Planning controls regulating the footprint of built form in urban development exist across Australia. For the most part, they relate to aesthetic and privacy values. They take the form of specified percentages limiting building footprint, impervious surfaces and/or setback measurements from boundary lines. Landscaping requirements, which relate to aesthetic and also environmental values, also exist and often specify the inclusion of deep soil areas designed to support different sizes of tree. These planning mechanisms are an indirect way to influence the likelihood that trees and other plantings will grow in and around redevelopments and new developments. Urban design solutions and the loss of the Australian backyard are the two areas where literature has coalesced. There is fierce agreement that private gardens are in decline and that the two proximate causes are urban infill (in older suburbs) and the construction of larger houses on smaller plots in new developments. The reduced and reducing urban green space is a complex problem and may require a range of planning and regulatory responses to alter the current trajectory.