New The Conversation Op-Ed on Urban Planning, read here: An Uneasy Marriage: Planners, Public And The Market Struggle To Work Well Together 

Governments regularly extol the benefits of involving citizens and the private sector in planning land use and providing infrastructure.

Take, for instance, the newly minted Greater Sydney Commission. It will deliver land use plans for six Sydney districts (plans that can override local council plans). The commission, it is promised, will “work closely with local councils and communities” to help them “get the most out of their neighbourhoods and suburbs”.

But what does this mean in practice? Tensions are mounting between the professional practices of government planners, the participatory frameworks of planning departments and the private sector’s increasing role in shaping Australian cities.