Planning for conservancy and development outcomes is
an ‘of the law’ activity and a ‘within the law’ process. Much
that is decreed within that activity process is not enforced
because many planning instruments are enabling-
permissive rather than mandatory. My predication is that,
essential though the law may be for facilitating planning
outcomes, the law, in and of itself, does not achieve good
conservancy and development practice. This is a matter
for the operatives involved to engage, manage, oversee
and enforce, using the available instruments and
processes.
Complexity and challenge arises from the reconcilia-
tion of two somewhat excluding verities. The first is for
a light hand on the tiller, markets in free flow, trading
deregulated, with only a few light and flexible controls.
Thesecondpredicates, from scientific indicators, that con-
sumerist and discard activities using biospheric resources
should be subject to firm intervention and emphatic
control. So, within settler societies there is this tussle
between ‘as of right’ presumptions springing from such
precepts as the sanctity of property-owner privileges and
the likes of the US ‘Second Amendment’ as resource own-
ership and usage rights; and the ‘highest and best use’
interventions of good government in association with the
use of enlightened subsidiarity.
The listing which follows is about matching up ‘regula-
tions’ with ‘regulating’. The big-stick options start with the
powers of compulsory acquisition (eminent domain),
progressing toward arrangements of the coercive kind,
ending with some other less official ways to induce
beneficial community outcomes.
EMINENT DOMAINis the overriding ‘sovereign’
power held by a state to exercise its ‘natural right’ of
property purchase: to take land (usually for compensa-
tion – hence ‘compulsory purchase’) for a worthy public
use purpose as a ‘taking’.
NEGOTIATED PURPOSEusually precedes and is
usually preferred to compulsory purchase. In this way
‘land’ or the development-conservancy rights to a ‘land
use’, are acquired by an arm of government which there-
after owns that use-right.
LAND BANKINGis the exercise of governmental
rights to acquire land in the marketplace for the purpose
of protecting that land or securing its use in accordance
with a pre-planned public purpose.
CENTRAL DIRECTIVEis the issuing of mandatory
and enforceable change via statutorily authorized legal
process. This takes the form of development and, or also,
conservancy practice orders, rules, procedures and
instrumental authority.ZONINGis a generic land-use planning tool for subdu-
ing land-use conflicts, grouping together complementary
land uses, and for also excluding land or building usages
designated non-conforming. Zoning sets down bulk and
location rules, density parameters and building and land-
use conditions. Although stylistically rigid, zoning practice
can be varied and flexible.- Area-based Allocation Zoningis usually engaged
as a rural ‘extensive’ zoning tool for the broad-brush
conservation of rural and natural heritage tracts,
often allowing for some zoned-in residential units,
usually clustered at designated locations. - Buffer Zoningwithin urban areas divides benignly
between conflicting land uses. Buffer zones for rural
areas provide a green-belt expanse between
settlements. - Rural Zoningprovides a rural-only barrier against
urban-driven land uses, price rises and land taxes;
allowing the division of land down to the minimum-
sized economically viable farm unit, usually by decree-
ing the minimum economic agri-unit area of holding. - Spot Zoning(in wider contexts PUDs – Planned
Unit Development) denotes the selective and prefer-
ential designation of property for a chosen purpose.
At worst spot zoning engenders ‘do this for me’
cronyism; at best it works effectively in a community’s
interest. - Cluster Zoningalso loosely fits the PUD (Planned
Unit Development) concept, which accommodates
the clumping together of a specified form of devel-
opment (say residential) on one part of a site, reserv-
ing the balance for (say) open area enjoyment. Cluster
zoning is often used to allow an above-average spot-
density of built units along with a substantial area of
adjoining open ground space. - Enterprise Zoning: a non-specific administrative
device for establishing the aptness of an otherwise
aberrant proposal for a site. - Floating Zones (also styled as Contract Zones)
locks up land for a future designated purpose, subject
to the terms of an agreement.