts soon left Canada to join the war effort, giving
Adams the opportunity to revise the commission's model town
planning act. (72) The new version became the basis of later discussions
between Adams, Hattie, and the local group working towards a draft law.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
As reformers in Halifax worked on considering revisions, Adams
reported on planning in Canada to his colleagues in Britain. Writing
about Nova Scotia's 1912 legislation, Adams said, "Up to the
present no action has been taken in Nova Scotia, but the powers given
under the provincial Act and the Halifax City Charter, together form the
most advanced legislation in the Dominion." (73) Despite his praise
for the original legislation, he added that he planned to spend a week
in Nova Scotia in February 1915 to discuss amendments to the act.
Generating local momentum for change, in late 1914 and early 1915
Hattie corresponded with municipal and provincial politicians in Nova
Scotia on the need for amendments to the 1912 act. (74) Following up on
the motion at the city planning board the previous July, Hattie
requested permission from Halifax council to form an intergovernmental
committee comprising provincial politicians, provincial officials,
municipal politicians from Halifax and Dartmouth, and local community
groups to address the need for an amended act. Although many of
Hattie's early efforts with Halifax council had failed to gain
traction, this request was approved. Once the intergovernmental
committee formed in 1915, Hattie invited prominent political leaders
from the neighbouring town of Dartmouth to join. In February 1915 the
League's newsletter reported that the League had requested Adams to
visit Halifax to advise them on the new legislation. (75) The committee
worked closely with Adams and Hattie to draft what would become the 1915
Town Planning Act.
Influencing the form and language of the new Nova Scotia law was a
high priority for Adams. He had mentioned his intention to travel to the
province during his first speech in Canada. (76)
Because not all drafts circulated between Adams and Hattie
survived, the initial proposals from the local committee are not known.
While the local group had originally anticipated amending the 1912
legislation, Adams favoured replacement with a new version adopting the
principles he intended to embed in the model act. (77) Rather than
sending Hattie amendments to the old act, Adams dispatched an entirely
new draft. This may have caught Hattie and his committee off-guard, as
on 15 February 1915 Adams apologized for having sent the new draft
without first discussing why the 1912 act should be completely scrapped.
He wrote to Hattie, "I think the best thing to do would be to drop
the Act of 1912 and to consider the new Act on the lines of the revised
Act prepared by the Commission of Conservation. One important reason for
this is to secure uniform legislation throughout the Dominion and to
point to Nova Scotia as the example which other provinces should
follow." (78)
Adams's letter and notes to Hattie included a lengthy critique
of the 1912 legislation. Adams discussed some minor word-choice issues,
but his major concern dealt with the power that the earlier act granted
to a municipality. He specifically criticized section 3: "Any city,
town or municipality within the meaning of this Act may prepare such a
town planning scheme with reference to any land within or in the
vicinity of their area." (79) Adams wrote that giving the
municipally the power "to prepare a town planning scheme instead of
getting permission to prepare it from a higher authority must be a
serious weakness in carrying out a scheme," especially for areas
outside a city's political boundaries. His roots in the British
system of highly centralized control were clear. Adams reminded Hattie
that under the British legislation, municipalities must ask permission
to adopt plans from the higher level of government. Adams recommended
changing section 9, which gave the municipality the power to set
procedural regulations, as "procedure should either be determined
by parliament or it should be provided in the Act that it will be
determined by an impartial authority outside the municipality."
(80) The degree of local autonomy permitted municipalities in the
original Nova Scotia legislation troubled Adams who hoped to create a
coherent planning system across Canada through ensuring that provinces
had the tools necessary to impose appropriate standards, procedures, and
expertise.
Adams wanted to ensure this was the best possible law. He explained
to Hattie, "I am very anxious to get Nova Scotia to adopt
legislation which can be referred to as an example to the other
provinces." (81) On 12 March 1915, he wrote, "If Nova Scotia
adopts that Act which I recommended I propose to recommend the
Commission of Conservation use it as their model." (82) While Adams
agreed to make some adjustments in the drafts to suit Nova Scotia
concerns and conditions, (83) he was pleased with the legislation
crafted and used it to inform the model town planning act released soon
after. Adams remained involved as the bill made its way through various
readings, corresponding with Hattie to craft amendments and recommend
changes to sections he found wanting. Most but not all of Adams's
suggestions were accepted. In setting out the language of the
legislation, Adams took full advantage of the opportunity Nova Scotia
offered to advance his aim of supplanting incongruent legislation with
something that better approached his ideals for comprehensive and
compulsory planning implemented by experts.
