The slicker the artist impressions of the developer, the more cynical the residents of the building plot on Spaarndamseweg in Haarlem. The draft zoning plan for the Sonneborn site is currently available for inspection. Everyone can comment on the plans, but the residents of the Indischewijk have no illusion that they can change anything.
With slight reluctance they come to the community’s drop-in evening on Thursday evening in the Verhalenhuis on Egmondstraat. For residents of the Sonneborn site, it mainly feels like their civic duty to show their face. The plans presented are now known to most local residents. And they weren’t enthusiastic about it.
Housing and a parking garage
The plan by the municipality of Haarlem and developer Bloom for the now vacant site revolves around homes and a parking garage. There are to be 163 homes, just under half of which are intended for social rental. There will be a municipal parking garage with 175 spaces between the residential blocks.
The latter has led to the most dissatisfaction among local residents, ten of whom have come together to function as a sounding board group. Monique van Alphen is one of them. “Things really went wrong because of that parking garage,” she says during the walk-in evening.
“As local residents, we have put forward plans for the site, such as a park, from the start. We knew that these plans would not simply be realized. We are realistic enough for that. It remains a compromise. What you do hope is that when you are invited to a sounding board group, something is done with your input.”
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Afterwards, the sounding board group had to conclude that their influence was nil. Nils Roovers, another member, says: “There was one moment when we could still somewhat live with the developer’s proposal. That was in 2022. There were many homes, but there was also some greenery. But then suddenly the parking garage.”
Relieve parking pressure in the neighborhood
At the request of the municipality, a large parking garage was added to the construction plans. This should relieve parking pressure in the neighborhood. Given the fact that the municipality wants to make progress in terms of housing construction and the project is limited to a fixed surface area, it was inevitable that the houses would go up. And the green was cut.
Nils: “On the drawings you see here, you can still see some greenery. These are mainly the roofs of the houses and the apartment complex. We cannot see that from our house. Instead, I am looking out at a 12-storey residential tower. I happen to live just in the corner next to that high tower.”
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After years of thinking and organizing, the sounding board group is left with a sour aftertaste about the project. “I want to emphasize that we are not residents who don’t want anything in their backyard,” says Nils. “We understand that construction needs to take place. The boats with asylum shelters on the Spaarndamseweg are no problem for us. We have accepted the temporary Albert Heijn.”
“Where it really hurts is the realization that you are at the mercy of the will of other parties. During the last meeting of the sounding board group, it was not without reason that the question was asked: is this still useful or are we only doing this to improve the consultation procedure of the church to complete?”