The municipality of Hoogeveen can further tinker with the plans for a new residential area south of the A37 highway. The majority of the city council agreed to this during a meeting tonight.
All factions, except Forum for Democracy, gave the green light to use the pre-emptive right. This gives the municipality the first option to purchase when landowners put a piece of land up for sale.
Hoogeveen wants to start with five hundred houses between the Alteveer road and Het Oosterveld. The land does not belong to the municipality, but she hopes to be able to buy it with the pre-emptive right.
The same applies to an area on the east side of the Alteveer towards the Trekgatenweg. Another thousand homes could be built there, but those are plans for a later time.
Due to the approval, the municipality now wants to conduct further research into the area where five hundred homes are to be built. A number of parties have mentioned that there is a livestock farm there. The amount of odor emanating from a farm may (partly) prohibit homes in the area. Councilor Niek Wind says that more research is needed.
Municipal interests, the VVD, SP, PvdA, GroenLinks and the Christian Union believe that the area (east side of the Alteveer road) should be examined at the same time for housing development. In this way, suitable places for building could be found more quickly, the parties think.