Three Amsterdam coffeeshops remain open due to measuring error

Three of the coffeeshops in Amsterdam that were to be closed because of being too close to a school, will remain open after all.

The 3 lucky ones are The Bulldog, the Rookies Bar and Get Down To It.

In November, Amsterdam announced it will gradually implement the 'distance criterium' (imposed by national legislation). The criterium means that a coffeeshop can not be closer to a school than 250 meters. According to the city, 31 coffeeshops would have to close down.

It now turns out that in 3 cases the distance has been measured the wrong way (they measured from the wrong front door of the Barlaeus Gymnasium high school).

Starting January 1, 2014, the opening hours of the 28 other coffeeshops on the list will be limited: they can be open from 6pm to 1am on working days (longer in weekends).
After that the procedure will be:
- 1 July 2014: 10 coffeeshops will be closed down because they are visible from a school.
- 1 January 2015: the coffeeshops closer than 150 meters to a school will close.
- 1 January 2016: the coffeeshops closer than 250 meters will close.

After this date there will still be 160 coffeeshops in Amsterdam.