Center Development

Start - 2020

From 2020, we are in consultation with property owners in the Park Street and surrounding area (e.o.) and center management to develop this area. Based on the 2010 Center Vision, a "sliding puzzle" has emerged. In this sliding puzzle, the supermarkets in the Parkstraat e.o. area were given a different location and additional housing could be added. Unfortunately, it turned out that a joint financial development of this sliding puzzle is not feasible. However, the municipality and the property owners still intend to develop.

Continued - 2022

In the coalition program 2022 - 2026, the coalition parties in the City Council have expressed their desire to take the lead and update the 2010 Center Vision. New developments are necessary for an attractive and future-proof center, but they must be coordinated. In order to be able to better, more easily and quickly assess the individual development plans for their contribution to the center, a clear and well-organized framework was lacking that could help both the municipality and the property owners realize the developments.

Spot plan+ Center Nuenen - 2023

To establish this framework, we have developed the so-called Spot Plan+ Centrum Nuenen 2023 (hereafter: Spot Plan+). To this end, we have compiled existing principles from municipal policies adopted for the center of Nuenen for each subarea.

Participation

The Spot Plan+ was created in collaboration with property owners from throughout the center and center management. In November 2022, all commercial property owners were invited to a meeting and we explained the process. In January 2023, this group was invited again and the content of the Spot Plan+ was discussed.

As a resident of or business owner in the center of Nuenen, you are going to directly experience the effects of new developments. We are therefore pleased to inform you about the content of the Spot Plan+. In particular, the steps in the follow-up process may be of interest to you.

Process of adopting Spot Plan+

The College of Mayor and Aldermen presented the Spot Plan+ to the City Council for adoption. An image-forming council meeting was held on June 1, 2023, and the judgment-forming council meeting on September 14. In the decision-making council meeting on Sept. 21, the council decided to adopt the Spot Plan+.

Looking back judgmental council meeting

Looking back at decision-making council meeting

The documents Spot Plan+ for downtown, Clarification of Spot Plan+ for downtown and the council proposal can be accessed below.

• Spot plan+ for downtown
• Notes on the spot plan+ for downtown
• Council proposal

Follow-up development plans

Now that the City Council has adopted the Spot Plan+, the property owners (or developing parties) can move forward with their planning. During this process, the developing parties will share and/or discuss information with local residents and business owners. How and when they do so is expressly the responsibility of the developing party. The role of the municipality is to test the initiative against, among other things, the frameworks in the Spot Plan+. The city council also has a decision-making role when adopting a new environment plan (formerly a zoning plan).

From Spot Plan+ to update Center Vision

In addition to concrete developments by property owners, the municipality is following its own process to update the Center Vision based on the Spot Plan+. The Spot Plan+ is the first step in this process.

The second step is to develop an environment program for the center. An environment program is a new instrument under the (yet to be introduced) Omgevingswet. An environmental program contains implementation-oriented measures to achieve an ambition. In this case, the ambition is an even more attractive Nuenen center.

For this environment program we will start working in the first half of 2024. This is the first time we are working with an environment program in Nuenen. Therefore, it has not yet been determined what this process will look like and we cannot issue a tight schedule for this. When there is more clarity on this you will read about it here.

At the November 25, 2022 meeting, we informed you about the process of arriving at a Spot Plan+ for downtown Nuenen. You indicated that you missed the content at that time. Prior to the meeting on January 17, 2023, we sent you the draft Spot Plan+. During the meeting we further informed you about the content and meaning of the Spatial Plan+ with a presentation.

During the meeting there was room for questions. The questions asked and comments made led to refinements in the Spot Plan+. This report reflects these questions and corresponding answers.

The Spot Plan+ Center Nuenen is

• A first step toward updating the 2010 Center Vision. This will be followed up in the ambient program Center to be drawn up;
• A reaffirmation of existing policy;
• An outline vision for the entire center;
• A vision of the functional structure and spatial qualities in general. There is no discussion of building heights or urban design possibilities. This is for further elaboration per development initiative;
• A current integrated framework for development plan initiators;
• An Explanatory Map .

Asked questions and answers

The questions are clustered and answered by topic.

Can the municipality identify the plans and wishes of owners? So that perhaps owners can work together to come up with a nice plan.

Yes, we can do an inventory. We will pick this up in early May.

How will business owners remain easily accessible if the street becomes car-free and street parking is reduced?

