Ostend construction group Versluys must restore terrain on Oosteroever

The site in question is located on the Oosteroever, where Versluys has built several new residential towers in recent years, giving the neighborhood a new look. Groep Versluys wants to complete that project with a forty-storey residential tower. But it would come in an area that has been protected since 1976.

The scope of the latest construction project must be apparent from the environmental impact report: forty storeys, 1,200 apartments, a hotel, luxury offices, commercial space and parking for 1,500 cars. However, according to a Royal Decree, you may not build anything on that site, nor change any planting and only prune existing trees according to what is necessary.

Terrain ready for construction

Groep Versluys did not wait for the Spatial Implementation Plan and the environmental permit, and has already prepared the site for construction, the ground has already been paved. That happened without a permit, the Enforcement Service of the city of Ostend made an official report and, according to Apache, has forwarded it to the public prosecutor. The repairs should have already been completed, but that is not the case either.

Versluys does not want to respond to Apache, but in a report by Pano on VRT last week, the construction group said that it has bought that terrain from the government, where that Royal Decree is not mentioned anywhere.