The municipality of Assen wants to build another 1,000 homes in the Kloosterveen district. This is sensitive given its location near the Fochteloërveen nature reserve.
Assen is already building 500 homes in Kloosterveen in the Kloosterakker plan. The municipality announced on Tuesday that it wanted to add another 1,000 by 2035. The mayor and aldermen present the so-called Kloosterveen Development Strategy 2035 to the municipal council. The council hopes the new plan will meet a high demand for housing.
The municipality expects that the 500 plots in Kloosterakker will all be sold by 2026, and then Assen will be in trouble with new-build homes. Assen initially wanted to build an additional 2,500 houses in the area, but has limited it to a thousand for the time being.
The expansion of Kloosterveen is controversial, because the residential area is close to the Natura 2000 area Fochteloërveen. The protected crane and geese, among other things, forage in the fields next to the nature reserve and have largely been driven away with the arrival of Kloosterakker. Nature organizations are very concerned and Assen’s new expansion plan will put even greater pressure on the area. Plans to build wooded areas along the fields, which could potentially encourage the birds to return, have not yet come to fruition.
Mayor and aldermen Assen think that 1,000 additional houses can be built in Kloosterveen, despite great pressure on nature and nitrogen regulations. The province of Drenthe must grant a permit for the expansion plan.