By Trevor Maloney
At the second General Assembly (GA) of the fall semester, Thom Piethaan, the current chair of the Common House Elliott (CHE) board, announced that Elliott will be opened for the first time on Thursday, November 28 for the RASA birthday party.
Those looking to attend must subscribe directly with Common House Elliot; you can do so via [email protected]. Elliott will have to impose a maximum capacity of 200 people, so students will be chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis. Those granted entry must be there by 22:30h, if they are not, others will be allowed entry in their place.
The opening of Elliott has been promised many times in the past, but due to various setbacks, not least of which the legal issues with some of the locals in Middelburg, none of those promises could be kept.
At the heart of the neighbor’s objection to Elliott is the plan to include a bar in the basement. Neighbors waged a legal battle against CHE that began with their objections to the merit of the “Omgevingsvergunning”, or permit of purpose, granted to Elliott by the municipality. Some neighbors say that the permit is in clear violation of the 2002 “bestemmingsplan”, or zoning plan, that states there should be no bars or pubs permitted from the Markt to the end of Lange Noordstraat (the area of the proposed Common House).
The municipality, in partnership with the CHE board, has won all of their court cases to date, and Elliott has thus been granted permission to open. There is still one court case pending, but the outcome of that case could largely rest on the ability of Elliott to properly function within the agreements made between them the neighbors, and the municipality.
It was made clear at both the GA and the previous info-session held by CHE that the success of this common house project is almost directly dependent upon the students of UCR. It was stressed that students must fully comply with the Nuisance Reduction Agreement, as a violation of this agreement could result in the permanent closing of Elliott.
Trevor Maloney, class of 2015, is a Law and Politics major from West Palm Beach, FL, United States.
