Gooise Meren is going to release a small part of the secret documents about the construction of the controversial new construction district De Krijgsman in Muider. The municipal council decided this after it was previously ordered by the Council of State to reconsider confidentiality. Yet by far the most interesting part still remains secret.
NH has been fighting a legal battle for eight years to have the documents in question made public. The pieces are about the creation of the Muider new housing estate, on the site of the former gunpowder factory. There was a lot of interest in this for years, the case has had a hold on Muiden for years.
The arrival of the new housing estate had major consequences for the small town of Muiden at the time. Not only did it mean that the local sports club and the allotment complex were forced to make way and move, but also that Muiden was faced with a substantial claim for damages of 370 million euros for a while, making it bankrupt on paper.
Damage claim
The claim for damages at the time is still the largest in Dutch history and was only dropped when the partly secret agreements were made.
NH has been fighting a legal battle with the municipality of Gooise Meren for years to obtain all documents regarding the construction of the new housing estate.
Secret agreements
The focus is on the so-called settlement agreement, the document containing all agreements regarding the transfer of the extensive factory site and the eventual construction of the district. Some of this is public, but a large part has also been secret for at least eight years.
It is expected that those secret parts of the so-called settlement agreement will contain more information about the shady agreements that were made at the time about the construction of the new housing estate.
The Council of State ruled last spring that the municipality kept the documents in question secret on the basis of insufficiently substantiated arguments and that they had to be examined again.
Gooise Meren decided last week to make some of the secret documents public.
Still share a secret
By far the most interesting part remains a secret. This includes ‘agreements that the municipality has negotiated to cover certain risks’ and ‘agreements regarding a specific best efforts obligation of the municipality, which it fears will be hampered by disclosure’.
In any case, this concerns information about the development of the new residential area and land transactions in advance. There has always been a lot of fuss about these land transactions.
Chance of objection
It remains to be seen whether the documents will actually become public. Project developer KNSF Vastgoed still has two weeks to prevent disclosure through summary proceedings.
It is not yet known whether the project developer will do this, but it is possible to guess. Last month, KNSF Vastgoed indicated to the municipality that it did not agree to making the documents public. In previous disclosures, the project developer also tried to prevent this through legal proceedings.