Business parks

Date: April 16, 2025
Time: 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Location: Town Hall, Markt, Aalten

Introduction

The municipality of Aalten is tasked with working with its residents to develop a new environmental vision for the entire municipality. We are doing this by, among other things, 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 discussion with entrepreneurs about the future of the business parks in Aalten. A total of around 12 entrepreneurs from Aalten took part in the discussion. The discussion was facilitated by three employees of the municipality of Aalten.

Do you have any comments or suggestions regarding this report? Please send them to omgevingsvisie@aalten.nl. If you would like to contribute to the new environmental vision of the municipality of Aalten, please use this email address as well.

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 in the context of 2040 and what they consider important in this regard.

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 industrial estates for years. Additional industrial land is urgently needed, otherwise companies will/must leave Aalten.
• Also (want to) seize opportunities when companies want to establish themselves in Aalten. Land must also be available for this purpose.
• There is also insufficient space for storage and similar purposes 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 take the Map Aalten, you will know within five minutes where industrial estates can be built. It will easily take us ten years. Make the decision and get on with it!
• 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.
• Aalten and Dinxperlo should harmonize their regulations, zoning plans, and similar matters. For example, why is the height limit 12 meters in Dinxperlo and 16 meters in Aalten? This has been an issue in Dinxperlo for years.
• Businesses and economic activity are also a source of prosperity for Aalten. It would be nice if this were facilitated. Permits have taken an unreasonably long time to be issued. ODA plays an important role in this. As an entrepreneur, you are caught between a rock and a hard place. There should be someone at the municipality to whom you can complain if ODA is not performing.
• Companies are sometimes treated as capitalist polluters, even though they are important for the livability of Aalten. That attitude must and should change.
• Heat stress as an example: The government's task and role is also to look after the health of employees in business parks. So you could say: Heat stress is nonsense, but we can't get away with that. So we will also have to find space for extra greenery in business parks, also to combat heat stress. The municipality of Aalten will not impose anything in this regard, but we will have to do something, also in business parks. In consultation, of course.
• See also possible flooding as a result of climate change. Limburg showers can also fall in Aalten. This will also affect businesses there. So we will have to take climate measures and take water collection and drainage into account. This also applies to and around business parks. And there will have to be/be created space for this.
• The Aalten business park expansion project already takes into account measures that need to be taken in terms of climate, sustainability, and similar issues.
• 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 the municipality of Aalten also look to other municipalities when it comes to designing business parks? The answer is yes. The municipality of Aalten collaborates with other municipalities through Regio, but also directly.

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 compile all the input gathered (including policies from other authorities and similar) into a single, integrated, coherent, and as concrete as possible concept/proposal for an environmental vision. This will outline the desired and undesired developments for Aalten as a whole, as well as for the individual sub-areas, in the period leading up to 2040, and (in broad terms) how we want to achieve the desired living environment in 2040.