19. Planning Law

Planning law regulates development. Given that environmental problems are often caused by development, planning law has an important role to play in environmental law. With that said, planning law is a vast subject. This chapter provides a basic introduction to planning law and its relationship to environmental law. Its objective is to ensure students have a robust understanding of how planning law works. It begins with a brief overview of the history of planning law, its major themes, and provides a map of the main legal frameworks in planning. It then considers the role of planning policy, the development application process, and the relevance of a range of environmental issues in that process.