Koos Bogaerts was one of the first residents of the Ter Borch district in Eelderwolde fifteen years ago. For most of that period he resisted the arrival of a supermarket a stone’s throw from his house. Now that the supermarket is coming, Bogaerts is leaving. But that doesn’t mean he gives in.
Bogaerts came to live in Otto Cluivinglaan in Eelderwolde because of the green surroundings. “There weren’t many houses yet,” he remembers. “Our house was one of the first in the project. A nice brochure talked about a ‘green entrance’, a kind of park in front of the door.”
That seemed like something to Bogaerts, such a green environment in the vicinity of the city of Groningen, where his wife comes from. In addition, the municipality’s promise that there would be no supermarket was decisive for him.
The flag will be very different in 2023. A month ago, trees that Bogaerts has been looking forward to for years were felled. The field, which children from the adjacent school eagerly played on, has turned into a construction site. Fences guard the grounds.
Bogaerts has always opposed the arrival of a supermarket. 2000 square meters. Overly large and not suitable for the Ter Borch district, according to the local resident. He received and continues to receive support from many local residents. “But some were still surprised once they saw the construction site and the fences around it,” says Bogaerts. “The question was whether it would really be that big.”
Although the ground has already been excavated and the fences are in place, after about thirteen years of wrangling over the supermarket, there is still uncertainty in Ter Borch. Because what exactly will be located on the site between Otto Cluivinglaan, Ter Borchsingel and Borchlaan?
An Albert Heijn, or so it was always thought. But Albert Heijn itself said through a spokesperson that it ‘doesn’t know what will happen next’. For this, the big grocer refers to project developer Bun from Almere. Bun could not be reached for comment.
Marcel Thijsen, mayor of the municipality of Tynaarlo, says that the current municipal executive of Tynaarlo is not a big fan of the arrival of a supermarket. “But the Council of State has previously ruled that the project developer is allowed to work on the supermarket, because that expectation has been created over the years.”
Thijsen notes that nine years ago, when he took office as mayor, the situation in Ter Borch looked very different. “We were heading for tens of millions of euros in losses on the Ter Borch project and to make matters worse, the neighboring municipality of Groningen also withdrew from this project. Seen in that light, a supermarket was a solution,” he says.
In 2023, according to Thijsen, the municipality ‘can no longer change anything’. “And let me start by saying: apartments were already planned here years ago. It may sound harsh, but no one has the right to an unobstructed view. Plans change and the arrival of a supermarket was ultimately a democratic process.”
Koos Bogaerts laughs at the edge of the site where a supermarket is to be built. The past few years in which he fought against the supermarket must have felt like a farce at times. But it was a farce that took many hours of free time. “Hundreds of hours,” Bogaerts calculates from memory. “And it will take quite a few hours.”
And then Bogaerts isn’t even talking about the money he put into it. Costs for legal action, for example. Or finally the costs of applying for a provisional measure. “A lawyer has also calculated that I have already incurred 50,000 euros in planning damage because a supermarket will soon be built here,” says Bogaerts. “There is now a claim for this with the municipality of Tynaarlo.”
Councilor Jurryt Vellinga (Liveable Tynaarlo) says that the municipality will cooperate with that claim ‘in a decent manner’. “If there is planning damage, this will be recovered from the project developer.”
Bogaerts is now looking to the future. He would like to have a new home built in Haren, although Peize is also an option. His 22-year-old son Daan recently left there. He can think about it for a while, because the Bogaerts family does not leave Eelderwolde overnight.
In the meantime, an application for a provisional injunction is still pending and Bogaerts continues to fight against the arrival of a supermarket, although it is now getting awfully close. “I think I found another hook,” he says. “The building application for the supermarket mentions 350 visitors per day, while that number is probably between 1,000 and 1,500 visitors. I will continue to work on that.”