The Real Story behind the Standard Planning and Zoning Acts of the 1920s

Abstract

When we recall Herbert Hoover today, we think of the president who did not do enough, fast enough, to head off the Great Depression. But Hoover cut a far different figure as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s. He was, in many respects, a progressive who hoped to reform society by reforming the operations of government. To some extent, in fact, the Commerce Department under Hoover could be said to be the first activist federal agency-presaging the New Deal vigor of the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Of particular importance to land-use planners is the fact that Hoover took an active role in shaping the statutes that govern American city planning.