The document places an emphasis on making strategic choices, and uses simple case studies to demonstrate how these choices can lead to different urban characters. By setting clear guidelines within a flexible framework, the city can determine its own direction for the sustainable development of the city centre. The framework will be an important base for the upcoming Environment and Planning Act.

Groningen is growing, and the city centre is growing along with it, with 10% more residents than it had 10 years ago. The city is also an extremely good place to live: a report by the European Commission places Groningen as one of the top three happiest cities in Europe, and it has been ranked as the healthiest city in the Netherlands by Arcadis. While a lot is going well for the city, it also faces major challenges. The growth in population has created a need to increase the capacity of the inner city, to diversify its population, to accommodate opportunities in the local economy, to improve the quality of public space, and to space to accommodate the growth of institutions such as the University of Groningen and the UMCG hospital. It also challenges the city to manage its growth while maintaining the historic character of its city centre, and to adapt in the face of a changing climate.

These three themes – climate and public space, programme, and spatial quality – form the backbone of the strategic framework. Each is applied at three different scales – neighbourhoods, streets, and key development locations – to create a matrix of nine key principles that can serve as guidelines for the municipality and its partners for sustainable development.

“Guided Growth helps to make clear choices that do justice to the desire to keep Groningen city centre accessible to everyone while strengthening its importance as a cultural and economic engine”, says Nathalie de Vries. “We have brought together historical character, climate adaptation, and fair growth into balanced development frameworks with clear ambitions.”