Search results

Using the same checklist as that in the previous chapter, this chapter evaluates the current status of policy initiative on incorporating climate disaster risk aspects in local development planning in Costa Rica. The chapter identifies opportunities and challenges of this local initiative for reducing climate disaster risk. In addition, the study discusses the influence of national policy on local development planning.

The purpose of this study is to measure local climate change response capacity and identify the existing gaps between local climate change action plans and land use plans.

This study uses content analysis method to statistically analyze 40 pioneering local jurisdictions' climate change action plans and land use plans.

The results show significant gaps in the two types of plans. Local climate change action plans have a higher quality of plan components including factual basis, targets, coordination, and communication than local land use plans. However, local land use plans have an even higher quality of policy plan components than action plans.

This study has extended established climate change concepts and practices by incorporating climate change considerations into the existing framework of local decision making.

The paper aims to consider whether Neighbourhood Panning provides the appropriate output legitimacy for citizen engagement in the planning process. The Localism Act 2011 transformed the planning process by shifting decision-making powers away from the local institutions and transferring them to local people. Neighbourhood planning has created a new dynamic in planning by using “bottom up” governance processes which enables local people to shape the area where they live. Local referenda are used to inject output legitimacy in to neighbourhood planning, and this planning self-determination can be considered as “spatial sovereignty”, whereby the recipients of the planning decisions are also the primary stakeholders that have shaped planning policy.

This paper will examine how Localism, as an evolving concept of local governance, is enfranchising local communities to take control of planning and development in their area. The paper will draw upon the experience of the revised planning methodology introduced by the Localism Act 2011 and consider its impact on the delivery of broader public policy objectives contained within the National Planning Policy Framework.

Localism provides an alternative form of citizen engagement and democratic legitimation for planning decisions which transcends the traditional forms of participatory democracy, and recognises that other paths of democratic law-making are possible.

The paper argues that neighbourhood planning has created a paradigm whereby local planning preferences, as an expression of spatial sovereignty, do not necessarily align with the broader public policy objective to build homes in the right places.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how well local planners have recognized the issues surrounding climate change, the analysis that jurisdictions have conducted on climate change, and policies that have been implemented to address climate change.

This study conducted a mail questionnaire survey for 214 counties ' planning directors in the USA and received 53 effective responses. This survey examined how well local planning directors have been prepared for climate change, including awareness, analysis scope, and implementation strategy.

The descriptive results indicate that the directors who responded to this survey had a relatively high (79.87 percent) level of awareness for climate change; but they had limited (34.94 percent) analysis scopes to assess the sources, impacts, and risk of climate change in their jurisdictions. These directors had partially but not fully (51.51 percent) developed local land use planning implementation strategies to mitigate or adapt climate change. The regression model indicates that the political commitment and planning personnel resources have significant influence on local planning directors ' actions for climate change.

This paper provides policy implications to improve local land use planning ability for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Indonesia is an ethnically diverse nation with large interregional poverty differences and variations in regional population density.¹ However, under Suharto's highly centralized “New Order” regime, local service delivery agencies were administrative instruments of remote national ministries and unresponsive to the individual priorities and problems of varied local communities. The abrupt nature of the 2001 decentralization has been interpreted by some as an insurance policy against fragmentation following the disturbances at the close of the highly centralized Suharto era.²

Purpose – This chapter explores the nature of spatial change processes in the urban–rural fringe of Ireland's capital city, Dublin. These areas have experienced rapid population growth between 1991 and 2002 in changing social structures, a rapidly changing built and natural environment, and increases in commuting. The chapter investigates how coalitions of community interests have responded to these spatial changes through opportunities for public participation in local governance processes.

Methodology/approach – We adopt a qualitative approach to assess the relationship between residents’ associations and the local state through a detailed empirical examination of the activities of residents’ associations within the rural–urban fringe.

