J. C. Nichols and the Shaping of Kansas City: Innovation in Planned Residential Communities

4. The Planning of an American Residential Community

4 THE pLANNING OF AN AMERICAN RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITY Cities are the handiwork ofthe real estate man. Whether ourcities are physically bad or physically good is our responsibility. -J. C. Nicholsl It is the Realtor subdivider who is really planning our cities today, who is the actual city planner in practice. -George B. Ford2 The similarity ofthese two statements is not a coincidence. Both speakers were interested in encouraging real estate brokers and agents to support the possibilities ofwhat they understood as city planningat that time. Nichols was a realtor himself, calling upon his fellow realtors to take up the good fight to plan carefully and to protect effectively the growth ofNorth American cities in a profitable manner. Ford was a planner who hoped to curry favor with a profession that had been less than totally enthusiastic about city planning in the nine years since Nichols had given his speech in 1916 to a national gathering ofrealtors in New Orleans. Nichols had then given essentially the same speech to a meeting ofthe National Conference on City Planning (NCCP).3 Despite the similarity oftheir initial remarks and overall goals, the 1. Nichols, "City Planning," 277. This was the text of a speech to a general session ofthe ninth annual convention of the National Association ofReal Estate Exchanges, March 29,1916. 2. George B. Ford, "City Planning and Unbuilt Outlying Areas," 247. This, too, was the text ofa speech, given in this instance to a general session ofthe eighteenth annual convention of the National Association of Real Estate Boards (NAREB). 3. Weiss, Rise rfthe Community Builders, 64-68, recognizes this Nichols speech as one of national significance in the effort to combine the support of realtors/ subdividers with that ofplanners for the implementation ofzoning and regulatory legislation in the nation's cities. 89 90 J. C. NICHOLS AND THE SHAPING OF KANSAS CITY two speakers diverged at particular points. Ford wanted city planning to be a factor in improving the lot ofall city dwellers, whether they wanted that to happen to them or not. Nichols, on the other hand, was most concerned with the use of zoning and other city planning tools to safeguard his particular developments. Ford worked to achieve what would prove to be an impossible goal for planners-the control ofthe development ofentire cities. Nichols, while not unconcerned with the city as a whole, was more involved with what he knew to be a fully realizable goal-the control of the developmeht ofhis own subdivisions. Nichols was simply interested in getting the city to provide additional support by forcing his nearby competitors to play by the same rules he had outlined for himsel£ During the 1910s, the real estate profession was hard at work to make itselfjust that-a profession, instead ofa collection ofpeople who floated in and out ofthe land and building business according to economic swings. Nichols's remarks to the realtors in 1916 were aimed to inspire them by emphasizing their work's importance. When the Kansas City developer delivered the same remarks to the planners' convention, he wished to convince them that the real estate profession was getting its house in order to support planning goals. Ford recognized that he, as a planner, could accomplish very little ifrealtors did not work with his growing profession. Actually the two groups were initially antagonistic because the real estate men saw the planners' tool ofzoning as a device limiting the real estate men's authority in their own sphere. J. C. Nichols was a central figure in encouraging real estate dealers to accept some limits in order to achieve a greater economic good in the long run. His 1916 speech was one step toward achieving such a goal. Real estate operatives slowly came to realize that by accepting zoning and getting themselves appointed to zoning boards and commissions, they could influence governmental and public decisions in their favor to an even greater degree than before.4 The issue of motivation is quite important in any study ofplan4 . Nichols, Real Estate Subdivisions: The Best Manner ofHandling Them. Nichols was considered by some in Kansas City to have been the main person responsible for getting the city planning ordinance passed in 1921; see Scrapbook 5:256. PLANNING A COMMUNITY 91 ning and planners. With Nichols, the relationship between planning and his subdivisions is quite clear from existing correspondence . When accepted planning objectives and methodology could be reconciled with his...