Adopted on 25 July 1916 and drafted under Edward Bassett, the resolution was the first comprehensive citywide zoning code in the United States. It divided the city into use districts and imposed height-and-setback rules, partly in response to concern that bulky towers such as the Equitable Building cast vast shadows and cut off light and air from the streets. The setback formulas allowed profitable tall buildings while shaping the stepped 'wedding cake' silhouette of the interwar skyline. The code provided the template that hundreds of American cities would soon copy.
It pioneered modern American zoning, embedding the separation of uses and bulk controls that still govern most US cities.
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