In our experience, people like to park in front. Why is this being reduced?

The center remains part of the overall municipal traffic network and thus accessible to car traffic. Car-free does not mean no car traffic at all, but less car traffic. We want to achieve this mainly by improving the public space for slow traffic. In other words, the environment must become more livable. Street parking is related to this, but reducing it is not a goal in itself. It is mainly about parking in the right places, preferably less scattered and more concentrated.

What if a tenant terminates?

The current zoning plan will remain valid until the new Environmental Plan is adopted. However, we do recommend that you inform the new tenant about the Spot Plan+.

New plans are always negotiable by both you and the tenant with the municipality.

Why does retail need to leave the Mountain?

What does a compact center mean for retail?

Why let retail disappear under duress from the municipality? Make Park Street so attractive that every retailer wants to be there. Won't you get a natural turnover that way?

Why does all retail have to leave the Mountain? Can't "targeted" retail stay? Stores that people go to in a targeted way and also have comparatively few customers such as Billekens Licht & Advies, Meulendijks etc. Such a business has no added value in a shopping center and should not have it's run.

The final Spot Plan+ includes reduction of retail on the Mountain. How this will be shaped will be worked out later in the Environment Program.

Currently, the center is quite vast and retail is fragmented. For an economically future-proof center, where visitors stay longer and are enticed to make combination visits, the center needs to be compact.

Parkstraat has been designated as the concentration area for retail in the center of Nuenen. In its place, on the Berg, for example, there are again opportunities in the areas of culture, hospitality, small-scale meeting and accommodation functions. Partly due to the new construction of Van Gogh Village museum (formerly Vincentre). Whether or not combined with a residential function.

If retail as a function on the Berg is no longer made possible and is only allowed on Park Street, the rent on Park Street becomes higher. When a retailer wants to expand on the Mountain, this is no longer possible and he is forced to move to Park Street, resulting in much higher housing costs.

If retail as a function disappears what happens to property values? If this value drops will it be compensated by the municipality?

Property value is not a steering tool in the preparation of the Spot Plan+. As a municipality, we aim for an attractive and future-proof center out of the public interest.

The final Spot Plan+ includes reduction of retail on the Mountain. How this will be shaped will be worked out later in the Environment Plan in which we will further elaborate the policy into measures (what and how). In the Environment Plan the rules will eventually be legally defined (comparable to a zoning plan). A participation process will take place during both processes.

Effects on real estate are not yet an issue at this stage. Moreover, property values and the level of rents are the result of market forces. There are many factors that affect this.

How will you ensure that walking is created from Park Street through the Park to the Mountain?

We want to improve the functioning of the center in a cooperation of the municipality with entrepreneurs and property owners. The redesign of the public space can also be part of this. Further elaboration will follow, among other things, in the Environment Program.

Process

1. Modify draft Spot Plan+ into a final Spot Plan+.

2. Decision-making by Board of B&W - February 28, 2023.

3. Discussion in judgmental City Council - March 30, 2023*.

4. Decision-making in decision-making City Council - April 6, 2023*.

Following:

• Plan formation by developing parties
• Participation in plan formation by developing parties
• Assessment and decision-making of subplans by municipality

The Building Guide and Monastery Garden projects are separate from the Spot Plan+ and each is going through its own process and schedule.

* The City Council sets its own agenda

Appointments

• You will have the opportunity to submit written questions and comments until Jan. 24, 2023. These can be emailed to bedrijfscontact@nuenen.nl.
• After February 2, we will send you the report. This will also contain the questions/comments and answers.
• You will receive the final documents when they are sent to the City Council Agenda Committee.
• As soon as it is known, we will send you information about the schedule of council meetings (judgment and decision-making).
• After council decision making, you will receive feedback on this from us.

If you have any questions or comments, please contact Jessica de Vrees, Ingrid Bussemakers and/or Anne Goossens at the general number 040 2631 631.

An attractive center with good amenities and a good quality of stay is the ambition.

Without cooperation with entrepreneurs and property owners, developments will not get off the ground. Therefore, in 2020 we started an exploration of the possibilities for development of this part of the center with a number of property owners and entrepreneurs in the area Parkstraat and De Smidse. We now want to expand this cooperation to the Berg and Vincent van Goghstraat.

The meeting included an explanation of what has happened from 2020 to now and how we plan to follow up.

