Public Participation in Planning: Lessons from the Green Bans

Abstract

This article reflects on the extent to which the green bans have influenced the framework for public participation in planning in New South Wales. It critically examines claims that the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW) (EPA Act) was best practice at the time it was passed, thus challenging suggestions that current planning problems should be attributed to amendments made since its enactment. While the green bans were a catalyst for the introduction of the EPA Act, the relationship between the bans and the legislation is more complex than generally understood. This article argues that the EPA Act took very little from the green ban movement, and as a result embedded an adversarial approach to planning that remains at the heart of current problems in New South Wales.

Keywords: green ban movement, public participation, planning, heritage