A former school building in Overvecht is set to make way for a health centre with homes for older residents above it, the gemeente Utrecht announced on 25 September. The plan would turn the site at Scharlakendreef 3, currently home to youth culture centre BOKS, into a five-storey building combining medical care, housing and a communal meeting space.

The ground floor, about 900 square metres, is earmarked for a general practice and other healthcare providers. Above it, the municipality wants roughly forty rental homes for older people and residents who need care, with the large majority — the gemeente puts it at 75 to 100 percent — allocated as social housing. The gemeente says it will later reach an agreement with a housing corporation to build the project.

"We want this location to become the heart of the neighbourhood," alderman Julia Kleinrensink said in the announcement. "By combining homes and amenities with an attractive, green outdoor space, this will really become a meeting place for the neighbourhood." She added that the plan "cuts both ways": older residents can move to a home that suits them without leaving Overvecht, and that frees up homes in the existing social-rental stock so more families can find one.

BOKS, the youth centre currently using the building, is due to move to a new location on the Rhônedreef, elsewhere in Overvecht, in autumn 2027.

The design was shaped by residents. During a walk-in meeting and online survey in September and October 2025, neighbours said they welcomed more housing and a health centre but wanted more meeting places, and raised concerns about the height of the new building, nuisance from the Rutenberchdreef that sometimes makes the street feel unsafe, rising parking pressure, and the fate of a local artwork — a colourful chicken sculpture by Wout Maters. The gemeente's project page says it responded by placing the new parking on the site itself rather than on the street, making the Rutenberchdreef one-way, for loading and unloading and as the entrance to the new parking, keeping the chicken sculpture, and designing the new building so it casts little shadow on existing homes.

The council is due to decide on the framework for the plan this autumn. If it agrees, the gemeente says construction could start in 2029, after a developer is selected in 2026 and 2027 and the existing building is demolished. The schedule on its project page still gives 2027 to 2028 for demolition and construction. A further public consultation on the plans ran on the municipality's DenkMee platform until 16 August 2026.

The announcement does not say what the project will cost.