Colouring Inside What Lines? Interference of the Urban Growth Boundary and the Political–Administrative Border of Brussels

Abstract

This paper discusses the relationship between the political-administrative border and the urban growth boundary around Brussels, the Belgian capital. Our hypothesis is that the interests of the various regions and language groups in Belgium interfere strongly with urban planning policies, implying that the administrative border of the Brussels-Capital Region operates in reality as an unintended urban growth boundary.Based on demographics, commuter data and property market features, we argue that this situation may cause excessive urban compaction of the Brussels-Capital Region, while spillover effects to municipalities that are rather distant from Brussels may result in undesired forms of suburbanization and long distance commuting.

The influence of land use and mobility policy on travel behavior: A comparative case study of Flanders and the Netherlands

“…In fact, spatial plans (zoning plans) in the 1970s (so-called Regional Plans-"Gewestplannen") designated territories, spread around the region, as residential area or prospective residential area, based on expected population growth. Also, other zonal destinations (e.g., industrial areas) were not clustered, but scattered around over almost all municipalities (Albrechts 1999;Allaert 2008;Boussauw et al 2013). Furthermore, the so-called "fill-up" rule, allowing construction of dwellings in non-residential areas between two buildings closer than 70 meters from each other, resulted in ribbon development (Bouckaert and De Waele 2000).…”

Transportation policy as spatial planning tool; reducing urban sprawl by increasing travel costs and clustering infrastructure and public transportation

“…Concepts such as New Urbanism (in the USA) and the Compact City (in Europe) aim to reduce car use and travel distances by creating neighbourhoods with a high density, a high diversity and a design oriented toward public transportation and non-motorised travel (Cervero, 1996;De Vos et al, 2012a;Friedman et al, 1994;Schwanen and Mokhtarian, 2005;Boussauw and Witlox, 2010;Boussauw et al, 2013). Some countries (e.g., The Netherlands) were quite successful in clustering activities in urban areas due to active spatial planning policies, whereby the rise of car use was limited (Dieleman et al, 1999;Schwanen et al, 2004).…”

“…Besides, the tools provided to achieve this goal are rather weak: the promotion of residential development is done by designating additional construction land for housing in urban municipalities, but there is no tool to slow down residential development in rural municipalities (e.g. by suppressing yet undeveloped construction land and converting it into protected open space) (Boussauw et al, 2013). An increase in the relation between additional dwellings in urban/rural municipalities is necessary in order to cluster activities in urban environments and diminish urban sprawl.…”

The single European market and the demise of Flemish housing policy

“…Local authorities have, for example, required those purchasing land for the construction of affordable housing to learn Dutch and local politicians had informal agreements with property developers to sell new properties to Flemish buyers only and a procedure by which proposed buyers were invited to an informal talk with the alderman to vet them (as indicated by the Flemish parliamentarians Eric van Rompuy (also alderman of Zaventem) and Hermes Sanctorum (a former alderman of Overijse) in the Vlaams Parlement, 2010). This tradition contributed to the fact that many inhabitants leaving Brussels for the suburbs have chosen a suburban location in Wallonia, just south of the Flemish ring around Brussels (Boussauw, Allaert, & Witlox, 2013). The price of building land in these Flemish communities is À in both absolute and relative terms À much higher than in the Walloon communities, which justifies concerns about gentrification in the sense that fewer people from the local community itself can afford to buy building land, because the prices are set based on anticipated immigration.…”