The Winter Home in the Mountains and the Summer Home by the Sea

[KikkiB]

It seems like the royals again is stiring up a debate on their building plans. I found this article on CP Mette-Marit and CP Haakons plans on building a cabin near Kristiansand.

I've translated it myself, so it's not perfect, but I think you'll get the drift

Some explanations; SV is the Socialist Left party in Norway, and is known for being republican, the Right party is known for being monarchist.

We also have a law in Norway that says you can't build a house/cabin/building less than 100 metres from a beach/sea side. The beaches/sea side are supposed to be open for the public to use. But some municipalities gives suspensions from this law, giving private persons permission to have their private beach/sea side (fencing them in). And it causes discussion over and over again.

SV want to stop Mette-Marits dream cabin

Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Crown Prince Haakon dream about building their vacation paradise near the beach at idyllic Flekkerøy at Kristiansand. But it could quickly create a quarrel. SV in Kristiansand have already reacted strongly to the rumours about the Crown Princely couples building plans at Naudetangen on Flekkerøy, and have had support from the locals.

“We don’t want the property to be re-regulated, and that it is made differences between royals and others. If the Crown Princely couple need 9843,4 m2 , it means that they also have to go into the free area. We mostly say no to cabins near the beach” says SVs municipality council member Gro Hareide to Dagbladet.

The municipality buys

The newspaper Fædrelandsvennen brought yesterday the news that Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Crown Prince Haakon have been visiting the so-called NRK-property on Flekkerøya to have a closer look at the place.

“They fell for the place, and is interested in taking it over” says legal consultant Jon Holt with Kristiansand Eiendom to the newspaper. He expects that the municipality can take over the property from NRK sometime before Christmas. After that the municipality will re-regulate it and sell parts of the property to the Crown Princely couple.

Kristiansand Eiendom run Kristiansand municipalitys properties, and shall have taken on to get hold of the property after a request from the Palace in the late summer. The Crown Princely couples information advisor Sven Gj. Gjeruldsen says that there isn’t made any deals on a country estate. The couple has, according to Gjeruldsen, looked at several options. “I have no further comments to you” says Gjeruldsen.

For public use

For several decades the broadcaster had their “middlewave” transmitter on the island. The SV politician Gro Hareide thinks it would be nice if the Crown Princely couple would have a cabin in Kristiansand, but she can’t understand why it is a municipality job to help the couple.

It the case reach political treatment, she will heavily protest a re-regualtion from a beach property to leasure purposes for the royals.The signal so fra from the Right pary is that it would be nice of the municipality to help the royals find a country estate in the home town of the Crown Princess.

Descrete

The sea side property lies perfectly in the landscape for the vacationing people who wants privacy, as the security of the individuals will be taken care of.

Hareide have now gotten unsuspected support from the inhabitants of Flekkerøya, which isn’t especially known for being SV-terrain.

http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2005/11/06/448532.html

 

[Layla1971]

Well, wasn't it Martha-Louise and Ari who got special treatment for their house?
At least, I think it was them.
My opinion is they should be allowed to build there, and yes, be given special permission too. After all, not everyone needs the privacy and security that royals need to have. This place seems to be perfect for them.

 

[Larzen]

thanks for translating

We also have a law in Norway that says you can't build a house/cabin/building less than 100 metres from a beach/sea side. The beaches/sea side are supposed to be open for the public to use. But some municipalities gives suspensions from this law, giving private persons permission to have their private beach/sea side (fencing them in). And it causes discussion over and over again.

You can build in 100 metres sone if their is already a building there, which you rennovate (take down and rebuild). Now this can take some extremes when people stretch the laws, many places very old smal boat houses gets "renovated" to summercabines and sold for millions etc.

I do not think you and me are allowed to fence in our beach, we have a summerhouse by the sea and we are not allowed to fence in our beach nor are we allowed to refuse people to walk there, but most people dont camp on other peoples piers and beaches because it feels strange. The idea is that all people should be able to walk by the seaside, and that it is open to everyone.

As far as I can see there is already a house at the property, therefor they can also build a new house at the same place if the house is approved by the local building council. The problem arrises because of the security they cant have you and me walking across their pier and beaches, and they will have to have special threatment like Märtha had. Mågerø is already on military ground and therefor off limit for us.


***********'
Haakon took part in the yearly dinner for Stortinet Pictures here

Haakon takes part in a 3 day visit to Denmark, Pictures here

 

[Layla1971]

I still think an exception should be made for the couple, regardless of what the SV party thinks. It really isn't going to cause anyone any inconvenience, as long as they don't take up too much of the beach.

