Committees in Ikast-Brande Municipality have voted to grant dispensations for a large golf course project near Ikast, even though the municipal administration says the project breaks the law on 15 points.
The case was on the agenda Wednesday in two committees in Ikast-Brande Municipality. DR reports that the municipal administration has assessed the project as being in conflict with legislation on 15 separate points.
According to the caseworkers behind that assessment, seven of the 15 points cannot legally be granted a dispensation. A majority in both committees nevertheless voted in favor of dispensation. Only the two committee chairs voted against, according to DR.
Deputy mayor expects appeals
Kasper Pauli Pedersen of the Social Democrats is deputy mayor and chair of the Climate, Nature and Sustainability Committee. As reported by DR, he expects that a majority will also back dispensation in the Finance Committee and ultimately in the city council.
Per Pedersen, it is likely that a council majority will hold its position and drive through a red light with open eyes. He said the outcome would be a long appeals process.
The Danish Society for Nature Conservation has already announced its position. According to DR, the organization has said in advance that it will appeal a dispensation if the city council grants one.
Dispute over protected nature
Much of the conflict concerns so-called paragraph 3 nature. Section 3 of the Danish Nature Protection Act protects around 10 percent of Denmark’s land area. The protected categories are lakes, bogs, fresh meadows, salt meadows, heaths, dry grasslands and watercourses.
The owner of the golf course is Jens Poulsen, who is also chief executive of the clothing group DK Company in Ikast. He told DR that he does not see reason for such a large fight over the case.
Poulsen said he has difficulty recognizing the paragraph 3 nature that the administration and the Danish Society for Nature Conservation focus on. He noted that golf has been played on the area for the past 20 years, and that mown grass on a golf course is normally not paragraph 3 nature.
According to Poulsen, if the areas are in fact protected, the project will remove the 810 meters along the sides that the assessment concerns. He described that figure as the extent the owners assume is at stake.
The project has now met opposition from both the municipal administration and the Danish Society for Nature Conservation. DR reports that the case will continue through the Finance Committee before reaching the city council. The land in question lies near Ikast in central Jutland, an area where nature in Denmark is regulated under the same national rules.
No date has been reported for the city council vote.
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