Adams visited Halifax in late February through early March 1915 to
finalize the wording of the act and promote the legislation in the
community. With considerable haste the group finished the bill for the
provincial legislature and arranged first reading of the legislation on
23 March 1915. Hattie assured the Nova Scotia legislators that the act
"will put Nova Scotia in advance of any other province or country
in the matter of Town Planning Legislation." (84) By 23 April 1915
the new Town Planning Act passed third reading and shortly became law.
Adams issued a press release on 27 April 1915 to proclaim the
significance of the event: "A Town Planning Act has been passed
into law in Nova Scotia which will revolutionize the methods of
developing real estate and controlling building operations in that
province. The Act is to a Large extent compulsory and is in advance of
anything of the kind in the world." (85)
Nova Scotia represented an early and important victory for Adams
and the Commission of Conservation in transforming the planning system
in Canada. The model town planning act Adams subsequently promoted in
1916 reflected the Nova Scotia experience. Adams retained a strong
connection to Halifax, returning in 1918 to assist with replanning parts
of the city extensively damaged by the 1917 explosion of a munitions
ship in Halifax harbour. (86)
Act 2: Town Planning Act, 1915
Nova Scotia's 1915 act repealed the earlier legislation and
reproduced many sections from the 1909 British law. Much longer than the
1912 version and replete with detail and minutiae, the 1915 legislation
yielded several critical innovations. First, it made planning compulsory
in Nova Scotia, giving cities and towns three years to produce town
planning schemes. It required local governments to appoint town planning
boards, employ town planning experts, and develop town planning bylaws.
It also set up mechanisms for financing local planning. Second, it made
planning comprehensive by enabling planning schemes to cover any land,
not simply areas for new suburbs. Once approved, plans would be binding
on future development. Third, it replicated the British system of
centralized and expert-led control to create potential for
standardization. A provincial commissioner (working with a town planning
controller) would establish procedures and regulations, review bylaws to
decide whether to approve them, and manage any disputes. In providing
language to deal with the use of buildings and land, the law reflected
growing concerns about protecting residential uses that would in the
next decade lead to widespread zoning bylaws. (87)
While his biographer described Adams's Canadian planning acts
as timid and disappointing, (88) the Nova Scotia legislation took
radical steps for its time. In 1910, at the National Garden Cities and
Town Planning Association conference in London, Adams had defended the
1909 British law against criticisms that it was not compulsory, by
arguing that local governments would soon realize the benefits of town
planning and not need to be forced to plan. (89) By 1915 he had decided
that local government had to be required to plan. As the first
legislative effort to compel planning, the Nova Scotia act caught
considerable international attention. Even the 1919 revisions to British
town planning law followed Nova Scotia's lead in making planning
compulsory and allowing plans to cover any land. (90)
The interest of the province in enabling such radical legislative
change remains murky. Hattie, Faulkner, and others in the League took
the opportunity to promote a local agenda: that is, they sought to
employ provincial powers to force the City of Halifax to adopt a town
planning scheme. Having tried but failed to achieve their aims through
creating a simple system empowering local government and getting League
members elected to municipal office, they were persuaded to apply more
robust mechanisms. Reformers needed the province because it had the
power to adopt the rules and regulations to enable or require local
planning. The records discovered portrayed the province as a compliant
if somewhat silent partner in the process. The planning legislation
seemed to have stirred little interest and no opposition from other
members of the legislature. The records of proceedings in the
legislature offer few clues as to political reactions. (91)
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Passage of the 1915 act represented the zenith of early efforts to
establish town planning in Nova Scotia. Although legislators appreciated
Adams's and Hattie's assurances that Nova Scotia was leading
the country in adopting the most modern and powerful town planning
legislation in the dominion, if not the world, political commitment to
planning proved less clear and sustained. Cities and towns did not rush
to comply with the law, and the province did little to implement it.
