Coevorden is preparing to catch up in the field of housing construction. At least 750 new houses must be added in the municipality between now and 2030. And that will absolutely work, says responsible councilor Steven Stegen (BBC2014).
“I am confident that we will achieve that course,” the councilor said on Thursday evening during the meeting about the municipal budget. “Concrete housing construction plans are now on schedule both in Coevorden and in various villages.” A large part of the required houses will be realized in a new phase of the Ossehaar residential area in Coevorden, where a hundred additional homes will be built. “We will present a zoning plan for this in February and we will take further steps.”
Various council factions emphasized on Thursday evening the need to continue building. According to some council members, things often don’t happen fast enough. “Projects in collective private commissioning (CPO) sometimes get stuck due to bureaucratic bottlenecks,” said Henk Mulder (BBC2014). Sandra Katerberg (CDA) gave as an example a current project in Gees, where a housing project on the site of a former school is progressing with difficulty. The councilor wanted to combat the word ‘viscosity’. “These are indeed sometimes difficult processes, but as a municipality we do our best to move initiatives forward.” According to him, there are currently about ten CPO projects within the municipality.
Housing plans that are in the pipeline in the near future are located in Sleen, Dalen and Oosterhesselen, in addition to Ossehaar in Coevorden. There is also a project by housing association Domesta to build thirty so-called ‘flex homes’ in the Binnenvree district in Coevorden. This concerns cheap, but high-quality prefab homes where starters can temporarily find a place. The councilor expects more clarity about the financing of this project at the end of this year. Another development is extra space for caravans. According to the councilor, a search for two new locations is currently underway. “We now have the first concrete images of this.”
The councilor took a proposal from the CDA to ensure that at least half of the new houses are allocated to people with a local economic or social connection through municipal rules. “I support that idea, so I am willing to map out how we can do that.” However, he also issued a profit warning: “Such a provision can also deter developers and entrepreneurs if it makes their business case more difficult.” The underlying idea of the CDA proposal is that the complaint is now often that new houses are too expensive for local residents, but not for newcomers from the Randstad.
The fact that construction is now taking place is great, but what about the period after 2030? councilor Gilbert Mulder (PvdA) wanted to know. “Is there already a plan in place for the period afterwards? How do we prevent ourselves from lagging behind again?” For that perspective, the alderman sees a debate in the offing in 2025, he responded. “Of course we will not wait until 2029 to plan for the future, but we will determine in time on the basis of new research which course we should follow and what is needed for Coevorden.”
According to Stegen, it is certain that new houses will continue to be needed. “Also in the longer term, Coevorden will be an attractive municipality to live in. The arrival of the Lower Saxony line (future rail connection Enschede-Groningen, via Coevorden and Emmen, ed.) will play a role in this.”