Heritage planning and spatial development in the Netherlands: changing policies and perspectives

Abstract

In recent years, the separation of heritage conservation concerns and spatial planning concerns – a spectre of post-war modernism – is being criticised. Numerous commentators argue that heritage conservation needs to rethink its purpose and role if it is to maintain its place in the planning system specifically and urban and rural development more generally. This paper analyses the Belvedere Memorandum and its incentive programme (1999–2009) by which the Dutch government actively encouraged the integration of heritage conservation with spatial planning. It is a first attempt to identify the impact of Belvedere on Dutch heritage planning practises. We argue that Belvedere has contributed to a reorientation of heritage conservation. At the same time, however, heritage conservation now faces new challenges as a result of the fact that the government is reducing its involvement in spatial planning, of a turn-around in socio-economic and demographic development (from growth to shrinkage) and of a crisis in property development. We believe Belvedere can be called a success only if the heritage sector manages, under these changed circumstances, to actively respond to spatial challenges and forge links with social actors.

Keywords:

• heritage
• spatial development
• cultural planning
• Belvedere Memorandum
• the Netherlands

Notes

1. In 2006 the State Service for Archaeological Investigations (Rijksdienst voor het Oudheidkundig Bodemonderzoek) and the State Service for the Conservation of Monuments (Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg) merged into the State Service for Archeology, Cultural Landscapes and Monuments (Rijksdienst voor Archeologie, Cultuurlandschap en Monumenten). Currently, this organisation is called The Cultural Heritage Agency. It is part of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. The Agency works to protect the Netherlands’ most important movable and immovable heritage.

2. Because of The Capital of Culture programme in 2010 the number of tourists in the Ruhr area rose significantly (by 13.4%, of which 18.1% were from outside Germany) compared with the same period of the previous year. About 10.5 million visitors attended the Capital of Culture events. See, Zentrum fur Kulturforschung (2011).

3. The Belvedere programme itself had no statutory status but was debated (and adopted) by the Dutch parliament, thus giving it status in Dutch spatial policy. The Belvedere Memorandum was taken into account when preparing the Netherlands' Fifth Memorandum on Spatial Planning, which was published in 2000. In the same year, however, the Dutch government was brought down because of the Screbrenica affair and early elections meant that the Fifth Memorandum fell at the last hurdle.

4. The Belvedere Memorandum contained a map indicating the most valuable historic sites of the Netherlands. The map was presented as an (GIS-based) instrument and method for the assessment of heritage values. It had been compiled using expert assessments by central government and provincial authorities. The map distinguished between areas with sectoral heritage values (archeological, landscape and built heritage) and those with combined heritage values – the so-called Belvedere areas.

5. According to the Belvedere Memorandum the interests of heritage should form part of the planning procedure and hence of the regular planning costs. However, additional resources were made available (rising from € 5 million in 2000 to 8,2 million in 2003 and subsequent years), in order to stimulate the integration of heritage in spatial policy. Furthermore, a special budget was allocated with which experience could be gained in the development-oriented approach to heritage, while structural resources were made available to enable larger-scale projects, such as the New Dutch Waterline (Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie), a water defence line in the Randstad area.

6. For example, Van Duijn and Rouwendal (2012) measured appreciation of the cultural heritage in historic city centres on the basis of house prices in the immediate vicinity, and found substantial effects.