The Eindhoven region faces a gigantic construction task, with thousands of homes having to be completed within a few years. Woonbedrijf sees that measures to accelerate housing construction are starting to bear fruit, corporation director Roy Beijnsberger and real estate developer Adriënne Kolen say.
One of the steps the corporation has taken is to spend a day together in the office with other corporations and the Municipality of Eindhoven once a week. “The new working method is really a relief”, Kolen enthusiastically says. “We have been meeting with all corporations for about a year now, together with the team from the Municipality of Eindhoven. It ensures that we can make decisions much faster”, she says.
“Normally you develop a plan, you meet for a while, but if you have a question afterwards, you have to put it in the email and wait for an answer”.
“If you want to know how many parking spaces should be created for a particular project, you can simply wait four weeks for the answer”, Beijnsberger explains.
A look in the kitchen
“And that ensures a longer term. You can ask a question immediately to the person who is discussing it, otherwise at the next meeting a week later. We also sit together with all the corporations, so that we can take a look at each other’s lives”, Kolen continues. “That’s a nice by-catch. It sounds very kumbaya but it is really very positive”.
The corporations, together with the municipalities, are working to reduce the number of objection procedures. “Think of Gansepoel in Veldhoven. We have completed 56 apartments there in just over 3 years. Normally such a development takes seven to eight years”, Kolen says.
Objections
“Even when we received objections from the neighbourhood, the Municipality of Veldhoven and Woonbedrijf dealt with this very proactively. At Veldhoven we are not in the office every week, but we do regularly organise collaboration session”, Kolen explains.
“For Gansepoel, we wrote a statement of defense during an appeal to Raad van State (council of state) explaining why we thought the appeal was unfounded. We wanted to find a basis for dialogue with each other. That objection was ultimately withdrawn and we were also able to obtain an environmental permit very quickly. That’s why the project went so quickly”.
Starting a conversation with local residents was of decisive importance, Kolen believes. “We understand why someone objects, but we can also explain why we want to realise the homes. Then the objections are withdrawn because it is seen that there is no point. Sometimes the pain is somewhere other than the plan itself, and by talking to each other you can often take away that pain”.
In addition, Woonbedrijf, together with other corporations, is trying to accelerate by purchasing standard homes in large numbers in the WoonST residential project. Previously, 1,000 of these types of homes had already been purchased and the second tender, WoonST 2.0, involves 2,500 homes.
2500 homes
“These homes are, as it were, in a catalogue, so you can choose what you want. The manufacturer has a certain certainty that we will purchase it, so the prices are also somewhat lower. The product is also known to us, to the municipality, and that simply saves a lot of development time,” Beijnsberger says. “These 2,500 homes are purchased jointly by the corporations in the region.”
Pull
Beijnsberger does not dare to say whether the plans are sufficient to realise the ambitions. “We will deliver just under 1,000 homes in 2024. This also includes the homes at TU/e. That is quite an achievement for us. Next year it will be a little less. But the pipeline of initiatives is well filled. But it will not be easy to realise the ambitions. We will have to work hard on this together with municipalities and construction companies”, Beijnsberger says.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
