The draft Fifth Report on Spatial Planning (2001), with its 'red' and 'green' contours to fix the limits of building, lapsed after a change of government and was replaced by the Nota Ruimte, adopted by 2006. The Nota Ruimte loosened central control with the slogan 'decentral what can be, central what must be', shifting more discretion to provinces and municipalities and emphasising development alongside protection. It marked a retreat from the strongly directive post-war Nota tradition. The accompanying Wro of 2008 gave the new approach legal form.
The Nota Ruimte is the pivot in the Dutch Nota lineage from comprehensive central steering toward decentralised, development-oriented planning.
See it on the timeline →