No, shows will not be given tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or even in two years. The theme park in Meppel is far from finalized. But the city council has now expressed the theme park as a preference for the area.
It is not yet (a long time) in politics in Meppel about an actual yes or no to the arrival of the theme park. Simply put, the issue now is whether the municipality can further investigate the possibility of the theme park. In more complicated terms, it concerns target images, spatial plans, structural vision, Municipal Preferential Rights Act and environmental programme.
There were originally four scenarios for the area in the north of the municipality. A recreational landscape, a stream valley landscape, an energy landscape or a working landscape. And then suddenly Puy du Fou came along. The French theme park is interested in opening a 60-hectare park in Meppel.
The province and municipality of Meppel find the plans interesting. They see opportunities for employment, recreation, education and the economy, for example. It is expected to attract around 800,000 visitors per year and create more than 1,000 jobs.
As a result, the four scenarios have actually disappeared. The municipality of Meppel expresses its preference for the theme park. The councilor would like to further develop the theme park. If all else fails, the municipality will fall back on an option for an industrial estate, with room for nature. “It is actually a combination of the four scenarios,” says Elisabeth Bakkenes on behalf of Sterk Meppel.
The city council just has to think something about it. “A devilish dilemma,” Henk Timmer (PvdA) calls it. This has to do, among other things, with the Municipal Preferential Rights Act. This applies to the area that needs to be developed and means that residents are obliged to be the first to offer their land to the municipality when they put it up for sale.
The municipality imposed this right in 2020 to find space for wind turbines or an industrial estate. The theme park was not yet active at the time. But with the preference for the theme park, that right is also extended. Some parties are concerned about this, mainly because the right has not been used for that theme park.