Halifax appointed Hattie to its new Town Planning Board in 1916, (92)
but the board appears to have had relatively little impact. Hattie
corresponded with Adams about a housing survey in 1916, (93) but it is
not clear whether it was conducted. With Canada at war until late 1918,
the priorities of political leaders and local reformers were
increasingly focused on supporting the war effort. By 1917 the Civic
Improvement League dissolved amidst shattered aspirations. (94)
Based at least in part on advice from Adams, (95) the 1915 act was
amended in 1919 to extend deadlines to give municipalities six years to
prepare planning bylaws or schemes and to expand bylaw powers to enable
classification of land uses (zoning): "In 1921 the Union of Nova
Scotia Municipalities appointed a committee to consider and review the
regulations contained in the Act, as the City of Halifax had charged
that the regulations were difficult to comply with and burdensome.
Nothing more was heard of the committee and for more than a decade,
nothing was said of town planning at any of the annual conferences of
the Union." (96)
The Commission of Conservation was dissolved in 1921, leaving Adams
without work and the national town planning mission suspended. (97) As
happened in other parts of the country, many Nova Scotia municipalities
adopted zoning bylaws to regulate land use during the 1920s but they did
not prepare comprehensive plans. (98) Despite a decade of concerted
efforts by local reformers to create the conditions to get Halifax to
plan, no comprehensive plan resulted. (99) The province repealed the
legislation and amendments in 1939, ending the early experiment in
compulsory planning.
Critical Reviews: Lessons Learned
Governments develop legislation within the context of a particular
place and a time. Investigation of the early town planning legislation
in Nova Scotia provides some insights into the factors that account for
the timing, content, and fate of the 1912 and 1915 bills. Understanding
the setting within which the laws were developed, the actors involved in
producing them, and the concerns addressed by the legislation helps to
fill in pieces of the puzzle that is the history of early town planning
in Canada. The analysis suggests that previous assessments of early town
planning legislation in Canada made inaccurate generalizations about the
nature and significance of the Nova Scotia laws. The 1912 law paid
modest homage to earlier British legislation but set a new course for
locally based town planning activities with limited requirements for
bureaucratic oversight. The later 1915 bill reprised some elements of
the British law but charted new directions as well. It represented the
epitome of planning aspirations for the time and became a model for
others to emulate.
Moreover. while many discussions of early town planning lionized
recognized experts such as Thomas Adams, Raymond Unwin. and Charles
Hodgetts, close inspection of the history of early legislation in Nova
Scotia exposes the critical role played by local actors in creating a
supportive setting to generate legislation. in crafting laws to address
local concerns, and in working through the political system to get laws
adopted. Local reformers and international experts needed each other.
Without people such as Robert Hattie, Reginald Harris, William Dennis,
and George Faulkner, Thomas Adams could not have moved his professional
agenda forward. Hattie and his colleagues in the Civic Improvement
League were critical catalysts in igniting and sustaining political and
business interest in planning. Learning from these successes in Halifax,
Adams took the Civic Improvement League national in 1916. (100) The
Halifax experience had a significant influence on Adams's ideas of
how to promote and practise planning in Canada.
Local reformers greased the wheels, permitting Adams to attach his
new act to the legislative cart in Nova Scotia. Without Thomas Adams,
Hattie and Faulkner might have attempted a less radical revision to the
1912 law. The international credibility Adams brought helped to sell the
idea of compulsory and comprehensive town planning but also turned Nova
Scotia away from a system that offered local government considerable
autonomy to shape the future.
In the end, neither bill achieved its aims. The province lacked the
inclination and resources to implement most provisions of the 1915 act.
(101) Nova Scotia's bold experiment with town planning legislation
ultimately failed and largely faded from memory. It would be many
decades before Halifax City Council developed the political will to hire
planning experts; it finally adopted a comprehensive plan in 1945 under
revised legislation. Those advocating town planning, however, learned
lessons that they would contemplate for decades to come: that bold
ambitions and planning legislation are necessary but not sufficient
conditions to engender town planning.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Alan Ruffman, Leah Perrin, and staff at
the various archives and libraries consulted for this research. Howard
Epstein, Brant Wishart, and reviewers of a previous version of the paper
provided extremely valuable feedback.
Notes
(1.) Paul Rutherford, "Tomorrow's Metropolis: The Urban
Reform Movement in Canada. 1880-1920." in The Canadian City: Essays
in Urban and Social History, ed. G. A. Stoner and A. F. J. Artibise
(Ottawa: Carleton Library Series, 1984). 437.
(2.) Michael Simpson, Thomas Adams and the Modern Planning
Movement: Britain. Canada and Mc United Slates, 1900-1940 (London: Manse
1985) 73-74.
