Environment and planning permit: renovating or demolishing protected monuments

Is your building a national, provincial, or municipal listed monument? Or is it located in an urban or village conservation area? Then you cannot simply renovate or demolish it, or change something about it. Usually you will need an environment and planning permit (Omgevingsvergunning) to do so. The municipality, province, or Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed) will assess how your building plans will affect the building’s historic or cultural value.

Rules for protected monuments

A protected monument is a special building for which different rules apply than for normal buildings. You may not damage, destroy, or neglect monuments. You must also follow the rules for working on or near a monument. For example, if you want to rebuild, demolish, or move a monument, or change something on a monument. You will then usually need an environment and planning permit.

The rules for national monuments (in Dutch) are set out in the Environmental Activities Decree (Besluit activiteiten leefomgeving, Bal, in Dutch).

Your municipality and province may have their own rules and conditions for protecting municipal and provincial monuments. You can find these in the municipal environment plan or the provincial environmental regulation (in Dutch).

When do you not need an environment and planning permit?

You do not need a permit for some activities. These include:

• Ordinary maintenance on the exterior of national monuments. Here you do not change the design, detailing and profiling. You renew materials only where necessary.
• Renovations or changes to a part of the building that has no monumental value itself. For example, installing an extra toilet.
• Building in, alongside, or on sections of a listed monument when the section itself has no monumental value.
• Building in protected urban or village conservation areas (in Dutch): ordinary maintenance where colour and material type do not change, changes to the interior, and some renovations to the rear façade or rear roof surface.

Check if you need an environment and planning permit and apply

Go to the online service counter Omgevingsloket (in Dutch) to check if you need an environment and planning permit. In the Omgevingsloket you can see which rules apply in your municipality, province, or regional water authority. You can then apply directly online for an environment and planning permit or submit a notification. Sometimes you need an environment and planning permit for several activities. You can apply for these at the same time.