The municipality of Amstelveen was not allowed to impose an order subject to a penalty for painting the facade of a house in Westwijk blue. The court ruled that last week.
The villa was already light blue in 1994 and there was a permit for that. That color has faded and become lighter over the years. The residents had painted the facade of the house blue again in 2019. Because it concerns a so-called ‘prosperity-strained area’, the municipality did not have to deal with it. There is, however, an exception for ‘prosperity excesses’.
‘Contrary to reasonable demands’
Several local residents found the new blue color ‘striking and showy’. They complained to the municipality, who sent an enforcer. The enforcer found the color so unusual that the municipality tried to force the residents to remove the blue color by means of a so-called penalty order. According to the municipal council, it was a color that ‘seriously conflicts with the reasonable requirements of prosperity’.
The residents of the villa disagreed. They eventually went to court. During the lawsuit, the Amstelveen city council announced that the city architect had examined the house and concluded after a comparison with a color fan that the color resembled the so-called RAL code 5015. That color can be seen below. According to the municipality it is not light blue.
The residents of the villa do not recognize themselves in the description of the color. They believe that the new color is somewhere between RAL code 5012 and RAL code 5015, but closer to light blue.
The court writes the verdict that the houses in the area are white to light sand colored. The blue villa breaks that unity. However, that does not matter because it is a ‘prosperous’ neighbourhood. The fact that local residents chose from a palette of light sand colors does not mean that a choice that deviates from that palette is an outrage. This is also apparent from the fact that, according to the municipality, light blue was still allowed in 1994.
The court also finds that the municipality has not made it sufficiently clear that the new color is indeed not light blue. For example, the municipality based itself partly on a report by the Netherlands Color Institute Foundation. But that foundation wrote in that report not to draw any conclusions because a site visit was necessary for that. The foundation has never actually looked at the villa itself.
The municipality of Amstelveen must also reimburse the amount that the residents lost to an expert for the lawsuit, 300 euros.
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