Business parks

Date: April 16, 2025
Time: 19.30-21.00
Location: Town Hall, Market Square, Aalten

Introduction

The municipality of Aalten faces the task of creating a new environmental vision for the entire territory of the municipality together with its residents. One of the ways we do this is by engaging in area-specific discussions with our residents and other stakeholders about what they consider important for the future of their own living environment.

This is the report of a conversation with entrepreneurs about the future of business parks in Aalten. A total of about 12 Aalten entrepreneurs participated in the conversation. The conversation was accompanied by 3 employees of the municipality of Aalten.

Do you have any comments on this report? Please pass them on via omgevingsvisie@aalten.nl. If you have any suggestions for the new environmental vision of the municipality of Aalten, please also use this e-mail address.

What was the purpose of this conversation?

The purpose of this conversation was to hear from entrepreneurs in Aalten how they view the business parks in Aalten toward 2040 and what they consider important in them.

What were the outcomes of this conversation?

The results of this conversation were as follows:

• After brief introduction/explanation to environmental vision: Is considerably more than imagined.
• In Aalten there has been talk about business parks for years. Additional business sites are urgently needed, otherwise companies will/should leave Aalten.
• Also (want to) take advantage of opportunities when companies want to establish new operations in Aalten. Land should be available for that as well.
• There is also too little space for storage and the like in Aalten and Dinxperlo.
• Roadsides in business parks are not there for flowers and bees. Establish nature elsewhere. Business park is business park.
• If you grab the map of Aalten, you'll know within 5 minutes where another business park can come up. Easily takes 10 years. Take the decision and move on!
• Business parks are for companies and not for anything else. Also applies to facilities in business parks etc. Food forests, fish ponds etc. do that mainly elsewhere.
• Equalize Aalten and Dinxperlo in terms of regulations, zoning and the like. Example: Why in Dinxperlo 12 meters high and in Aalten 16 meters high? We have been struggling with this in Dinxperlo for years.
• Businesses and activity are also sources of prosperity for Aalten. Would be nice if that were facilitated. Permits have taken an absurdly long time. ODA has an important role in this. As an entrepreneur between box and wall. There should be someone at municipality where you can complain if ODA does not perform.
• Businesses are sometimes treated as capitalist polluters, while they are important to the livability of Aalten. That attitude may and must change.
• Heat stress as an example: Task and role of government is also to look at health of employees on business parks. So you can say: Heat stress is nonsense, but we won't get away with it. So we will also have to find space on the business parks for extra greenery, also to combat heat stress. The Municipality of Aalten will not impose anything in this context, but we will have to do something, also in the business parks. In consultation, of course.
• See also possible flooding, due to climate change. Limburg showers may also fall in Aalten. This will also affect businesses. So we will have to take climate measures and we will have to take into account the collection and drainage of water. Also in and around business parks. And there will have to be room for that.
• In project expansion business parks Aalten has already taken into account measures to be taken in terms of climate, sustainability and the like.
• Entrepreneurs endorse the need to think about these issues and the importance that businesses also have in doing so.
• Water Board makes all kinds of calculations and mapping. We will really have to do something with that. We're doing that now with the proposed expansion area.
• So then also have the ambition to seek more gross space (for greenery, water collection and drainage et cetera) than net business area necessary.
• Parking in business parks is also increasingly a thing. Plus electric truck charging and the like. Getting more and more pressing.
• Does Aalten municipality also look to other municipalities when it comes to zoning of business parks? Answer is yes. Municipality Aalten cooperates, through Region, but also directly with other municipalities.

Priorities for environmental vision?

• Space. What we need is more space. Especially if we also want more greenery, water collection, etc. on business parks. Above all, make a good plan for the future, so that we can focus on that and continue to develop.
• Accessibility of business parks is also a thing. People who do not have a car have difficulty getting to their destination.
• More cars, more electricity needs, more charging stations and the like.
• Perhaps battery systems in business parks as well. By the way, nobody is waiting to put batteries on business parks for the rest of the community. Also in this respect, limit business parks to (batteries for) companies themselves.
• Municipality does need to make a good plan for energy supply also in business parks. Of course in good consultation with.
• Trucks should be able to be electrically charged while in a docking station.
• Another important issue is the connection between business parks and the inhabited world. We are now mostly tight against built-up areas. Create (with greenery and the like) buffers, good partitions etc. between business parks and other areas. Certainly in Dinxperlo many companies are far too close to residential areas.
• In Dinxperlo there is also limited room for expansion. Some companies are stuck and if this continues, they will leave Dinxperlo. Therefore, perhaps we should also look more at demolishing old stuff, sliding space and relocation possibilities. See if we can help each other (as companies).
• Perhaps also more in height, if it is no longer possible in width. Or in depth, for example for storage and parking. Obviously not suitable for every type of business.
• If you build exactly what you need, chances are slim that you can resell it afterwards. So when building, also consider selling afterwards.
• IKAD can also take a role in this, in working with companies to develop plans and the like. So basically we have to find the common interest in this. And try to increase the degree of organization.
• The sooner we get concrete on directions and contours, the better and preferable. Then companies can work with that.

What is coming out of the areas around the business parks?

• Activity is considered important. However, concerns about nuisance and access to business parks. The roads that will be used and the like. Furthermore, also withering and the like. Residents certainly don't want to lock it up, but they do want it to be safe, healthy and fit into the landscape.
• It must also be able to "work out" business-wise.
• Regardless, we will have to put the complex puzzle together. The edge of that puzzle consists of laws and regulations, but within those, we will engage in area-specific discussions.
• And government: above all, make clear choices!

How to move forward?

The Municipality of Aalten will describe all collected input (including policies of other governments and the like) into one integral, coherent and as concrete as possible concept/proposal for an environmental vision, in which for Aalten as a whole but also for the individual subareas is indicated what the desired and undesired developments are towards 2040 and (in outline) how we want to realize the desired living environment in 2040.