Zoning or Discretionary Action: Certainty and Responsiveness in Implementing Planning Policy

Abstract

This paper begins by noting that regulatory systems are based on the need to establish rights and create certainty, and discretionary systems are shaped by the desire to achieve a flexible response to future development. The paper then explores how the planning systems of France, Britain, and Hong Kong— representing regulatory, discretionary, and hybrid systems, respectively——cope with uncertainty. It notes that France has developed several ways of circumventing regulations, while Britain has recently placed a new emphasis on plan making in order to reduce uncertainty. The Hong Kong government, as landlord, has had to reconcile its desire to provide long-term security for its developers with a need to respond to change. The paper concludes by suggesting that there needs to be agreement on what level of certainty is required and how decision making may be made accountable.