A group of residents from Ruinen is concerned about the possible arrival of housing at De Baete sports park. The site is awaiting a metamorphosis, creating space for the arrival of houses.
The plans for housing in the park are included in De Baete’s area vision. That was discussed by the city council tonight. It contains the ideas for the redevelopment of the park. For example, for making sports facilities more sustainable and realizing homes.
Prior to the meeting, a village resident came to speak to express concerns on behalf of the group. “What is the motivation of the municipality to cut greenery and place houses on that part of Ruinen? There are more suitable places to build.”
Mainly residents living near Stoffersweg, Meester Harm Smeengestraat and Wolvenweg expect problems. They fear nuisance when construction is going on. In addition, they believe that the value of their own homes will decrease because new construction may adjoin their backyards.
They also expect that road safety will be jeopardized because of more crowds. “We fully agree with the other goals in the area vision. Modernizing and making sports facilities more sustainable is important. However, the plans for housing and redevelopment must be separated from each other.”
At the beginning of last year, De Wolden started making plans for redevelopment. This is done in consultation with users of the park. An implementation plan must be drawn up next year, so that the large-scale refurbishment of De Baete can be worked on from 2024 to 2026.
Alderman Gerrie Hempen-Prent said he was listening to the concerns of local residents. “At the moment there are still ideas that we have to investigate further. We will also do that in the near future and of course in consultation with the speakers.”
“If housing is not possible, what will happen to the rest of the plans?” Henk van IJzendoorn of GroenLinks wondered aloud. According to Hempen-Prent, nothing can be said about this at the moment. “These are questions that we can only address in the follow-up study. We have yet to start with that.”
Anneke Assink of the PvdA was especially curious how much money the project would cost. “What kind of amounts are we talking about then? Is it 1 million or 10 million? How feasible is this really?” The alderman was able to give a rough estimate. “Probably a few million. An exact amount cannot be named yet, because we are not yet that far in the process. That will follow.”
De Baete should eventually become a park where everyone, young and old, can exercise, play and relax. More space is needed to make all the plans come true. That is why De Wolden is paying 138,000 euros to buy a piece of land from the Drents Overijsselse Delta Water Board next to the site. It concerns 0.85 hectares.
In total, the Municipal Executive proposes to release 278,000 euros, because 140,000 euros is also needed to develop the drafted area vision into concrete plans. This concerns, for example, the necessary investments and land exploitation.