A Bicycle Shed in Your Front Yard

A bike shed sits tucked away off the side of a driveway. There are trees and foliage in the backgroud. The text on top says: A bike shed in your front yard

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Cycling through Dutch towns, I started to notice more and more people have a bicycle shed in front yards. Or perhaps better called ‘bike shelters’. They don’t have doors and are entirely open on at least one side. This allows for storage of bicycles without having to go through the hassle of unlocking a door, opening, closing and locking doors. They are basically just there to keep your bike dry and somewhat hidden from public view.

A red front door with a small front yard. the front yard has vegetation and a small shed, to store two bicycles. It has its own tiled roof. — For the space challenged home owner

Bicycle shed dug into the ground

I have even seen a bicycle shed that was half dug into the ground in the miniscule front yard in a dense urban neighbourhood. Why would they build in their front yard? Sometimes a shed is built in the front yard because the home is part of a long row of townhouses and people don’t feel like going through the back door and laneway. Or because there is no laneway at the back at all and you have to bring your bike through the house every single time.

bicycle are stored in an open shed with vegetation on top. the shed is party dug in to mee the height requirements — A partially dug in bike shed in a front yard

Other reasons might be a postage stamp size back yard, which the Dutch like to keep as a patio only, with a small shed, which is already packed to the rafters with a BBQ, a patio set and gardening stuff.

Regulations for a bicycle shed

Many of the bicycle sheds appear to have a green roof with sedum. That makes it look a little friendlier. I am sure there are Dutch municipal guidelines on structures in those tiny front yards so I did a bit of digging. I found a web page of the Fietsersbond (Cycling Union) of the Netherlands, that states the following:

Anyone who wants to build something will have to deal with the rules of the -loosely translated- Neighbourhood Regulations Decree (Dutch acronym: BOR – Besluit OmgevingsRecht). Everything is allowed in your backyard without a permit. Much less in the front yard. Only very modest structures are allowed. The BOR shows that a permit is not necessary if you follow the following rules properly:

a. Not higher than 1 m, and
b. the surface no more than 2 m2

In short, if you want a doghouse in the front yard, you can have one. A bit of a bicycle storage, even for only two bicycles, is more than 2 square meters and higher than 1 meter though. To bypass that rule, many front yard builders dig a hole. A sunken shed does not exceed the 1-meter limit.

Permit for you bicycle shed

The story continues explaining that some cities have an easy procedure if you go beyond the 1 x 2 meters. Some municipalities require a permit, other don’t. In Delft, you don’t need a permit if the height is 1.5 meters and the surface not more than 5 m2. That sounds a lot more reasonable.

Then there is enforcement. Some cities tolerate more than others and yet other municipalities only respond if a neighbour (Don’t be that guy) complains. As usual, most people get that you should build something modest. But rules are there for those who want to build, say, a private lighthouse or a two storey car park in their front yard.

Relaxed fit

It sounds like most municipalities don’t make a big deal out of the several types of bicycle sheds, as long as it is modest. I guess if you want to promote cycling as a city, you can’t really make it too hard to store bikes in a city where there is so little space in the first place. Making it as easy as possible to take the bike is more than building cycling lanes, it requires a mindset that goes beyond asphalt.