Then no Maritime Campus next to the Hobokense Polder nature reserve? City alternative location on the D’Herbouvillekaai | Antwerp
AntwerpIt is still unclear where the Maritime Campus should be located. A study, carried out at the request of Alderman of Urban Development Annick De Ridder (N-VA), states that the Campus would be better off finding another site than the BP site, right next to the Hobokense Polder, where the project encountered considerable opposition. “Advanced insight has enabled us to offer a number of advantages of the BP site for urban functions,” says De Ridder. A new alternative location for the Maritime Campus is immediately suggested: the D’Herbouvillekaai.
“As far as symbolic value is concerned, the building must be next to the Port House.” That is what a manager of the Antwerp shipping company CMB – the Compagnie Maritime Belge – was asked last year about the plans for the Maritime Campus, on the former BP site along the Scheldt in the south of the city.
So indeed, the shipping company sees it big. The campus must become a place where Belgian and foreign companies will work on innovations in shipping. According to the plans, the site itself would have an area of 40,000 square meters of eight football fields. The main building, which can accommodate a total of 500 to 600 people, will be 45 meters high.
Support search
But support for that project – at the established BP site in the south of Antwerp – was hard to find. After the province had granted the permits, Natuurpunt collected a lot of signatures and objections. Natuurpunt also went to the Council for Permit Disputes.
Striking, however: a study was recently carried out by urban development Annick De Ridder (N-VA) into which other implementation the BP site formed and the zone for urban activities on the D’Herbouvillekaai could be. (more to the north of the city, ed.) can get. The results show that the Maritime Campus has found a different terrain than the Hobokense Polder.
Alternative proposal
There is now an alternative proposal, whereby the campus will be shifted to the urban activities zone on D’Hbouvillekaai. There is a site of the city of Antwerp that CMB could develop for the Maritime Campus. In exchange, the city of Antwerp says it is interested in the sites that CMB has bought on the Hobokense Polder, in order to develop activities there.
“Advancing insight, the city has shown that the BP site can offer a number of advantages for an urban location due to water and that it could be used for the roll-out of heat networks in the city,” says the De Ridder cabinet in a press release.
Natuurpunt says it is grateful for “the hundreds of donations that make the mounting legal costs bearable”. The environmental movement remains vigilant, but certainly says the outstretched hand of the city is too long.
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