The municipality of Coevorden has found itself in a difficult position due to two municipal departments that have worked at odds with each other. Dairy farmers’ partnership Bannink from Dalerveen is the victim of this, as it turned out on Monday at the Council of State in The Hague.
Father and son Bannink have a dairy farm with 110 cows on the Hoofdstraat in Dalerveen. In July 2020, they applied for an environmental permit from the municipality for a new stable. In November 2020, this permit was granted by the Municipal Executive. Nothing wrong, it seemed. Bannink was able to set up a new stable on his farm. This is necessary to meet animal welfare requirements.
However, the municipal council was also busy with the Molenakkers II zoning plan. On September 22, 2020, the city council gave it a blow. This meant that the neighbour’s former company home, a few tens of meters from the Bannink family’s farm, will now be used as a residential destination. Bannink was completely surprised. “The built-up area will therefore start there from now on,” says his advisor.
Stable without animals
The consequences for the licensed new stable are disastrous. The barn may be built, but no cows are allowed in it. The odor standards are then violated. Bannink has finally appealed to the Council of State against the residential zoning in the zoning plan. The worst thing he thinks is that he did not find a response from the municipality with his objection.
The only way to go to court was left. “But we have nothing against our neighbors and they have nothing against us,” said the dairy farmer after the hearing. Citizens are not allowed to live in the neighbours’ former company home. However, this has been the case since 2000 because the neighbors then stopped their business. With a residential destination, the Coevorden council thought they had solved this easily.
Thirty homes
The Molenakkers II zoning plan does not only regulate the residential use of the former company house on the Hoofdstraat. The plan also opens the door for the construction of a maximum of thirty homes around the es. A resident of the Bente is against this. His unobstructed view is destroyed, he says. The man believes that the area has been wrongly declared suitable for village expansion. “If Coevorden wants to expand Dalen if necessary, do so on the north side,” said the man. The Council of State is now considering the matter and will make a decision later.