**5. Leidsche Rijn**

Leidsche Rijn is one of the most prominent products of the VINEX-report and reflects much of the developments that took place elsewhere in the Randstad. Leidsche Rijn expands the city of Utrecht (313.000 inhabitants) with 20 to 30.000 housing units, a large urban park and even larger employment areas. The development annexes the villages of Vleuten en De Meern. By doing so it almost doubles the urban footprint of the municipality of Utrecht. The larger Utrecht region had developed according a decentralised poly-centric model using new towns to accommodate the demand for high quality living in the region. It was a response to the concern that cities would become too large, too congested, too polluted. The Utrecht region witnessed the construction of two successful new towns: Nieuwegein (61.000 inhabitants) and Houten (48.000 inhabitants), separated from mother city Utrecht by a orbital motorway. Houten became a poster-boy for sustainable transport with its clever combination of transit-oriented development and a sophisticated bicycle network. The construction of the motorway network that connected the various cities and towns in the decentralised Randstad infrastructure didn't pose any difficulties for development of Nieuwegein and Houten. Motorways were in the 1970s still lean and mean. Their environmental impact was limited while the space between Utrecht and its new towns was superfluous.

Leidsche Rijn, conceived two decades later, signals in many respects a clear break from previous spatial planning concepts. Leidsche Rijn is based on the compact city concept. That city model assumes that keeping distances within urban regions short will result in environmental benefits through reduced travel(time) and more effective land use. Keeping new developments close to Utrecht meant that city had to develop westwards into the area that was an integral part of the Green Heart since that concept was coined. The Fourth Report on Spatial Planning adjusted the planning border of that Green Heart to allow the development of Hollands largest greenfield development. The ambition to minimise the distance between Leidsche Rijn meant furthermore that the urban development had to make effective use of the space along the A2 motorway, space that would normally be leftover due to the environmental footprint caused by noise, air pollution and risks. Because the capacity of the A2 was insufficient, the road had to be widened from 2x3 lanes to 2x5 lanes. Both projects, extending Utrecht and extending the A2 corridor had to take place in one integrated development project.
