Combining spatial investments in project envelopes: current Dutch debates on area development

摘要

Early in 2001, the Fifth Memorandum on Spatial Planning (Minimterie van Volkshuisvesting, Ruimtelijke Ordening en Milieubeheer (Ministry of VROM), 2001) was published in the Netherlands. It put particular emphasis on the regional level of spatial development. In that context, local authorities ought not to compete with each other, but should cooperate in urban networks. Together with the Fifth Memorandum, there appeared the memorandum on Land Policy (Ministry of VROM & Ministry of Finance, 2001), which made no instruments of land policy available at regional level. The question raised in Dutch academic and professional circles was: how should spatial planning at the regional level be given shape? How can the local authorities, the province and the various sector departments concerned arrive at a fruitful co-production of policy, and how can the foundations be laid for effective public-private cooperation in and above the local authority level in an area-directed approach? Implicitly the question is: how can planning gain be created which could be reinvested in green areas and traffic infrastructure? These questions are also topical in other countries, particularly in the European Union (EU) where national borders are becoming indistinct and competition between urban regions more intense.