(3.) Walter Van Nus. "The Fate of City Beautiful Thought in
Canada. 1893-1930." in Stelter and Artibise. Canadian City:
167-186.
(4.) Andrew Nicholson. "Dreaming 'the Perfect City':
The Halitax Civic Improvement League 1905-1949" (MA thesis. Saint
Mary's University. 2000), 23.
(5.) Van Nus. "Fate of City Beautiful."
(6.) Alan F. J. Artibise, "In Pursuit of Growth: Municipal
Boosterism and Urban Development in the Canadian Prairie Wesl.
1871-1913." in Shaping the Urban Landscape: Aspects of the Canadian
City-building Process, ed. G. A. Stelter and A. F. J. Arlibise. 116-147
(Ottawa: Carleton Library Series. Macmillan. 1982).
(7.) Alan F. J. Artibise, "The Urban West: The Evolution of
Prairie Towns and Cities to 1930," in Stelter and Artibise.
Canadian City, 138 164.
(8.) Simpson, Thomas Adams, 73.
(9.) David Lewis Stein. "The Commission of Conservation,"
special seventy-fifth anniversary issue. Plan Canada (July 199): 55.
(10.) Jeanne Wolfe, "Our Common Past: An Interpretation of
Canadian Planning History." special seventy-fifth anniversary
issue, Plan Canada (July 1994): 12-34.
(11.) C. Schmitz. "The Movement in Canada." Town Planning
Review 3. no. 3 (1912): 218-219: Nicholson, "Dreaming 'the
Perfect City.'" chaos. 1-2.
(12.) Simpson, mamas Adams. 75.
(13.) Neither Nicholson ("Dreaming 'the Perfect
City'") nor Roper, who both wrote at length about the reform
movement in Halifax in this period. acknowledged the existence of the
1912 town planning act. Henry Roper, "The Halifax Board of Control:
The Failure of Municipal Reform." Acadiensis 14. no. 2 (1985).
46-65.
(14.) Alan H. Armstrong. "Thomas Adams and the Commission of
Conservation." in Planning the Canadian Environment. ed. L. 0.
Gertler. 10-20 (Montreal: Harvest House. 1968): J. David Hulchanski.
"Thomas Adams: A Biographical and Bibliographical Guide," in
Papers on Planning and Design (Toronlo: Department of Urban and Regional
Planning. University of Toronto, 1978): David Lewis Stein, " Mamas
Adams: The Father of Canadian Planning," special seventy-fifth
anniversary issue. Plan Canada (July 1994): 14-15.
(15.) Charles Horigetts lo Rorer: M. Hattie (2 June 1913), file 46.
vol. 2898. MG1. Robert McConnell Hattie Papers (hereafter Hattie
Papers). Public Archives of Nova Scotia (hereafter PANS), Halifax, Nova
Scotia. Fortunately for those interested in planning history in he
region. Hattie donated an extensive collection of correspondence and
other materials from this period to the Public Archives of Nova Scotia:
few other materials shed as much light on planning, history in the
province in this era. See also. Commission Conservation. "Town
Planning Adviser to the Commisson of Conservation." Conservation of
Life 1, no. 2 (1914): 27-28.
(16.) Simpson. Thomas Adams. 77.
(17.) Rutherford. "Tomorrow's Metropolis." 445.
(18.) Simpson. Thomas Adams. 85.
(19.) Ibid. 71.
(20.) Larry D. McCann, "Staples and the New Industrialism in
he Growth of Post-Confederation Halifax." in Stelter and Artibise.
Shaping the Urban Landscape. 116-147.
(21.) Judith Fingard, Janet Guildford, and David Sutherland,
Halifax: The First 250 Years (Halifax: Formac Publishing, 1999).
(22.) Ibid., 92-98.
(23.) Ibid., 117-137.
(24.) Judith Fingard, The Dark Side of Life in Victorian Halifax
(Potters Lake, NS: Pottersfield, 1989); Nicholson, "Dreaming
'the Perfect City.'"
(25.) "Citizens Ready to Beautify Halifax", Evening Mail,
9 November 1905, 5.
(26.) Nicholson, "Dreaming 'the Perfect City.'"
(27.) Ibid., 29-30.
(28.) The front page of the Daily Echo on 8 March 1908 referred to
George Faulkner as the president of the Board of Trade.
(29.) S. B. Elliott, "George Everett Faulkner," The
Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1758-1983: A Biographical Directory
(Halifax: Province of Nova Scotia, 1984), 68.
