Extending the harbour, where you will soon be able to skate and swim. On the market square a water feature with a footbridge and more terraces. In between, a large market hall, on the site of the parking spaces. In a nutshell, these are the plans that come back in the two sketches of the municipality of Coevorden. Residents and entrepreneurs are allowed to think along about their new centre.
“We are getting the most beautiful harbor in the Netherlands”, Gert van der Kooi, program manager of the inner city, exults. There should be a detailed design before the summer.
Coevorden owes its name to a cow ford. That was once a shallow, fordable place where farmers could pass their cattle through a stream or river. The city wants to bring back such historical elements to the Kasteelpark: the new name for the Orphanage meadow, the market, the harbor and the citadel.
For example, there is an advantage on the current market: a platform over a water (play) area. There will also be green beds with sitting edges and more trees on the catering square. Depending on which variant is preferred, Geesje Geesje stays in the same place, or she shifts a little more to the edge of the square.
A large, open market hall will be built where there are still parking spaces on the Markt. It is roughly estimated to be about twenty by twenty meters. In front of the entrance of the town hall, a flowerbed with trees has been created. In one sketch in that slightly larger than the other. On the other side there will be a so-called wadi, a green ditch to drain the water.
The most eye-catching change will be the port area. The street at the head of the harbor and part of the parking lot have to make way for a large water tank, measuring 25 by 30 metres. Sloping quays will be built around it, to sit on or from where you can step straight into the water on a hot summer day. Or where you can tie your skates in frost.
In fact, if the tank is completely emptied, it can serve as a stage. “Visitors can then attend an event on the stairs,” says Van der Kooi. In the corner of the notary’s garden, where the old Rabobank is located, the intention is that the citadel point is strongly accentuated. A cannon will be placed there, just like on the Weeshuisweide.
In the harbor itself there will be a long jetty for canoe rental, for example.
The intention is to build three buildings on the site of the old Rabobank itself: two intended for living and a third with a public function: “Here, for example, we could think of accommodation for the library,” says Van der Kooi. “With a terrace part on the side of the waterhole.”
It is up to project developer Peter van Dijk with regard to this location. He has yet to submit a concrete plan for this.
The market and port area will be a car-free environment, which means that it will mainly be designed for pedestrians and cyclists. In the renovation phase, only a few of the 86 parking spaces on the market remain. The designs include twenty or seventeen spaces intended for the disabled, short-term parking and loading and unloading.
The municipality will move the parking spaces to the edge of the city center, such as the Molenbelt and the Bogasterrein. The latter will be named Duivelshoek, after the former brewery that the old fortified town knew.
The program manager expects that there will still be resistance to the mobility plans from entrepreneurs: “Entrepreneurs would like a bustling market square with terraces, but also that visitors can park their car close to the shops. parking lot is 300 meters walk.”
Van der Kooi expects the concerns to be dispelled as soon as the economy in the city flourishes: “More visitors means more income.”
On Saturday, April 15, the municipality of Coevorden will hold a meeting at the market, where residents are invited to think about the two sketches. In a medieval tent camp, residents can express their views on how they envision the city centre. Then a new design is made with those reactions.
The intention is to have a final design ready before the summer. The entire Kasteelpark project must then be completed in 2026.
Secretly, Van der Kooi is already thinking about the next point of attention: the Van Heutszpark: “We also want to attract more visitors here, not just with the city center.”