Four new apartment complexes will be built on the piece of green between two flats along the Deurneseweg in Helmond. Five floors, with 17 apartments each. Local residents are concerned and are taking legal action against the municipality: “I will soon be locked up between three walls, no view.”
Boris Ljevar lives in the terraced houses next to the apartment buildings. He is one of the residents who will take legal action on behalf of the neighborhood. “There are already two flats on both sides of my house, now there will be another high one, right in front of me. Soon I will be looking at three walls, as if I am being locked up,” he fears.
Ljevar is especially angry about the municipality’s working methods. According to him, the construction plans came as a big surprise. “I really understand that new houses need to be built,” he says. “But the municipality had been working on these plans for years. They are only being presented now that they are finished, while the district would have liked to participate.”
“Where the flats are located is now a meeting place; you can’t dismiss that as unimportant, can you?”
Especially the fact that, according to local residents, Helmond-Oost already has a high share of social rentals, and that this project will add even more social rental properties, is a thorn in the side. “There are also many neighborhoods in Helmond where there is little social rent. It is now putting pressure on the quality of life in our neighborhood, we would like to hear from the municipality why it does not distribute it better.”
The residential complexes on the road to Deurne are painted with bright murals that give the gray colossi a more cheerful appearance. There are now wide green strips around the buildings. That is the place where the new homes should be located, with a large parking lot in front of it. “The councilor sees that this piece of green ‘is not of high quality’ and that ‘there is mainly dog poop’. I do not agree with that,” says Ljevar firmly. “Children play here, people meet on this strip. You cannot dismiss that as unimportant.”
He therefore hopes that the municipality will take the neighborhood’s wishes into account: “For example, with lower flats and a parking space underneath instead of in front. Because we understand that more homes need to be added.”