Performance-Based Planning: Perspectives from the United States, Australia, and New Zealand

This article examines the application of performance-based planning at the local level in the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. A review of the literature finds that there have been few evaluations of performance-based planning, despite its being used by many governments. The authors provide a comparative review of the experiences of various jurisdictions in implementing this form of zoning and present observations on its relative strengths and weaknesses. Findings suggest that many of the jurisdictions that adopted performance-based planning subsequently abandoned it because of the heavy administrative burden required, and where performance methods survived, they were typically hybridized with traditional zoning. If performance-based approaches continue to be used, there is a need to better understand the administrative and implementation implications of this type of land use regulation.