Findings – Community and residents’ groups are very active in attempting to shape land-use and spatial planning policy outcomes with a complexity of motivations for engaging with the planning process, beyond simplistic portrayals of Not In My Back Yard-style local opposition to any change. However, attempts to influence policy outcomes were undermined by powerful developer and landowning interests, resulting in a deep-seated cynicism towards the public participation process, particularly with regard to the relationship between developers and councillors, and the probity of the planning system.

Implications/value of chapter – The limited ability of community interests to influence policy represents the economic and political reality of the development process, where the strategies and tactical behaviour of a few dominant interests and embedded power relations can compromise a deliberative and participatory policy process.

The purpose of the paper is to research local sustainable development strategic planning processes and practices in the Drina River Basin (geographical area delineated by the river Drina and shared among Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia).

Research methodology included the analysis of the existing country-based strategic documents and processes, as well as the local strategic documents and processes of implementation in 21 municipalities in the Drina River Basin, including interviews with the representatives of central and local governments and civil sector and a questionnaire-based assessment of the situation and needs in municipalities.

The paper argues that local sustainable development planning, although still lacking the proper methodological approach and facing insufficiencies in institutional and implementation capacities is becoming more appreciated by local authorities in the region.

The findings should help better understand the interactions between local government institutions and civil society in the Drina River Basin municipalities in achieving local sustainable development, as well as the conditions enabling improved communication networks and capacity building.

Sustainability is an essential word in the vocabulary of modern planning; it is the key principle that underpins the Irish planning process. Yet, despite decades of academic and practical debate on sustainable planning and its application to tourism, there still exist many gaps, especially when it comes to its implementation. The purpose of this paper is to highlight, over a 10-year period, how Local Authorities in Ireland have responded to the increasing tourism arrivals, which is having major implications for tourism planning.

This study used a multi-method approach to determine the level of sustainable planning for tourism as evident from all legally required Local Authority County Development Plans (CDPs) in Ireland.

While findings have identified a slight increase in the provision for sustainable planning for tourism over the decade, there continues to be poor levels of policy provision in key areas. Despite the responsibilities placed on Local Authorities to sustainably plan for tourism, findings continue to question the ability of Local Authorities in Ireland to plan sustainably for tourism and protect the tourism product.

This research provides the first longitudinal study on the level of sustainable planning for tourism by Local Authorities in Ireland. It provides an assessment of the current state of sustainable planning as evident from CDPs in 2016 compared to the original study of 2006, while developing new knowledge on Local Authority sustainable planning for tourism and the incorporation of tourism indicators.

I examine three recent cases where local governments changed their processes for selecting capital projects. The central question is whether these changes institutionalized a more “strategic” outlook in capital improvement planning and budgeting for these jurisdictions? The findings suggest that local governments can set capital priorities strategically, but that the process of implementing those reforms must be adaptable to changing political circumstances. These findings add to the limited literature on the political, administrative, and other challenges that local governments must confront when reforming their capital improvement planning and budgeting processes.

The theoretical case for land value capture is well-known, but the effectiveness of affordable housing delivery as a capture mechanism is not so well-documented. Building on the earlier theoretical and empirical work of Whitehead (1991, 2007) and Crook and Whitehead (2002), the purpose of this paper is to consider the provision of affordable housing from a land value capture viewpoint, focusing on the process by which the amount of affordable housing is determined between landowners/developers on the one hand and local planning authorities on the other.

The paper adopts a mixed-mode approach for the data collection. Two surveys of local planning authorities were undertaken, together with a series of case study interviews.

The paper evaluates whether land value capture has been an effective mechanism for delivering affordable housing by focusing on three principal areas: first, the political agenda in relation to land value capture and the supply of affordable housing; second, the nature and motivation of the stakeholders involved in affordable housing decision-making; and third, the use of economic models as decision tools for determining the amount and type of affordable housing are negotiated.

The research provides some insight into the effectiveness of local authority affordable housing targets as a means of capturing the uplift in land value that results from the grant of planning permission.