Dear Neighbours,

The company Droog Design has plans to house a hotel, a restaurant and a society in the former GGD building at Groenburgwal 44. In October 2009, 57 neighbourhood residents have sent a letter to the city council to object to this development. Reason for the objection is that execution of these plans will cause significant noise pollution and traffic congestion.

As it turns out, the situation looks worse than we initially thought. It is going to be a big restaurant with 84 seats. This means even more noise caused by all the guests arriving and leaving the premises, talking on the street, smoking outside, and even more traffic congestion resulting from all the cars, lorries, scooters etc that will be needed to transport all these people, as well as from the logistic arrangements (supply of food and drinks, waste disposal, cleaning, etc etc). Adding insult to injury, restaurant, society and hotel are not accessible for the local residents. In spite of all this the daily governing committee of the City Centre has taken a positive stand towards this project.

We have therefore written a follow-up letter, a so-called “council address”. This is a formal letter to the City Council. You can find the letter when selecting “Tekst Raadsadres” (in Dutch) in the menu on the left-hand side. You can also find previous correspondence and the reasons of our objections to these plans.

If you agree with our objections to these plans, please download the objection form and print it. You can find the form by selecting “Ondertekenen” and then “Formulier”. After signing the document, please deposit it in the letterbox of Groenburgwal 50.

The council address has been signed by 287 residents when it was sent to the City Council on February 8, 2010. However, more signatures are required to make a stronger case. If you know of any local residents who have not signed yet, please invite them to this website, where they can download and print the form. We will send the additional signatures to the City Council at a later stage.

Please send your contact details to us via groenburgwal@live.nl , so we can keep you up to date on future developments. You can also use this email address if you require any further assistance or information.
Thank you for your support and kind regards,

Robert Smit, Groenburgwal 48 Jan-Joost van Hemel, Groenburgwal 50B Pim van den Berg, Groenburgwal 65D Ingmar Scheiberlich, Staalstraat 16

On the 8th of June our council address was on the agenda of the council's meeting. Three of the people who signed the address took the opportunity to officially voice their objections against Droog’s plans. Over 75 residents visited the meeting to show their support.