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Profile and Approach
Goudse Poort is a business park in Gouda, covering 160 acres, where nearly 7,000 people work. Gouda has a highly favourable location in the centre of the Randstad, a circular urbanised area including Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. When it opened, in 1970, the park went straight into the top ten of Dutch business parks. Over the years, however, the quality of Goudse Poort has deteriorated and the park has become shabby. The town of Gouda, the owners of the buildings and the project developer have the ambition to bring Goudse Poort into the top five of the most desirable office areas in the Netherlands. This will require a thorough transformation in the coming years. To achieve this, the three parties have agreed to co-operate. This transformation implies a shift in the type of business. Now, there are still businesses in the park with large warehouses: a waste-processing business, for example, and car repair and sales firms. Gradually, however, the park will become a top-quality office area. This means that in the coming ten years more and taller office buildings will be going up. This restructuring is planned to be completed in 2015. As a result of this restructuring the number of people employed at Goudse Poort will double, as will traffic. At present, Goudse Poort already has to deal with a serious parking problem, traffic congestion and public transport becoming more and more undependable. If no measures are taken to solve these specific problems, they are sure to increase. Approach
In the OPTIMUM² project at Goudse Poort we aim to achieve two things:
1. Influence the planning process, to have mobility optimally incorporated;
2. Start up mobility services for businesses that are settling in or are already there to obtain the best baseline conditions for mobility when Goudse Poort is totally developed. Mobility management as a permanent factor in plan making (Pillar no. 4)
Goudse Poort’s main asset is its excellent location. To ensure that this location will continue to hold this competitive advantage, it is vital that the area remains accessible. Accessibility is crucial not only to the successful development and marketing of Goudse Poort, but is also part of Gouda’s city promotion. Mobility management, in turn, has been included in the plan making from the very start of the restructuring process at Goudse Poort. Here we may rightfully speak of an integral approach to the problem of accessibility. With a plan such as this, the usual procedure is to first make a land use plan. A land use plan is the legal framework within which district councils lay down their spatial development. There is no land use plan yet for Goudse Poort. Instead, the town of Gouda has first made a master plan. This master plan serves as the starting document for the restructuring process and indicates which direction Gouda wishes the area’s development to take. For this, support from the private sector is needed. That will not come automatically, as a project developer’s main concern with buildings is return on investment, not the area’s accessibility. And yet, local investors have become more convinced of the importance of accessibility and keeping business areas attractive in the long term. Investors are therefore particularly involved in the plan making regarding Goudse Poort. In the Netherlands, this approach still is rather uncommon. 
In April 2004 Gouda’s town council passed the master plan. Parts of the master plan were then worked out in the so-called image quality plan, which serves as a guideline and yardstick for the designers of the public spaces and the private lots in the business park. The plan includes the following themes: integration in the surrounding landscape, parking and cycle paths. Next, a plan was made to ensure the accessibility of Goudse Poort. Together, these plans form the basis for the new land use plan.
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The other four pillars of the OPTIMUM² approach are also addressed in the plans to attain maximal accessibility for Goudse Poort.
Putting the traveller centre stage (Pillar no. 1)
In order to take effective mobility measures it is important to be informed on the wishes and opinions of companies and their staff.
* Baseline measurement
In October 2004 a so-called baseline measurement survey was held among 4,000 employees in order to map the present mobility patterns, the accessibility problems and the possible solutions travellers themselves may bring forward. The baseline measurement allows to compare the effect of future measures with the situation at the start.
* User panel
A user panel, consisting of some 20 facility and human resources managers, has been operational since mid-2004. The user panel was created to improve the work climate and image of Goudse Poort through the exchange of ideas and wishes. The topics of discussion include the location’s accessibility, safety and image, as well as future services. The user panel meets at an average of once a month.
* Building-owners association
The owners of the buildings at Goudse Poort have formed an association, which serves as a platform for consultation with the authorities. The association also takes on the co-ordination of such services as collective parking policy, security, public transport, grounds maintenance, child care, collective data wire installation and collective energy purchasing. The association has existed for years now and meets on an average of once every three months. Developing marketing activities (Pillar no. 2)
The first steps towards the marketing plan consist of the baseline measurement survey among the employees and the establishment of the user panel. Marketing will be undertaken on various levels:
* In its city promotion, the town of Gouda will give due attention to its business areas (“location marketing”).
* Location accessibility will be promoted as an integral product.
* Finally, each measure will also be promoted separately.
The marketing plan will be finished in the fall of 2005. Good travel information and communication (Pillar no. 3)
Goudse Poort has its own website: www.goudsepoort-gouda.nl. Communication will also take place via a special newsletter. In future, the travel facility point will provide travel information. Extra incentives (Pillar no. 5)
The new land use plan will set a standard parking value, which will specify the number of parking spaces per square metre office space. The new standard will allow fewer parking spaces near businesses in the future situation than there are now. This will result in more office space compared to the available parking space. Nevertheless, the area’s accessibility will improve, thanks to a combination of central parking and supplementary mobility services. This will enhance Goudse Poort’s attractiveness, which in turn will result in a higher yield per square metre. Within the framework of OPTIMUM², at Goudse Poort effort is being made to enhance the location’s accessibility. That includes the following services: parking management, the travel facility point, the mobility card, the Goudse Poort shuttle bus and the bicycle project (see ‘Measures and Progress’). |
