Environmental planning

In the United States of America, there have been numerous examples of the state provisioning of environmental justice in multiple communities. Listed are some of such projects:

• The Phillips community in Minneapolis, Minnesota: The Phillips community began a campaign against the city of Minneapolis to halt the construction of a garbage transfer station in their neighborhood. The city was ordered for the demolition of twenty-eight homes for the site, amassing ten acres of land; this project was soon stopped by the aforementioned Phillips neighborhood.[6] The people of Phillips established an organization known as the “Green Institute” afterwards in order to repurpose this vacant ten-acre lot. The Green Institute partnered with the city of Minneapolis to create sustainable business enterprises to ultimately bolster the job market while improving Minneapolis' environment by reducing waste and promoting clean energy techniques.[6] With funding from the city government of Minneapolis, the Green Institute has established city-wide projects such as the "ReUse Center" and the "DeConstruction" service. The ReUse Center's services provide systems to repurpose scavenged construction materials so that building waste is reduced; the DeConstruction service assists those who want to collect discarded construction materials from demolition or building sites to reclaim.[6] With these services, it is estimated that up to 75 percent of unused structures can be repurposed and then sold for new uses.[6] This idea for the Green Institute, first drummed up by the citizens of the Phillips community, was quickly incorporated as a government-funded project that advocates for environmental justice.

In Canada, "Planners safeguard the health and well-being of urban and rural communities, by addressing the use of land, resources, facilities and services with consideration to physical, economic, and social efficiency" as stated on the Canadian Institute of Planners official website.

Local municipals around the US are implementing Climate Action Plans (CAPs) as urban areas grow. However, the level of detail is variable; some act more as motivational goals while others are a concrete plan for implementation.[7] In the United States, for any project, environmental planners deal with a full range of environmental regulations from federal to state and city levels, administered federally by the Environmental Protection Agency.[8] A rigorous environmental process has to be undertaken to examine the impacts and possible mitigation of any construction project was Depending on the scale and impact of the project, an extensive environmental review is known as an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and the less extensive version is Environmental Assessment (EA). Procedures follow guidelines from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and/or City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR), and other related federal or state agencies published regulations. Eccleston has developed a set of tools and techniques for solving NEPA and environmental planning problems. A study found that the best may to minimize information asymmetry and goal incongruence between organizations working to implement environmental policy is to focus on principle-agent dynamics thus avoiding conflict and allowing for progress in addressing environmental issues.[9]

The Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) is a non-profit organization of interdisciplinary professionals including environmental science, resource management, environmental planning and other professions contributing to this field. AEP is the first organization of its kind in the US, and its influence and model have spawned numerous other regional organizations throughout the United States. Its mission is to improve the technical skills of members, and the organization is dedicated to "the enhancement, maintenance and protection of the natural and human environment". From inception in the mid-1970s the organization has been closely linked with the maintenance of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), due to California being one of the first states to adopt a comprehensive legal framework to govern the environmental review of public policy and project review.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) in the major qualification system for green building. It is a certification system created by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and is used worldwide. The program includes certifications for new types of buildings as well as existing building that are candidates for modification. The multi-tiered point system enables building to be certified beyond local, state and federal standards.[10] LEED standards play an important role in quantifying a building's environmental impact, encouraging sustainable environmental practices, and acting as a hybrid between "material objects and human practices."[11]

Table 1.0 depicts the changes of focus in planning over the last 300 years in Australia, which has evolved from an amenity and resource use focus to an integrated approach which espouses the stewardship of natural systems for the continued long term viability of both human and natural systems.

Relevant environment protection, planning & administering agencies and legislation at the level of commonwealth, states & territories are as shown in table below. Environmental planning policies vary from state to state.

The incorporation of environmental considerations in land-use planning in Australia began after the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972. One of the key principles developed in reference to planning and human activity was:

Principle 13 In order to achieve a more rational management of resources and thus to improve the environment, States should adopt an integrated and coordinated approach to their development planning so as to ensure that development is compatible with the need to protect and improve environment for the benefit of their population.UNEP

Previous to this conference the United States Congress passed National Environmental Policy Act, which created a process whereby government agencies were required to publicly state and justify the environmental impacts of their development proposals by preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS structure was further developed by Burchell and Listokin (1975), and this approach has informed the development of environmental impact regulation worldwide (Beer 1977), and resulted in the development of legislation within several Australian states.

