Environmental vision municipality of Opsterland

The environmental vision is an integral long-term vision for the physical living environment of the municipality of Opsterland. The physical living environment is broader than just the spatial aspects. The Omgevingswet lists mandatory aspects that must be integrally reflected in an Environmental Vision. This includes, for example, the use of natural resources, activities that cause emissions, nuisance or risks and the omission of activities. Developments in the areas of cultural heritage, energy infrastructure, agriculture, landscape, environment, nature and water are also considered and described.

Fixed Elements

In terms of content, according to the Act, the environmental vision must contain at least the following elements:

• A description of the main features of the quality of the physical environment: what does the physical environment consist of and what is its quality?
• The outline of the intended development, use, management, protection and conservation of the territory: what is happening/will happen to developments and conservation of the territory?
• The main points of the integrated policy to be implemented for the physical environment: what are the goals to be pursued and how will they be achieved?

The Environment Vision deals with the full breadth of the physical living environment as referred to in the Omgevingswet. The Environment Vision is therefore not a sum of policy visions for the various domains, but a coherent integral vision for the municipality.

In addition, the municipal environmental vision is part of a larger set of related instruments within the Omgevingswet. Frameworks for the vision are:

• The National Environmental Vision (NOVI). In it, the national government provides a long-term vision of the future development of the living environment in the Netherlands.
• The Fryslân 2020 Environmental Vision The romte diele (Provincial Environmental Vision (POVI)). 
• The National Rural Area Program (NPLG). This program falls under the NOVI and is a policy program of the Ministries of Agriculture Nature and Food Quality (LNV); of Infrastructure and Water (IenW) and of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK). In this program they work together with provinces, water boards, municipalities and social partners, landowners and land users to find solutions per area.
• In the Fries Programma Landelijk Gebied (FPLG) the province of Fryslân will implement the NPLG for Friesland. It will do this together with other parties, such as farmers, nature organizations, entrepreneurs, residents and governments, such as the municipality of Opsterland.
• Furthermore, it is known that other parties will also prepare a vision, which may be relevant. The Wetterskip has announced that it will start work on a Water Vision (Blue Environment Vision BOVI).

How did we arrive at the vision? 

Opsterland adopted the Omgevingsvisie Opsterland 2015-2030 in 2015. In fact, this is a structural vision (Spatial Planning Act), which already anticipates the Omgevingswet as much as possible. The basis of this vision is good and it was decided to update it. For the update, we used existing policy documents and new developments. And we have identified points of improvement compared to the current vision. These are: 

• More integral (more cohesive);
• more complete (with especially more connection to social welfare issues);
• strategic; set clear frameworks.

In doing so, we used the matrix developed in The Frisian Approach (DFA) for guiding themes and tasks. This basis was made appropriate for Opsterland. This has led to the topics elaborated in chapters 3 and 4. The texts were created in part through integral working sessions and conversations with the municipal administration. Because an extensive participation process took place for the Environmental Vision 2015-2030 and the existing policy was also created with participation, there was no extensive participation process when the basic text was drafted. However, this first draft text was used as a basis for the "Week of the Environment Vision" held in May 2022.

Council's role in the process 

The City Council was informed about the progress of the vision at several meetings. It also discussed various topics and dilemmas during the process. Points of attention included how the council wants to fulfill its role under the Omgevingswet , how participation should take shape, what aspects are important and where priorities lie.

Ideas and initiatives are coming more and more from society. We also recognize this in Opsterland. And as a municipality we want to connect to this in terms of policy and organization. This means that in consultation with village interests, residents, entrepreneurs and other governments, such as Wetterskip and province, we want to realize ideas. 

As a municipality, our role is essentially one of facilitation. We opt less often for a role in which we are only at the wheel and take full control ourselves. We move along with social developments, and like to work in partnership with our residents, businesses and organizations. So we are not a municipality that mainly determines, controls and steers everything itself, but a government that prefers to cooperate, think along with and help, and thus facilitate. 

In all this, we start from trust. Trust that our residents and businesses want to do the right things with attention to the environment in a broad sense: both the physical and social environment. 

We will not escape situations where we do need to take control and clearly direct. After all, we retain our role as executor of statutory tasks. But working together and connecting is an important starting point for us. 

In this Environmental Vision, you will not find a detailed elaboration of the future. We deliberately did not do so, because we know that the future cannot be predicted. However, we do have a good idea of the challenges ahead of us. We have identified five:

1. Promote village livability and vitality
2. Climate adaptation; countering flooding and heat stress
3. Promote energy transition
4. Towards an agriculture with a future
5. Improving biodiversity

We see five tasks that will undeniably have their effect on and in the physical living environment. And although we do not identify or exclude any developments in advance, there is our basis, the description of Opsterland's rich cultural landscape: landscape, villages and people. That basis is currently in good order and must remain so for the future. It consists of:

1. our main landscape structure; 
2. our Health for basic environmental quality.

The main landscape structure described here and the Health a good basic environmental quality are the starting point when considering and guiding initiatives in our municipality. 

At 'Principles' we then describe the guiding themes. We use these to achieve a plus in developments, where possible. They are:

1. we are proud of our identity and heritage;
2. we are building broad prosperity;
3. we improve environmental quality;
4. we promote sustainable use of space.

Under 'Implementation and Monitoring' we pay attention to issues such as monitoring & evaluation and the place of the Environment Vision in the policy cycle. 
 

Opsterland has been a Global Goals municipality since 2020. The Global Goals are 17 goals established by the United Nations in 2015. The Global Goals are sustainable development goals and form the global sustainability agenda until 2030. VNG has translated the Global Goals to the Dutch context and to the level of a municipality using 12 themes. Of the 17 Global Goals, 16 are relevant to municipal policy on the physical living environment. For each task and theme we indicate with images which Global Goals are relevant.