Green

As a resident, you can help make your neighborhood more resilient. This could include choosing bee-friendly plants or adopting green spaces. 

Would you like to learn more about biodiversity-friendly and climate-adaptive measures you can take around your home? Then check out our Steenbreek page.

Are you interested in adopting a tree, adopting a tree pit, or creating a facade garden in a public space? If so, check out our " Get Involved with Green Spaces" page.

Voorschoten places great importance on the quality of the living environment. For this reason, the municipality drew up a Green Structure Vision in 2009, which includes plans for the development, preservation, and management of green spaces. 

Subsequently, a reassessment was conducted on two topics: the project areas and small green spaces. This led to the report *Evaluation of the Green Structure Vision*, which was adopted by the council in mid-2013. The Evaluation establishes frameworks within which spatial developments can take place in several project areas. The policy regarding the sale of small green spaces was also updated. The Evaluation of the Green Structure Vision supplements the Green Structure Vision. 

Built-up area 

The Green Structure Vision focuses primarily on the built-up area of Voorschoten. For Voorschoten—with its estates, green fringes, parks, green corridors, green zones, and neighborhood green spaces—the vision provides an important framework. For the outlying areas, the policy is set forth in the Voorschoten Structural Vision.

Four functions 

Broadly speaking, the Green Structure Vision has four functions: 

• Determining the desired quality of green spaces and the associated structures and routes at the municipal and neighborhood levels; 
• Preservation and development of a sustainable green infrastructure and water infrastructure that is consistent with cultural-historical, landscape, and architectural values; 
• Making proposals and providing guidelines for improving the design of public green spaces in parks, green areas, and residential neighborhoods; 
• To provide a policy framework for play in green spaces and the sale of green spaces to private individuals. 

Are you curious about the types of trees found in the municipality of Voorschoten? You can find this information on the government’s Open Data website at .

Trees Worth Protecting 

Part of the Green Structure Vision is the creation of a list of Trees Worth Protecting. On December 6, 2011, the Municipal Executive adopted the list of Trees Worth Protecting. For the trees and groups of trees included in the list, the felling permit requirement remains in effect. For all other green spaces within the built-up area of Voorschoten, the felling permit requirement is no longer in effect. You can download the list of trees worthy of protection and the additions to it. 

For more information about the sale of small green spaces, please visit the " Sale of Small Green Spaces" page. 

Would you like to help maintain a green space without having to own it? That’s possible, too! You can choose to adopt a tree pit or an “adopt-a-green” space. You can also create a vertical garden on your building’s facade. For more information, visit our “Get Involved with Green” page.  

To give plants and animals a better chance, the municipality maintains lawns, roadsides, and riverbanks in an environmentally friendly way. Among other things, this means mowing them less frequently so that wildflowers can bloom. Of course, this applies only to areas where it’s feasible—and not, for example, to playgrounds. The result is public green spaces with more wildflowers, butterflies, dragonflies, frogs, and birds.