| City Hall Strikes Back |
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Before founding CyberBunker the entrepreneurs thoroughly checked all issues, including with City Hall in order to ask if they had any objections against a datacenter. City Hall appeared to be very positive about a datacenter in the former NATO bunker wrote a letter to that effect:
Dear Sirs,
We have no objections against the former NATO bunker in Kloetinge is being used as
data- and computer-center.
Sincerely yours,
Mayor and Councilors of the municipality of Goes
P. Katsman Drs. D.J. van der Zaag |
Two years after CyberBunker was purchased it began its hosting business. Five years later, in 2003, a City Hall official appeared at the gate of the bunker. The official stated that he would like to see what CyberBunker was doing with the facility. CyberBunker's general manager Jordan Robson, decided in the interest of keeping good relations with City Hall, to concede to the request of the official in and show him around.
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| City Hall of the city of Goes, the Netherlands |
At the server room on level 0, which later appeared to be a decoy, the following conversation took place:
City Hall
official: "But Mr. Robson, what is this? What are you are doing here?"
Jordan Robson: "We host servers here. It is called a datacenter."
City Hall
official: "But that is not allowed!"
Jordan Robson: "Why is that?"
City Hall
official: "Because it is in violation with the zoning. The zoning is military, and what you do is not military!"
Jordan Robson: "Okay, then could you change the zoning please?"
City Hall
official: "The zoning cannot be changed that easily! You have to apply for a zoning change which will be denied."
Jordan Robson: "But we have a letter from the mayor who says that City Hall has no objections against our datacenter."
City Hall
official: "That has nothing to do with the zoning! As of now you have to seize your activities." |
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| Mayor Drs. D.J. van der Zaag |
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The official was shown out and CyberBunker continued its hosting business as usual. A few days later CyberBunker submitted an application for a zoning change. A few months later the zoning application was indeed denied by City Hall just as the official stated it would be. It raised an eyebrow or two among the CyberBunker crew, however nothing further seemed to happen.
A few months later, when everyone at CyberBunker had forgotten about it, an other City Hall official appeared in front of the gate. Jordan Robson granted him access. This time the official came to hand out a final warning. CyberBunker was to cease its business or else ....
Jordan Robson however was not impressed, he accepted the letter and politely showed the official out. After 3 more months a City Hall official appeared again. This time Jordan Robson had business matters to attend and had to politely decline access to the individual. He kindly asked the City Hall official to leave, however the official refused. After a 30 minutes discussion via the intercom with the security staff within the bunker, the City Hall official returned to his office.
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A few months later CyberBunker was ordered to appear before a court of law pertaining to the zoning issue and its failure to comply.
CyberBunker was accused of operating an electric motor with a power draw in excess of 1.5kW without a permit. The air treatment plant was indeed equipped with several such motors. CyberBunker responded to this threat by hiring lawyer Mr. Jan Schadd. Half a year later CyberBunker won the trial and City Hall was ordered to pay CyberBunker's court fees.
The above event repeated itself several times. City Hall accused CyberBunker of trivial violations over and over again, went to court and subsequently lost the trial.
In 2005 City Hall threatened CyberBunker with administrative coercion and announced to close down the facility if CyberBunker did not cease its hosting business. Jordan Robson had become infuriated with these nuisance lawsuits that City Hall perpetuated upon its operations. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. CyberBunker decided to hire Frank van der Loos. Van der Loos was known professionally to be a true legal bulldog. Frank van der Loos really enjoyed the case, he admitted later. |
| CyberBunker's Air Treatment Plant |
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The trial that followed was won by CyberBunker in 2006. However City Hall appealed. One year later the appeal trial was won by CyberBunker as well. City Hall was
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ordered to allow CyberBunker to exercise its data hosting activities.
On the morning of 19-12-2007 at 08:00 AM Jordan Robson, who was still asleep at home, received a phone call from Theo de Gelder, the chairman of the town council. Theo de Gelder told Jordan that he was in front of the bunker gate and demanded to be let in. Jordan informed him that the staff had clear instructions not to let anyone into the facility and that included City Hall officials. Theo de Gelder threatened to enter the bunker by force if CyberBunker would not co-operate with his demands. He assured Jordan that he was accompanied by the police and the fire brigade to force entry if necessary. Jordan reminded Theo de Gelder about the fact that the bunker was constructed to survive a global nuclear war and wished de Gelder success with the attempts at entry.
Four hours later Jordan's shift started and upon he arrived at the CyberBunker facility he discovered that the main gate was cut open. Several police cars and fire trucks were parked near the bunker entrance. Jordan curiously approached the bunker entrance and saw several police officers discussing about what their next move was to be. It appeared that the fire brigade had attempted to cut open the bunker's blast doors with hydraulic tools that are normally used to quickly sheer cars in half at a crash site. During the attempt the blast doors got jammed in such a way that opening was no longer physically possible. The fire brigade, having run out of ideas and tools, had just given up as Jordan arrived. |
| Jurist Frank van der Loos |
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Jordan introduced himself and Theo de Gelder stepped forward. Jordan kindly asked him what was the meaning of this absurd and seemingly illegal situation. Theo de Gelder repeated his demand to enter the bunker. He showed Jordan a order for ingress signed by mayor Drs. D.J. van der Zaag. At this point Jordan decided to call his lawyer. The lawyer saw no objections to let the gentlemen in the bunker as the documents were in order. Following the legal advice of the company lawyer Jordan decided to show them around. Since the front entrance was out of order at this point, Jordan was forced to use the rear entrance to enter the facility. Having showed the group of people around for a couple of hours the tour ended in the same (decoy) server room.
In the server room Theo de Gelder then spoke the following remarkable words: "Mr. Robson.. Although it may sound a bit strange to you, but City Hall is considering to grant CyberBunker permission to continue its datacenter business here in the bunker." Surprised by this unexpected turn Jordan Robson then asked "And that is the reason why you have to damage our front doors?" De gelder explained that after loosing the appeal, City Hall had ran out of options to deny CyberBunker's permit to operate a datacenter in the bunker. The reason for the invasion was driven by the frantic hope to discover something illegal on which grounds City Hall could again deny the permit.
Since there was nothing illegal to discover, Theo de Gelder announced that City Hall would grant CyberBunker a permit for an unlimited period of time. CyberBunker could cary on its datacenter business in exception to the current military zoning. Theo de Gelder also quietly added that the bill for fixing the doors and gate could be sent to City Hall.
The blast doors and the gate were fixed and City Hall paid handsomely for its futile attempt to discredit CyberBunker and it's operations. The total bill for the embarking fiasco came to an unexpectedly large € 24,500 euro in damages. |
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Jordan and his bodyguard at the trial
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| This was the final trial against CyberBunker, City Hall having decided it was no longer economical to fight against a legal business operation, no further suits have been brought against CyberBunker. |
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