Compact City Development and the Challenge of Environmental Policy Integration: A Multi-Level Governance Perspective Rien van Stigt, 1 * Peter P. J. Driessen 2 and Tejo J. M. Spit 3 1 Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands 2 Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, Utrecht University, The Netherlands 3 Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht, The Netherlands ABSTRACT Sustainable urban development entails integration of environmental interests into decision- making at the local level. To achieve this, higher tiers of government may compel municipalities to explicitly consider environmental objectives or even prioritize them by demanding compli- ance with national standards, thus, at least theoretically, restricting local government’s room to manoeuvre in balancing all relevant interests. This paper explores the extent to which national standards narrow the range of local options and what this means for sustainable urban development. Adopting a multi-level governance perspective on three cases of inner-city redevelopment, we find that environmental standards are either not problematically restrictive or, if they are, sectoral policy offers ways to circumvent them. From a sustainability perspective, this may lead to undesirable outcomes. A combination of approaches may solve this predica- ment. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Received 7 March 2012; revised 6 January 2013; accepted 23 January 2013 Keywords: environmental policy integration; environmental quality standards; multi-level governance; trade-offs; urban planning Introduction S INCE THE PUBLICATION OF ‘OUR COMMON FUTURE’ (WCED, 1987), THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT HAS attracted the attention of scholars. Researchers, especially in Europe, have amassed a large body of literature on a particular aspect of sustainable development, namely the integration of environmental policy into other policy sectors (Jordan, 2008; Jordan and Lenschow, 2010; Nilsson and Persson, 2003; Persson, 2004). This concept, known as ‘environmental policy integration’ or EPI, is wholeheartedly accepted at the (supra) national level and there is much political commitment to it, especially in the European Union (EU). However, at lower levels of government, its implementation in everyday decision-making still faces many challenges (Jordan and Lenschow, 2010). As ‘Our common future’ explicitly mentioned cities as the focus points for sustainable development, it is interesting to look at the implementation of EPI at the municipal level, the outcome of which must be sustainable urban development. In their study of the urban politics of climate change, Bulkeley and Betsill (2005) drew attention to the fact that local authorities’ aspirations for sustainable development cannot be understood in isolation. Instead, using a multi- *Correspondence to: Rien van Stigt, Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, PO Box 182, 3500 AD Utrecht, The Netherlands. E-mail: rien.vanstigt@hu.nl Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment Environmental Policy and Governance Env. Pol. Gov. 23, 221–233 (2013) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/eet.1615