No smiles at City of Cape Town’s proposal to use land in Table View for low-cost housing

The City of Cape Town’s proposal to utilise Erf 1117, currently known as Happy Valley in Table View, for low-cost housing has been met with opposition. File picture: Ross Jansen/African

The City of Cape Town’s proposal to utilise Erf 1117, currently known as Happy Valley in Table View, for low-cost housing has been met with opposition. File picture: Ross Jansen/African

Published Aug 12, 2022

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Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s proposal to develop a piece of land known as Happy Valley in Table View for low-cost housing has left residents with more than just a frown.

The Greater Table View Action Forum (GTAF) planning and biodiversity head David Ayres said the City’s proposal was contradicting its densification policies in that the land was at the edge of the city boundaries.

This low-cost housing proposal is contained in the Draft Blaauwberg District Plan which is currently out for public participation until August 30.

Currently, Erf 1117, which is a portion of Erf 268, is zoned for agriculture with occupants squatting illegally.

Earlier in the year, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure said it was in the process of releasing the land for human settlement. However the spokesperson, Thami Mchunu, said the department was conducting a feasibility study to determine what the best use for the land would be in the future.

The City said land that could be developed within the urban development edge was scarce, and Erf 1117 was a major opportunity due to its large size, road access and its location within a developing area.

The City said the vision for the site was for a mixed-use development that would provide a range of housing, job and development opportunities.

It further said any development on the site would need to follow the regular development application process.

However, Ayres said people who would live in the area would have to travel great distances to places of employment and use a disproportionate amount of their income to travel.

“There are no services for low-income residents like schools, public hospitals, clinics, and they would have to travel distances for those basic services. The City’s case hinges around one bus line in that it is on a route of the MyCiTi bus system, and on that one route they want to place 1 000 dwellings,” he said.

Ayres said the thinking of placing people with low incomes in the peripheries of the city was continuing with apartheid spatial planning.

He said the City’s policies in terms of densification guide the settling, redevelopment and densification of inner city areas.

“In the draft Blaauwberg District Plan, the City seeks to include two development nodes, being 2km around Bayside and 2km around an imaginary station in Parklands.

“Two kilometres around Bayside is an area of single residential away from work opportunities, bus lanes, BRT lanes, or any rail transport. For the last 30 years, we have heard the fairy tale around a possible station on the Atlantis to Cape Town line. It hasn’t happened. It won’t happen. Again, people living in those densified areas will have to find ways to get to work,” he said.

Ayres said the City was creating misery for current and future residents and increasing reliance on private vehicles and the carbon footprint of the city because it was thinking of property developers’ profit.

He said densification in terms of City policy needed to be in the inner city and not on the city’s periphery.

“We are seeing short-term knee-jerk reaction thinking from the City to try to solve a short-term need,” Ayres said.

Ward councillor Paul Swart said the land needed to be developed. However, this needed to be done in a responsible manner that would “slot in” with the area.

Swart said the Erf belonged to the Department of Public Works and for years the City had been trying to attain it for development.

“The department has failed to fulfil its social responsibilities as private land owner within the metro. They are not cleaning the place, securing it, and assisting with the people that are living there,” he said.

Swart said the City was sitting with a huge housing list where hundreds of thousands of people were waiting for housing opportunities.

He said the City now needed to ensure that the Spatial Development Framework for the city, the area, and the property was such that it fulfilled the criteria of responsible spatial development.

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Cape Argus