Improving the Redevelopment Process of Obsolete Industrial Sites – G. van Veen
The Dutch government has a growing interest in (1) the prevention of cluttering, (2) better efficiency and intelligent use of space and (3) improvement of spatial quality. Thus, the government created the ‘Mooi Nederland’ (‘Beautiful Netherlands’) policy, in which the redevelopment of obsolete industrial sites in collaboration with market parties is placed high on the agenda. However, the economic crisis has caused problems in the execution of this policy: a decline in demand, problems with financing issues, and restraining attitudes of both public and private parties. As a result, projects have stagnated and some were even cancelled. The days of major redevelopment projects are over, and a growing interest in redevelopment initiatives by private parties is observable. Especially in the spotlight are entrepreneurs, who are looking for (joint) customizations of their industrial sites due to a growing business, poor business climate caused by vacancy or problems with the premises, for example. Problems arise with fragmented ownership of property and the conflicting interests of involved actors who are often blocking initiatives. As a result, the Dutch land registry Kadaster is detecting stagnation and missed opportunities. The question in this report is how the Kadaster, by using ‘interventions’, is able to improve the redevelopment process of obsolete industrial sites in the Netherlands. For this research, two possible ways of providing interventions have been attracted, namely via ‘Urban Land Readjustment (ULR)’ and ‘Predictions (with the help of Game Theory)’.
