Tervuren’s traditional landowners are unhappy with new rules designed to limit house builds in rural areas. The new construction rules infringe on property rights, they say.
The proposed rules will prevent landowners from dividing their land into smaller plots. The goal is to protect Tervuren’s scenic country roads from overdevelopment. Under the new regulations, properties could only be divided into construction plots with a minimum 18-meter frontage.
“This goes too far,” Sebastiaan Coudré has told the town council. Coudré, grandson of a former Tervuren mayor and a Flemish Catholic, argued that many landowners want to divide their land to pass it on to their children.
The Flemish Catholics have the backing of Flemish liberal Thomas Geyns. Both parties are allied ahead of the October elections. If elected mayor, lawyer Geyns promises clearer rules. “My experience in spatial planning is very useful in Tervuren,” Geyns said earlier this year launching his political campaign. “More and more often, Tervuren residents are coming to me because the urban planning policy in our town is unclear.”
Happy few
Tervuren’s current mayor, Marc Charlier, dismisses claims that stricter rules will drive up house prices as an “illusion”. Hypothetically, the new rules could possibly reduce new construction plots by about 250 over 20 years along Tervuren’s scenic roads. Charlier’s Flemish nationalist N-VA party argues that without these regulations, Tervuren’s rural charm could disappear by 2050. The current lax rules, he says, only benefit a “limited number of property owners.”
“Everyone can point to buildings in their street and wonder how they were ever approved,” Charlier said. “For the first time since Tervuren’s merger in 1977, we’re getting urban planning rules that are clear, fair, and enforceable.”
Housing development has fueled Tervuren’s population growth from 15,261 in 1970 to 20,181 in 2000. While new homes boost town revenue, they also bring more traffic, higher spending on services, and a changing population. On January 1, 2024, Tervuren’s population stood at 23,077, with 44% now of non-Belgian origin, up from 29% in 2000.
Note: This article covers local political figures. The author, Dafydd ab Iago, is a professional journalist and a candidate for Tervuren’s town council, running for Volt Europa’s Tervuren branch.
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