Anyone who takes the highway in the Netherlands knows by now: the maximum speed there during the day is 100 km per hour. This has been the case since March 2020. The scheme is intended to reduce nitrogen emissions from road traffic. If the Dutch government had not intervened, there would have been a national construction freeze due to nitrogen standards.
Road traffic now also comes into the picture explicitly when it comes to nitrogen. On Tuesday, the Council of State annulled a spatial implementation plan (RUP) from the province of West Flanders that was supposed to make a new ring road in the municipality of Anzegem possible. However, this new road has a noble purpose: to divert road traffic from the busy N382, which now cuts straight through the village center.
The plan includes a route that lies west of the current road, but is only a few hundred meters from protected nature, the “forests of the Flemish Ardennes and other South Flemish forests”. The province had not sufficiently investigated the impact that traffic would have on nature due to the nitrogen that combustion engines emit and thus further disrupt nature.
“We have only just become aware of this decision, but we will analyze it,” says provincial deputy for Spatial Planning Sabien Lahaye-Battheu (Open VLD). “This is a shame, because everyone agrees that there is a quality of life problem in the core of Anzegem. The new road would cause little extra traffic, which made it seem responsible, but we would not have sufficiently investigated the concrete impact on nature. We will look at that now. One possibility is that the plan is resubmitted, although that will take time, probably years.”
Striking: a significant part of the local protest comes from farmers, who would see dozens of hectares of agricultural land disappear for the construction of the road. The province even provided a land bank arrangement that would allow farmers to purchase agricultural land elsewhere.
The judgment therefore seems ironic in light of the farmers’ protests, which are against the strict nitrogen regulations that are intended to protect nature.
Touchstones needed
“It is the first time that a RUP has been destroyed because of nitrogen,” says Hendrik Schoukens, lecturer in environmental law (UGent) and alderman for Groen in Lennik. “But that in itself was to be expected. If a government does not properly investigate the impact, someone can make that argument. You cannot simply assume that a certain emission is not relevant. But the new nitrogen decree may offer possibilities with exemptions below certain threshold values. In addition, traffic is electrifying, which will reduce nitrogen emissions. Although that won’t be until tomorrow.”
Lahaye-Battheu realizes that governments that want to build road infrastructure will from now on have to carefully investigate the nitrogen impact. “This is not an isolated case. The Council of State has ruled several times that things need to be much better. So yes, the work processes and procedures will also be reexamined in many other files.”
The Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities also realizes that a proper calculation of nitrogen emissions from construction projects and infrastructure is necessary. “Municipalities receive plenty of external support for the legal side when drawing up a RUP, but it is very difficult to draw up a completely correct plan. At the same time, there is too much nitrogen precipitation everywhere, can any additional emissions now be contested? Flanders would be best off taking the initiative to properly determine the touchstones.”
