Houses on a wet piece of land on the north side of Roden. The municipality of Noordenveld seems to like it, local residents are firmly against it. Next month, the Municipal Executive will decide whether to purchase the land, with the aim of building a new residential area there.
The Zulthe, the area roughly to the north of Roden and just south of Nietap, has been a topic of discussion since March last year. The announcement that the municipality of Noordenveld would make use of the ‘preferential right’ (which means that the owner of the land first meets with the municipality when selling his land) led to questions from the neighbourhood.
Eighteen months later, the land of ‘de Zulthe’ has not yet been purchased and the questions of local residents are still alive. This is a wet area, where housing would be difficult to build. “It is not even possible to drive piles, the area is that wet. But the municipality has a biased position when it comes to the Zulthe”, says local resident Michael Pedonomou.
By this he refers to the municipality’s intention to develop housing there. It would then concern a maximum of 100 homes. Alderman Jos Darwinkel says that a preliminary exploration has shown that housing in the area should indeed be possible. “Traffic, the environment, noise, nature, water management and much more are taken into account. The results seem positive. Local residents are now also looking at the research themselves and will give their views on it later.”
A conversation in early October between the municipality and local residents did not bring the two parties closer together. “The question was: what kind of houses do you want,” says Michael Pedonomou. “As far as we are concerned, that was too premature, because who says we want houses there? In that session we reached a stalemate. The other sessions went fine.”
Alderman Darwinkel underlines this. “The last meeting was last Thursday. We came to a more dialogue. We see about a hundred homes that can be built, but local residents have their own ideas about the area. We hope to be able to come closer together now.”
The discussion is now getting underway, while the land is not yet owned by the municipality of Noordenveld. “In January, the Board will decide whether we want to conduct further research into housing here,” says Darwinkel. “The council will only decide later whether the municipality really wants to buy the land. The need for housing is there, the question is whether you really want to build here.”
The local residents are in talks with the municipality, but can not yet submit an objection to the plans. “That is only possible if the zoning plan has to be changed,” says Pedonomou. “We can’t do anything against the purchase of the land. We hope that by then the municipality will come to terms with the fact that this area is not suitable for building. We have a groundwater level that is too high and a special area, with a special soil. “
Alderman Darwinkel indicates that more extensive research will be done into the area in the future.