It took seven years to work on it and many millions were invested in the development of the plan for a new football stadium and a large-scale area development in South Rotterdam. But Feyenoord City can now draw a line through the plan, after the decision of the Council of State on Wednesday.
The highest administrative court annulled the zoning plan, which the city council adopted in December 2020. Fifteen parties, including companies, local residents and a foundation, had appealed against the 2808-page zoning plan.
In addition to the new stadium (63,000 seats), the ambitious and controversial Feyenoord City plan included an area development with 3,700 rental and owner-occupied homes. The stadium was to replace the outdated Kuip, increase the club’s income and become a ‘booster’ to help South move forward. The ruling represents a major setback for the housing ambition (14,000 to 16,000 homes in the next four years) and the plans for the development of South of the new Rotterdam city council, which consists of Leefbaar, VVD, D66 and Denk.
1 How did the Council of State come to this conclusion?
The zoning plan to build the new stadium on the Nieuwe Maas was not feasible when the city council approved it at the end of 2020, the judge now states. The council should have recognized that at the time. At that time there was no certainty whether the football club Feyenoord would actually use the new stadium. That ‘commitment‘ of Feyenoord as the main user was crucial, according to the judge: there should have been no doubt about that.
And: there was “serious uncertainty and ambiguity” about the financial resources required to build the stadium. According to the Council of State, at least 50 million euros in external financing for the stadium (total costs: 441 million) was missing at the time the zoning plan was established.
2 What does the ruling mean for area development in South?
It is causing “major delays,” a spokesperson for the college said. The municipality had hoped that the plan would become irrevocable. Then it was possible to start building homes, shops, catering, a new train station – and a floating shopping street and pedestrian promenade on the Maas.
The city council is now on autumn recess and will meet again next Tuesday, then it will be discussed. The verdict is now being studied “carefully”, the spokesman said. “On the basis of this, the follow-up process is mapped out.”
Rotterdam South
If the Municipal Executive wishes to continue with the plans for housing in this area, which is plausible given the building ambitions, it will have to develop a new zoning plan. This is expected to cause a delay of at least two years.
Because the stadium is an essential part of the total plan for this area in South, the zoning plan has been completely destroyed. This means that even smaller parts of the plan – those for housing – will not go ahead, where the city council had argued that they should be maintained. The reason given by the judge is that the environmental effects of these parts have not been investigated if the new stadium is not built and activities are continued in the area. Building permits granted are now also being destroyed.
3 What does this mean for the future of the current stadium?
Feyenoord, the football club, already announced in April that it no longer wanted the new stadium, partly because of the rising construction prices. De Kuip will remain the home base for at least the next ten to fifteen years, said general manager Dennis te Kloese.
“Large renovation,” Te Kloese said in April, “is not possible.” Earlier plans for a major renovation of the Kuip did not make it.
:format(webp)/s3/static.nrc.nl/bvhw/files/2020/07/data59739431-23d5e9.jpg)
Read also‘Feyenoord is by definition a very emotional file’
De Kuip from 1937 has fallen behind partly due to poor maintenance, including the toilets leave much to be desired and the lack of catering points has been criticized. The stadium needs a major makeover, but the question is how this will be financed: the stadium BV (the club is only a tenant) has a debt of more than 30 million euros, according to the latest annual accounts (2021).
Part of that is 17.5 million in the form of a bridging loan provided by financier Goldman Sachs to cover the development costs for Feyenoord City. The question is how this amount should be repaid in the coming years now that the project has been swept off the table.
“Due to years of wrong choices, the Feijenoord Stadium now lacks money to radically modernize De Kuip in one go,” says chairman Kees Lau of the Friends of De Kuip Foundation, one of the parties that objected to the zoning plan. “We advocate a phased approach. First, overdue maintenance must be carried out. Once that’s done, you can think about making improvements. After this it is time for a major modernization to make De Kuip a new state-of-the-art football temple for the long term.”
The stadium company says through departing director Jan van Merwijk that it is “very disappointed” with the verdict. “We are going to consult with other parties involved about what to do now.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of October 27, 2022