 

[KikkiB]

thanks for translating

You can build in 100 metres sone if their is already a building there, which you rennovate (take down and rebuild). Now this can take some extremes when people stretch the laws, many places very old smal boat houses gets "renovated" to summercabines and sold for millions etc.

You're welcome! And for that 100 metres sone, you might just be right! The law isn't my strongest side And since I don't own any property either, I haven't bothered to read up on it. I've just noticed that it's been discussed in the media, but I haven't really payed attention to all the details (not that I think the media give us an objective opinion on such things either).

 

[norwegianne]

(not that I think the media give us an objective opinion on such things either).

Of course they don't. They don't sell papers by having objective opinions on such things.

 

[sara1981]

Crown couple rocks the boat with holiday home plans
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1150784.ece

 

[mandyy]

Får SV mot seg
SV i Vest-Agder vil gjøre alt de kan for å stoppe kronprinsparets drøm om fritidsbolig på Flekkerøy ved Kristiansand
Jeg ser flere paralleller mellom Røkke-utbyggingen i Asker og den som vil komme hvis kronprinsparet opprettholder sitt ønske om å bygge en fritidsbolig på Flekkerøy, sier Gro Hareide, fylkesleder i Vest-Agder SV.

Det betyr i praksis at SV vil benytte alle klagemuligheter i reguleringssaken. Helt opp til departementet og miljøvernminister Helen Bjørnøy.

- Det er ikke en menneskerett å bygge hytte i strandsonen. Hvis kronprinsparet får ja til sitt byggeprosjekt, vil almenhetens mulighet til ferdsel begrenses i stor grad. Det blir dessuten et stort inngrep i naturen med stor bolig, inngjerding, hus til sikkerhetsfolk og større og nye veier, sier Gro Hareide...............
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article1197635.ece

Photo from Afterposten

Can someone translate this? Thx

 

[imogen]

Hello,

I'm new to the board. Thought I'd do the translation for you. I am Norwegian, but English is my everyday language. I live in the U.K.

Imogen.

SV to oppose

SV in Vest-Agder will do everything in its power to oppose the Crown Prince and Crown Princess' dream of building a holiday home at Flekkeroy near Kristiansand.

In reality this means that SV will make use of all avenues of complaint in the zoning application. All the way to the department and minister of the environment, Helen Bjornoy.

It's not a human right to build a holiday home in the beach area. If the Crown Prince and his wife are given permission for this building project, the public's right to roam will be greatly restricted. This will involve a big intrusion in the environment encompassing a large house, fencing, housing for their security staff and big, new roads, says Gro Hareide...



SV = Sosialistisk Venstreparti (translater's note)

 

[Emily]

First of all, welcome to the board, Imogen! And second, how very thoughtful of you to do that translation! Your English is excellent and I appreciate knowing what the article said!

 

[Pink Tulip]

I second that Emily! Welcome to the board imogen and thankyou so much for your great translation.

 

[mandyy]

Kronprinsparet får millionrabatt

Kristiansand kommune gir kronprinsparet en tomterabatt på flere millioner kroner for å få dem som feriegjester om sommeren.

- Jeg legger ikke skjul på at vi svært gjerne ønsker å få Norges fremtidige kongefamilie til byen. De vil profilere Kristiansand på en veldig god måte, og deres tilstedeværelse vil skape positive ringvirkninger for hele regionen, sier ordfører Jan Oddvar Skisland (kr.f.) til Aftenposten................
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/kongelige/article1206704.ece

Can someone translate this article? Thx!

Photo from Afterposten

 

[purple_platinum]

it's probably follow-up about the issue already explained by KikkiB, here
and further discussed, here

 

[mandyy]

Hyttedrøm kan bli stoppet
Hvis kronprinsparet skal bygge sommerbolig på Flekkerøy, må Kristiansand kommune rive et nasjonalt kulturminne. Det fraråder Riksantikvaren.
Et funkishus fra 1936 og et tilhørende naust står på en nasjonal verneplan som riksantikvar Nils Marstein personlig har vært involvert i. Det gamle naustet har allerede Kristiansand kommune gitt rivetillatelse til, og en ny sjøbod er bygget uten å ta hensyn til verneplanen.

- Riksantikvaren stiller seg bak planen og vi anbefaler fredning og vern av alle bygninger og objekter som er oppført i planen, sier Lisen Roll, seksjonssjef hos Riksantikvaren...........................
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/kongelige/article1224105.ece

Photos from Aftenposten

 

[susannem]

Would someone mind giving a brief summary of the article?

