At the same time, she also asks with an amendment that in new projects of at least five residential units, at least one unit should be provided for social housing. “This council is not succeeding in reducing the waiting lists for social housing. That is why this idea.”
She also touches on parking standards. “Families that do not have a car must install a garage in their home or otherwise pay a fine. Meanwhile, one in three families does not have a car. The city likes to use the ‘parking on private property’ principle, but that is no longer the case. time.”
Sam Voeten from CD&V believes that the building code in the field of softening is at a standstill “or even going backwards”. “In the previous building code, an unpaved front garden was the rule and this is now being reversed to ‘it is best to soften as much as possible and it is best that it is water permeable’.”
He also lacks vision in parking policy. “We have been asking for a vision for affordable housing for five years so that young families come to the city and people do not flee the city. We also lack that vision for single-family homes.”
Claude Marinower (Open VLD) appreciates the attempt to strengthen legal certainty and simplify the rules. “Fortunately, we are looking at a growing city. There is also a need for a residential supply that is growing, but also for a supply that is growing more strongly. People who want to buy today are not doing well, that is rock solid. The council is in this failed in its mission. In our opinion, the measures will have an upward effect on prices.”
N-VA councilor Annick De Ridder defends its building code. She says that within this year and ten years, up to 40,000 new residents will find their way to the city, depending on the sources “and this must therefore be used wisely”. She said the goal was to simplify the building code because it had become a collection of small rules. “We are putting the building code back on the main lines, but also regulating housing, parking and climate challenges. The latter is new.”
“Green says that terrible situations would arise due to the harmony rule, that is nonsense in packages. If you apply the harmony rule perfectly, you will no longer build anything. That does not mean that there will be a completely free cowboy landscape.”
In addition, the alderman also says that the building code was the first to receive a positive advice on a project EIA report. That’s it for Groen’s criticism. It is also a fallacy that the modal shift could be imposed in the building code. That is not a place to introduce ideological things. We just want to free up public domain and fill in green space. More space for Antwerp residents and visitors, but with a welcome policy for the cars.”
The alderman also intervenes briefly on Groen’s amendment regarding social housing units. “It would be a stupid idea to support that, because that part was annulled by the Constitutional Court in the Land and Buildings Decree.”
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