Last year, the Municipal Executive decided to draw up an Area Agenda for Southeast Assen (ZO Assen!), together with about 26 parties in that area. This concerns the one hundred hectare area, from the south side of the railway station to the NAM office on Schepersmaat as a towering beacon in the field.
According to the Asser city council, there are ‘many major players in the fields of healthcare, government and energy, ‘economic power sectors’. This concerns the healthcare facilities GGZ-Drenthe, Vanboeijen and the WZA, on both sides of the Overcingellaan. The Mandemaat is mainly home to government offices. And Schepersmaat is home to, among other things, the asylum seeker center for 1,000 refugees, which will probably get permanent status. With the NAM head office right next to it, which would like a more sustainable and smaller office.
The Municipal Executive would like to retain and strengthen companies and institutions in that area for Assen. It must also be attractive for new companies to establish themselves here. The aim is a sustainable healthcare and work landscape in Zuidoost-Assen in thirty years’ time, with room for housing as well.
Strong criticism came from the Zuiderpark district next to the southeastern development area. The WZA hospital is right next door, as is the Accare youth mental health clinic, and opposite the residential area the asylum seekers’ center on Schepersmaat. Residents feel ‘completely ignored’ in the entire run-up to the Area Agenda. This was done deliberately, the documents state, ‘because there is no concrete message yet’.
Resident Roel Jacobs of the Zuiderpark district told the council tonight that this is already ‘the third bad experience’ in a short time, that there is little or no resident participation. “The fact that the Area Agenda alone mentions plans for a structural asylum center at Schepersmaat, or changing the zoning from office function to residential function, should certainly be a reason to involve local residents from the start.”
Earlier this year, a group of Zuiderpark residents had already had a dispute with the municipality about plans for a bicycle street in Beilerstraat and the trial closure with a bicycle pole for car traffic. And last week, residents felt surprised that the asylum center on Schepersmaat will probably become permanent after ten years, and there is no alternative location.
Jacobs would prefer to have the Area Agenda for Southeast Assen removed from the council agenda, in order to still have that conversation with residents. That didn’t work out. Even though some parties had reservations about the course of events. But according to councilor Bert Jan ten Oever (City Party PLOP), local residents will still be fully discussed in the next development phase. “Only then will further specification be required, and then they will have every opportunity to participate in the discussion.”