More shade and water space

August 13, 2024 at 5:24 PM

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Venendal For new developments, the mayor and local councillors have made some changes to the Veense building points system. This contains the legally required conditions that are important for Veenendaal to consider in addition to the new homes, the living environment. This time, more attention will be paid to local water storage, as there will be more rain during the periods. And also plenty of shade on hot sunny days.

By Peter Kuijpers

‘The point system is a breakdown of the ambitions of Veenendaal’s environmental vision into concrete measures. The council explains that this applies to housing projects that require an environmental permit for an additional environmental plan activity or an amendment to the environmental plan, including new constructions. It had to amend various texts in the description of this point system, such as “zoning plan” to “environmental plan”, due to the Environmental Act that came into force on 1 January this year.

Living environment

“Veenendaal needs 11,000 more homes by 2040. A pleasant living environment is important. That’s why Veenendaal focuses on quality of life. So, in addition to providing space for homes, this also requires space for work, green spaces, accessibility, sustainable developments, health and safety. Because Veenendaal is a compact municipality, we have to use the remaining space and the space that becomes available intelligently. A points system has been put in place to make the limited space as healthy, sustainable and safe as possible.

It changes

“We are testing the points system as a good way to achieve these ambitions and this also applies to developers. They see it as a development-oriented opportunity, where they can earn extra points to be allowed to build. There is a basis that they have to adhere to and in the feedback from the companies, we have made an amendment to the climate adaptation,” said councillor Ingebert Strobücher. Veenendaal has been working with the points system since January 2022 and has already implemented a number of changes to make it more complete and more appropriate. The mayor and local councillors have now adopted a second change.

Dimensions

“As for the publicly accessible space, we have stated that we want 30 percent shade. But it is also nice to be able to walk in the shade. That is why we have added that there should also be shade in the living environment of the slow-moving road in the new construction plans. In addition, the task of storing water has been examined further. We have seen that this is particularly necessary for the proposed development of the residential area of ​​Het Ambacht. The details and whether this will be done using water boxes, in valleys or in public spaces with ponds will follow later in the development plan for this area. This is still very early days, the consultant concludes.

Improvements

Veenendaal wants water to be stored as much as possible within its plot, for example with water surfaces. And then in consultation with the water manager outside the plan area. The council continues to emphasize that the point system is a guideline for new developments and that changes may be made to this document due to changing visions and new legislation: “In addition, improvements have been suggested by users of this point system.” For these reasons, the point system is regularly evaluated and adjusted. For example, the shade ratio for places that are generally accessible for residence and slow traffic.