use of a new decision support
model for a process analysis of
the inner harbor area of Enschede
A second factor is that the land market in the Netherlands for development of new industrial estates is dominated by local government (Louw et al. 2004; PBL, 2009). This situation has led to competition between local governments to attract firms to their industrial estates. The competition has contributed to oversupply of green-fields.
This leads to a third factor, provincial and national governments attempt to develop a ‘well-functioning market’, which in particular means creating a situation where supply and demand is in balance. For example, the local governments within a region have to co-ordinate and program all industrial estate developments. Green-field development is legally permitted when no suitable solutions for firms in need or more land can be found on the existing industrial estates.
Furthermore, the manner in which the economic situation in Europe has developed over the past 8–10 years has significantly affected views on what can and needs to be done, and what the different stakeholders find acceptable. Firms face serious challenges, and many struggle hard to survive. Plans for growth, and migration to new industrial estates have been cancelled, or postponed. Firms focus on their core business, and any investments in their surroundings (the industrial estate) have low priority or no priority at all. Consequently, in most parts of the country there has been a steep decline in demand for land on new industrial estates.
Firms remain situated on the existing industrial estates or, in the worst case, go bankrupt, leaving vacant land and buildings.
As planning agencies, local governments in the Netherlands have a certain responsibility for contributing to maintaining an appropriate quality of existing industrial estates (Alexander & Faludi, 1996; Needham, 2000). However, to save costs and develop a sharper strategic focus on main responsibilities, government organizations at all levels have been downsized and re-organized, forcing fewer people to perform more tasks. This process puts severe constraints on how local governments address city development, and in particular industrial estate development. Although principles and options for achieving a more sustainable development help in the search for solutions, they do not dictate how decisions should be made in specific local situations. There are always partly conflicting interests; always limited resources; always changes that necessitate new searches for additional information and commitment; and always the danger of high ambitions for sustainability gradually ‘disappearing’ during the development process.
It can be concluded that society faces a major challenge regarding restructuring of industrial estates. Too much, principally public, money has been spent on processes that last too long, results are too often unsatisfactory to current stakeholders and disregard the protection of the interests of the future stakeholders. Here we present an approach for appropriately addressing this challenge. The approach focuses on the use of a new decision support model for achieving quicker interactive processes, and for achieving more sustainable outcomes.
The restructuring of industrial estates in the Netherlands 77
6.2 A ‘REAL LIFE’ EXAMPLE: RESTRUCTURING OF AN INDUSTRIAL ESTATE IN THE HARBOR OF THE CITY OF ENSCHEDE
6.2.1 A brief introduction to the city and the industrial estate
The city of Enschede has almost 160,000 inhabitants. It is situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands within the region of Twente. The city used to be a center for the Dutch textile industry until approximately 40 years ago. Textile production was then, within a short period, re-located and taken over predominantly by firms in Asian countries. Since then the employment profile of the city has changed considerably. Today the service industry dominates.
About 22% of all employment in the city is situated on industrial estates (I&O Research, 2014). The case area, the ‘Harbor area’ industrial estate, is located at the end of the Twente-channel: a channel that connects the city to the main river systems in the Netherlands. The industrial estate is relatively close to the city center. It encompasses an estimated 200 hectares, and accommodates 365 firms employing almost 5600 employees (I&O Research, 2014). The harbor (and channel) is used by various firms for bulk transport; however, the majority of the activities in this area do not use the harbor facilities. The ‘Harbor area’ is the only industrial estate in the city where firms in the highest environmental risk category are permitted. Risk in this situation is ‘translated’ into zoning regulations: minimum distance in metres to ‘vulnerable objects’ such as housing.
6.2.2 A growing sense of a need to act, and the first restructuring activities
The ‘Harbor Area’ industrial estate has been gradually changing over the past decade. Some firms migrated to new estates. The firms that remained offered relatively limited employment opportunities. For some, spatial quality was unimportant for their businesses. Others lacked the necessary means for physical maintenance of their buildings. The effects were a slow deterioration of spatial quality in the area, a decrease in property value, and an increase in extensive land use. This gradual process of decay precipitated an acknowledgement of a need for action, which catalyzed the development of a plan for restructuring the whole harbor area (Gemeente Enschede, 2005). Between 2006 and 2008, several projects were implemented by the local government to manage the restructuring and, in particular, to invest in public property by improvements to infrastructure.
6.2.3 Lack of progress and desired results
In order to facilitate integral improvements to the area, involvement and investments of both the local government and the owners of private property are needed.
Co-operation was therefore viewed as a key success factor for the restructuring. In 2009 the co-operation started on the ‘Inner harbor’: an area of 27 hectares where all land plots are on the waterfront. Original intentions were to alter this section and designate it for use by heavy industry (in this case, firms belonging to the highest category regarding environmental zoning requirements) to make use of the harbor facilities for transport by water. This would create a situation where certain firms would need to relocate thereby improving the harbor facilities, especially the quay.
The restructuring was intended to offer new opportunities for accommodation to specific firms. The local government worked closely with the interest group of entrepreneurs in the harbor, assuming that entrepreneurs would only invest in the restructuring if positive effects on continuity and profit were expected for their firms. Unfortunately, the collaborative process did not lead to sufficiently desirable outcomes such as investments in private property. In 2011 the interactive process and progress of the local government and interest group was deemed ‘frozen’. In order to facilitate change the local government required more insight into, and an overview of, the process itself. In particular, they needed to identify specific opportunities for changes which could positively affect the situation.