Sustainable Development and the Role of Land Use Planning

Sustainable Development and the Role of Land Use Planning Author(s): Yvonne Rydin Source: Area, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Dec., 1995), pp. 369-377 Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20003606 . Accessed: 18/06/2014 16:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Area. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.44.78.190 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=rgs http://www.jstor.org/stable/20003606?origin=JSTOR-pdf http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Area (1995) 27.4, 369-377 Sustainable development and the role of Land Use Planning Yvonne Rydin, Department of Geography, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE Summary Many interests concerned with the British land use planning system have welcomed the adoption of a goal of sustainable development and sought to argue that planners have a specific role to play in achieving this goal. Such an attempt to restate a strategic function for the planning system raises questions about the ability of the system to deliver and the vested interests of professional planners. It is argued that neither of the alternative models of the planning system-as a mediator of conflicts or as a basis of empowerment-resolve fundamental problems involved in using land use planning to achieve sustainability and that, therefore, this goal continues to depend on broader emancipatory politics. Planning for sustainable development There is now a burgeoning literature on the recent ' greening' of the land use planning system and the way in which the concept of the ' environment ', which planners use, is being transformed by adopting a goal of sustainable development (Healey and Shaw 1994; Owens 1994; Myerson and Rydin 1994; Blowers 1993; Morgan et al 1993; Marshall 1992, 1994). A variety of documents at European Union (EU) and British central government level are arguing that the land use planning system has an important role to play in promoting sustainability. This view was stated in the first UK environment white paper, This Common Inheritance in 1990 and is repeated in the UK strategy for Sustainable Development published in 1994. The consultation draft of the revised PPG2 (DoE Planning Policy Guidance Note) on green belts and the existing PPG12 on development plans reiterate this stance. At the EU level, the 5th Environmental Action Programme Towards Sustainability (1992) also identifies a specific role for spatial planning. The various actors within the planning system have largely welcomed this new role. Local authorities have been enthusiastic in their espousal of green charters and plans (Gibbs 1993), urged on by non-governmental organisations (NGOs) outside the authority and committed individuals within, both officers and members (Ward 1993). Professional planners have seen the new environmental agenda as providing a renewed rationale for planning practice, as the enthusiasms for local entrepreneurial activity to lever in economic development fade in the shadow of economic recession (Rydin 1993). Environmental concerns, they argue, have always been at the root of planning ideology and certainly the public interest conception of environmental protection sits more easily with the ideology tradi tionally underpinning professional planning practice than the market promotion of Thatcherite planning policy (Thornley 1991). Furthermore, the techniques of planning are seen as well suited to synthesising the information that environmental investigation brings forward, considering the trade-offs between environmental protection and other policy goals, and dealing with any arising conflicts. And, finally, central government has been happy to react to pressures from the This content downloaded from 185.44.78.190 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp 370 Rydin European level by linking much environmental policy action to the existing land use planning system rather than creating new regulatory and proactive regimes (Clark and Herington 1988). Owens (1994) has pointed out that there is an inherent congruity between planning, as a future-oriented activity, and the concept of sustainable development, which concerns the extent to which we bequeath environmental assets, services and qualities to future generations. She has also pointed to the wide-ranging challenge that this poses for land use planning in terms of managing resource use, including energy, water and minerals, protecting cultural environments and maintaining wildlife. While Owens' paper considers some of the theoretical problems posed by using planning to achieve sustainable development, and in doing so elaborates and elucidates this concept, the purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of adopting the concept as a policy goal for the practice of planning. In doing so, it will discuss three competing normative models of planning activity. The search for a new strategic competence As mentioned above, there are numerous vested interests involved in establishing sustainable development as a planning goal. This has underpinned a restatement of a strategic function for the planning system in Britain. During the 1980s, planning in Britain was restructured as part of the project of ' rolling back the state ' to focus on facilitating development. By the turn of the decade it became clear that many development interests themselves favoured a reintroduction of a strategic planning role to limit competition and bring forward development land in a more orderly manner (Healey 1995). But it was the prospect of an expansion of environmental