Regulatory Systems and the Enabling of Plans

Through the latest years the overall conditions for town and country planning in Norway have gradually been changing. To some extents these changes are extensions of international trends indicating that shifting physical, economic, organisational and mental relationships between man and his environment will be impacting the use of the planning system over time. Since the national planning systems are more or less unique for each state, the impacts of these changes will be varying between different countries. Consequently societal conditions for the political acceptance of planning means will also be varying. Changes in the working conditions of the planning system are of institutional and societal character. They are also related to territorial strategies for urban development. The most obvious outcome of these changes is a stronger commitment of non-public actors in the whole planning process, particularly in the plans ’ enabling; preparation of development plans, financing of projects and extensive collaboration towards the public stakeholders through the whole implementation phase. This paper deals with the capacity of Norwegian the planning system to adapt to the ne