Thanks
Susanne

 

[Larzen]

The house that is located on the place they want to build their summerhouse is possible going to become protected and thus not allowed to be taken down. Its a funkis house from 1936 and might become protected because of its role as a building that is part of the telecommunication history (It was previously owned by the national broadcasting station). Its not listed as protected by Kristiansand city. An antiquarian hopes Kristiansand will not allow for the house to be taken down. The city says no decision has been taken, the city has not entered into a contract with the Crown Prince couple, that will not happen until the regulation is finnished. (Its all very complicated for me to explain in english)

*********************************************
TV2 just showed pictures of Mette-Marit paying a private visit to Oslo Fashion Week last night, she saw the show of the Norwegian designduo So Hee http://www.sohee.no/

 

[susannem]

Thank you very much for the explanation.

Susanne

 

[Sonnenblumenmäd]

thank you, too. Although I like MM so much I do not really understand why they are not just going to find another estate. Without making all this trouble to other norwegian people. I think it it not fair to give MM and H so many privileges for just private purposes

 

[Larzen]

They are really asking for trouble now, very stupid It has been clear from the beginnig that they were going to get it their way and build there, but really they are now pushing the limit when regular folks now a days will have trouble building a veranda on their modest beach houses, again building in the beach zone is very controversial and touchy subject, and quite frankly I cant understand why they need such a giant house for a summer home, isn`t the point of summerhome to be outside and enjoy the summer when its finally here?

Its about the planned summer house at Flekkerøya in Kristiansand, according to Fedrelandsvennen, the palace wants to build a house at a size of 6-800m2 The Mayor of Kristiansand says "Oi, now we will have trouble to get things done" Kristiansand county has the responsibility to regulate the area which will be done around June 1st when the Palaces had reported its wishes. The city architect has already gotten some wishes from the palace and the person responsible for the royal buildings Ragnar Osnes says it would be a wish to get 6-800 square meter, it is not clear how many buildings they are going to make. The City is suggesting 32 mål of security zone around the houses, part of it is in the sea and will be closed of for regular people, part of it is a environmental protection area

A politician from SV (republican party) says it is unacceptable and she is glad her party has been against these plans from the beginning, the Palace of course has no comments

It’s very difficult for me to translate all the technical terms in this article, maybe someone can do better
[URL="http://www.fvn.no/na24/article367269.ece"]http://www.fvn.no/na24/article367269.ece[/URL]

Fedrelandsvenne (local paper in Kristiansand) has a crass editorial

Dresses to feed an African family

Fedrelandsvenne can today reveal the royal carbine plans; 800 square meters, this includes a servants-ving and a building for the police security but a carbine one can surly not call the Couples Palace Plans

The building plans has already before the size was known made a lot of commotion, the Crown Prince Couple has modestly said that all will be done the correct way, but conveniently forgets that one can not call plans that involves nature protection areas and the no building zone "correct" especially when the conclusion seems obvious before they even started

Earlier this week the Crown Prince was visiting schools in Mandal and talked with a lot of engagement about the Poor in the world and how unfair the division of means between rich and poor is in the world, the students were encouraged to see what they could do in their own life to change this.

Also Crown Princess MEtte-Marit has profiled her self as the protector of the Poor and weak and the young couple has scored cheap points by inviting them to Skaugum for a charity meal once a year

The Crown Prince has been in Guatemala to talk warmly about the rights of the Indians, the Crown Princess on flimsing around on study visits to Geneva to learn about HIV and a lot of attention on her visit to Malawi. In the pink Press "Arch" Bishop Stålsett has named them role models.

But the position as role models comes with duties, and we find the couples part time engagement for the poor not very believable. Especially deep the couples involvement in the poor at home and abroad cant be when the Crown Princess wears hats and dresses enough to feed an African family for years, visits to European fashion houses to buy purses and baby clothes that could pay the energy for a small African village and the space they need on Flekkerøya enough to house plenty of homeless people

Now we are not going to ask the Crown Prince couple to solve the world troubles but since they both seems clear on the value of symbolic gestures maybe they should choose more low profile design factor on their consumption articles and cancel the Palace plans on Flekkerøya.

http://www.fvn.no/meninger/leder/article367229.ece

Of course this editorial spreads to other papers
VG nothing new from the above http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=117569
Aftenposten, also nothing new, less bitchy though http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/kongelige/article1330286.ece

 

[norwegianne]

800 m2 sounds extreme. I think our cabin in the mountains is about 30m2 - for six people. And my aunt's cabin by the sea, also in the beach zone, but built before beach zone was considered important, is something of the same.

