ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on statutory planning, or regulation, implementation and enforcement. This includes code compliance, design guidelines, approval processes and quality controls. Rating tools (RTs) have for some decades dominated the scene regarding development assessment and quality control. There are a wide range of RTs that focus on different types or scales of development, but most share the basic approach of dividing conventional developments into components that are easily measured or impacts that are easily reduced. Most development assessment processes are widely considered to be expensive and bureaucratic, with burdensome transaction costs. Participation in approval/consent processes are a check on development that meets codes but nonetheless threatens neighborhood life quality and sense of place. The growth of RTs has been impressive and they are gradually adding more green planning and design principles, but these seldom address the fundamental challenge of sustainability.
