Embracing relationality in planning law to help restructure relationships between people and land—a case from Australia

ABSTRACT This article explores the role of relationality in the context of planning law in New South Wales, Australia. Planning law plays an important role in structuring the relations between actors seeking to transform land and space, and those seeking to resist or at least restrain the proposed change and/or its effects. Overall, planning law is developer centric meaning that the interpretation and application of planning law influence the structure of relationships in ways that are weighted in favour of the interests of the developer(s). We argue that the emergence of different values that operate in tension with developer interests could precipitate a restructure of relations relevant to planning law. More precisely, we demonstrate how Salama v Northern Beaches Council, a decision delivered in 2020 by the Land and Environment Court of New South Wales regarding land use development, specifically seawalls in the coastal zone, forecasts a potential restructure of relations. The approval of the seawalls shows that relationality is relevant in evaluating change under planning law.