(30.) "The Picturesque Suburb," Evening Mail, 4 March
1908, 6.
(31.) Nicholson, "Dreaming 'the Perfect City,'"
36, reported that Harris contributed over 170 columns on civic issues.
Examples included columns titled "Halifax Uplift" in the
Evening Mail, 15 September 1911. 20 September 1911, 26 October 1911.
(32.) "Landscape Artist Sees City in Rain," Evening Mail,
20 September 1910.
(33.) "Let's Look Ahead and Avoid Costly Blunders"
and "What Shall Halifax Do To Be Saved?" Evening Mail, 28
October 1910.
(34.) "How It Might Be," Evening Mail, 26 November 1910.
(35.) "Civic Improvement League Talked Over Matters Which Will
Go to the City Council," Evening Mail, 6 December 1910.
(36.) Evening Mail, 18 January 1911. Cited in Nicholson,
"Dreaming 'the Perfect City," 40.
(37.) "The Civic Uplift Opens Tomorrow with Addresses by John.
L. Sewall, of Boston," Evening Mail, 4 March 1911. See also
Nicholson, "Dreaming 'the Perfect City," chap. 2.
(38.) "The Aim of Halifax to Make It a Splendid 'City
Beautiful' Discussed at Civic Revival Meeting," Evening Mail,
11 March 1911.
(39.) Roper, "Halifax Board of Control," 55.
(40.) "City Planning," Daily Echo, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13,
and 14 November 1911.
(41.) "Civic Improvement League Meeting," Daily Echo, 15
November 1911.
(42.) "Planning for the Future," Daily Echo, 20, 21, 2,
23, and 25 November 1911.
(43.) "City Planning: Some Projects in the Air That Lend
Significance to This Movement for Halifax," Daily Echo, 14 November
1911.
(44.) "All Must Join in Beautifying the City," Daily
Echo, 29 November 1911.
(45.) The Daily Echo published some of Cobb's illustrations of
possible improvements: see "How the Extension of Morris St. Could
Be Made Great Feature," 25 November 1911; "North End in Need
of Park," 30 November 1911; "What About the Ferry
Landing?," 7 December 1911; "How Clock Tower Might Be
Treated," 11 December 1911; "Suggested Bridge across
Arm," 13 December 1911.
The Daily Echo also ran editorials arguing the benefits of
planning: for instance, see "Hundred Thousand Dollar Mistakes Show
Necessity for Comprehensive City Plan," 2 December 1911; "City
Planning and the Children," 14 December 1911.
(46.) Nova Scotia, Statutes, An Act Respecting Town Planning, 2
Geo. V, Chapter 6, passed 3 May 1912.
(47.) Roper, "Halifax Board of Control."
(48.) Although few documents from this period have been located, in
1944 Hattie wrote that the league had played the principal role in
getting the law introduced. Robert M. Hattie, "Planning
Submission," 1944, file 11, vol. 2899, MG1, Hattie Papers, PANS.
(49.) Simpson, Thomas Adams, 75.
(50.) Detailed analysis of the New Brunswick and Alberta acts would
be required to determine whether Simpson's critique is relevant for
them. That is not possible here.
(51.) Great Britain, Acts of Parliament, 9 Edw. 7, Chapter 44,1909.
Reproduced as Appendix A in E. G. Bentley and S. Pointon Taylor, A
Practical Guide in the Preparation of Town Planning Schemes (London:
George Philip & Son, 1911).
(52.) Sutcliffe suggested that the bill implemented the garden
suburb idea as inspired by developments at Bournville and Hampstead
Garden Suburb. Anthony Sutcliffe, "Britain's First Town
Planning Act: A Review of the 1909 Achievement," Town Planning
Review 59, no. 3 (1988): 289-303.
(53.) Nicholas Herbert-Young, "Central Government and
Statutory Planning under the Town Planning Act 1909," Planning
Perspectives 13 (1998): 341-355.
(54.) Nova Scotia, Town Planning Act 1912, sec. 2.
(55.) "Standing Committees of City Council," City
Council, 1912-1913, file 27, vol. 2898, MG1, Hattie Papers, PANS.
(56.) Roper, "Halifax Board of Control."
(57.) Halifax City Council, Council Meeting Minutes, 8, 23, and 28
January 1913, Halifax Municipal Archives (hereafter HMA).
