New institutional approaches to sustainability in Coastal NSW

Since the late 70s, environmental planning at a State level has played second fiddle to development. Environmental regulations have gradually been introduced as constraints in the development approval process. This paper highlights emerging approaches to development that assign 'environmental-protection-specific' forms of property rights over land which is set aside for its environmental amenity, Rejecting orthodox or neoclassical approaches to environmental sustainability, the paper draws on recent evolutionary economic conceptions of how market arrangements develop. The paper then examines prospects for generalising these new models of environmental property rights to resolve issues relating to the integration of urban development and environmental protection in Coastal NSW. To accommodate pressures for continuing growth in Coastal NSW, where the available land is subject increasingly onerous environmental constraints, it is argued that the emerging models described in the paper are likely to play a more prominent role in enabling urban development to proceed.