policy that suggested new areas for planning activity-environmental impact assessment, strategic environmental assessment, incorporating sustainable develop ment objectives in development plans, new waste management and pollution control duties for local authorities and involvement in the local Agenda 21 process. In this context, planners could again present themselves as holders of a vision for town and country and possessors of general techniques for decision-making and synthesising information to achieve this vision. Their experience of strategic decision-making could incorporate development-environment trade-offs and even lend itself to some of the ' softer ' notions of environmental valuation. However, rediscovering a strategic competence has also threatened to re-establish a technocratic model of planning activity. This can be illustrated through the way in which sustainable development has prompted a renewed interest in the importance of urban form. Urban form has been the traditional mainstream concern of the postwar British planning system, seeking to limit ribbon development and contain urban sprawl. Even the social agenda of the 1970s and then the economic agenda of the 1980s had to be interpreted, on central government direction, primarily as an issue of land use. However, it often proved difficult to achieve social and economic growth through manipulating land use. It now appears that environmental goals may be more readily achieved through planning tools affecting urban form. In particular, there has been considerable interest in the issue of whether and how different urban forms affect travel patterns, in terms of the number and distance of travel journeys and the mode used. This, in turn relates to the energy efficiency and level of CO2 emissions associated with travel, and hence a direct link is made between urban form and attempts to control the enhanced greenhouse effect. Relevant findings from the considerable and sophisticated literature on the relationship between urban form and This content downloaded from 185.44.78.190 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Sustainable development 371 Table 1 Existing research on urban form and travel Travel Variable Urban Form Variable Effect on Travel Specified Reference Density - ve within city Petrol consumption Newman & Kenworthy (1989) - ve across cities Petrol consumption Newman & Kenworthy (1989) - ve particularly < 15 Travel Distance Ecotech (1993) p.p.ha and >50 p.p.ha + ve Journeys by public Ecotech (1993) transport + ve Walking journeys Ecotech (1992) Settlement size +ve comparing rural Energy efficiency Bannister (1992) with >25,000 pop.; - ve comparing London with >25,000 pop. Nil Number of journeys Ecotech (1993) and total travel distance travel declines rapidly Travel to work; non- Ecotech (1993) >50,000 pop. for work work travel and >25,000 pop. for non-work +ve >10,000 pop. Degree of self- Breheny & containment Lock (1993) Decentralised Nil Various Ecotech (1993) concentration structure Local land use mix Nil Various Ecotech (1993) Nil Various Downs (1992) travel patterns are summarised in Table 1. As can be seen, there has been detailed analysis of the statistical relationships between travel variables and the physical features of an urban area, in terms of density, settlement size, local land use mix and overall urban structure (with particular emphasis in the latter case on the potential of decentralised concentration as an energy-efficient urban form--Owens 1992). But the authors or commentators on this literature have also emphasised the problems with attributing causal properties to an urban form variable because of linkages with other variables. So, in the case of density levels, there is the problem of the strong relationship between density and income levels (Ecotech 1993). The importance of factors such as the location of residential areas in relation to the public transport system, the density of non-residential clusters and the costs of public transport have all been cited as more significant than urban density alone (Downs 1992, 87). And there is the uncertainty about adaptive behaviour concerning travel decisions in response to the changes in density. It is possible that the reduction of travel for one purpose (for example shopping) may simply result in more travel for another purpose (for example leisure) rather than reducing overall journey numbers and mileage (Ecotech op.cit.). The behavioural dimension to travel decisions has also This content downloaded from 185.44.78.190 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp 372 Rydin been considered significant in understanding both the extent to which distance acts as a deterrent to travel and the basis of the substantial cross-commuting that occurs from settlement to settlement and area to area within cities (Owens 1992; Downs 1992, 104; Breheny 1992; Rickaby 1987, 1991; Rickaby et al 1992). These consid erations are important in determining whether a particular mix of local land uses or urban structure (such as decentralised concentration) will actually reduce travel. Choice or specialisation within the labour market, or in the nature of services which are sought, means that people do not automatically make use of the nearest local opportunities. Yet despite the caveats attached to such analyses, they have continued to play a significant role in underpinning arguments for a technocratic approach to planning. Here such empirical studies are used to provide direct lessons for how planning policy should evolve, a policy which, it seems to be assumed, will be readily implemented to have a direct effect on the policy variables of