Although, according to the Flemish government, private partners are not allowed to pay for the preparation of a spatial implementation plan (RUP), this has nevertheless happened in Antwerp in the form of a cooperation agreement between the city and project developer Cordeel around the ‘RUP Pelikaanstraat’ in the station area. That writes Knack. The cabinet of aldermen for urban development Annick De Ridder (N-VA) does not deny that the costs were largely borne by Cordeel, an interested party, but states that “everything is in accordance with the usual procedures and in full publicity”.
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In 2016, the then Antwerp College of Aldermen approved a decision in which the costs for the ‘RUP Pelikaanstraat’, still to be drawn up at the time, worth more than 53,000 euros, were charged to Cordeel. That company was planning the construction of a hotel – which has since been completed – and still owns a vacant part of the project area.
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The site is known as a ‘city cancer’, which the city council would like to see developed. The RUP, which is currently under public investigation, includes the option to build two towers up to 100 meters high. The plan has already received considerable criticism from local residents.
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According to the Flemish Environment Department, “arranging the space through plans and making decisions about which activity belongs in which place is pre-eminently a government task” and such a plan cannot therefore be financed by private individuals. That seems to be exactly what happened in Antwerp.
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“The costs for the RUP were indeed largely at the expense of Cordeel,” said the cabinet of aldermen De Ridder on Tuesday. “But that does not mean that anything is recorded about the content of the RUP. It is partly thanks to private initiatives that we can set up our city at this pace. In such agreements that we conclude about this, our independence and our autonomous decision-making power is guaranteed.”
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