The Cornudet Law of 1919 was France's first general town-planning statute, requiring towns of over 10,000 inhabitants, and others that had suffered war damage, to prepare a plan for development, embellishment and extension (the plan d'aménagement, d'embellissement et d'extension). The plans were to regulate street layout, public spaces, services and hygiene, and an amendment in 1924 tightened the rules on subdividing land. Implementation was slow and many plans were never completed, but the law established the obligation to plan in advance of growth. It laid the administrative groundwork for the more powerful French planning codes that followed after 1943.
It introduced compulsory municipal planning into French law, beginning the century-long construction of the country's centralised urbanisme system.
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