urban form and travel patterns. In this context, the use of such empirical studies by policy makers can become a search for relationships in statistical data. The nature of real-world data is such that statistical relationships are rarely strong. Multi-causality and covariance of variables are the norm not the exception. Correlation coefficients are, therefore, frequently small and yet there is the temptation to conclude that there is some evidence of a specific relationship between urban form and travel patterns and hence a role for the planning system. The tentative conclusions on relationships can be emphasised at the expense of the careful caveats also found in reports and articles. There is then a quick transition to developing policy mechanisms and institutional forms which can implement a planning policy assumed to control transport emissions via urban form. A consensus has already developed in professional and policy circles that planning should refocus itself of urban containment, on increasing densities and, perhaps, creating satellite towns at appropriate distances from major conurbations. This could easily be another example of the tendency within planning circles to too-readily adopt new agendas for planners and prematurely legitimate certain policy action (Reade 1987). So the urban form/sustainable development linkage illustrates one of the key problems of this strategic model of planning-the adequacy of the knowledge base for planning action. There is also the problem of the adequacy of the tools available to planners for achieving specified change. The vested interests alluded to above can support a view of planning which overstates its potential for influencing land use, urban form and associated environmental quality. To return to the urban form case, there is the problem of scale in terms of the relative impact of the planning policies proposed compared to the problem. Downs (1992) makes the point that, as a policy tool, increasing densities, particularly residential densities, can have only a marginal effect since the additions to the built environment are only a small proportion of the urban stock. Furthermore the percentage change in such commuting distance would be considerably less than the change in residential density needed to achieve it: 21 per cent fall in average exurban commuting distance results from a 924 per cent increase in exurban residential densities according to his calculations (op.cit., 84). Some analysts have also pointed to the importance of the feedback loop, from transport infrastructure and travel patterns to urban form. It can be argued that this direction of causation is more important than that from urban form to travel patterns (Rickaby et al 1992; Downs 1992): urban form is seen to result from households and firms seeking locations which minimise travel costs and time, in the context of the unrestricted growth of car ownership over the last four decades. If this argument is followed, a substantial shift away from the car, based on heavy restrictions or This content downloaded from 185.44.78.190 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Sustainable development 373 disincentives, and towards public transport, based on heavy investment, is a necessary precursor for alternative urban forms to be viable. Such investments would indeed need to be substantial since to provide for a 5 per cent shift from car to bus and rail implies a 63 per cent increase in rail and bus demand (Owens and Cope 1992, 36) or, as Downs (1992, 43) puts it using USA data, a doubling of passengers on public transport only reduces car commuting by 3-7 per cent. Furthermore such investment would only be effective in certain urban locations. Rickaby's modelling work (1991) shows that for small English towns the dependence on the car is already so great that changes in morphology have minimal impact on travel patterns and the potential for increasing public transport is severely limited. Yet, sidestepping these implications for expenditure on public transport systems, the emerging consensus on land use planning has charged the planning system with matching development opportunities with public transport nodes and interchanges. Analysts have recognised that fundamental reforms of transport policy are necessary to achieve the intended effects of travel and emission reductions and have pointed out the importance of factors operating at a broader social scale: adopted transport technology; government policy in relation to public transport subsidies; fiscal measures such as road pricing, carbon taxation or removal of company car ' perks '; social attitudes to the car and perceptions of public transport. For this reason, they have often emphasised non-planning approaches to reducing transport emissions (Ecotech 1993): technical measures for increasing fuel efficiency and smoothing traffic flows; influencing demand for car use through economic measures, road management or regulation; influencing demand for public transport through the provision of infrastructure; and influencing demand through education. But it has proved politically easier to green land use planning rather than transport policy. Alternative models of planning and sustainable development If a technocratic version of strong strategic planning is unlikely to be able to deliver on sustainable development, what of alternative models? Arising out of the political economy critique of urban planning in the 1980s, there developed a normative model of planning as mediating conflicts over land use, development and environmental change. Here the planner was not directing change following a strategic vision so much as