ABSTRACT Heritage has become a major theme in Dutch spatial planning. A number of recent Dutch urban extension projects offer interesting case studies on the integration of heritage into planning. The projects were part of a large housing programme, known as the Vinex programme, which was initiated by the Dutch national government but executed by local authorities. They therefore provide interesting cases for comparison. This paper presents a number of these projects, focusing on the use of heritage, which allows us to classify different ways of incorporating heritage into plans: integration, embeddedness and isolation. Another classification involves different views and interpretations about heritage, and describes diminishing degrees of authenticity entailed in preservation, transformation and inspiration. Combining both types of classification may offer a framework for further research on the relationship between heritage and planning.