Does anyone know how big the King and Queen's summer place at Mågerø is? (For comparison...)

I get that some of the buildings is probably for security, etc... but still.

 

[Larzen]

I dont know, but Märtha and Aris home after the renovated it is supposed to be 400 m2
http://pub.tv2.no/TV2/underholdning/nyheter/article143875.ece

so to have for a summerhome, 1.5-2 as much seems extreme, really.

We have a 40m2 summerhouse in the beachzone as well, which was also build before the laws became so strict (thank goodness

Considering this is both in the beachzone and part of it is a nature conservation area I dont think they are showing much humbleness. How much are they gonna use this, I ask because the King and Queen it seems plan to spend much of their summer and Kongsgården when it is renovated, then they also have Mågerø which has a seperate wing, Märtha and Ari has their summerhouse, and then this, some buildings are hardly going to be used then. Afterall they cant work from Kristiansand, that is 4 hours drive atleast from Oslo, so it can only be in the vacation (which is 5 weeks in total for the average Joe), not like Bygdøy where the King and Queen can move and work from for bigger part of the year. Which I understand they want since at the Palace there is really nowhere to be private outiside. Its not like I expect them to build a 60 m2 house and I understand they need security but some moderation or a less controversial spot would be in order if they absolutly must have another summerhouse.

 

[GrandDuchess]

Oh dear, those plans for the summer home sounds very lavish indeed... Perhaps not the best thing to do for the image of the Royal Family and especially the Crown Princely Couple. And as Larzen said, they have so many places already. If they necessarily need yet another home to use a few weeks a year, it should at least be a normal sized villa or something (which could be renovated and fitted in accordance with their personal wishes, and security measures could be taken).

 

[Katrianna]

Good Lord, that's not a summer home, that's a palace. It sounds as the Crown couple are taking a page from Martha-Louise and Ari's book in how to use your Royal status to skirt the zoning laws. I have to agree that they are being hypocritical in taking this action while supporting improving Third World countries and indigenous peoples. This makes their efforts look like a sham.

 

[norwegianne]

Today the Palace commented to VG that the figure was extremely unreasonable and that no actual drawings had been issued, and that they hadn't even hired an architect, yet, because they wanted to let Kristiansand Municipality go through with the regulations prior to anything else.
http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=304455

In the side column Fædrelandsvennen comments that if they really weren't planning on building so big, why did they let the newspaper believe it, instead of denying it? They also mention one of the working people at the palace as their source for who said no comment, a "carer for the royal palaces" for lack of a better English word, and why would he say that if it wasn't true?

My comment: I've never heard of this guy before. I'm sure that he's knowledgable about issues regarding to the royal palaces, which is his job. But when it comes to saying something about Haakon and Mette-Marit's private cabin plans - that's not really part of his job - and would probably get a no comment.

I agree with Grand Duchess in that they could well do with a normal sized villa.

 

[Smilla]

Given the low approval ratings and popularity of the Norwegian royals, MM and Haakon should do everything in their power not to annoy the public even more and work for a more positive image (esp. MM).

 

[mandyy]

Royal 'hytte' plans spark fury
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/local/article1331020.ecehttp://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/

 

[bbb]

seems like a mistake to stir up all this trouble. build a nice place within the lawful boundries and make nice with the neighbors, just makes common sense to keep the good will of those around you. it looks like a beautiful natural spot why ruin it for a once a year palace. if i were a local i'd be mad also.

 

[Smilla]

Have they ever explained publicly why they want their house to be so big? Maybe they've got perfectly good reasons!

 

[norwegianne]

Have they ever explained publicly why they want their house to be so big? Maybe they've got perfectly good reasons!

See my post above where the palace states that there is no real figures as to size yet, they haven't even begun planning sizes. It was apparently a misquoted e-mail and some other misunderstandings (getting a no comment from someone who's not supposed to speak out about the royals, for example.). It doesn't take much for the press to blow up.

 

[fanletizia]

Crown Prince couple refuses hut palace plans
The Norwegian regional newspaper Fædrelandsvennen wrote about the Crown Prince couple´s big hut plans in the south of Norway. But their information manager says this is a misunderstanding.

http://www.norwaypost.no/cgi-bin/norwaypost/imaker?id=24762