Planning Rights: Toward Normative Criteria for Evaluating Plans

Administrative or judicial plan review raises the question: When is a plan too bad to be implemented? This demands substantive plan evaluation and is linked to the issue of planning rights. What are planning rights? Who hold planning rights? How can planning rights be enforced? Procedural and substantive planning rights are defined as institutional rights based on socially adopted political-normative principles: due process, participation, reason, human and civil rights, property rights and the public interest, which are reviewed. The authorities that are the sources for planning rights are identified, and six practically applicable normative criteria are proposed for substantive plan evaluation.