Eindhoven University of Technology
7W7X0 Urban planning
Test 1 – Plan review & presentation L4 Retail
This paper gives a critical review of the spatial plan Centrum Nederweert.
The village Nederweert is in the north of Limburg just on the border
with Noord-Brabant and has a population of approximately 17.000
inhabitants. The retailers in Nederweert are concentrated alongside the
green road shown in de plan down below.
Figure 1 Centre Nederweert, ruimtelijkeplannen.nl
In 2007 Nederweert formed a strategic vision for Nederweert in the
future. The construction of housing and new neighborhoods will increase
in the coming years, this can ensure that the sales market becomes
larger. The city center will be more concentrated with retailers and the
retailers who are not in the centre will be given a chance to move.
The municipality knows it is lucky not to have big shopping centers
nearby, that could take away customers from retailers in Nederweert
itself (Croonen Adviseurs, 2011).
If we look at the centre where the retailers are located, then it is
noticeable that it is not a ‘circular’ center but a long-stretched road
through Nederweert. The Municipality is aware of this and points this
problem out in their spatial plan. The concentration of shops needs to
be in a more limited area. Grocery stores are located along the pink
planes in the map shown above, which ensures that people must go
to the city centre a few times a week. To make the centre more
attractive they made the Kerkstraat and the Brugstraat more pedestrianfriendly by making it a one-way street and by widening the sidewalk.
But with parking spaces outside the centre, it remains easily accessible
for cars (Raadsbesluit, 2016).
Researchers from the University of Paderborn support this vision in
their article. They conducted research into the geographic locations of
retailers for successful retailing. Their data analyses show that the main
feature significant for success in the city centre is the centrality of the
locations of retailers in the city centre. By placing shops closer to the
centre shows to be influencing the success of a city drastically. Online
retailers and planned shopping areas such as shopping malls and outlet
centers are threatening the existence of many retail businesses in the
city. Those planned shopping areas excel at drawing customers to their
central locations with a lot of shops close to each other. The retailers
from Nederweert are lucky to not have a shopping mall nearby. To
improve the city’s attractiveness town center management is very
important (Ahlemann F., 2021).
As noted from the spatial plan, Nederweert tried to make the city
centre more pedestrian friendly. But if the municipality wants to
concentrate its retail in a smaller area, it probably could increase its
pedestrian-friendly vision. Researchers from the Tasmanian University
researched the role of local governments in marketing small retail in
cities. To improve the shopper experience it is important to enhance
pedestrianization, by for example closing a street. This measure is
identified as a key factor to improve the performance of a retail area
(Grimmer, 2023).
Strengths:
- There are no shopping malls nearby.
- Parking spaces near the centre.
- Grocery stores are located nearby.
Weaknesses:
- The retail in the city centre of Nederweert is not concentrated
but stretched out.
- The centre is not pedestrian-friendly yet.
Solution
As mentioned before the city centre from Nederweert is way too long.
To improve the attractiveness, decisions need to be made to cut a
part off at the current city 'centre'. If we look back at the map of
Nederweert we can see that there is a long road where everything is
located. A part of this road needs to be cut off from the centre to
make it smaller but more concentrated. The retailers outside this area
need to be given a perspective to move their business to a more
concentrated area.
Another solution to improve retail is to take it a step further with
pedestrianization. Now that the centre is smaller it is way easier to cut
off the car traffic in a busy street. Alongside this road, there are enough
parking lots to park your car and walk to the city centre.
Literature:
Croonen Adviseurs. (2011). Bestemmingsplan Centrum, Nederweert
Gemeente Nederweert. Retrieved from www.croonenadviseurs.nl
Grimmer, L. (2023). The role of local government in marketing small
city retailing: Examining the gap between perception and reality.
International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research .
doi: 10.1080/09593969.2023.2227364
Raadsbesluit. (2016, July 1). Detailhandelsstructuurvisie Nederweert .
Retrieved from
https://www.ruimtelijkeplannen.nl/documents/NL.IMRO.0946.SVDHNederwee
rt-VA01/t_NL.IMRO.0946.SVDHNederweert-VA01.pdf
Ahlemann F., S. R. , S. S. (2021). Discovering Geographical Patterns
of Retailers’ Locations for Successful Retail in City Centers .
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