ABSTRACT
Justice William Douglas authored several path breaking opinions protecting urban and land planning, as well as extending the reach of environmental pollution laws. In 1970, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) was adopted, requiring federal agencies to assess the impacts of their major decisions that could significantly affect the environment. Lynton Caldwell was one of the principal drafters of the NEPA. The Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 (CZMA) establishes a mechanism for a review for determining consistency. These reviews rise interesting questions about what actions are "consistent" with an "ecologically oriented" management plan, and to what extent the agencies involved share a common vision for the management or protection of the coastal ecosystem. In 1969, the planner Ian McHarg had published his classic Design with Nature. McHarg sought to show how planners had to carefully design the land and water uses of projects based upon a detailed ecological understanding of nature.
