Natuurmonumenten wants to restore an old, dilapidated farm in a nature reserve in Vierakker with the proceeds from the sale of two new houses and the income from the leasehold on the building land. But in the meantime opponents have submitted several opinions to the municipality on the plans, which should enable the construction of the two ‘barn houses’ in the style of the farm.
One of these came from Cordrik van der Meulen, chairman of Dorpsbelang Wichmond-Vierakker – two villages in the municipality of Bronckhorst. He speaks of a bizarre plan. ‘When we wanted a walking connection through this area from Hackfort Castle, it was called a quiet area here and there was nothing we could do,’ he says. ‘In this way they create irreversible crowds themselves.’
Revenue model
Natuurmonumenten has a lot of real estate in the outlying area. Country houses, farms, barns. These are monetized in many places through rental, catering and events. On Wednesday, the organization was unable to immediately answer the question whether new construction in combination with ground lease is an earning model that they will use much more often.
This is the fear in Vierakker. After all: around the fourteenth-century Hackfort castle, which was handed over to Natuurmonumenten after the death of the last Baroness van Westerholt in 1981, the organization owns even more (derelict) farms. In a previous comment in the Stentor the building manager of Natuurmonumenten did not dispel the fear.
‘I understand that people think that we should focus on nature and it may sound strange that we want to build houses,’ said Anniek Dusseldorp of Natuurmonumenten. ‘But we are also a heritage organisation. That heritage has to be paid for somehow.’
Pickles
She is supported by Eric ten Hagen, who now lives anti-squat in one of the buildings around the dilapidated farm. He says that he has not only had good experiences with the nature club, but finds the critics very sour in this case.
‘Nature wins, because in terms of surface area they will demolish many more old buildings and structures than will be returned to housing,’ he says. “And if they just fix up the old farm, a rich westerner will come and it’ll be a mess. Now you can turn it into a small residential community.’
According to Ten Hagen, those few residents will not detract from the quiet area, where hundreds of walkers already walk daily on the driveway past the farm. He prefers to look at the ‘fantastic things’ that Natuurmonumenten has done on the old farmland since the farmer left in 2018. Such as nature restoration and the construction of water storage facilities. ‘In my view it is a bit like: a Mercedes has been delivered and you only see the scratch.’