Amsterdam city council’s executive board has voted in favour of plans to develop a massive new residential district in the western port area of the city, which will approach the size of Haarlem or Leiden.

Haven-Stad, as it will be called, will add between 40,000 and 70,000 new housing units and provide jobs for 45,000 to 58,000 people, the council said in a statement

Haven-Stad will be four times the size of Amsterdam’s largest expansion scheme to date – the eastern island developments of IJburg. It is planned to be a city of the future, and include schools, sports, recreation and cultural facilities as well as green space. Haven-Stad will be designed with the bicycle and public transport in mind, with few facilities for cars, the planners said.

There will be mixed housing with 40% allocated to social rental properties and jobs will be created at new sustainable, high-technology, green industries expected to be attracted to the area.

Unique

‘It’s really a unique project,’ housing alderman Eric van der Burg told the Volkskrant. ‘It will be a residential area in an industrial centre, overlooking the water.’

The first phase of the development will take place next year, centred around the Sloterdijk railway station. More than 10,000 housing units will be built there within 10 years.

But the city must have new metro or light rail links by then, Van der Berg said. ‘The ring road in the West is already operating at full capacity. The money will have to come from The Hague, but the government has budgeted for public transport in the big cities,’ he explained.

Existing industries in the western port area – namely minerals handler Eggerding, grain transhipment company Bunge and fertilizers concern ICL- have an agreement to remain in the area until 2040. But there are plans to find alternative sites for these industries well before that date, the paper said.