A Milnerton civic group drew objections from residents at a meeting last week when it said it had accepted a plan for a housing development in Redlands Road.
There were murmurs of unhappiness among the 100-odd people at the Milnerton Central Residents’ Association’s annual general meeting, at the Milnerton Golf Club, when Bouwe van der Eeems, who handles the association’s land-use portfolio said it didn’t have a problem with the plan in Redlands Road.
The application, by Elco Property Developments, is to rezone erven 1522 and 1523 from Single Residential 1 to General Residential 1 and consolidate these plots into a property to be subdivided for a 10-unit housing development.
Several residents stood up to ask why the association had accepted the application without hearing from the community first.
Residents said that in the case of the Beaufort Road development (“Mixed views on development plans,” Tabletalk, June 6), the MCRA had met with them first to discuss the plan.
They wanted to know why the association would do things differently this time around.
The association’s Caroline Marx said: “We, as the MCRA, do not approve any applications. That is the City’s job.”
Mr Van der Eems added that residents hadn’t seemed to show much interest in the Reldands Road plan when the association had posted about it on Facebook on Saturday June 9.
“We will, however, be making available the application on our website and Facebook page so residents can view it,” he said.
Ward 4 councillor Wandisile Ngeyi said Milnerton seemed to be in the same boat as Phoenix and Summer Greens where multiple developments were getting City approval.
“I think the City needs to relook the processes in which they approve these developments. More information should also be passed on to the councillors as well because we are the ones who have to face the community when these plans are approved.”
He questioned how the City could pass an application that had drawn more than 100 objections.
Elco Property Developments and the City of Cape Town did not respond to questions by the time this edition went to print.
Residents have until Monday July 9 to comment or object to the Redlands Road application.
Any comments or objections can be emailed to comments_objections.blaauwberg@capetown.gov.za
Meanwhile, the MCRA’s Peter Walsh, who is stepping down as chairman, said the Western Seaboard Alliance – an umbrella group of various civic bodies – was 95% complete.
Members include Table View Ratepayers’ Association; Milnerton Residents’ Association; neighbourhood watches and community police forums from Rugby, Milnerton, Phoenix, Royal Ascot, Table View, Blouberg, Parklands and Melkbosstrand, and the Dunoon Taxi Association.