steering it in response to a politically negotiated bargain or compromise (Healey et al 1988). Perhaps this model has more to offer to proponents of sustainable development? This is questionable due to the range of interests presented through the planning system and the way this relates to environmental problems. As Owens notes (1994, 439): ' planning is contained within, and constrained by, economic and political forces and priorities on a wider stage '. In practice this has meant that pro-development or strong economic interest have often held sway in planning decisions. Thus the environment versus development conflict as mediated through the planning system is unlikely consistently to favour the environment in the trade-offs and bargains that are negotiated. The concept of sustainable development has been widely interpreted as encompassing both development and environmental goals-of essence a compromise but not a one-sided 'compromise'. The way that interests are mediated within the planning system may mean that the ' compromise ' in practice is little different from the pre-Brundtland situation where development interests so frequently dominated. Furthermore the patterns of inequality in society are both reflected in, and are partially created by the actions of planning. This inequality in access to mediation This content downloaded from 185.44.78.190 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp 374 Rydin through planning is unfortunately reinforced by the way in which sustainable development has been interpreted in this context. The concern is primarily with ensuring that activities controlled through land use planning do not breach the constraints of environmental sustainability and that such environmental protection is not at the expense of economic development. However, this is only one dimension of the sustainable development concept as popularised by the Brundtland process the emphasis on the oft-quoted definition is on being able 'to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the future'. (WCED 1987, 40) and the larger part of the Brundtland Report is on the social and political aspects of sustainable development patterns, not the ecological. The argument, framed firmly in the global context, is that poverty is unacceptable, not only morally but also because it generates environmentally unsustainable practices and it results in social and political tensions which render current development patterns unsustainable. Hence the concept incorporates significant equity dimensions both in terms of the distribution of economic resources to ensure basic ' needs and aspirations ' are met and in terms of political resources to ensure that dissatisfaction with the prevailing patterns of distribution can be expressed through the political system without significant stress to that system. One of the challenges that the Brundtland process posed was to face the existing global development patterns with the moral force of these equity demands. Therefore incorporating sustainable development into the planning system could also support the incorporation of a broader range of interests and a strong voice in the mediation process for disadvantaged groups. Yet the current formulation of the sustainability goal ignores this dimension. The discussion of equity is generally notable by its absence or cursory treatment in the relevant policy documents. The European Union appear to take the position that equity only enters the debate in terms of relations between global regions, and possibly nations and subnational regions. The ' need ' for development in ' peripheral ' geographical areas is seen as a factor to trade-off against environmental protection but, by and large, the discussion of how to achieve environmental sustainability has occurred independently of these complex distributional concerns; equity is not considered in the 1990 EU Green Paper on the Urban Environment (apart from a brief mention of the problems of peripheral housing estates), the 1992 Transport Green Paper A Community Strategy for 'Sustainable Mobility ' or the 5th Environmental Action Plan (1992). The UK Strategy for Sustainable Development (1994) sees economic growth as providing for ' needs' with no subsequent mention of distributional matters. In more detailed planning policy guidance (PPG), such as PPG3 on housing, PPG12 on development plans or PPG6 on town centres, there is mention of social considerations or of the need to provide for lower income households and the less mobile, but there is clearly confusion on how to integrate these concerns with the other spatial planning guidance given in support of environmental sustainability and other policy goals. Local planners are left with a difficult task in working out the relationships between these goals at the local level. There are examples of texts where equity is given a more central stage in the discussion of sustainability, such as the Town and Country Planning Association Report (Blowers 1993) and the brief review of the Environment City initiative published by the Royal Society for Nature Conservation. These documents contain strong statements on the need to take equity into account, including arguments for greater participation and democratic planning procedures. But even here the statements tend to be confined to one chapter or section and the implications of This content downloaded from 185.44.78.190 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp Sustainable development 375 integrating equity concerns into all the policy areas discussed are not fully worked through. It is ironic that the holistic approach borrowed from deep green thinking has