From 1960 the Dutch state issued successive national policy documents (Nota's) on spatial planning, beginning with the first Nota on the western conurbation and followed by reports introducing 'clustered deconcentration' and growth centres. The Nota's set a long-running national vision for distributing population, protecting open land and steering urbanisation. Each was prepared by the national planning agency and debated in parliament. The tradition ran for five major Nota's into the twenty-first century.
The Nota tradition institutionalised proactive national spatial guidance, an unusually strong central planning role for a Western democracy.
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