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works cause concern for residents in a very sensitive issue

For Brussels residents who do not know the place: the Friche Josaphat is a 25-hectare green area along the railway line, a space straddling the municipalities of Evere and Schaerbeek. The Brussels region has made it a strategic district: it is one of the 13 PAD, Master Development Plans. However, this project has sparked outcry from residents and naturalists who survey the site. According to their expertise, it has a rich and rare biodiversity in the Brussels region.

We are not concrete workers

You will understand: this is a very sensitive Brussels urban planning dossier. So, when this Saturday morning, Benoît De Boeck, administrator of the Facebook page “Sauvons la Friche Josaphat”, hears, then sees a construction machine going into action on the Friche in question, he mobilizes the residents. It is misunderstanding.

Contacted, the SAU, regional public body and owner of the site, explains that “these works have nothing to do with the PAD”. Pascal Sac, responsible for embraished communication: “We are not concrete mixers. We are not building something. This work will allow access to machines that will test the underground for stability and pollution.” The SAU also mentions easier access to the railway tracks to maintain its surroundings. Work that does not require a permit, according to the SAU.

Pending the opinion of the Regional Development Commission

And it is true that the Josaphat PAD in question has not yet been adopted by the Brussels government. The public inquiry ended in December last year. If the municipality of Evere issued a positive opinion, Schaerbeek had an unfavorable opinion to perspective.brussels, the regional planning agency. “Too dense”, “a little collaborative method”, according to the municipality.

PAD Josaphat provides up to 1,600 homes, a RER station, schools, an industrial site and green spaces. We are therefore awaiting the opinion of the Regional Development Commission in the coming days. An important step since it synthesizes the different opinions. Then uA new version of the amended draft PAD will arrive for second reading on the government table.

Trust versus bulldozers

In short, the process is underway, but not yet frozen. Isabelle Pauthier, Brussels MP Ecolo, had also asked during a topical question last November to “suspend these two public procurement procedures for depollution and servicing, given the critical opinions of several authorities”.

Request refused by Rudi Vervoort, Minister-President of Brussels. The minimum of good governance consists in carrying out the PAD project before launching the urbanization processes. We talk to him about rebuilding trust and he sends the bulldozers, seriously? “, is surprised Isabelle Pauthier. PAD Josaphat is not the only one to be so controversial. Neighborhood committees have also decided to federate to counter them. “There was no emergency”, adds Isabelle Pauthier.

At the time of this writing, we have been unable to have contact with Minister-President Rudi Vervoort.

Local residents also wonder about this calendar: “Why do this work during confinement”? “In stoemelings?” The SAU replied that it was planned for March but that the containment postponed them. “And whether we urbanize the Friche Josaphat or not, these soil pollution tests must be done”, according to Pascal Sac, in charge of communication.

An answer that does not necessarily dissipate distrust on the side of residents: “For what reasons draw a strip of about 7 meters by a hundred meters”, wonders Mathieu Simonson? “For the moment, it is not irremediable”, reassures Benoît De Boeck, “nature always takes back its rights”. But after? We ask the classification of the site, to preserve this rare biodiversity in the Brussels region “.

More clarity in the calendar

In the afternoon, the police intervened at the request of the SAU to disperse residents who wanted to enter the site. The acting mayor Cécile Jodogne went there, as did the alderman Vincent Vanhalewyn. The bourgmestre who says she is sorry not to have been informed of these works. And who hopes for more clarity on the future of the wasteland and this dossier in general.

On the side of Ecolo-Groen, Vincent Vanhalewyn considered that “it cannot be said at this stage whether the work started is legal but it is democratically and politically incorrect”. The Urban Development Company informs us that they will resume on Monday.

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