In NSW the first attempt to incorporate environmental assessment and protection into planning law began in 1974 with the appointment of a Planning and Environment Commission to overhaul the existing predominately urban land-use system. After various delays the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EP&A Act) came into force on 1 September 1980. The EP&A Act incorporated a three tired system of State, Regional and Local levels of significance, and required the relevant control authority to take into consideration the impacts to the environment (both natural and built) and the community of proposed development or land-use change. Within the EP&A Act most development requires a Statement of Environmental Effects (SEE) or Review of Environmental Effects (REF) detailing the impacts to both natural and human environments, which should be taken into consideration by the regulatory authority. Significant projects require a more thorough Environmental Impact Assessment with a corresponding greater public scrutiny.

Concurrent with this development was the establishment of a parallel legal system, the Land and Environment Court, to arbitrate disputes. The EP&A Act has been amended over time, generally giving the government, acting through the Minister, greater powers to determine approval of development, particularly large projects of 'State Significance', but also to incorporate specific environmental laws, such as the Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (Park 2010).

The Environment Effects Act 1978 was the first environmental planning control in Victoria, and it assessed the environmental impact of significant developments via an Environmental Effects Statement (EES). However the obligation for presenting an EES remained somewhat unclear and is ultimately at the discretion of the Minister for Planning (Eccles and Bryant 2007). The Planning and Environment Act 1987 created a statewide nested planning process, Victoria Planning Provisions (VPP) which has within the statewide objectives:

"the protection of natural and man-made resources and the maintenance of ecological processes and genetic diversity" (PaE Act 1987, s4(1))

To achieve these ends, the VPP includes several overarching policy frameworks, including the identification of important environmental values and assets, such as 'protection of catchments, waterways and groundwater', 'coastal areas' and 'Conservation of native flora and fauna'. Below this level, local planning schemes identify land-uses through Zone designation, and also identify land affected by other criteria, called 'overlays'. Overlays include environmental parameters such as 'Environmental Significance', 'Vegetation Protection', 'Erosion Management' and 'Wildfire Management', but also social issues like 'Neighbourhood Character'. Below this again are various regulations on particular issues, such as details pertaining to regulation of areas of Native Vegetation DSE Victoria

Reform has occurred to the Victorian framework in recent years aimed at improving land use and transport outcomes including consideration of environmental impacts. The Transport Integration Act[14] identifies key planning agencies as interface bodies required to have regard to a vision for the transport system and objectives and decision making principles if decisions are likely to have a significant impact on Victoria's transport system. In addition, the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Act 2009[15] establishes a scheme to improve the approval and delivery of major rail, road and ports projects.

Planning in South Australia is coordinated within the Development Act 1993. Under this law most urban and land-use planning is assessed against local plans of allowed development. The Minister must declare a proposed development either 'Major Development' or a 'Major Project' for it to be subjected to greater depth of environmental assessment and public consultation, via an independent Development Assessment Commission of experts. Complex proposals will generally require an indepth EIS. Planning SA

The Integrated Planning Act 1997[16] vested most planning control with local government, but required 'significant projects' to be assessed by a State Coordinator General and usually required an environmental impact statement (EIS).[17]

This has been replaced by the Sustainable Planning Act 2009[18] which came into force 18 December 2009. This law aims to 'improve sustainable environmental outcomes through streamlined processes', and incorporates Statewide, Regional and local planning hierarchies, which follow the model of Victoria's VPP. The Coordinator General may still declare projects to be 'significant projects' which then require assessment under the State Development and Public Works Organisation Act 1971 (Qld).[19]

• Beer A 1977 ‘Environmental Impact Analysis: A Review Article’ Town Planning Review 48(4):389
• Burchell RW and Listokin D 1975 The environmental impact handbook Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers, the State University, New Brunswick, N.J.
• Conacher A & Conacher J., Environment planning & management in Australia, Oxford University Press, 2000
• Eccles D & Bryant TL., 2007, Statutory planning in Victoria Federation Press, Annandale
• Environmental planning for communities: a guide to the environmental visioning process utilizing a geographic information system (GIS), United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, DIANE Publishing, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2000
• Park H 2010 ‘NSW Planning Framework: History of Reforms’ e-brief pdf
• Petts, Judith, Handbook of environmental impact assessment, Volume 2, Blackwell Publishing, 1999