ABSTRACT
Many criticisms of planning that were frequently heard in the 1970s still apply today (Goodman 1971). Despite increasing awareness of the severity of global environmental change, and its local manifestations, most planning decision-making still ignores cumulative or regional impacts (see chapters 6 and 19). Some town plans still promote a ‘business-as-usual’ growth model, putting economics ahead of all other concerns. Many planning policies are still couched in language such as ‘mitigating’ the bad and ‘enhancing’ the good, without accounting for the fact that this results in net loss. Previous environmental harms are seldom remedied through development approvals, and many development control processes still allocate natural resources on a ‘first-come-first-served’ basis. Indeed, it seems that so-called ‘sustainable planning’ is yet to escape the ‘linear industrial model’ or dominant industrial paradigm, which it purports to challenge. Why?
