our expertise
Environmental and Planning Law
CERTA offers you expert advice in the field of environmental and planning law and administrative enforcement.
What is the new Environment and Planning Act?
The Environment and Planning Act aims to promote a balanced approach to the use and protection of the physical living environment. This goes far beyond spatial planning alone. The Act consolidates dozens of laws relating to spatial projects and aligns them with one another. This includes legislation on construction, the environment, nature and water, as well as regulations on spatial planning.
Initiators are given more scope for their own initiatives, and the participation of stakeholders plays an important role. The Environment and Planning Act also provides opportunities for local tailoring, resulting in faster and improved decision-making. The ultimate goal of this Act is to create clear and efficient regulations while improving the quality of the living environment.
What is the new Environment and Planning Act?
The Environment and Planning Act aims to promote a balanced approach to the use and protection of the physical living environment. This goes far beyond spatial planning alone. The Act consolidates dozens of laws relating to spatial projects and aligns them with one another. This includes legislation on construction, the environment, nature and water, as well as regulations on spatial planning.
Initiators are given more scope for their own initiatives, and the participation of stakeholders plays an important role. The Environment and Planning Act also provides opportunities for local tailoring, resulting in faster and improved decision-making. The ultimate goal of this Act is to create clear and efficient regulations while improving the quality of the living environment.
What does this change mean for you?
The Environment and Planning Act offers greater freedom for entrepreneurs, accelerates decision-making processes and reduces research burdens for government bodies. One example is the replacement of zoning plans with environmental plans. This creates more flexibility and encourages organic area development.
Because you want to move forward, you can come to us with legal questions relating to:
- Sustainable area development and redevelopment
- Duty of care
- Environmental plans
- Environmental permits
- Expropriation
- Toleration
- Legalisation
- Compensation for loss (planning damage); and
- Administrative enforcement (penalty payments and administrative coercion).
Our Approach
You not only benefit from our expertise and procedural experience, but also from our guidance at an early stage in obtaining the required permits. In large-scale real estate and infrastructure projects, the application process can quickly become complex, involving multiple administrative layers and objections from stakeholders. We advise and support real estate companies, project developers, landowners, municipalities, provinces, national authorities and housing corporations with practical and strategic legal assistance.
Would you like to know more about the opportunities and challenges offered by the Environment and Planning Act and how best to deal with them? Or do you need expert legal advice in the field of environmental and planning law? Please feel free to contact us.
CERTA will be happy to assist you.
CERTA advises and supports:
(Semi-)government bodies
Trade and industry associations
(Project) developers
Architects / spatial planning advisors
Sports companies
Leisure industry (hotels, hospitality, and spas)
Partner PONT
CERTA is a partner of Berghauser PONT. PONT is a digital publisher and the leading knowledge and training institute for professionals. Each year, PONT trains hundreds of municipalities, companies, civil servants and professionals on issues related to the physical living environment, the environment and sustainability. CERTA contributes articles and courses via PONT | Environment and PONT Academy.
YOUTUBE
You can watch our Dutch vlogs on the CERTA YouTube channel. The most recent vlog is “On the Road with the Environment and Planning Act”, in which Werner Altenaar explains in clear and accessible language what this new legislation means in practice. He does so from the “physical living environment” – the core focus of this legislation.
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Our expertise team
Danielle Wolf
Naomy Bras
Roza Morrison
