The Brussels-Capital Region has given the green light to the transformation of a former NATO site into a vast green space.
Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort (PS), who is responsible for territorial development, a renovation of the 90-hectare site, which sits between both Evere and the City of Brussels and Flanders and the Brussels-Capital Region, will be overseen by a Direction Plan of Construction (RPA) led by perspective.brussels and the Flemish Environment Department.
With the departure of NATO from the site (which the alliance still owns), 75 hectares have become available. It currently houses the trial for the 2016 terrorist attacks and a temporary European School, and the RPA foresees implementing change in both the medium- and long-term. The site is directly opposite NATO's new headquarters on the other side of the Leopold III Avenue.
An aerial view of the site as it currently stands, with the new NATO site right at the top, and the old location below, divided by the busy Avenue Leopold III. Credit: perspective.brussels
"The intention is to create a new dense urban district and a spacious metropolitan park, which should function as a new green lung for the northeast of Brussels," Vervoort’s cabinet stated in a press release. "This wooded area will be developed in an ecological manner and will be accessible to local residents, walkers and cyclists."
"I am very proud that I can contribute to opening this location to the public and breathing new life into this monofunctional and uninhabited part of the city," commented Vervoort.
