People, urban planning and the law

Rob Stokes is passionate about working with communities, and about change. His PhD research is looking at how public participation in urban planning can be managed to avoid all-too-predictable conflicts between residents and developers.

“My role as a legal academic is to provide an independent commentary on the law, to say what’s wrong with it, and to indicate ways it can be changed. Unlike judges, who can only determine matters before them, or politicians who are constrained by pressure groups, academics can go out and find areas of the law that need reform,” he says.

Friendly and personable, and a Lecturer in Business Law at Macquarie University, Stokes is one of a new breed of lawyers equally at ease with governments or activists.

He believes that the tension between residents and developers is based on different sets of values that instantly come into play. Sydney suburbanites want space, bushland, views, low-density housing and low traffic flow near their homes. The planning ideology of urban consolidation, by contrast, demands more people, more traffic and higher-density buildings.

“My role is to find out how public participation can mitigate this fundamental clash,” says Stokes. “It’s all about people. Everyone gets very attached to where they live, not just to their houses, but to the surrounding neighbourhood and open spaces.”

He has been working at Macquarie for three years, and before that practised as a lawyer. 

“Before entering the University, I had a long think about my interests, and how I could tie them in with the areas in which law, regulation and legal disputes were likely to occur in the future. With increased urbanisation in cities like Sydney, environmental and planning law are areas where the services of lawyers and legal policy-makers will become more and more vital,” he says.

Stokes advises parties and politicians, has worked in government and is currently involved as a consultant to a community group whose members need grounding in the basics of the law and how it works. The group is seeking his advice on the possible impact of a development application on land adjacent to both a national park and an area owned by a government department.

An advantage of working in a university is that he can work more easily with colleagues who have complementary areas of expertise. In collaboration with a physical geographer at Macquarie, Stokes is exploring what a river is. Something with a stream, beds and bank, says English law. Together, they are exploring whether or not this should be changed to accommodate Australian drought and drains.

Stokes sees one of the major problems facing decision-makers as the significant donations now passing to political parties from corporate interests. He recently wrote an article on the role of elected councillors in the development assessment process at local level.

“The challenge for government is that people want to be heard in meaningful ways,” says Stokes. “Law is about the regulation of human relationships, to promote civility and clarity of communication.”

For further information, contact Rob Stokes at robert.stokes@law.mq.edu.au, and see the Department of Business Law Website at http://www.law.mq.edu.au/html/dept/dept_bus.htm

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