EVO: zoning plans may be more flexible

Municipalities can stimulate innovation in wholesale and retail by working with flexible zoning plans. Companies would be limited in their development by restrictive rules. So argues Ilhame Saadi, corporate lawyer at EVO in the shippers' organisation's magazine.

Innovation in conflict with zoning plan
To keep the shopping street lively, shops in areas such as books and clothing are increasingly introducing coffee corners on the shop floor. Supermarkets regularly prepare food in their shops and web shops are mostly home-based. Judging from municipalities' zoning plans, these parties are actually in violation. This is because these zoning plans state what has a residential zoning or, say, business zoning. Companies can therefore be knocked back. If companies want to change the zoning of their accommodation, it easily costs between 10,000 and 12,000 euros. This only involves an application, which therefore does not mean that the request for change will be approved.

Pick-up points: retail or logistics?
Logistics is also struggling with this issue. For instance, municipalities would not know how to deal with pick-up points. These pick-up points are often found in business parks, as this is an easily accessible location for cars. However, many municipalities would give a pick-up point the retail destination, making it illegal to open a pick-up point on a business park just like that. The company is then completely dependent on the cooperation of the relevant municipality.

Arnhem as an example
As an example of how things should be done, EVO mentions the Coehoorn Centraal project in Arnhem. This contains many creative companies. They are given a lot of space by the city council, provided they stick to a small number of agreements. "As a government, we always want to know in advance what will come out of it, record everything. And we are not doing precisely that here," Arnhem alderman Gerrie Elfrink said of the project.