Failure to implement plans has long been considered a significant barrier to effective planning. We examine two conceptions of success in plan implementation (conformance and performance), the effects of the implementation practices of planning agencies, and the capacity of agencies and permit applicants to bring about success. A key lesson from our New-Zealand-based evaluation is that implementation is somewhat weak. Another key point is that, if implementation is defined and measured in terms of conformance, plans and planners have an important influence on implementation success. Alternatively, if implementation is defined and measured in terms of performance, plans and planners are less influential in implementation. These lessons have broad implications for the theory and practice of plan implementation.

Despite calls for performance-oriented and evidence-based planning, the outcomes of land use and environmental plans are rarely monitored or assessed ex post facto (that is, post implementation). As a result, planners cannot know whether or why plans achieve their goals, or learn from the results of past interventions to improve planning practice. This evaluation gap is caused by a lack of methodology to evaluate the outcomes of plans and the difficulty of attributing changes to planning activities. We address this gap by proposing and testing a plan-outcome evaluation (POE) methodology. We demonstrate its broad applicability and usefulness in the context of local plans in New Zealand. The POE methodology will be useful to practitioners and academics seeking to assess the outcomes of plans in countries with western planning traditions.

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This article investigates the determinants of plan implementation by applying a recently-developed Plan Implementation Evaluation methodology. The lack of methodology to assess the implementation of plans has so far precluded any systematic analysis of the determinants of the implementation of local environmental plans. The article focuses on the implementation of plans in New Zealand. The key factors of implementation are: the quality of the plan; the capacity and commitment of land developers to implement plans; the capacity and commitment of the staff and leadership of planning agencies to implement plans; and the interactions between developers and the agency. The analysis is based on 353 permits implementing six local environmental plans in New Zealand, and on surveys of the developers who obtained the permits and of the planning agencies that granted the permits. The analysis finds that plan implementation is mainly driven by the resources of the planning agencies and by the quality of the plans, rather than by the characteristics of developers. Investments in plan writing and agency and staff capacity building thus improve the implementation of plans in the long-run.

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