National government adjusts Schiphol rules and opens door for student housing Amstelveen
Outgoing minister Hugo de Jonge plans to adjust the rules for noise restrictions around Schiphol to make a student campus in Kronenburg, Amstelveen, possible. He writes this in a letter to the House of Representatives. Kronenburg lies directly under the approach route of Schiphol’s Buitenveldert runway.
Strict rules apply to areas around Schiphol, as noise pollution can damage people's health and the possibility of an aircraft accident is always taken into account. The Amstelveen office district of Kronenburg is in such an area, so not too much building is allowed. But “the national government also sees that partly because of the restrictions that are in place to protect residents, the livability of the area is under pressure,” De Jonge now writes. “This requires balancing various public interests.”
Earlier, the government said that possibilities existed for applying “insights for sound-adaptive building”—the mitigation of noise—in which interim evaluations and monitoring would be used to see if more homes could be built in a healthy way. Now the government has agreed with the city of Amstelveen to first look at developing an initial phase of 438 self-contained units in this area. To do this, the Schiphol Airport Classification Decree (LIB), which lays down all the rules around Schiphol and adjacent areas, must be amended. Kronenburg is an LIB4 area for which only 25 housing units per building plan may be built. De Jonge says he wants to amend the LIB in this specific situation. Once it has been determined that residents can live safely in Kronenburg, additional units may be built.
In February of last year, students demonstrated for student housing in Kronenburg. Initially, the city of Amstelveen had planned for 4,000 student housing units, but the Council of State put a stop to that after Minister Harbers appealed to the administrative law department. The construction of new student housing violated the Aviation Act because “noise pollution and the risk of accidents are greater there than in other zones,” explained a spokesperson for the Environmental and Transport Inspectorate.
Student unions were critical and spoke of misplaced priorities, arguing that planes at the student campus Uilenstede in Amstelveen also flew very close over buildings. “There is no logical reason to bar buildings of the same height now at Kronenburg. Especially not now that we are in the middle of a housing crisis,” said student Jacob Kravitz (Business Administration).
