Successful appeal based on the principle of trust: parking pressure should not block environmental permits🚧

In its ruling of 25 August 2025, the District Court of North Holland had to assess whether the appellant could invoke the principle of legitimate expectations on the basis of statements made by the Municipal Executive of Alkmaar.

First, a brief explanation of the principle of legitimate expectations, more specifically when the principle applies. Three conditions must be met. First, there must be a concrete and unambiguous commitment from which the citizen could derive a legitimate expectation. Secondly, the promise must be attributable to the administrative body. This prevents every statement made by a civil servant from falling under the principle of legitimate expectations. Thirdly, it must be considered whether, in the specific case, it is reasonable to require the administrative body to act on the confidence that has been created. In other words, a balance must be struck between the interests of the citizen in whom the legitimate expectation has been created and (among other things) the public interest. 

Now to the case. The appellant had submitted a permit application for the conversion of an office space into nine flats. The environmental permit applied for was initially granted, but was subsequently withdrawn following an objection by a third party, on the grounds that the new flats would disproportionately increase parking pressure in the area. The appellant then lodged an appeal. Among other things, she argued that this was contrary to the principle of legitimate expectations. She claimed that the council had given her legitimate expectations that her plan could be realised.

The situation is as follows: before submitting the permit application, the appellant submitted a request for advice to the council. The council responded positively to this request for advice, concluding, among other things, that parking pressure in the area would not increase. However, the council did make the reservation that other aspects and interests still had to be assessed and weighed up and that it was therefore not yet certain that the environmental permit would be granted.

According to the appellant, the council's comment that parking pressure would not increase gave the appellant a legitimate expectation that the environmental permit would be granted and therefore the environmental permit could not be withdrawn on that basis. The court agrees with the appellant's position. The fact that the response to the request for advice indicated that it was not certain that the environmental permit would be granted does not alter this, because this reservation only concerned the “other aspects and interests” and not the traffic pressure. After all, that had already been established.

In concrete terms, there was a violation of the principle of legitimate expectations, because the council had given the appellant the legitimate expectation that traffic pressure would not prevent the granting of the environmental permit, but the council nevertheless revoked the environmental permit on that ground.

If you have any questions about the principle of legitimate expectations, please contact Gerard van der Wende or Fleur Huisman.

You can read the ruling here.