Today, the Council of State has decided once and for all that there will be no supermarket in a former hardware store on Weverstraat in Assen.
The highest administrative court also did this two years ago in a ruling on the zoning plan. The Council now rules again that the municipality of Assen has rightly refused the environmental permit.
Assen does not want any retail businesses on Weverstraat because it is an industrial estate. This does not include shops and certainly no supermarkets. Assen prefers to have these in residential areas in the designated shopping centers and the city center.
Assen is also afraid that shops in the city center will become empty if there are too many shops. That is why the municipality has been working since 2009 to bring shops together in the city center and shopping centers. The Weverstraat is located outside the area and is not eligible for the establishment of new shops.
The ruling is a setback for the owner from Nuis. There is now an outlet store in the building on Weverstraat and it may remain there under the transitional law.
Furthermore, companies are allowed to establish themselves there. And the owner really has to deal with that now.
“If we allow shops there, we could jettison our entire retail policy,” said a concerned spokesperson for the municipality of Assen during a lawsuit in The Hague.
