Drastically reduce development time with parallel planning

When developing a residential block in Elzenhagen-Zuid in Amsterdam North, Roos van Weert was given a tight schedule by the municipality. In 4.5 months, everything had to be ready for permit applications. “When I heard the deadlines, my first thought was: we're never going to make it. But we decided to go for it, so it soon turned into: let's go!”

For the residential block in question, plans had been made for mid-rent housing that investors could sign up for. However, uncertainty in the market meant that no offer was received from an investor. From housing corporation De Alliantie, however, there appeared to be interest in middle-rent housing combined with social housing. Roos: “We submitted a request for a program change to the municipality and received approval. On the condition that the plan development for this new plan would proceed quickly so that the planned building production could proceed. An important point for the municipality and also the government because of the large shortage of housing.”

Reducing plan development from 1.5 years to 4.5 months is a considerable challenge. Not every project lends itself to such an accelerated process, and with this housing block, too, it was questionable whether it would succeed. “The team involved in project development consists of different parties with their own expertise: the architect, structural engineer, building physics consultant, installation consultant, contractor and the buyer. Normally, we as the developer make the planning and the different expertises still work too much one after the other. One is waiting for input from the other before work can continue on the project.”

Everything started with planning differently. Communication and commitment were essential to get everything off the ground at this speed. Rose: “I called every team member to ask if they were available and up for the challenge: ‘Can I count on you or not?’ I also explicitly asked them to make this project a priority. The great thing was that all parties wanted it to succeed.” Roos then brought the team together to put the day-by-day planning on paper. Says Roos, “We looked very specifically at what information was needed for the next party to move forward. How can we shorten the lead time, how can we plan activities such as calculating, drawing, documenting, researching, designing and deciding in parallel rather than one after the other? Together we started looking at what would be a realistic schedule. We worked this out as specifically as possible, at the daily level. This created a shared responsibility for planning.”

Team spirit was also important in the course of the development. Roos: “There was a good click between us and we made an effort to further develop that team spirit. Together we determined the milestones in the process and also celebrated each milestone achieved. You get into a kind of pressure cooker and by creating that bond people are willing to go the extra mile for each other and the project.”

Focus was another important factor that contributed to meeting the tight schedule. “As a project developer, I usually work on several projects at the same time. Now, because of the challenging task, I was allowed to concentrate fully on this project. That worked very pleasantly.” Developing at this speed also requires focus from the municipality. Roos: “I explained to the municipality that it is only feasible if the review times at the municipality are shortened.” That was possible, thanks to clear communication. “With our planning at the daily level, I could indicate exactly on which day they could expect the review documents. If anything changed in the planning, we kept each other well informed so that things could be switched quickly. As a result, everything went smoothly.”

Roos and the project team managed to reduce the development time from a year and a half to 4.5 months, thanks in part to parallel planning. According to Roos, not every project lends itself to planning like this. “With parallel planning you can certainly speed things up. But reducing the lead time from 1.5 years to 4.5 months really doesn't work with every project. It is only possible with projects whose frameworks are very clear in advance. Here we already had a zoning plan, an urban development plan and clear agreements with the municipality and De Alliantie about the housing program. You also have to get the right commitment from the team. It's great that we succeeded.”

Not only at project level, but also at area level the national government wants to work more often with parallel planning. Roos: “The government is running pilot projects in which the entire area development is accelerated. This concerns the initiation phase. How do you get to a zoning plan, a permit and realization? Possibly the lead time of an area can then be reduced from ten years to four years. Accelerated development on projects, is part of that.”