City Plan Commission - St Louis

A City Plan Commission was established to exercise legislative control over city planning decisions. The Commission included nine citizens, together with the members of the Board of Public Service (which had replaced the old Board of Public Improvements), the commissioner of Parks, Buildings, and Streets, the speaker of the House of Delegates, and the president of the City Council. St. Louis was only the second city in the country to establish a Plan Commission. The Commission had authority over issues ranging from the design of specific areas, such as Union Station, to the planning of citywide improvements, such as a park-and-boulevard system. It also controlled subdivision and land use practices. One of its earliest successes was a zoning ordinance in 1918 to regulate the size and type of buildings that could be constructed and their use. Much of the work was accomplished under the direction of Harlan Bartholomew,the Commission´s chief engineer and one of the leading city planners of the twentieth century. The City Plan Commission eventually became the Community Development Agency.