Rule and Order Dutch Planning Doctrine in the Twentieth Century

Stagnation in Housing Production: Another Success in the Dutch ‘Planner's Paradise’?

“…VoÞ (1997) takes the view that the Netherlands has managed to implement the golden rule of land production: land is offered in good time, for the proper functions, at a reasonable price (see also Needham, 1992). With reference to research and earlier sources of international admiration for Dutch planning [such as Hall (1966) in The World Cities, and Burke (1966) in the Greenheart Metropolis], Faludi and van der Valk (1994) therefore declared the Netherlands a`planner's paradise' in their study of Dutch strategic spatial planning.…”

“…The active intervention of government in guiding and orchestrating spatial investments does not replace the classical instruments of planning such as zoning but is an addition to these classical instruments. This successful tradition of spatial planning, and the combination of facilitating and prohibiting planning powers, rests on three cornerstones: (1) within a framework of shared sustainable ideas on spatial planning, the endeavours of various authorities to reach a consensus on the (desired) spatial development and the way in which it should be achieved (the spatial planning doctrine ; see Faludi and van der Valk, 1994); (2) the willingness of higher authorities (the housing, transport, and public works sectors) to inject subsidies as part of spatial policy; (3) the willingness of local authorities to conform and their ability to enforce the policy by buying and developing the raw land and implementing spatial developments autonomously (see Lefcoe, 1979;Needham, 1992).…”

Making a difference : boundary management in spatial governance

“…Both the concepts Green Heart and Bufferzones served to provide the Randstad urbanites with sufficient recreational space and to set limits to urbanisation (Bervaes et al, 2002). In their essence, the concepts of the Randstad, the Green Heart and the Bufferzones have been argued to communicate the Dutch 'planning doctrine' (Faludi and Van der Valk, 1994), namely, the control of urban growth and the preservation of green open spaces in this densely populated country. Their durability and success in communicating key Dutch planning principles has been ascribed to their vagueness and focus on a limited number of key messages, which allowed them to muster support by being 'subtly emphasised, deemphasized or reinterpreted' (Hall, 1993, p. 44), thus allowing considerable flexibility in their interpretation over time and by different actors.…”

“…In Dutch planning of the past decades, such 'performance' was assisted, moreover, by the centralised financial system which provided the central state with 'golden' strings of control (Faludi and Van der Valk, 1994) and alignment with sectoral policy practices (notably housing and agriculture). In the post-war period, these conditions gave a vital impetus to the rise of a planning doctrine focused on containing urban growth in a country experiencing rapid population growth and fixated on maintaining a strong urban-rural divide, the demarcation of economic growth zones (initially in the periphery, later on in more central parts of the territory), and the expansion and integration of nature areas (Faludi and Van der Valk, 1994).…”

“…In the post-war period, these conditions gave a vital impetus to the rise of a planning doctrine focused on containing urban growth in a country experiencing rapid population growth and fixated on maintaining a strong urban-rural divide, the demarcation of economic growth zones (initially in the periphery, later on in more central parts of the territory), and the expansion and integration of nature areas (Faludi and Van der Valk, 1994). ~ 55 ~ While praised for its effectiveness and transparency for considerable time, the Dutch planning system was confronted with mounting critique from the 1980s onwards.…”