page 67 - vi

              Plan of Evanston 
[ 59 
VI 
THE establishment of districts from which factories, stores, or apartment buildings, or any or all of these, 
will be excluded by law is one of the most difficult problems that any rapidly growing city has to solve. We say, without exaggeration, that we believe it vital to the wellbeing of Evanston that such a system of zoning and building regulations, at once effective and equitable, be formulated and enforced. We believe that any citizen willing to give the matter serious thought will agree that this is so. No one, whether he be the owner of an ancestral mansion, or the possessor of a one-year lease on an apartment, wants to be forced to move by a sudden change in the character of the neighborhood in which he has established his home. Every property owner would like to be protected against the possibility of seeing his property deteriorated and its rent-earning possibilities reduced by the intrusion into its neighborhood of an inferior or inappropriate building. All would approve, in theory, of a system whose operation would result in the stabilizing and conserving of real-estate values. 
Evanston is primarily a city of individual homes, and it cannot afford to lose its character. It is precisely because it is a city of individual homes that people are attracted to come and live in it. In order to command a vista of these homes and spacious lawns a man will pay a greatly increased rent for his apartment. 
From decade to decade, of course, the character of Evanston must change, just as it has changed in the past. And if the immutable economic law of supply and demand could only be relied upon to work in individual cases no system of building restrictions would be necessary. Factories, stores, and apartments would grow up where they were needed. But it is a matter of experience that the individual builder does not invariably consult this law, and his mistakes