Issues Concerning Roles of the Advisory Councils in the Process of Development Permission of Large-Scale Shopping Center in the Urbanization ControlArea, Miyazaki City

The purpose of this paper is to propose better utilization of the advisory council system in city planning process. A case study was carried out for the development permission of large-scale shopping center in the urbanization control area in Miyazaki City. Actions and procedures by various actors were sorted out chronologically, and then，the features of the Miyazaki process were identified. Based on analysis of the features, the weaknesses of the current advisory council system were considered from the viewpoint of relation between the councils and local governments. Finally, several improvement ideas were proposed concerning a) independency and expertise b) accountability for member appoint system, c) consistency among plans on the same/different level of governments, and d) the role of city planning councils in city master planning