Bettman, Alfred, 1873-1945

City planner.

Alfred Bettman was a city planner.

Alfred Bettman, prominent lawyer and city planner, was born in 1873 in Cincinnati, Ohio to Louis and Rebecca (Bloom) Bettman. He attended Harvard University where he received both his undergraduate degree and his law degree. After completing his education in 1898, Bettman returned to Cincinnati and began practicing law. In 1904, he married Lillian Wyler. They had no children.

Bettman quickly began to use his legal skills to assist the City of Cincinnati. In 1909, he became Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Hamilton County, Ohio, and in 1912, Bettman was appointed as Cincinnati City Solicitor by Democratic Mayor Henry T. Hunt. While Bettman worked in this position, his interest in City Planning steadily increased. In 1914, he helped to found the United City Planning Committee, and in 1917, he drafted legislation that would allow Ohio cities to create city and regional planning boards.

With the outbreak of World War I, Bettman was appointed as a Special Assistant to the Attorney General of the United States in the War Emergency Division of the Department of the Justice, where he prosecuted cases involving the Espionage Act. He resigned this position at the end of the war, and rejoined his law firm in Cincinnati. After returning to Cincinnati, Bettman became further involved with city planning. He became a member of the City Planning Commission of Cincinnati, helped to establish the Ohio State Conference on City Planning, was a member of the Advisory Committee on Housing and Zoning for the United States Department of Commerce, and a consultant for the National Resources Planning Board. He also served as Director of the American Planning Institute and was a member of the American Society of Planning Officials and the British Town Planning Institute.

Bettman worked to ensure that city planning measures were regulated nationally. He assisted in drafting the Standard State Enabling Act in 1924 and the Standard City Planning Enabling Act of 1927. He also worked to uphold the constitutionality of zoning by writing the brief for the Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Company in 1926. Throughout the remainder of his career, he served on many boards and committees including the Cincinnati Planning Commission, the Ohio Valley Planning Commission, the American City Planning Institute, the National Conference on City Planning, the American Society of Planning Officials, and the National Resources Planning Board. Bettman also served as the United States representative on the executive committee of the International Congress for Housing and Town Planning. He was appointed to the City Planning Committee of President Hoover's conference on Home Building and Home Ownership. He also served as legal advisor to the commission that developed the Tennessee Valley Authority, and legal counsel of the National Capital Park and Planning Commission. Bettman died in January of 1945 while returning to Cincinnati from Washington, D.C.

Sources: Gerkens, Laurence C. "Bettman of Cincinnati" In The American Planner: Biographies and Recollections, edited by Donald A. Krueckeberg, 120-148. New York: Methuen, 1983. Lubove, Roy. "Alfred Bettman." Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 3: 1941-1945 . American Council of Learned Societies, 1973. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC (acessed January 6, 2009). Orth, John V. "Bettman, Alfred." American National Biography Online. Feb. 2000. http://www.anb.org/articles/11/11-00056.html (accessed January 5, 2009). Shapiro, Marsha, "The Bettman Papers at the University of Cincinnati." unpublished paper, no date.