A non-profit organisation on Friday expressed concern about the detrimental ecological, health, and social impacts of the “Lake Side” real estate project at Tour & Taxis, following the conclusion of a public inquiry on Thursday.
The project, led by the company Nextensa, involves constructing 16 towers connected by an underground car park with 688 spaces. But We Are Nature.Brussels – a non-profit environmental association – described it as “an oversized concrete block, socio-climatically inappropriate.”
According to the impact study, the project would increase the impermeable surface area of the site from 17,123 m² to 28,113 m², out of a total surface area of 39,501 m². Furthermore, the underground car park would be built nine metres deep into the groundwater table.
The association highlights several environmental concerns but focuses particular attention on the loss of exposed soil, emphasising that Brussels is already heavily built up. This makes the city susceptible to flooding and also exacerbates the "heat island effect" (where the local environment holds heat much longer, to the detriment of people living there).
According to the Brussels Environmental Agency’s flood risk map, the site for the project is a designated flood-prone area. But the association notes that this map was made in 2019 and doesn't include more recent data or risks associated with extreme precipitation such as the events in Wallonia in 2021.
We Are Nature.Brussels is also worried about damage to biodiversity – specifically the loss of a stopping area for several bird species. Added to this, it says that the project also falls short from a social perspective, criticising the project for offering high-end housing that is financially inaccessible to half of Brussels’ residents who would qualify for social housing. The project includes only 4% social housing, contingent on purchase by the Brussels Regional Housing Company.
The area in and around the Tour & Taxis as seen from above. Credit: Nextensa
A chorus of criticism
Overall the association deems the Lake Side project to be incompatibile with the region's climate and social commitments and calls it "typical of 20th-century real estate projects."
We Are Nature.Brussels is not the only citizens' group to raise issues with the planned construction works. Similar concerns have been put forward by locals who believe there are insufficient guarantees in the building contract to deliver social housing. The urban movement for a sustainable Brussels BRAL pointed out recently that although 61 of the 700 apartments in the new project will be offered to the region for social housing, the Brussels Government doesn't actually have the funds to purchase these units.
The organisation was sceptical about social housing that the region would have to purchase at the same price as other buyers: "Are these social housing units then offered to the government at the market price? What kind of 'offer' is that?"
