Cape Town - Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has upheld the Table View residents’ appeals against a decision made by the City's Municipal Planning Tribunal (MPT), and set aside its approval of an application for a development in the area.
The application, which was brought forward by Elco Property Development, relates to the proposed development of Erf 3737 and 3738, on 89 Arum Road, with 56 units and 47 parking spaces, and consolidation of these plots.
The application received fierce objections from some of the residents, who said it was procedurally flawed.
Hill-Lewis said that in March 2019, land use management (LUM) approval was granted for the consolidation and rezoning of Erf 3736, 3737, and 3738, from single residential to general residential, which permitted 56 dwellings on the consolidated Erfs, subject to several conditions.
He said the current application was to amend the set of conditions that applied to three plots, to enable two separate developments, and that his concern lay with what rights and conditions would apply on Erf 3736, should appeals be dismissed.
“The applications failed to address the impact of dividing an integrated approval into two separate components. As a result, the officials did not assess the impacts and the MPT did not consider the impacts resulting from future standalone development on Erf 3736, and the imposition of appropriate conditions,” he said.
The Greater Table View Action Forum (GTAF) planning and biodiversity portfolio head David Ayres said they hoped that this would spell the end of the “unbelievable bias” towards the development community, which he said had seen many developments – not in line with policy and contravening national legislation – being passed.
Ayres, who alluded to not being in total agreement with the verdict, said at the centre of their appeal was the bias shown by the MPT chairperson, David Daniels.
He said the application was not in keeping with the area and would have added more misery to the daily lives of residents.
“GTAF are not anti-development. We are happy to work with developers, but their proposals must comply with the policy, national legislation, and must not damage our environment.
“The City must ensure that the planning process is fair and that we have the services to cope with the increased demand. We have to stop this development at all costs. It is this attitude that has seen the destruction of our Diep River, Milnerton Lagoon, and the Table Bay Nature Reserve,” he said.
Ayres called on the mayor to review the draft of the Blaauwberg District Plan to ensure the document was in line with what he said were “higher-level spatial planning policies”.
Table View Ratepayers and Residents Association chairperson Mandy Da Matta said it was a welcome relief that sanity was starting to prevail from the mayor.
“We are glad that the mayor is using his wisdom and, for once, is not forcing development on the public. Development is important to drive the income streams of the City. Table View is the fastest developing area in the province and we have the highest turnover and number of sales – even beating the CBD.
“However, unfettered development – with a tumbling sewage infrastructure – is a recipe for disaster, and it destroys the value of property and everything that has been built over the years,” she said.