Province Noord-Holland: Environment and planning permit for environmentally harmful activities

You apply for an environmental permit from the provincial authorities if:

• you want to start a complex business
• you want to change the work processes within your complex company, which will therefore change your impact on the environment

Consult with the stakeholders first. They are, for example, people living in the area or companies that are located nearby. Also consult with the provincial authorities and the municipality. This increases the chances of the provincial authorities granting you the permit.

This is how you apply for an environmental permit:

• Go to the online Omgevingsloket (in Dutch). This is the service counter for environmental and planning permits.
• Do the permit check.
• You will be told whether you need to apply for a permit. You can do this right away.
• Log in.

What you need for the application depends on the type of company and its scope. You need to submit, among other things:

• an odour report
• an energy report
• an air quality survey
• a map and/or
• a business plan in which you explain the business activities

Are there consequences for nature conversation areas, plants or animal species? In that case, you may also have to apply for an environmental permit for nature.

You may need to consult with the authorities in the province in which your company is located. You can apply for an environmental permit from the relevant provincial authorities via the online Omgevingsloket.

If you have applied for a permit, in most cases the extended process applies. With the extended process, it will take an average of 6 months before we make a final decision on your application.

In certain situations an abridged process applies. In this case you will receive the decision within 8 weeks from the date we received your application. We can extend this period once only by 6 weeks.

If you have applied for a permit, your application could go through one of two processes, as described below.

Regular process

• If you do not agree with our decision on your application, you can lodge an objection. You will need to do this within 6 weeks of the decision.
• If you disagree with the decision on your objection, you can lodge an appeal with the court within 6 weeks.

Extended process

• We will make the provisional decision available for inspection for 6 weeks.
• During this period, any interested party can give their opinion on this by ‘submitting a representation’ (zienswijze indienen).
• We will then make our final decision.
• Anyone who has submitted a representation and does not agree with our final decision can lodge an appeal against this with the court.