<photo: Roelof Kleis>The farm in question is Nergena farm at number 21. The head of real estate Eise Ebbelink (Facilities & Services) calls it a strategic purchase. ‘The neighbour’s land is only for sale once, as the saying goes. This land borders our land, so it is easy to include it in land use plans. That makes it attractive.’
According to Ebbelink, the going rate was paid for the property and the land. As well as the land, the farmhouse and barns were taken over too. The barns will probably be used for storage. What will be done with the farmhouse is not yet clear. Ebbelink: ‘What we were interested in was the land. That was crucial to this purchase.’ In any case, there is still time to think about how to use it. ‘The previous owner still has to close down his business. That will take a few months.’
Landowner
The land is currently used as grassland. Most of it is perfectly usable, says Ebbelink, and a small area needs some work before it can be used as an experimental plot. A lap of 19 hectares sounds like a lot, but it is not that much, says Ebbelink. For WUR (see map), this constitutes a relatively small expansion. WUR is a major landowner in Wageningen. Through this purchase, WUR now owns all the land between the campus and the Slagsteeg.
The purchase of this land makes it possible in theory to restore the Bornsesteeg to its full former length. The Bornsesteeg used to run all the way to the Nergena farm on the Slagsteeg. That farm appears for the first time on a topographical map
of 1870. The road existed until the nineteen seventies, but now the Bornsesteeg is a dead end, ending at the Nergena greenhouses.
The cyclists’ union has been campaigning for a long time for an alternative rural route between Ede and Wageningen. Now cyclists have to come down the busy Mansholtlaan. A link with the Langesteeg via the tunnel under the Mansholtlaan and the viaduct over the A12 makes a rural through-road to Ede-Wageningen station possible. Ebbelink says there are currently no plans to restore the old Bornsesteeg, however.