(58.) Halifax City Council, "Order of the Day, " 9, 23,
28 January, 6 February 1913, file 27, vol. 2898, MG1, Hattie Papers,
PANS.
(59.) "Report of Civic Improvement Board," 6 November,
and "Report of Civic Improvement Committee," 27 November 1912,
file 32, vol. 2897, MG1, Hattie Papers, PANS.
(60.) City Council Minutes, 5, 19 December 1912, 9, 23 January
1913, HMA.
(61.) "Third Time of Asking for a City Planner,"
newspaper clipping, 29 January 1913 (no source identified), file 29,
vol. 2897, MG1, Hattie Papers, PANS.
(62.) Robert M. Hattie, "A Comprehensive Plan: The First Step
in Civic Improvement" (paper read at public meeting under the
auspices of the Civic Improvement League, Assembly Hall, Nova Scotia
Technical College, 7 January 1913), file 35, vol. 2899, MG1, Hattie
Papers, PANS.
(63.) Nova Scotia, Bill No. 3, "An Act to Amend Chapter 5,
Acts of 1912, 'The Town Planning Act, 1912,'" file 25,
vol. 2899, MG1, Hattie Papers, PANS. First reading 18 February 1913,
second reading 20 February 1913 and sent to committee.
(64.) In personal communications (27 September 2011) legislative
librarians at the Nova Scotia House of Assembly indicated that they were
unable to locate further action on the bill after the law amendments
committee reported back on 7 March 1913. The assembly was prorogued on
18 May without the bill receiving third reading. The librarians noted
that records from the war years are incomplete but it does not appear
that the amendments progressed further.
(65.) Mervyn Miller, author of Hampstead Garden Suburb (Stroud,
Glouchestershire: Chalford Publishing, 1995), advised in a personal
communication (27 July 2010) that The Record (Hampstead Garden Suburb)
III, 6 January 1915, discussed Unwin's trip of the previous year,
which might suggest he visited in 1914. However, a summary produced by
provincial staff indicate that the trip occurred in 1913. "History
of Nova Scotia Planning Acts Prior to 1969," n.d., Service Nova
Scotia and Municipal Relations (hereafter SNSMR),
http://www.gov.ns.ca/snsmr/muns/plan/pdf/historynsplanningactsprior1969.pdf.
(66.) Armstrong ("Thomas Adams," 21) noted that the
original model act, drafted by Jeffrey Burland, was influenced by
American planning ideas.
(67.) Commission of Conservation, Report of Sixth Annual Meeting,
1915 (Ottawa: Commission of Conservation, 1915).
(68.) Charies Hodgetts to Hattie 1913, file 46, vol. 2898. MG1,
Hattie Papers. PANS.
(69.) "Town Planning Regulations" City Hall (Halifax), 30
January 1914, file 15. vol. 2897, MG1, Hattie Papers. PANS.
(70.) Civic Improvement League, advertisement. "Conference
with Dr. Hodgells Re Town Planning Act," 14 July 1914, file 35.
vol. 2897, MG1, Hattie Papers, PANS.
(71.) "Report of City Planning Committee," 30 July 1914,
file 29, vol. 2897. MG1. Hattie Papers. PANS.
(72.) Commission of Conservation. Report on Fifth Annual Meeting.
1914 (Ottawa: Commission of Conservation, 1914).
(73.) Thomas Adams. "Housing and Town Planning in
Canada," Town Planning Review 6, no. 1 (1915): 20-26.
(74.) Robert Hattie draft letters to local political leaders, 15
February 1915, with attached draft act, file 25. vol. 2897. MG1. Hattie
Papers. PANS.
(75.) "Nova Scotia Town Planning Act," Civic Improvement
League Newsletter, 15 February 1915, 1. file 15. vol. 2898. MG1. Hattie
Papers, PANS.
(76.) Commission of Conservation. Conservation of Life 1. no. 3
(1914): 88-68.
(77.) Thomas Adams lo Robert Hattie. 9 February 1915, file 35, vol.
2897. MG1, Hattie Papers. PANS.
(78.) Thomas Adams. letter and notes to Hattie regarding a visit to
Nova Scotia and draft act 15 February 1915 (hereafter Adams's
comments on draft act. 15 February 1915). file 36. vo. 2899. MG1. Hattie
Papers, PANS.
