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[ The director general and councilors of New Netherland, seeing and observing by daily experience that the previous ordinance and edicts are not obeyed according to the true meaning thereof, but, notwithstanding the repeated renewal of them, that many spacious and large lots, ] also in the best and most convenient [ part of this city ] remain lying [ empty ] and are kept by the owners [ either ] for greater profit or for pleasure, and others are thereby prevented to build for the promotion of population and increase [ of trade and ] consumption, as well as for the embellishment of this city, whereunto many newcomers would be encouraged in [ case ] they could procure a lot at a reasonable price on a suitable location agreeably to the foregoing edicts.^[i] The neglect, if not contempt thereof, in reserving and retaining such large and spacious lots, whether for profit or pleasure, is owing principally to the fact that no punishment, penalty, or fine is imposed by the issued edicts, and that the proprietary owners for a great many years have had the lots in possession, free of tax, and keep them for greater profit, or use them for pleasure as orchards and gardens, as a result of which building and population, and consequently also the advancement of trade, consumption, and prosperity of this city are retarded, contrary to the good intent and meaning of the lords directors of the Chartered West India Company, lords patroons of this province, as first grantors and distributors of the lots, with the view to have the same built on for the embellishment, peopling, increase of the inhabitants, trade, consumption, and prosperity, as expressed in the granted patents, with the additional stipulation and submission of such taxes as may be imposed thereon by the aforesaid lords or their agents. In observance and implementation of which the aforesaid director general and councilors have recently caused the vacant and unimproved lots to be measured by their sworn surveyor in the presence of the burgomasters of this city, according to the survey of the streets, and found some hundreds of lots inside the walls of this city vacant and not built on. In order that these may be built on the sooner, in accordance with the good intention and meaning of the aforesaid lords directors and agreeable to the previously enacted ordinances, that the disorder [ arising from ] the possession, free of any tax, of such spacious and large lots for profit, or pleasure [ may be prevented, and those who are inclined to build may be accommodated with lots at a reasonable price, the director general and councilors hereby ordain, in amplification of the abovementioned edicts, that all vacant and unbuilt on lots which were ] lately [ measured and laid out by the surveyor of the ] director general and councilors, be immediately after the publication and posting hereof, assessed and appraised, first and foremost by the owners in possession, to the end that they may not hereafter complain of undervaluation, and that so long as the owner retains the lot or lots, or allows them to remain without proper and habitable houses built thereon, he shall pay for the same the 15th penny in two installments yearly, the one half on May day, and the other half before this city’s kermisdach,^[ii] the proceeds to be applied to the fortification of this city and the repairs thereof.

And the burgomasters are authorized and ordered after the publication hereof, to summon before them the owners of the lots, whoever they may be, at the city hall of this city, to cause the assessment to be made and to have it recorded by the secretary in due form, and to have the proceeds received by their treasurer; and in case of opposition or refusal, to fine the obstinate person civilly; and to appraise his lots according to the value and the situation of the locality, on condition that it be left to the choice of the owner in possession to retain the lots appraised by the burgomasters on payment, as stated, of the 15th penny thereof, or otherwise to give them up for that price to the burgomasters for the benefit of the city.

On the other hand, it remains at the discretion of the aforesaid burgomasters, to take the lots appraised by the owner himself for the account of this city, and to convey them to others who are disposed and ready to build at that price, if the owner himself will not or cannot build in conformity to the aforesaid edicts, or to leave them to the owner until they are built on by themselves or others, when the impost or tax imposed for valid reasons on the unimproved lots shall cease.

And in order to promote the population, settlement, flourishing, strength, and prosperity of this city the more, the director general and councilors ordain [and command that, from this time forward, no dwelling houses shall be built near or under the walls or gates of this city, before or until the lots herein mentioned are properly built on.

Thus done in the assembly] of the director general and councilors in N: Netherland.

Pieter Tonneman

P. St[ uyvesant ] Nicasius de Sille, secr.

Notes

References

Translation: Gehring, C., & Venema, J. (Ed.). New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, Vol. 8, Council Minutes, 1656-1658 Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press: 2018.A complete copy of this publication is available on the New Netherland Institute website.