On May 27, the college of B and W decided to designate the Tippe as a location for an asylum seekers center (azc) for a maximum of 400 refugees. This was confirmed by the municipal council on July 7.
Since we do not yet meet the requirements of the Distribution Act (560 regular reception places and 87 places for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers) with an azc in De Tippe, the college also decided to designate the Rijnlaan location – currently used as a transition location for status holders – as a promising location for the reception of refugees. This can take the form of a small-scale reception location (100 to 150 refugees) or as accommodation for unaccompanied minors.
Additionally, the Professor Feldmanweg is still in view as a possible location for accommodation managed by the municipality. For both locations, it has been decided to start a formal exploration of the possibilities.
Preliminary Exploration
Furthermore, the college has also discussed a number of locations elsewhere in the city, where a preliminary exploration is being conducted regarding their suitability as reception locations. This is an initial internal exploration, which may involve small-scale accommodation or the reception of minor asylum seekers. If the preliminary exploration shows that one or more locations are suitable, the college will make a decision to start an official exploration. That is the moment when the locations will also be announced.
We choose this order to prevent premature communication about a location that ultimately turns out not to be promising as a reception location. We want to avoid unnecessary unrest in the surrounding neighborhood.
For De Tippe, we did it differently. There was no exploration started after the preliminary exploration. Due to its obvious suitability, a decision was made immediately to proceed with realization. The preliminary exploration showed that this location met all the requirements and the 7 bs (accessibility, discussability, availability, neighborhood, affordability, manageability, and usability) on which the municipality evaluates locations.
Locations in Preliminary Exploration
For the locations that are now being released by the COA, they are locations that are in the phase of preliminary exploration or have been, and about which the municipality has not yet communicated with the environment. This step of preliminary exploration is part of the ongoing search for locations to meet the requirements of the Distribution Act.
In the COA documents, the site of the former Stilohal on Van Wevelinkhovenstraat is mentioned. This site has been explored, but this location has now been dropped as a possible reception location. Housing will be built here.
Currently, in addition to Rijnlaan and Professor Feldmannweg, the following locations are still in preliminary exploration: the Schippersinternaat (Holtenbroek) and a parking lot at Oosterenk. The viability of these two remaining locations has not yet been fully developed.
There is still insufficient clarity on a number of aspects, such as availability. Further research will provide clarity on this. If these locations prove to be promising, the municipality will make a decision to start the exploration and will communicate this with the neighborhood.
There has been official contact with COA regarding the locations in preliminary exploration. The COA regrets the situation: “The municipality of Zwolle wanted, precisely to inform its residents first when starting the formal exploration of a location, not to make this information public yet. However, due to a carelessness at the COA, data was prematurely released online, which now forces the municipality to accelerate communication to the directly involved. We regret the situation and are taking steps to prevent something like this from happening again in the future.”