Residents of Goodwood want to know how the rezoning of a property slipped past them after the initial agreement for extra buildings was declined.
On the corner of Murray and Smartt streets, there is an apartment complex development, that was originally rejected by the surrounding homeowners and the City of Cape Town.
According to residents from this street, construction began as approved and they were informed by the City of Cape Town that the yard next door where another block of flats was to be built had been rejected and that there would only be parking.
“Now we see foundations are being dug for structures and our spokesperson keeps asking our neighbour’s WhatsApp group for our Ward Councillor, Cecile Janse van Rensburg, about its approval as we were informed that it had been rejected.”
As stated by the group, Janse van Rensburg keeps making excuses that she was ill or busy and will answer the next day, but it has been going on like this for a month now.
According to Councillor Eddie Andrews, Deputy Mayor and Mayco member for spatial planning and environment, Erf 39803 in Goodwood is zoned “Local Business 2” in terms of the City’s Development Management Scheme (DMS) as contained in the municipal planning by-law.
In terms of the DMS, a property zoned “Local Business 2” may be used as of right for a shop, office, dwelling house, second dwelling, boarding house, bed and breakfast establishment, flats, place of instruction, place of worship, institution, clinic, guest house, service trade, utility service, rooftop base telecommunication station, private road, veterinary practice and open space.
A land-use application was submitted on 3 November 2021 for a permanent departure from the DMS parking requirements to convert the existing crèche building into 11 apartments and construct an additional 10 flats/apartments next to the existing building, thus, a total of 21 flats/apartments on the property.
The aforesaid land use application was advertised and many objections were received against the application after which the owner withdrew the application on 17 December 2021, before the City decided on this application.
On 7 May this year, a building plan application for the conversion of the crèche building into a block of flats comprising 11 apartments was submitted, where the application was found to be zoning compliant (compliant with the parking requirements as per the DMS), hence it was approved on 30 August 2021.
After aforesaid building plan approval, another building plan was submitted on 11 February 2022 to construct six flats/dwelling units comprising 2 x 4 bedroom apartments and 4 x 2 bedroom apartments to be situated next to the existing converted building.
The building plan for the six apartments was found to be zoning compliant (compliant with the parking requirements as per the DMS), hence it was approved on 29 April 2022, allowing for a total of 17 flats/units on the property.
On 7 June 2022, the owner submitted a land-use application for a permanent departure from the required parking as prescribed in terms of the DMS.
The land use application mentioned above is to enable the owner to convert the 2 x 4-bedroom dwelling units into 4 x 2-bedroom dwelling units, which will result in a total of 19 flats/apartments on the site.
The latest land use application is currently being advertised with the closing date for comments and objections being 14 July.
Residents say they were not informed of the second application.
“The notices do not even include my erf, although I am next to the development. If there were not posted about the new development I would probably not know about it,” the resident next to this property said.
“It just shows you the municipality is bypassing me and, or they are involved with some form of dishonesty, I have no trust in this current municipality and its cronies.”
Furthermore another resident said “it seems like they are attempting building outside of the zoning limits. And they are now hoping they will get no public objections because neighbours are getting fed-up.”
