Imagining urban growth: the value of national planning concepts for current urban growth management challenges in the Randstad

Abstract

Both the Randstad and the Green Heart have served as the decor of growth management in Dutch spatial planning. Urbanization- and population growth is nothing new: the past decades have caused different challenges concerning growth management and the shifts in contexts resulted in new planning solutions. These solutions are reflected in the several planning reports since the First Planning Report from 1958. National planning concepts were used as communication tools that centrally steer spatial developments and gave directions on how these arrangements and developments should be handled. Since the mid- eighties, the focus shifted towards more output- and performance oriented approaches on local scales, and the significance of national planning concepts seemed to lose ground. The added value of national planning concepts in relation to current timeframe together with the current urbanization pressure on the Randstad seems to be present, when this concept is strategic in nature and combined with tailor- made projects. Besides that, a new national planning concept should involve a much wider scope than spatial issues only. This also has effects on the organization of the national government. A national planning concept should be designed in collaboration with several ministries and national departments. When these three factors are organized, a national planning concept for growth management challenges in the Randstad area could be of added value in the current timeframe.