Local residents near the current municipal health service (GGD) building at the Groenewoudseweg in Nijmegen are not happy with the plans to construct a new student housing complex on the lot. The fear of possible nuisance and a trick with the zoning plan runs deep. According to the Nijmegen municipality and student housing provider SSH&, this is unjustified.

At the end of 2025, the GGD is to move to a new building a little further on the Professor Bellefroidstraat. As soon as the current residence at the corner of the Groenewoudseweg and the Professor Bellefroidstraat becomes vacant, the building will be demolished. The municipality wants student housing to replace the current building. Because of this, the lot was sold to the SSH& at the end of 2022.

The student housing provider wants to build between 192 and 198 housing units, divided over three buildings. Most of these units will become studio apartments (70 percent), the rest will consist of hallways with individual rooms and communal areas. Construction of the new complex should be finished in 2026.

The neighbourhood, who’ve united as Stichting Platform Heyendaal (Platform Heyendaal Foundation, ed.), is strongly against the plans, which have been under dispute since they were announced in 2019. The main point of criticism is the potential nuisance it may cause. The neighbourhood also fears that the zoning plan, which is expected to be finalised during 2023, will not be drafted in accordance with the mutually agreed arrangements. Residents fear being sidelined.

Fear of nuisance

‘We are especially afraid of nuisance from parties or rubbish laying around,’ says local resident Diederick Wesdorp. ‘Not to mention the privacy of those living directly next door, in whose homes some students will soon be able to peer directly inside.’

To immediately clear up a misunderstanding: the platform is not against new buildings, but it is against more students. Neighbourhood resident Marlies van Hulsentop puts it as follows: ‘With Hoogeveldt, De Gouverneur, Galgenveld and Proosdij, there are already four large complexes in the neighbourhood. Hundreds of students live there who leave after a few years and have hardly any connection with the neighbourhood. That is a shame. Starters feel that connection more, which increases social cohesion in a neighbourhood. That is exactly what we need. Currently, the demographics of the neighbourhood are out of balance.’

But, the platform stresses, now that it is certain that more students will arrive regardless, they are welcome in the neighbourhood.

‘This is not a consultation, is it? It’s just being forced on us’

Earlier, the SSH& announced that the construction of the housing units would be done in close consultation with the neighbourhood. A laughable remark, according to Van Hulsentop, who points mainly to the municipality of Nijmegen. ‘The municipality informed us a few years back about the plans to build student housing here. Even then, we cried out that we would rather see starter homes, collected 207 signatures and had alternative building plans drawn up by an architectural firm. The response was that there would be student houses anyway, but that we would be able to have a say in how they would be built. That is not a consultation, is it? It’s just being forced on us.’

Sidelined

Adding to the fears among local residents is that – in their own words – they have been sidelined in the past during the construction of student housing complex De Gouverneur, inaugurated in 2009. The building was supposed to be only five storeys high. But a loophole in the zoning plan suddenly added seven floors at the last minute, the Heyendaal Platform Foundation claims. In an earlier interview with Vox, outgoing SSH& director Max Derks told a few years ago that a ‘bottle of wine was opened’ when it became known that the neighbourhood had filed their objection too late. A comment that local residents have not forgotten.

The platform fears that the same trick will be used for the new building along the Groenewoudseweg. The neighbourhood points out that the municipality has sold off both the land on which the new GGD building will stand and the land where the SSH& will build below the asking price. It also cites the fact that the councillor in question bought the land on Professor Bellefroidstraat in 2018 without council involvement. The neighbourhood was informed about the sale of the land to the GGD only after it had already been clinched.

‘And about the car park behind bowling centre Olround, the municipality is currently in a legal dispute with the bowling centre’, local resident Jolt Roukema adds. ‘Add to that the fact that the talks with the SSH& are not always running smoothly in our eyes, it’s not surprising that our distrust is growing, is it?’

‘We have made several concessions’

A spokesperson for the municipality admitted in a comment that not all questions and demands of the neighbourhood could be met. ‘The site is close to the campus and was therefore awarded to the SSH&. This is because there is a huge shortage of student houses. Other locations will be designated for starter homes.’

‘But agreements have been made about the maximum building size, the number of floors (three or four floors, ed.) and units, the entrance to the complex and its design. Those agreements will be included in the zoning plan’, said the municipal spokesperson.

Loophole

The municipality’s reading is endorsed by a spokesperson for the SSH&, who lists eight concrete adjustment points that were drawn up after consultation with local residents. ‘We believe that we have really accommodated the neighbourhood in this. We have made several concessions’, said the spokesperson.

The neighbourhood also acknowledges the latter. Wesdorp: ‘There have indeed been talks about the student houses, with the municipality and the SSH&. So have there been consultations? Yes indeed. And would the buildings have looked different if we hadn’t? I think so. We are happy that the modifications have been promised. But still, these are discussions we didn’t want to participate in at all in the first place. You do it anyway because it’s the only say you have.’

‘The maximum building height is fixed, and it cannot be deviated from’

The SSH& does not want to elaborate on the accusation that De Gouverneur has become larger than planned through a loophole in the zoning plan. ‘We do not recognise this situation. We can only build according to the standards in the zoning plan. This was also the case with De Gouverneur at the time’, said the spokesperson.

The municipal spokesperson reveals that the municipality is not familiar with the case outlined by the neighbourhood. In doing so, she stressed ’that the maximum building height of the future housing is laid down in the zoning plan’ and ‘it cannot be deviated from’.

The neighbourhood eagerly awaits the zoning plan, but mostly hopes for a good outcome. Roukema: ‘In the end, we all hope to make the best of it. It would be nice if the SSH& will play an active role in this.’

Translated by Jan Scholten.