Activists fighting for the
conservation of the Philippi Horticultural Area have questioned a
seven-day notice to present to the City against a 30 000-house Oaklands City development rezone approval, saying they were forced to condense an eight-year battle into a 10-minute appeal.
The area is 3 000 hectare of farmland on the Cape Flats, and opponents of the development said it would threaten the livelihoods of emerging farmers and their workers as well as food security, and jeopardise a 630km² aquifer in the region.
The Western Cape province has approved the Environmental Impact Assessment for the planned-472.36ha development despite widespread opposition.
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning approved the site because the land does not form part of the proposed Philippi area, as it is on the urban edge of the city. The City of Cape Town redrew its plans in 2013. The campaign’s Nazeer Sonday said yesterday that in February, Heritage Western Cape found that the Cape Flats aquifer and its relationship with the land, the city and climate change were of critical importance.
A letter from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in July 2009 denied the City a right to sub-divide agricultural land in the Philippi area.
Dirk Smit, general planning appeals committee chairperson, said the Oaklands City developers and objectors had appealed the decision by the City’s interim planning committee in terms of the land-use planning ordinance.
The activists appealed the approval of the entire application, while Oaklands City appealed one of the conditions imposed by the committee when they approved it, Smit said. Both parties, should they feel the need to do so, have a right to have the decision reviewed by the Western Cape High Court, he added.
Smit said the seven-day notice, as well as the 10-minute presentation time, is standard procedure used by all committees.
Oakland City project manager George Viljoen would not comment.