The new Environmental Act has been in force since 1 January 2024. A comprehensive set of 26 laws and a few hundred regulations. Complex matter? Certainly! But the law also offers opportunities for great new initiatives, such as off-grid Tiny Houses.
Arnoud Hoekema recently successfully completed his fourth-year internship assignment on this subject on behalf of the Energy Transition Centre (EnTranCe) of the Hanze University of Applied Sciences Groningen. For his study, HBO Law, he investigated what room for assessment municipal officials have in the new Environmental Act when realising off-grid Tiny Houses. Graduation supervisor Ron de Vrieze sees the research as a logical continuation of the research by Jolinde Kerbof, about which TinyFindy previously wrote a blog
‘Last year, Jolinde delved into the rules and regulations surrounding off-grid living and the possibilities to deviate from them. But now we live in a new reality with the recently implemented environmental law. Arnoud has researched the changes in the laws and regulations and added a specific research objective: What room for assessment is there for municipal officials in the environmental law when it comes to off-grid living. Super interesting for Tiny House enthusiasts who plan to live off-grid!’
Theoretically, there is extra room for assessment!
The environmental law integrates various old regulations, but also offers extra room for flexible spatial policy. Arnoud explains what this means: ‘With regard to off-grid living, you see shifts in the approach to: spatial planning, permitting and enforcement. The structure of the Environmental Act offers municipalities the opportunity to create specific rules and policies for off-grid living. These instruments serve as a legal basis for enabling new forms of living. The theoretical part of my research shows that the Environmental Act also really offers municipalities more policy freedom in using the environmental vision, the environmental plan, the environmental permit and the project decision.’ Theoretically, municipalities therefore have more room to formulate policy that supports off-grid living.
Image: Villa Tinnie, Tiny Works
Is there also practical extra room for assessment?
The practical research that Arnoud carried out at 3 municipalities shows that they actually want to use the policy freedom when designing environmental plans for off-grid living: ‘Its application varies, depending on local circumstances, political composition and decision-making and the needs of the community. For example, starters can learn from off-grid living/Tiny House pilots that have been initiated by municipalities. These pilots then function as learning opportunities and demonstrate the effectiveness of policy freedom in practice.’
The implementation of policy freedom in practice appears to differ per municipality, one experiments and is open to small-scale living, while the other adheres more strictly to existing regulations. These differences depend on the interpretation and approach of civil servants within the municipalities.
Arnoud understands: ‘The policy freedom that is granted to municipalities within the environmental legislation and regulations appears to play a crucial role in the use of legal instruments, particularly in granting environmental permits for off-grid living. The complexity of off-grid living, including aspects such as sustainability, self-sufficiency and spatial planning, requires sound considerations. Municipalities use their policy freedom to make these considerations and to use legal instruments that fit their local context and objectives. The balanced safeguarding of spatial quality, liveability, and individual freedom is a challenge that policymakers are confronted with on a daily basis.’ Local political composition, urban or rural characteristics, and citizen initiatives also influence the policy freedom and the chosen use of legal instruments.
New: The experimental provision
The additional policy freedom within the Environmental Act can therefore still be dealt with differently per municipality. Arnoud: ‘That’s right, but people who want to live off-grid will still have enough options to escape the arbitrariness of policy freedom after the Environmental Act comes into effect. You will continue to have the option to deviate from the regulations with motivated equivalent solutions. And what is new within the Environmental Act is the experimental provision.’
Arnoud is enthusiastic about the new provision: ‘The experimental provision is intended to provide additional scope to deviate from provisions in, among other things, the Environmental Act. The provision offers a solution for projects that are aimed at improving the quality of the physical living environment or decision-making about it, but that cannot be realised under the applicable regulations.’ The experiments are designated by general administrative order. This also determines which deviation is permitted and how long the deviation may last. Deviation is only permitted if this does not conflict with international obligations such as EU directives. [Box] Improvement objectives of the new environmental law.
Improvement goals of the new environmental law
The objective of the new environmental law is to achieve and maintain a safe and healthy physical living environment and good environmental quality, and to manage, use and develop this physical living environment efficiently to fulfil social functions. A number of ambitious improvement objectives have been formulated:
- increasing the transparency, predictability and ease of use of environmental law
- achieving a coherent approach to the physical living environment in policy, decision-making and regulations
- increasing the administrative discretion by enabling an active and flexible approach to achieving objectives for the physical living environment;
- accelerating and improving decision-making on projects in the physical living environment
Text and illustrations: Marcel van Mierlo
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