Subject
5% rule: living in Wageningen
In july 2019, the city council of Wageningen voted in favour of the 5% rule. The piece of legislature encompasses all the rules for subrenting rooms in Wageningen. If as a landlord you want to subrent, you need a permit. The request for a permit will be examined and subdued to several new criteria, among others the rule that only 5% of the houses in the street can be subrented. Which in practice means that less houses are able to subrent. The municipality can refuse the permit on the ground of the 5 % rule. The municipality also has the ability to allow subrenting based on fullfilling all the other criteria.
Regional Energy Strategy
While nationally a climate agreement is still finalised, the different energy regions in the country are busy discussing what they can contribute to the new energy agenda in the concept of a Regional Energy Strategy. Wageningen is part of the energyregion Foodvalley and our alderman is every month in debate with his colleagues of the other 7 municipalities in the region on how to be climateneutral in 2050. Our alderman is in close contact with the citycouncil to elaborate on the latest issues and to get input for the next meetings. De draftversion of the Regional Energy Strategy of the region Foodvalley will be discussed in the council in the second quarter of 2020.
Vision for the periphery
At the same time a national climate agreement is finalised and the regional discussions are happening on climate, there is also a citizenparticipation process happening about the outskirts of Wageningen. In this proces Wageningen is put the question: 'How are we going to resolve the climatequestion on our own lands?'. Windmills, solarfields or a combination of the two? The results of this proces will be included in the dicussions regionally. The next informationevening is on Thursday January 30th.
Born Oost
Wageningen University wants to make more room for education, companies and studenthousing in the area around the NIOO-KNAW (Born Oost). In december the council had to decide the starting conditions for this area (eg. % nature, amount of buildingarea, amount of stories). However the neighbourhood actively communicated to the council that they were not properly consulted in the proces. For this reason the council send the application back, so the citizenparticipation proces could be redone. This is being done in the first quarter of 2020.
Campusroute
The Province of Gelderland wants to build a road from and towards Wageningen University to make it more accessible. At this moment there is a environmental effects study being done in which the 7 different alternatives are evaluated. The study wil be published on April 7th. Consequently on the basis of the study the provincial council will choose one of the alternatives before the summer 2020. Besides this, the province is also investigating short term solutions who will be announced in February 2020.
Transition agenda
In 2050 all buildings in the Netherlands need to be sustainably heated. The municipality of Wageningen has ambitions to be sustainable even faster. There are already some neighbourhoods in transition to sustainable heating: Benedenbuurt, Nude, Veerweg, Wageningen Hoog en Hamelakkers. Together with the citizens a vision is being made to decide on the strategy for each neighbourhood. In 2020-2021 an actionplan is created and presented on how the different neighbourhoods will adress the heating question.
Aula
The Aula building is situated in the centre of Wageningen and belongs to the WUR. It is being sold and the new Aula will be a cinema/cultural centre. The developer BOEI/Van Swaay will also use the building for concerts, debates and stand-up comedy. The current receptionroom will be transformed into a theatercafé which will be open the whole day for visiters and entrepreneurs to work at. The citycouncil will have to vote on the more developed plans when they are represented.
City centre
In 2017 the city created a program which has to make sure that the city centre is a lively, vital and 'gezellig' part of Wageningen. For the past half year big steps were taken to regreen the busstation. Furthermore on initiative of the restaurants and shops an AED has been installed on the market. For 2020 new resources are in place to attract a citymarketeer for the city of Wageningen. For more info you can see the facebookpage of the city centre and the council gets an update very half year from the mayor.
Grebbedijk
The dike on the edge of Wageningen needs to be reinforced. Besides development of nature, this project also offers an oppurtunity for Wageningen to realise some new ambiitions. During a long proces a concept of the preferred alternative has been presented. The complete council urged to add a new rowing track in the developments of the Grebbedijk. This was petitioned to the province who will develop the definitive plans for the Grebbedijk. Whether the rowing track will be included, we will know at a later time.
