Amsterdam City Council: Green plans back to the drawing board after referendum vote

Amsterdam’s political leaders will drop their current green plans for the capital, and will introduce a new version. The coalition parties that formed the local political leadership said during a debate in City Council on Wednesday that they will vote against the framework policy known as the Main Green Structure.

With that, the coalition’s mayor and aldermen on the Executive Board said they will respect the results of the referendum vote on the plans that was held on June 6. They will take the matter back to the drawing board. Earlier, the coalition parties GroenLinks, PvdA and D66 all said they would vote down the measure if it was presented to them.

The policy is part of Aldermen Reinier van Dantzig’s portfolio. “I think we have managed to send a clear signal to the City Council and the Executive Board that greenery is important in the city,” the D66 aldermen said to those who initiated the referendum.

“At the same time, the Executive Board remains convinced that this plan was really an improvement compared to the old Main Green Structure. But Amsterdam residents voted on it and we as a council, just like the City Council, naturally agree with the outcome of that referendum.”

An advisory board will probably be established to craft a new green plan. This will include more involvement from city residents.

The referendum, which coincided with the European Parliament elections, was initiated by opponents of the plans. Although the mayor and aldermen on the Executive Board believed that the policy would protect and strengthen greenery in the city, opponents called the plans vague, too flexible and would actually reduce the level of protected greenery.

They argued that the municipality wrongly included plots such as artificial grass fields and walking and cycling paths as green areas. This was improper, and some water areas could even be counted twice, advocates argued.

In the advisory referendum, 63 percent of voters said they were against the municipality's green plans. The turnout percentage for the referendum was 38.4 percent. The result was to provide feedback only, and was non-binding. It was ultimately up to the Executive Board to decide whether to pull the measure off the table and revise the plan, or City Council to decide whether to approve it.