iGO News – Current – SGP Member of Parliament calls for more space for municipalities to build

Goeree-Overflakkee – When discussing the county budget, Member of Parliament Gerard van de Breevaart (CU & SGP) made a point that also affects Goeree-Overflakkee. The municipality wants to make the construction of more homes possible, but feels hampered by the policy the provincial executive has pursued thus far. Earlier this year, at the initiative of the local SPD faction, Representative Anne Koning (PvdA) made a visit to find out exactly where the pain was. Read more >>

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Alderman Dan Marcoat (SGP) is pleased with the efforts of the regional ChristenUnie & SGP faction. Hopefully, it will finally become clear that current regional politics is getting in the way. Villages in the countryside do not have to be filled in the same way as cities. Therefore, to tackle the housing crisis, a different path has to be taken for rural areas. There should also be room for construction in suitable places on the outskirts of villages.

MP Van de Breivart (CU & SGP): ‘How do we plan to tackle the housing crisis? How do we work with our partners, ie the municipalities? As far as we are concerned, not as the regional executive has now expressed it in the 2022 budget.” But what is in this budget?

unexpected action
The GS states in the budget that municipalities are not allowed to search for housing sites outside of existing villages and urban areas (BSD). This is an unexpected measure by the GS, but one that has serious consequences for the municipalities and certainly for the population. Naturally, the parliamentary party first set out to explain why this particularly sensitive rule was added. “After an extensive process, the answer finally came,” says van de Breivart. The measure was actually intended to exclude only large new housing sites, because according to GS there is no need for that now. However, this specification was not included in the budget text. So many municipalities read this text completely differently.

Personalization
Fortunately, the vast majority of regional councils share the concerns of the CU & SGP faction about this provision. Van de Breevaart: “Excluding small and large sites outside BSD is not what municipalities and residents need. Certainly not because the development of inner city sites often takes longer and has a significant impact. Customization is necessary here. At the beginning of the coalition period, the coalition expressed a preference for building within BSD SD.

commitment
It has been pledged that the Regional Executive will not impose any restrictions on sites outside of BSD that are in accordance with the Alliance Agreement. The provincial executive will confirm compliance by letter to the regional council. This makes it clear to all municipalities that budgetary restrictions do not apply. The obligation neutralizes this limitation. We are pleased that the complete exclusion of housing sites outside cities and towns is supported by very few groups and that the reform of this undesirable proposal was completed in a timely manner. The positive consequence of this is that municipalities can continue to develop plans for housing where quality of life, social safety and climate-resilient building are not hampered by the county’s requirements for unbridled densification, van de Prevart concludes.

Photo

The photo shows one of the sites in Goeree-Overflakkee (Nieuwe-Tonge) where the municipality would like to start.