**3. Randstad and Green Heart**

Utrecht is one of the four Dutch cities that jointly constitute the Randstad. The Randstad is the framework commonly used to describe the densely populated western part of the Netherlands. In the mid 1960s that Randstad was discovered by academics from the Anglo-Saxon world as an alternative model for metropolitan growth. For London, in particular, struggling to contain its large continuous urban area, by the so-called Green Belt, the Randstad seem to demonstrate that a large urban population could be organised in a networked polycentric configuration, and function well at the same time. That idea appealed to writers like Gerald L. Burke (Burke, 2006) and Peter Hall (Hall, 1966, 1977, 1983). The Randstad was seemingly less congested than a classic metropolis and possessed an invaluable asset: the Green Heart.

The simple concept of a large green area surrounded by a ring shaped conurbation settled quickly in the minds of students, practitioners and academics alike. It also helped to place Holland on the map and that seemed necessary. In 1966 Gerald L. Burke already noted that although The Netherlands is known for its city planning, "less widely known are the policies of regional planning which have been developed in the Netherlands since World War II" (Burke, 2006).

Leidsche Rijn: Balancing the Compact City with the Randstad Motorway Network 27

Dutch government decided to focus urban growth in a limited number of municipalities to give these a specified quantitative task to increase their housing stock, and subsequently

Fig. 3. Structure plan national motorway network 1966 (V&RO, 1966)

The 'growth municipalities' entered officially the planning stage at the time of the Third Report on Spatial Planning (V&RO, 1976, 1977). A steep increase of the number of inhabitants in a part of these municipalities can already be traced back a decade earlier. Some of the 'grow municipalities' turned into independent towns; some of them were merely the extension of the larger agglomerations. The Third Report listed eleven official 'growth municipalities'. Each of the four larger cities in the Randstad was outfitted with at least one 'growth municipality' that was firmly situated in the area that was still considered to be an integral part of the Green Heart: Hoofddorp in the Amsterdam region, Zoetermeer in The Hague region, Capelle aan den IJssel in the Rotterdam region and Nieuwegein in the Utrecht region. Most of the roads that were foreseen in the 1966 structure plan for the national motorway network never made it off the drawing board. Motorway construction still made a significant impact on the Green Heart with the construction of the A2 (Amsterdam - Utrecht - Den Bosch), the A4 (Amsterdam - The Hague), the A20 (Rotterdam - Gouda), the A67 (Hilversum - Utrecht - Breda), the N11 (Leiden - Bodegraven) and to a

The Forth Report on Spatial Planning (VROM, 1988) and its extended version called VINEX (VROM, 1993) abandoned the 'growth municipality' strategy and introduced the so-called VINEX-extensions. The VINEX-extensions, with its new residential areas at Noordrand (Rotterdam), Ypenburg (The Hague) and Oosterheem (Zoetermeer) and Leidsche Rijn (Utrecht) pushed the envelop of the Green Heart further inwards. No new motorways were planned but most of the existing roads would be widened. At the turn of the century, after

**4. Third and Forth Report on Spatial Planning** 

lesser extend also the A1 (Amsterdam - Hilversum).

their population and urban area.

When Gerald L. Burke wrote his book he referred to the brand new Second Report on Spatial Planning (V&RO, 1966) and to the documents that preceded it. In the late fifties the Netherlands started to formulate its national spatial planning agenda. The 'Working Committee on the Western part of the Country' produced in 1958 its report including the famous plan for the 'schematic structure of the urban ring', a conceptual vision on the spatial structure of Randstad (Berveas et al, 2001). At the end of the fifties it became clear that the Green Heart was being threatened by (sub)urbanisation. Especially the open zones in between the larger cities on the urban ring were at risk. The 'Working Committee on the Western part of the Country' advised to keep the cities in the ring structure separated, both functionally and spatially. The strategy was to apply designated buffer zones between the urban areas and to plan new cities on the outside of the ring as opposed of the inside the ring (in the Green Heart). An increasing set of sophisticated instruments was used to preserve these formal buffers, ranging from land acquisition to legislation (Bervaes et al, 2001). Time was to prove that these buffer zones would be more robust than the Green Heart itself.

Fig. 2. Green buffer zone (Arend van Dam, 2008)

As soon as the Dutch government adopted the Green Heart concept that same government began two other initiatives that were in direct contradiction to the idea to maintain the Green Heart as an open space. The first initiative was the publication of the structure plan for the national motorway network in 1966 (Dutch: Structuurschema Hoofdwegennet 1966).

It proposed the rollout of a dense grid of motorways over much of The Netherlands including the Green Heart - where ten (!) additional motorways were planned. Secondly, it developed and adopted the 'groeikern' approach. Groeikern (growth municipality) is the Dutch equivalent of the British 'new town' and the French 'ville nouvelle' policies. The

When Gerald L. Burke wrote his book he referred to the brand new Second Report on Spatial Planning (V&RO, 1966) and to the documents that preceded it. In the late fifties the Netherlands started to formulate its national spatial planning agenda. The 'Working Committee on the Western part of the Country' produced in 1958 its report including the famous plan for the 'schematic structure of the urban ring', a conceptual vision on the spatial structure of Randstad (Berveas et al, 2001). At the end of the fifties it became clear that the Green Heart was being threatened by (sub)urbanisation. Especially the open zones in between the larger cities on the urban ring were at risk. The 'Working Committee on the Western part of the Country' advised to keep the cities in the ring structure separated, both functionally and spatially. The strategy was to apply designated buffer zones between the urban areas and to plan new cities on the outside of the ring as opposed of the inside the ring (in the Green Heart). An increasing set of sophisticated instruments was used to preserve these formal buffers, ranging from land acquisition to legislation (Bervaes et al, 2001). Time was to prove

As soon as the Dutch government adopted the Green Heart concept that same government began two other initiatives that were in direct contradiction to the idea to maintain the Green Heart as an open space. The first initiative was the publication of the structure plan for the national motorway network in 1966 (Dutch: Structuurschema Hoofdwegennet 1966). It proposed the rollout of a dense grid of motorways over much of The Netherlands including the Green Heart - where ten (!) additional motorways were planned. Secondly, it developed and adopted the 'groeikern' approach. Groeikern (growth municipality) is the Dutch equivalent of the British 'new town' and the French 'ville nouvelle' policies. The

that these buffer zones would be more robust than the Green Heart itself.

Fig. 2. Green buffer zone (Arend van Dam, 2008)

Dutch government decided to focus urban growth in a limited number of municipalities to give these a specified quantitative task to increase their housing stock, and subsequently their population and urban area.

Fig. 3. Structure plan national motorway network 1966 (V&RO, 1966)