led to environmental sustainability concerns being integrated across policy barriers but at the expense, it appears of social concerns. There is a third normative model of planning which might seem to offer a way out of such inequitable operation of the system. Building on the mediation model and in recognition of the problem posed by inequitable access, Healey has proposed a collaborative model which harks back to advocacy planning models and suggests a role for the planner in actively empowering disadvantaged and silence groups (1995). Using the communicative action theory of Habermas and the linguistically-informed structuration theory of Giddens, she proposes a view of planning as communication, debate, dialogue and normatively argues for a renewed justification for planning in this light. Can sustainable development fit more readily with this model? Setting sustainable goals alongside this model raises some of the most difficult questions about planning and environmental issues. Dalia Lichfield has sought in the Lichfield method for impact assessment to integrate environmental assessments into planning decisions on specific projects: 'Public participation in planning should go beyond informing and consulting the public. It requires that all those affected also participate in making decisions, in the sense that their own values are considered within a comprehensive framework of interests '. (1994, 20) This begs the question of what 'their own values' are. As pointed out earlier, sustainability is a future oriented concept and yet these models of a mediating, collaborative or empowering planning system only bring current interests into the decision-making process. To what extent do these current interests represent the interests of future generations? If support for planning action is based on demon strating benefits to participants, how is action intended to benefit people in the future to be legitimated? Are groups that are empowered through the medium of the planning system, which is after all only a limited forum for debate, necessarily 'green ' in their outlook and priorities? There is clearly no panacea for those seeking sustainable development in this model of planning either. The continued need for a broader political debate The argument presented here suggests the existence of substantial problems in relying on the planning system to deliver sustainable development or even make a major contribution to this end. None of the three normative models of how planning should proceed can effectively deal with the knowledge requirements of a sustain ability policy, the limited availability of policy tools within the system, the commitment to overcome poverty and the representation of future interests. This supports the view that making progress towards sustainable development will continue to depend on the concept retaining a high profile in the broader political arena. It is through the interplay of a wide range of NGOs, representing a variety of interests including less exclusively anthropocentric interests, that pressure for effective policy measures can be generated. The danger with the way that the planning system is being used in current policy debates is that it will encourage the depoliticisation of the debate. It is important that sustainable development should not become a technical issue as has happened with This content downloaded from 185.44.78.190 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:56:45 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp 376 Rydin many other issues within planning in the past. Such politicisation is difficult, not just because of institutional preferences for avoiding conflicts and the benefits to vested interests of maintaining existing consensual positions, but also because of the language in which the sustainability debate has been couched (Taylor and Buttel 1992). The danger is that many technocrats (including, I would argue, planners) see an interest in maintaining the conflict-free vision of the sustainability agenda. Rather, the role of the planning system should be seen as just one forum in which certain interests can organise to promote sustainable development goals with a broader range of interests continuing to pursue the goals primarily in the broader political arena. 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[369] p. 370 p. 371 p. 372 p. 373 p. 374 p. 375 p. 376 p. 377 Issue Table of Contents Area, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Dec., 1995), pp. 289-400 Front Matter Stability and Instability: The Uncertainty of Economic Geography [pp. 289-299] Landscape, Race and National Identity: The Photography of Ingrid Pollard [pp. 300-310] Policy Implications of the Missing Global Carbon Sink [pp. 311-317] The Geography of Hong Kong Transnational Corporations in the ASEAN Region [pp. 318-334] The Impact of Foreign Investments in the Automobile Industry on Local Economic Development in Spain [pp. 335-346] Regional Variations in Rates and Sources of Innovation: Evidence from the Electronics Industry in South Wales and Hampshire-Berkshire [pp. 347-357] Coastal Groups, Littoral Cells, Policies and Plans in the UK [pp. 358-368] Sustainable Development and the Role of Land Use Planning [pp. 369-377] Book Reviews Review: untitled [pp. 378-379] Review: untitled [p. 379-379] Review: untitled [p. 380-380] Review: untitled [pp. 380-381] Review: untitled [pp. 381-382] Review: untitled [pp. 382-383] Review: untitled [p. 383-383] Review: untitled [pp. 383-384] Review: untitled [pp. 384-385] Review: untitled [pp. 385-386] Review: untitled [p. 386-386] RGS-IBG Study Groups' Annual Reports 1995 [pp. 387-400] Back Matter