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LEARNING TOGETHER FROM THE ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING ACT 1 Online session 26 March 2020. Het Nieuwe Instituut, the City of Amsterdam, the Association of Netherlands Municipalities (VNG),2 and Deltametropool. Moderation: Farid Tabarki Text: Farid Tabarki & Rindert de Groot In mid-2021, three years after the introduction of the Environmental and Planning Act, all cities in the Netherlands must have developed a new environmental vision – a local translation of the new Act with considerably fewer rules. The issues are complex – energy transitioning, circular economy, ecology, and social inequality. It calls for an integrated and inclusive approach to the city, determined more by underlying values than by rules, and interpretations differ for each municipality. Thinking on the basis of values and frameworks is not new, but it is gaining new impetus with this Environment and Planning Act. On 26 March 2020, municipal thinkers and doers in the field of environmental vision met online to explore spatial and democratic possibilities and difficulties. This Zoom meeting was moderated by Farid Tabarki of Studio Zeitgeist.
Values John de Ruiter: In Rotterdam, all kinds of transitions and changes are taking place. We’ve already formulated many core values during previous vision projects, but all the new developments, such as energy transitioning, mean that we need new labels. We’ve now identified perspectives, by which we mean, for example, circular, compact, productive, and healthy. We’ll continue to be flexible in our approach, and are constantly learning how to do that. Frank van den Beuken: Making an environmental vision is a good exercise in integration. For the environmental vision Amsterdam 2050, we’re working with 10 core values and working out how we can find the balance between being climate-neutral, healthy, liveable, and having spatial quality, amongst other things. We do this by clarifying the tension and synergetic opportunities between the various values. There are large forces at play on the city and the space, and resources are limited. This means that choices need to be made about which values should be given priority and what this means in practice. Martin Verwoest: In Leiden we already had a spatial development strategy, but it lacked a comprehensive approach. With insights from experts, the municipality started a conversation with its neighbours. Cooperation arose through trust in our four common values – beautiful, open, strong, and complete. Irma Dekker: Dongen has defined the DNA of its municipality in five values – resourcefulness, a sense of initiative, being simply extraordinary, take care of each other, and warmth. These can serve as a framework for the environmental vision that Dongen has just started with, and how these are put into practice in a specific area is interesting. After all, resourcefulness can mean fewer rules, or less money, depending on the character of each area.
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POLYPHONIC CITIES
Farid Tabarki Founder of Studio Zeitgeist which researches the changing zeitgeist and the impact major developments have on society. He offers views on major social, technological and economic developments. Farid specifically focuses on challenges of professionals and organisations in the transition to the ‘liquid society’.
Speakers John de Ruiter is a Next City advisor for the City of Rotterdam
Ellen de Bonth: I’d like to add that Dongen – just like the province of Noord-Brabant – wants to look broad, deep, and round – a broad participation of residents and entrepreneurs, a deep dynamic beyond the here and now, and rounded by different perspectives. Arjen Vedder: In Zwolle we consciously chose the question, ‘what does Zwolle think is important?’ That’s where the values come in. We wanted to make human capital the most important factor – to meet, connect, innovate, and also maintain an economic impulse. We’re now entering the second phase to translate the ‘what’ into the ‘where’ – an area-focused elaboration. It sounds crazy in this corona period, but we want to use space more intensively, more multifunctionally, for meeting and for developing.
Frank van den Beuken is an environmental vision content project manager for the City of Amsterdam
Opportunities for the future AV: It’s of some value that you don’t know what’s coming at you just yet. The future is not predictable, but it is imaginable. ID: Your environmental vision must therefore also be dynamic, precisely because, at a certain point, people will think, ‘hey, we’ve paid far too little attention to energy’. EB: In Dongen, together with the Association of Netherlands Municipalities, we’ve conducted a pilot project on sustainable development goals. MV: We focused on people with a specific role, such as the bus driver or the GP; we simply asked them, ‘if it comes to us, how would you envision your surroundings in 2040, and how would you like the government to support you?’ FB: In Amsterdam we use the term ‘rooted urbanity’. We want to provide space for new urban developments in the city, and see if this can be more rooted in the area – more location-specific, and with the involvement of local residents and entrepreneurs. Students at the University of Amsterdam are currently doing thesis research into the degree of urbanity and of rootedness in
Arjen Vedder is a spatial planner for the City of Zwolle
Martin Verwoest is an urban planning supervisor for the City of Leiden Irma Dekker is a quartermaster for the Municipality of Dongen Ellen de Bonth is a community director for the Municipality of Dongen
1. Translation based on www.government.nl/topics/spatial-planning-and-infrastructure/ revision-of-environment-planning-laws 2. Translation based on vng.nl/artikelen/about-vng
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