Judge closes almost all legal nitrogen routes

An Amsterdam project developer had planned housing there in collaboration with the municipality of Bergen, right against the Noordhollands Duin reserve at. The case against the planned housing was brought by nine residents of Egmond aan de Hoef itself. To prevent 'significant' consequences for nature, the project developer and the municipality thought it would suffice to refer to the speed limit to 100 kilometers, which the cabinet had decided at the end of 2019. The multiple chamber in Haarlem disregarded this argument in a motivated manner.

Johan Vollenbroek of MOB already raised the flag over this last weekend. According to him, the court has now closed the last goat path.

Internal netting by applying low-emission housing techniques has recently also been made very difficult by a ruling against a dairy farm in Luyksgestel, a statement that was more or less confirmed in another matter against a dairy farm on Texel. The option of external netting has already been undermined in recent months by various statements provoked by cooperative MOB, especially in North Brabant and recently also in Overijssel.

The consequence of these rulings is not only that the legal routes to continue building and further entrepreneurship with the help of 'nitrogen reduction' by road traffic or agriculture are closed, the instruments that have been built on these legal paths, such as the nitrogen bank and now the building exemption, are suddenly for discussion. The same may possibly apply to the expropriation instrument, if it is used with reference to nitrogen reduction.

It is not clear from the court decisions that the options for emission reduction have been exhausted. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that legal solutions, based on less than hard evidence, are being shot down one by one. For provable solutions, based on new techniques, it is a different story, such as emeritus professor Rudy Rabbinge in an interview with Boerenbusiness indicated.