Building: Bigger, Better and Bolder?

Predictions for urban area development in the Netherlands hold a reduced influence of both central government, allowing the free market more control over land development, and local government, due to reductions in funds for urban area development. Therefore more influence of the private sector in urban area development is to be expected. The United States, a country with one of the most extreme privatized development approaches, presents a great opportunity to learn from this kind of private dominated urban area development. The reduction of government control in the Netherlands of the past decades is an ongoing process. De Jonge (2007) and De Zeeuw (2007) indicate that both Dutch society and urban area developments are shifting from a collective value to a more individual value and a more private sector-led approach. This sets a trend towards more private and less public arrangements. Heurkens (2010) argues that this will lead to a public-private power shift in Dutch urban area development. Because management strategies have not changed at the same pace, there is a need for a clear division of public-private domain in urban area development. My personal fascination with the changing roles of public and private actors involved in urban area development in the Netherlands and my fascination with these roles in the US make that I agree with Heurkens that the new roles in the Netherlands are not yet adequately understood.