The project developer who wants to build 260 chalets at the Sandevoerde campsite in Zandvoort may start preparatory work. The IJmond Environment Agency today granted the company a so-called construction permit. Objections can be lodged up to six weeks after publication.
The construction permit gives the developer the freedom to dig trenches for laying electricity cables and to take measures for the construction of a recreational lake.
Recreationists at Sandevoerde campsite fear that there will soon be no place for them and that the old-fashioned camping site will turn into a chic bungalow park. “Because why would you do preparatory work if you don’t plan to build?” asks Geert Sijtzema on behalf of the Sandevoerde Association, in which the campers have organized themselves.
Letter
The granting of a permit to the new owner of the camping site in the dunes is already the second blow in one week for recreationalists, mainly from Amsterdam. A few days ago they received a letter in which the developer Sandevoerde Development will cancel the contracts with the campers with effect from next year. They have announced legal action against this.
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That it is serious will also become clear tonight. Prior to the discussion of the tourist vision of Zandvoort, they protest against the plans in front of the town hall. During the meeting itself, Geert Sijtzema, among others, will ask members of the municipal council to monitor the developer’s plans more critically than they have done so far. “If they don’t do that, I fear the worst,” says Sijtzema. “Then within two years there will be a luxury bungalow park here.”
The developer wants to push through the construction of 260 chic chalets, which can be rented all year round. That is more lucrative than a handful of ‘old-fashioned’ campers who only stay in the mobile home on site during the summer season. Sijtzema: “Unfortunately, the councilor (Martijn Hendriks, ed.) doesn’t care about it. I don’t understand that. He was elected by citizens and not by the money-grabbers.”
Councilor Hendriks has always denied that granting the construction permit means that a building permit is automatically issued. According to him, these should be seen separately. “If the construction permit is granted, construction then takes place and we feel that it is not appropriate, then that is the time to test it,” he said during a recent committee meeting.
Step stool
The residents of Zandvoortselaan and Kennemerweg, which border the site, share the campers’ fear that the construction permit is a stepping stone to the building permit. They now live relatively quietly, but are afraid of inconvenience if the chalets are rented out all year round.
Jan Straub, who has a house on Zandvoortselaan, is one of the local residents who thinks that the construction permit is the ‘front porch’ of the building permit. “I’m afraid that the whole thing will soon be in disarray and the municipality will then say: he has already made so much progress, now give him the building permit.”