Whether, and the extent to which, central or local government can impose planning controls which infringe on a landowner's property rights, and whether landowners can seek compensation for such infringements are issues which are coming into sharper focus. Behind this are factors such as growing pressure on resources (including amenity values), increases in the actual and perceived value of resources (for example, water and coastal land) and people learning more about human impacts on the environment (including climate change).

Simon Berry is presenting a series of seminars throughout New Zealand for the Resource Management Law Association and he and Jen Vella have produced a comprehensive paper entitled "Planning Controls and Property Rights – Striking the Balance".

The paper explores the manner in which policy and legal mechanisms are intended to work together to attempt to strike an appropriate balance between planning controls and property rights to assist readers to assess the appropriateness of planning controls in any particular case. The paper focuses particularly on coastal hazard controls for the purposes of presenting case studies which raise the issues canvassed in this paper.

To request a copy of this paper please click here.