Sustainable development control? Zoning and land use regulations for urban form, biodiversity conservation and green design in Australia

Abstract

This paper examines how Australian land use plans incorporate provisions for sustainable urban form, design, biodiversity conservation, and climate change. Despite the long-standing sustainability objectives in state policy frameworks, a survey of 291 comprehensive plans finds implementation within local instruments is far from universal. Differences in patterns of policy adoption, as well as potential explanations for these differences, including geographical location, patterns of residential growth, the socio-economic composition of local communities, political forces, and policy evolution over time, are explored. Overall, areas experiencing more intensive growth tend to have newer plans, which in turn, contain more sustainability provisions, suggesting a responsive rather than repressive relationship between development pressures and regulatory development control.

Keywords:

• local planning
• sustainability techniques
• development control

Note

Notes

1. Support for Green Party political candidates in the 2008 Local Government elections, ranged from 0% to 43% of votes, but averaged just over 6% across the State. Overall, the Green Party was found to be more heavily represented, and politically supported, in metropolitan areas, with little or no representation in some rural, particularly inland, local government areas.