The former garden center of Harrie Boerhof on the Honingvlaken in Dwingeloo is in the picture as a housing location. Boerhof wants to build four houses on his site for the so -called ‘higher segment’. But not everyone is happy with the plan.
The doors of the garden center have been closed since January 2021. The former 3.5 hectare company could not keep its head above water. “My children chose another profession, so I had no follow -up in the family,” he explains. According to Boerhof, the industry also changed. “You could buy plants on every corner of the street at some point.”
Although Boerhof sold his company at the time, he and his wife are still the owner of the complex. The seed for a housing plan was planted a long time ago. “We have been talking for 13 years,” he explains.
The plan involves four new homes. The current company home where his daughter lives has been renovated and will remain standing. In total, there are five large building plots of each between 2000 and 4000 square meters on the site.
For the appearance, Boerhof as an old hovenier has all kinds of ideas. For example, he does not want wooden fences, but a landscaping with a lot of biodiversity. The stream is also extended next to the plot so that future residents can lay a rowing boat on a jetty.
Stainless theater has been housed on the garden complex since 2022. “It is a surprising location with a lot of weird spots. In this building everything is allowed and everything is possible. Everyone is jumping and that is now also possible, because there is enough space here,” said artistic director Leander Breen at the time.
The theater group makes room. “We had known that for a while,” Breen responds. “In any case, it was the idea that the location would be temporary. If everything is finished, we will soon be in a different place. Even before there are houses here.”
Some local residents respond negatively to the plans. Some even threaten to go to court, the plans were allowed to continue. For example, they are critical of the target group for which the houses are being built and they call the location unsuitable because of the Beekdal and the marshy surface. “It is so wet that on the adjacent agricultural plot, on the rear part, grass grows, because it is too wet for other crops,” they write to the municipality of Westerveld. “It can be compared to a houseboat on the land.”
According to Boerhof this is not too bad. After all, he himself lived there for 25 years. “And that was not on a houseboat,” he says.
There are also concerns about the nearby Lelieakkers and the relationship with the future residents. “Allowing extra homes is to look up problems with regard to the use of pesticides and fertilization,” says another objectioner. “The guidelines prescribe that local residents are safe from 250 meters, all the new homes to be built in the zoning plan are more than inside here and will therefore certainly be able to experience nuisance.”
Earlier, Follow the Money lawyers stated that residents who live 250 meters from a Lelieveld will probably make a ‘good chance’ in the courtroom. According to the municipality of Westerveld, it is not the case that rules now apply that argue that homes must remain at 250 distance. The municipality follows the national rules and maintains a distance of fifty meters between agricultural plots and houses.
The location of the houses has therefore been thickened, the houses are closer to each other. Boerhof says that he will meet the objectioners.
The municipality says it is not afraid of the possibility of a lawsuit. The municipality sees the risk of a lawsuit with every ‘spatial development’ in the Netherlands. Next week the city council of the municipality of Westerveld will vote on the plan.