The Province of Groningen owns the former Schelligheheert dairy farm and its 60 hectares of agricultural land, and wishes to divest itself of this property. The Schelligheheert Foundation and partners aims for sustainable redevelopment as a common, with focus on landscape development, agriculture for 250 households, horticulture, heritage, culture, residential use, road safety and compensation for the 380 kV high-voltage power line that was built across the property. The bidding closes in September 2026.
For governance, a task democratic model was chosen and enshrined in the statutes. Equal supervisory authority is granted to five involved groups: science, citizens, government, businesses, and non-profits. Science is represented by a multi-disciplinary scientific panel. Citizens may be represented by the nearby village associations. Government may be represented by the municipality. Businesses may be represented by commercial users of the property. Non-profits will be represented by educational and other institutes using facilities on Schelligheheert.
The draft statutes were written in 2022. At that time the plan was to compose the executive board from five task groups, similar to the supervisory board. Lateron, this was abandoned in favor of a more entrepreneurial and competence based board, while maintaining the task democratic composition of the supervisory board.