(79.) Nova Scotia, Statutes. An Act Respecting town Planning. 2
George V., Chao 6. pages 112-117. (3 May 1912), Assambly of Nova Scotia,
Halifax.
(80.) Adams's comments on dratt act. 15 February 1915.
(81.) Ibid.
(82.) Thomas Adams to Robert Hattie. 12 March 1915. tile 36, vol.
2899. MG1. Hattie Papers, PANS.
(83.) Letter exchanges between Adams and Hattie between January and
March '915 show that Adams dratted language changes as Hattie
alerted him to various issues of concern in Nova Scotia. For instance.
Schedule A item 5 reflected local concerns about and use:
"Prescribing certain areas which are likely to be used for building
purposes for use for separate dwelling houses. apartment houses.
factories, warehouses, shops. stores, etc." Such language presaged
the importance of zoning, which would come in the 1920s.
(84.) Robert Hattie. letter of transmittal regarding the 1915 draft
act, 4 March 1915, tile 36, vol. 2899. MG1. Hattie Papers, PANS.
(85.) Thomas Adams. "Nova Scotia Takes the Lead in Town
Planning Law." news release. 27 April 1915. file 36, vol. 2899.
MG1. Hattie Papers, PANS. The text was repeated in an article n
Conservation of Life 1, no. 4 (July 1915): 95.
(86.) John Weaver, "Reconstruction of the Richmond District in
Halifax: A Canadian Episode in Public Housing and Town Planning,
1918-1921." Plan Canada 16 (March 1976): 36-47.
(87.) In the era discussed, the judicial approach was to restrict
municipal powers (Howard Epstein, persona! communication. 29 September
2011). By enabling town planning regulations and indicating that uses
could be controlled the legislation gave local governments the ability
to move towards zoning.
Armstrong. "Thomas Adams and the Commission," 26,
reported that Adams worked up a zoning by-law and draft official plan
for Halifax in the months after the 1916 act passed, but these have not
boon located. Weaver. "Reconstruction," noted that Adams
helped craft the town planning scheme and by-laws for the reconstructed
Richmond District in Halifax 1918, and this plan remained in effect
until 1948.
After New York City pioneered the first US zoning by-law in 1916,
many cities across the continent began to follow suit. Peter Moore,
"Zoning and Planning: The Toronto Experience. 1904-1970," in
The Usable Urban Past: Planning and Politics in the Modem Canadian City.
ed. A. F. J. Artibise and G. A. Stelter, 316-341 (Toronto: Macmillan,
1979).
(88.) Simpson, Thomas Adams, 84.
(89.) Ewart Culpin, ed., The Practical Application of Town Planning
powers: A Report (Westminster: PS King and Son. 1910), 18.
(90.) S. D. Adshead. Thom Planning and Town Development (London:
Methuen 1923). 165,175.
(91.) Assembly of Nova Scotia. The Journals of the Debates and
Proceedings of the Assembly of Nova Scotia. 1915-16 (23.31 March. 8.12
April 1915). 9-250. microfilm 3501. PANS.
(92.) City Courted Minutes. 10 February 1916,415. HMA.
(93.) Thomas Adams to Robert Hattie, 23 February 1916: Thomas
Adams, "Memorandum regarding Proposed Housing Survey at
Halifax," 23 July 1916. tile. 45, vol. 2898, MG1. Hattie Papers.
PANS.
(94.) Nicholson, "Dreaming 'the Perfect City.'"
5.
(95.) Simpson, Thomas Adams. 85.
(96.) SNSMR. "History 01 Nova Scotia Planning Acts."
(97.) Simpson, Thomas Adams, 105.
(98.) See Moore. "Zoning and Planning; Walter Van Nus.
"Towards the City Efficient: The Theory and Practice of Zoning.
1919-1939," in Artibise and Stelter, Usable Urban Past. 226-246.
(99.) Plans for the Richmond District in 1918 were crafted under
special legislation, not under the 1915 Act. Weaver,
"Reconstruclion."
(100.) Adams's biographer noted that Adams founded a national
Civic Improvement League in 1916 but does not acknowledge any
inspiration from the pivotal role of he league Halifax in the period
1907 to 1915. Simpson, Thomas Adams, 81-82.
(101.) By 1919 the Brush had determined that many provisions of the
1909 act (on which much of the text of the 1915 Nova Scolia ad was
modelled] were unwiedy and had to be modified. Adshead. Town Planning
163.
