Concrete stop
We take over between five and six hectares of open space in Flanders each day. Nowhere in Europe is the land use per citizen so high. This additional use of space leads to high costs, among others for traffic jams, pollution, road maintenance and utility pipelines. Thus a “concrete stop” is needed. From 2040 we will no longer be allowed to use new open space for building.
But where then can we still build? VITO has developed an overview map of Flanders that shows the locations that are easily accessible by public transport and that have many amenities within walking or cycling distance, such as a bakery, a nursery and a doctor. Further increasing the population density of the well-connected prime locations in theory should be sufficient to allow 750,000 extra people to live and work well in Flanders. The Flemish government is taking the findings of the VITO study into account when drawing up the Flanders Spatial Policy Plan.
