A new publication by GoverDENSE team members Josje Bouwmeester, Jean-David Gerber, Thomas Hartman and Deniz Ay shows how the Dutch municipality of Utrecht tries to control when and where housing subdivisions into multiple rental units take place. Through flexible regulations, which allows for case-by-case decision making, the municipality tries to get a grip on this prevalent form of soft densification. Some investors have responded to these new regulations by illegally subdividing.

Surprisingly, the findings of the paper reveal that planners sometimes expect, know, and legitimize illegal subdivisions. Especially the housing scarcity was mentioned as a reason why local authorities do not always enforce subdivision regulations. Local authorities use non-enforcement to bridge the formal planning process and mutual agreements between local stakeholders. Through this, planning authorities can use the flexibility provided by informality to respond to complex public problems.