Wijkgroenplan Overvecht

Preliminary assessment of the potential for change in the Parks of Overvecht -
the following is presented only to generate discussion- it does not necessarily reflect the views of the Overvecht Greenplan Team and will be subject to substantial amendment as the Team develops its ideas for the Parks of Overvecht

This section deals with the potential for change in Park de Gagel, Park de Watertoren, de Vechtzoom Park and the small area of parkland along Shanghaidreef which was designed and built by community action in the 1970s.

Background - Summary of what the people of Overvecht have said about their Parks (over 600 people took part in the most recent survey)

The Section in the introduction on the Key Issues relating to Greenspaces in Overvecht gives a great deal of information about what the local people want their parks and other greenspaces to be like. To summarise local people want:

to get rid of the dull uninteresting landscapes that at present dominate the views throughout Overvecht
they want interest and liveliness
they want places to meet, sit, watch the world go by
they want to have something to see and keep them interested
they want to be able to use the outdoor areas with pleasure and no sense of fear
they want "places to go to"- places that make them feel that they have a reason to take their friends and relatives out for a walk - places they feel happy to spend time in - places for picnics - places for family events
they want lots of round walks of differing lengths with many interesting things to look and places to rest in at en-route
they want round cycle- routes of differing lengths with places for stopping and resting - routes to supplement the fast straight to work/shops/school cycleways, cycle routes which give access to the rural area and have focal points such as the Forts and Nature Reserves to aim for as part of a cycle outing
they want more to be made of the proximity of their area to the river
they want their home environment to take the maximum possible benefit from the sea of greenspaces between the buildings.

The future character of the Parks and their role in Overvecht's image

Overvecht people want to be able to enjoy the outside spaces of their home environment as well as have access to the greenspaces beyond. Overvecht has 30000 inhabitants it is in effect a small town - the people want the facilities a small town would have within and around their district. The surveys have shown that the local people see their district as something special in Utrecht and understand that the expanse of greenspace is part of that special character - a character that they want retained at least as long as the high-rise development in which they live exists.

Overvecht people can be seen from their responses to surveys to really want to be able to feel proud of this place they call home. Improving the qualities of the local greenspace to meet the quality of life expectations of local people is crucial to this and in this the Parks have the potential to play a very important role in supporting a "new image" for Overvecht. The local Parks can be re-designed and upgraded to provide the "special places" people want to be able to go out to visit (and to visit without the need to use a car or other vehicle) - places to visit and which contain things to do, The Overvecht Parks need to be different from the Doorstep greenspaces (see elsewhere for a discussion of how these might also develop into useful supportive greenspaces) both in what the look like and the things one can do in them.

In addition to the large expanse of land set out as Parks the great asset of Overvecht's Parks is the existence of so many mature trees, These 30 year old trees already have the stature to give a special visual image to the parkland areas. They can act as a structure on which to hang the re-design of the Parks. The only problem with having so many big trees is that large parts of the Parks will become very shady as they grow and dealing with this issue has to be part of developing ideas for the redesign of the Parks.

Note : The Wijk Atlas indicates the present conditions (not all on-line yet - only a sample area) within and around the greenspaces and the limitations these impose on any future changes.

Goals of the regeneration of the Parks

In the regeneration of the Overvecht Parks an attempt needs to be made:

to meet the users' needs in terms of the quality of experience each life-style group desires when using the parks and the facilities and to deal with the conflicts of interest between the different age and lifestyle groups living in Overvecht
to meet the users' needs in terms of facilities to support the specific activities they wish to be able to undertake within the Parks (see paper on Recreation - not yet on-)
to enhance the level of Biodiversity in Overvecht as required by national, regional and Utrecht City policies by using the potential of open land within the parks to support a variety of naturalistic habitats
(see also the ecology units ideas for:
- grass/woodland edge habitats,
- wall habitats,
- herb habitats and
- water edge habitats)

to fulfil the District and City's planning requirements in terms of provision of specific facilities and opportunities for the local people which are related to greenspaces- most specifically:
1. improved health - there are both physical and psychological benefits to be had from regular use of greenspaces and the outdoors in general - regular walking now being recognised as a major contributor to health
2. improved chance of developing a sense of belonging to a local community -where the relationship of the individual to the place they call home can be strongly influenced by the level pride an individual feels from living in a particular place - this in turn can aid in the development of that sense of belonging which characterises stable communities (stable communities having among other things the benefit of lower levels of crime, less ill-health, less truancy from schools)
3. improved quality of life for children from poorer families and single parent families - there is a special concern for children and young people of poorer families growing up in the type of high-rise housing found in Overvecht it can be inimical to their long-term welfare as it encourages the child to submit to peer pressure from an early age the parent being far away at the top of a high rise block (note: what can be done through regenerating the outside spaces of the housing estate is of course very limited but it does have a part to play in changing social behaviour patterns if the child is caught young enough by other interventions to do with community building)
4. improve the quality of life for older people - there is a special concern for older people, particularly the retired without access to car transport and on low to medium incomes, they need as wide a range of possibilities for an interesting fulfilling period of their lives as is possible and many want to become a useful contributor to their local community
5. improve the quality of life for the less able bodied of all ages - disabled people have a greater need of usable nearby open and greenspace - moving about can be slow for many of them but as with the rest of the community they too need an interesting fascinating place to be in outside their homes and to be able to access all corners of it just as the able bodied. Disabled people have special requirements beyond access - some for instance, because they can only move slowly and do not benefit from the warm up induced by physical exercise, are often more aware of temperature differences and need more sheltered warmer sitting areas in winter and more shaded cooler spaces in summer.
to fulfil the District's objectives to increase employment possibilities for all age groups but particularly the younger and older people living in the area by increasing local job opportunities - there is the strong possibility of identifying business opportunities related to the use and management of Overvecht's greenspace which experience elsewhere shows can be stimulated by special injections of starter funds to the benefit of the local community
to work within the limitations imposed by the need to finance the long term management of the Parks and to link this with identifying area of the Parks where the maintenance could be hived off to other agencies, individuals or even private enterprise with the proviso that the land is kept open for use by the general public.

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Latest update :1 Junel 2001