Groups slam housing estates

SORE POINTS: The proposed Protea Ridge security estate in Kommetjie.

SORE POINTS: The proposed Protea Ridge security estate in Kommetjie.

Published Dec 8, 2014

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Cape Town - Residential developments, such as the Protea Ridge security estate on a protected World Heritage Site, will double the number of households in Noordhoek, making traffic congestion untenable, say concerned civic groups.

The provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning recently approved an application for the 109-unit development on a farm in Kommetjie, subject to conditions.

This, combined with the Wireless 1 and 2 developments, already approved, and the Riverside Extension, which is in the final stages of authorisation, will add almost 400 units to a semi-rural area that comprises only about 900 houses.

But the Kommetjie Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association and Kommetjie Heritage Society say the developments are being pushed through with no regard for the long-term impact.

“The developers are pursuing a scorched earth policy. They know it’s not sustainable but they are trying to cram in as much development inside the urban edge as they can,” said Bruce Campbell, of the ratepayers’ association.

The group has lodged its intention to appeal against the Protea Ridge decision, and has been given a mandate to take the other development approvals on review to the Supreme Court.

“The social, economic, environmental and atmosphere/character impacts of an approximately 50 percent increase in the population of the village would be extreme,” said Patrick Dowling, of the environmental action group.

These included loss of grazing land, increased traffic on top of an “already intolerable situation”, the destruction of plant species and habitat, increased strain on services such as stormwater systems, reduced access to schools already at capacity, and the loss of land use options for the future.

The Protea Ridge site falls in the Kommetjie Slangkop Core Flora Conservation Area, one of 36 key botanical conservation areas identified by the City of Cape Town. Much of the eastern part of the site has been marked as an “irreplaceable” conservation area that should not be developed.

Since the development is adjacent to the Table Mountain National Park, it falls within a buffer zone of this World Heritage Site.

The conditions of environmental approval say areas of high botanical sensitivity must be protected, and no residential unit may be cleared for occupation until required upgrades of sections of Ou Kaapseweg and Kommetjie Main Road have been done. Almost half of the site will be incorporated into Table Mountain National Park and the actual housing development will be placed furthest away from the mountain.

Campbell said that while these measures would go some way to alleviating the traffic congestion, it would not be feasible for new developments.

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Cape Argus

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