Image for illustration. — © BelgaImage
The city council has approved the sale of various agricultural lands in Tielt. The land is owned by the OCMW Ghent and changes hands for approximately 1,024,000 euros.
The Ghent OCMW sells approximately 15 hectares of agricultural land in Tielt to the Flemish Land Agency (VLM). He had a preferential right because it concerns land with a ‘soft purpose’, such as agriculture, forest or recreation, and decided to use that right.
However, in 2021 the city council decided to put a stop to the sale of agricultural land outside Ghent, and this moratorium has now been extended until the end of 2024. But there are some exceptions to this, such as a sale to other authorities or public institutions with a social purpose.
“That ground for exception is justified in this file,” says competent councilor Sami Souguir (Open VLD). “It concerns passive OCMW heritage, which is located far outside the city limits and which involves management costs. Moreover, the destination as agricultural land remains intact.”
Exchange grounds
In the future, the VLM may want to exchange the land with other land in West Flanders, in order to use it for the creation of nature or forest expansion. The City of Ghent will receive 1,024,685 euros for the land. “Every eurocent of this goes directly to real estate projects in our city, especially for affordable housing,” says Souguir.
The timing is striking, just after a referendum in which more than 25,000 Ghent residents voted against the sale of public lands. But in fact, the sale was already unanimously approved during a PCSW council in May, and that decision had to be made again due to a detail. The plot turned out to be 104 square meters larger than first measured.
READ ALSO. Plebiscite ends in a clear ‘yes’: (un)affordable housing market worries tens of thousands of Ghent residents