Cooperation Park Street and surrounding area

An official review in 2019 of the 2010 Center Vision showed that the desired image outlined is still current. A study of the possibilities for joint development of this area was then started for Park Street and its surroundings. With the largest stakeholders from this area, it was then also jointly concluded that the bottlenecks and vision from 2010 are still topical. Side notes mentioned here are: the functioning of the Parkhof, location of the HEMA and the transformation of homes on Parkstraat.

The Architecten Collectief Nuenen (ACN) drew a spot plan in June 2020. In it, the most important tasks became clear as a sliding puzzle. Led by an external, independent consultant, a leading group was formed to consider the possibility of tackling these tasks in financial collectivity. It included the parties with the largest individual tasks under the chairmanship of the ACN. The municipality had no direction in this, but was a participant in the consultation.

In April 2022, it was concluded in this regard that the leading group is still committed to the vision in terms of content. However, a joint financial approach is not feasible.

Coalition program 2022-2026

Underlines importance of attractive downtown:

• Wish update center vision 2010
• Desire governing role of municipality

Spot Plan+

To implement the coalition program, we are working on a new spatial translation of the tasks in the center. To start with a so-called Spatial Plan+. A Spatial Plan+ for the entire city center (Parkstraat and surroundings, Park surroundings, Vincent van Goghstraat and Berg) and at a higher level of abstraction than the first process for Parkstraat and surroundings.

The municipality takes direction in the follow-up process and signs the Spot Plan+ itself.

We want to ask the City Council for commitment to this and have the frameworks for the (partial) developments established with the Spot Plan+.

Continued

• Municipality working on draft Spot Plan+
• The council would like to add a representative from Vincent van Gogh Street and Berg to the current leading group. Center management will also participate in the new leading group.
• Municipality hosts new stakeholder meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Monastery
  • Stakeholders receive the draft Spot Plan+ in advance.
• Municipality heads for decision by city council on Thursday, April 6
  • Stakeholders and residents will be informed of possible participation/speech opportunities with the City Council

Center Vision 2010

Wishful thinking

Village and leafy, cozy and lively, varied and complete, The 'Van Gogh village', accessible and hospitable, not competitive but distinctive

Qualities

• Historic green space and road structure
• The park as a connecting link)

Bottlenecks

• Interrupted retail structure
• Curious positions some stores (e.g., Hema)
• Spatial quality: some poor facades and backsides
• Park court does not function well

Vision

• Better functioning center (retail function)
• Strengthen spatial quality
• Stretch retail structure southward without adding program (implies relocation and provides opportunities for substantial and quality parking)
• Monastery garden gets new function, especially focused on housing
• Easing traffic structure with simple interventions

Measures mentioned

• Giving Hema position on Park Street
• Parkhof redevelopment from passage to direct location on Park Street (relocation of existing supermarket)
• Redevelopment site Schenkels (supermarket, housing, parking)
• Redevelopment site De Smidse (supermarket, housing, parking)
• Passively accommodate transformation of homes on Park Street into stores

Environment Vision 2021

A vibrant, attractive and compact downtown

Compact

• Vacancy is a threat to attractiveness and functioning
• The total area of stores should decrease over time
• For an attractive downtown and retention of amenities, clustering is desirable

Residence Quality

Opportunities for meeting and recreation contribute to an attractive downtown:

•  
• car-free and bike- and walk-friendly public space
• climate-adaptive and nature-inclusive design, and making buildings sustainable

Preserving cultural history

• Built environment, green structures and landscape

Park Street et al.

• The shopping street of Nuenen. The core shopping area of the center
• Provides opportunities to add housing, especially small apartments for the young and elderly

Surroundings Park

• Nuenen's central meeting point
• Focus is on the quality of stay: events, walking, culture, hospitality, greenery and play
• Housing will be added in the Monastery Garden, close to amenities

Mountain

• Shift of stores toward Park Street: emphasis on culture and living
• Emphasis on preserving and enhancing cultural history: with the Van Gogh monuments, the Vincentre, the park-like surroundings of the Van Gogh church and the connections to the landscape

Vincent van Gogh Street

• Reduce retail floor space over time by blending functions: emphasis on services and housing
• The approach street to the core shopping area with the supermarket as the draw

If you have questions or comments, please contact Jessica de Vrees or Anne Goossens at the general phone number 040 263 16 31.