Planners warn the municipality of Veldhoven about the explosive growth of ASML in their village. “If you know it is coming, you have to prepare for it,” says Ruud Broekman, an expert in the field of spatial planning. And things are also becoming restless in local politics. The municipality itself should come up with a vision for the growth of the company, says GroenLinks-PvdA. Instead of waiting to see what ASML has plans for the rest of Veldhoven.
Broekman sees the power that ASML has as a company, but also emphasizes the role of the municipality. “It is a matter of good coordination and cooperation,” says the planner and planning economist at Essente area development in Den Bosch. “You have to put the interests of all parties on the table by sitting down together and then saying: this is what we really want to go for. .”
“It requires a government that gets ahead of things”
Claudia Rieswijk agrees with this, she is project leader at BEECKK Ruimtemakers. “It requires a government that anticipates things and not only when ASML submits a new permit application.”
The expansion of ASML will result in the addition of many new employees. Homes are needed for those people, but all those new Brabanders also want to exercise somewhere, go shopping, eat out and do other fun things. “The municipality must see where there is room for these facilities. Can that be done where it is now, or do we have to move things around.”
Although that is easier said than done. “There are a total of 21 regional municipalities that are affected to a greater or lesser extent by ASML’s expansion, and they are all slightly different. Then think about organizing something together.”
“I understand that people are afraid of losing the village atmosphere.”
The two experts understand that Veldhoven residents are not immediately eager for ‘more and bigger’. Claudia also lives in a village. “I understand that people are afraid of losing the village feeling and the ‘we know us’ feeling if their village were to develop into something very urban.”
Yet both emphasize that the development of the region has also produced enormous positive results. “In other regions, where villages remain small, you see that the supermarket is leaving the village,” says Broekman. Veldhoven doesn’t have to be afraid of that.
The enormous growth and technological character of the Eindhoven Brainport region means that it is often compared to the American Silicon Valley. Big tech companies have the power there. But we don’t have to be afraid of that in the Netherlands, Broekman thinks. The Dutch government is in better control, he believes. “In the American Silicon Valley, everyone is only concerned with technology. In the Eindhoven region you can get the best of both worlds: showing that technological development and quality of life go together very well.”
In this video you can see everything about ASML’s growth plans:
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