News
from Residents’Association of Hout Bay
PO
Box 27031, Hout Bay, 7872
rahb@houtbay.org.za www.houtbay.org.za
- Wednesday 25 May 2005 at 7:30pm
- - Hout Bay Library Hall
-
We are pleased to announce that we have as our guest speaker, Helen
Zille MP. She needs little introduction as she has proved herself to be a
dedicated worker for the rights of all. Without fear or favour and with
strength of purpose she has spoken up and worked for causes from which society
at large has benefited.
We congratulate the residents in this area for initiating a clean-up of the public open space corridor and the
local municipal workers, under the leadership of Jan Botes, who ‘came to the party’ and did a sterling job –
well done all of you! Do have a walk
about and enjoy the park-like environment and make sure that no more garden
refuse, rubble or other rubbish is disposed of irresponsibly – there is a tip
near the recycling site below IY where unwanted goods can be disposed of in a
responsible manner. And turn your
garden refuse into compost to enrich your soil and garden.
Many residents are also getting involved in a clean up of a different kind! This time it involves taking a ‘shift’ in one of the 27 neighbourhood watch sectors in Hout Bay, and patrolling the streets at various times of the night and/or day. It is good to see people taking a positive stand to help improve a deteriorating crime situation.
The other side of the same coin is another initiative aimed at remedying the crime situation by addressing the causative factors (as opposed to the symptoms). And this is the proposed legal action aimed at the City Council as it is considered to be responsible for proactive planning and provision of services and law enforcement which should prevent the deteriorating crime situation in Hout Bay.
PROPOSED NEW INTEGRATED ZONING SCHEME (IZS)
The Association attended a second
meeting of the new city-wide alliance of civic associations concerned with the
above, on Saturday 7 May. After much
discussion about the legality of the procedure followed by the City thus far,
as well as the implications of the new scheme, it was decided there would be a
two-pronged approach. The Alliance as a
whole would pursue the legal ramifications, while the individual organizations
would submit detailed comments and objections to the scheme. The Alliance is pursuing the possibility of
using the existing, but dormant, Good Hope Alliance of Civics rather than
creating a new legal entity. The good
news is that the Alliance succeeded in having the comment period extended by a
month, to Friday 10 June. Submissions can therefore still be sent
to the City (att: Susan Matthysen) at
e-mail: susan.matthysen@capetown.gov.za
or posted to: The Director of Planning and Environment,
Integrated Zoning Scheme, Goodwood Municipal Building, Voortrekker Road,
Goodwood, 7640.
We have also just found out that a draft Western Cape PROVINCIAL SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK was released recently for comment by Friday 13 May. As this is the first we have heard of it, we have not had time to study this document properly. What we do believe, though, is that any new Zoning Scheme cannot be developed separately from a Special Development Framework and that the Framework should have come long before the Zoning Scheme, whereas they seem to be almost concurrent. It would appear the public participation on this has been very sketchy as, to our knowledge, there have been no presentations given to the public nor has there been any media coverage of it.
Erf 875 - 21 Andrews Road Hout Bay – An application was received for ‘zoning scheme departures’ for this erf, but examination of the detail revealed that it is in fact an application for rezoning and subdivision in disguise. It follows that the municipality’s notice to neighbours is therefore misleading. We have insisted that the application should be re-advertised under a letter properly and accurately describing its content.
If this application were to be approved, there would be no distinguishing feature which would justify refusing similar applications on every other single residential erf in Scott Estate. The effect is to potentially transform the suburb into a cluster housing area - a land use which resorts under a different zoning in the zoning scheme. There is nothing desirable about the proposed land use.
The policy of densification to prevent urban sprawl has a valuable role if applied sensitively and appropriately. The policy would however be chaotic and inimical to order, if it were to be used as an instrument to ignore infrastructural restraints on denser development. Andrews Road is a major feeder road in the area. The configuration of the road does not permit the parking of motor vehicles outside residential properties along the road without blocking the road and limiting it to one-way usage. Functions held at the nearby school regularly cause congestion and unsafe obstacles in the road in the form of cars parked in the carriageway section of the road. The further subdivision of erven along or close to Andrews Road with reduced street frontages and inadequate on site parking for visitors will exacerbate an existing unwholesome characteristic of Andrews Road. It is undesirable that this should be permitted. Current deadline for comment: 19 May 05
The Association has established the www.houtbay.org.za website with the intention to serve the community of Hout Bay by providing a source of, or links to, information of relevance to residents of Hout Bay. We would especially like to provide an index of links to non-profit organizations and maintain a diary of social and cultural events in Hout Bay and surrounding area. However, we would also like to provide links to websites that promote tourism and business in Hout Bay. The success of this website is dependent upon information being supplied from within the community of Hout Bay. Please email anything of relevance to webmaster@houtbay.org.za, or fax to 021-790-5857 and lets give it a try!
NB! diarise AGM: Wed 25 May
Chairperson, Residents’ Assoc of Hout Bay
Tel 790-0268 lens@telkomsa.net, www.houtbay.org.za
MEMBERSHIP
(R50
per couple, R30 per individual)
Forms from Chairperson or Library or
rahb@houtbay.org.za [May 2005]