ABSTRACT
Pro-active planning can be carried out in various ways: by providing information, by exhorting, by applying financial stimuli. Dutch planning agencies prefer another method: direct involvement in land ownership. For centuries, Dutch local governments have been supplying building land. Involvement in the land market always brings financial risks to the municipality. Land ownership and agreements with land owners are used regularly as an instrument for land-use planning: that is the subject of this chapter. There are various ways in which municipalities can become actively involved in the land market. For the first forty years after the Second World War, the method most commonly used was called an 'active municipal land policy'. However, that state agency may be able to use in addition private powers to realise the desired land use. A state agency in the Netherlands is a legal person and as such is entitled to use all the private powers available to a citizen or private firm.
