Houten Ruimtelijke Koers 2040

The Netherlands is in the midst of a housing shortage and looking to build upwards of a 100.000 new homes across the country.

Houten has agreed to absorb 5000 of those.

We are a world-renowned village-style cycling-town of 50,000 citizens (10 mins train ride from Utrecht) with a strong passion for modern human-scaled green living for all.

How to retain these core elements whilst developing further the amount of people Houten can sustain, is a question leading to much discussion between the council and it’s citizens.

Attempting that in the face of climate change and the recently learnt lessons about quality of life during the Covid 19 pandemic, makes that task even greater.

For the ordinary citizen, understanding that discussion is complicated and made more so, by the fact that most of us are not town planners or have experience with this type of language or process. I certainly don’t!

So, here a list of links to help with that (in Dutch)

You’ll need to copy-paste them into your browser.

1st The council’s page with proposals and process.

https://www.houten.nl/burgers/wonen-en-leefomgeving/ruimtelijke-koers-houten/

2nd The Green Party’s response giving insight and response.

https://houten.groenlinks.nl/standpunten

3rd A helpfully condensed interpretation of the original text, facilitating access via easier language.

https://houten.groenlinks.nl/sites/groenlinks/files/2020-12/RuimtelijkeKoersIn12Paginas.pdf

4th An alternative proposal presented by concerned citizens.

https://www.houtensekoers.nl/HOME/

I have used the Green Party’s sites here, though there are of course other sites available.

However, I found these helpful.

Further links of possible interest

https://www.provincie-utrecht.nl/actueel/nieuws/rijk-en-regio-presenteren-bouwlocaties-utrecht

The Amsterdam based company charged with creating the original vision document.

https://www.bura.city/