A second pre-application public participation process that called on Helderbergers to comment on the readjusted proposed residential development now earmarked for a single portion of land on the Hathersage Farm in Somerset West was concluded.
“All comments and objections from the public, state departments and parastatal entities will be considered and included in our assessment of the viability of the proposed development,” said Euonell Visagie, spokesperson for Guillaume Nel Environmental Consultants, which has been appointed by JDV Property Developments to facilitate the environmental impact assessment (EIA) in terms of the National Environmental Management Act.
The commenting period, which started Wednesday 22 March and ended Friday 28 April, was the first step in the pre-application process for the development proposed for Erf 3135. No formal application has been submitted to the DEADP as yet. According to Visagie the next step will be based on the nature of the comments received.
“This could include a design change, additional specialist assessments, or if no adverse comments were received that could not be addressed without further investigation, a formal application will be submitted to the DEADP,” she explained.
“This application will be accompanied by the second Draft Basic Assessment Report, which will be again circulated to the parties that registered on the first commenting round and will include responses to their comments. These responses can be found in the Comments and Response Report, which will be appended to the second Draft Basic Assessment Report.”
A change of plan
The proposed residential development consists of the construction of a group housing scheme comprising 54 residential units with erven sizes between 180 m² and 430 m² concentrated along the northern border of erf 3135. The coversion of an existing building to a restaurant of about 460 m² is also proposed.
The initial pre-application public participation period for the proposed development was conducted from Monday 7 December 2020 to 1 February 2021. The residential development proposal then included erven 3135, 2570 and 7155, collectively known as Hathersage which is located between Gordon, Cloetenberg and Via Appia Road in the Roundhay and Cherrywood Gardens residential areas. The development proposal was divided into different development pockets and the applicant proposed approximately 60 homes in the northern area, 30 in the central area and 60 in the southern area, located in areas of low flow velocity and identified for safe development (“Development to straddle river,” DistrictMail, Thursdays 28 January 2021).
Following this comment period, the development proposal was revised and adjusted, now excluding erf 2570 and 7155. Among these comments was an appeal by the Helderberg Renaissance Foundation (HRF) following the decision of the Heritage Western Cape in May 2020 that “there is no reason to believe that the proposed residential development, will impact on heritage resources and that no further action under Section 38 of the National Heritage Resources Act (Act 25 of 1999) is required.”
The decision was made in response to a Notice of Intent to Develop which was submitted by GNEC in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act.
“We therefore also apply for condonation and for acceptance of this late appeal,” stated the written appeal request dated 2 March 2021.
“By way of motivation we confirm that the decision has only been brought to our attention in December 2020 after the advertisement for public comment by the environmental consultants as part of their processes.”
What locals had to say
On enquiry the past week, Visagie declined the opportunity to provide insight into some of the comments received, explaining that “it to be premature to respond at this stage as not all of the state departments have responded to the call for comment yet, and since the team is still responding to the comments received during the public participation period.
“We, or a representative from the design team, will be able to provide feedback in due time.”
DistrictMail and Helderberg Gazette reached out to the HRF Committee, which this time round noted an apparent “lack of transition in scale of the buildings along Gordon Road, from 1 m abruptly to 10 m high” and the proposal being seemingly reliant on the existing hedge and new tree planting on the road for visual buffering.
“This hedge and the proposed tree planting seem to be in the road widening zone; hence no buffer planting will remain after the future road widening. Consider pushing the erven on Gordon Road back to reinstate the buffer planting on the Hathersage site in a properly landscaped manner to maintain the visual buffering and to reduce the visible scale.
“The buffer planting should be outside of the road widening area within a buffer space allocated to private open space along Gordon Road, with planting in accordance with an approved landscape planting plan, to be maintained by the development,” they suggested while providing marked up images to boot and with a request for a detailed formal landscaping plan.
A concerned resident who preferred to remain anonymous, also expressed concerns relating to numerous factors including house landfill elevations, market values of existing neighbourhood homes, architectural details, and municipal infrastructure namely flood lines, electricity, sewerage, stormwater and traffic impact among others.
A Water Use Licence Application (WULA) in terms of Section 21 of the National Water Act, 1998 is also being applied for due to sewerage service capacity constraints as the City of Cape Town cannot at this stage service the proposed development’s expected sewerage flow.
According to the City of Cape Town, the subject property is zoned for agricultural purposes. “The subject zoning does not allow for residential development of the land.
“A land use application will be required should this be the intention. Please be advised that at this point in time the City of Cape Town have not received a land use application for the said property.
“Should the City receive a land use application, the application will be duly advertised to all surrounding property owners, on site notices will be placed and an advertisement will be placed in the press for comments and objections as part of the process to evaluate and consider the application.”
