The municipality of Gooise Meren has insufficient reason to keep the agreements about the construction of the Muiden residential area secret. This is the judgment of the Council of State after a legal battle by NH. The municipality must make a new decision within six weeks whether the hitherto mysterious agreements may be made public.
NH News has been working for eight years to make the secret agreements between the municipality of Gooise Meren and project developer KNSF public.
Today the Council of State ruled that the municipality of Gooise Meren cannot sufficiently substantiate why this agreement must remain secret. The Council of State thus quashed an earlier court decision. The District Court of Central Netherlands ruled in favor of the municipality of Gooise Meren four years ago.
The Council of State’s decision does not mean that the agreement will immediately become public. The ball is now in the court of the municipality of Gooise Meren: they must make a new decision within six weeks about the confidentiality of the agreement.
According to the project developer, disclosure would lead to ‘disproportionate harm’ to KNSF. The agreement, which was concluded in 2012, includes the financial agreements between the municipality and the project developer regarding the construction of the Krijgsman district in Muiden.
Damage claim
There has been a lot to do about that area in recent years. For example, many residents of Muiden fought against the construction of 1,350 homes. The city council also tried for years to stop the construction of the district, but after KNSF threatened with a historic high damage claim of 360 million, it still agreed.