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OBJECTORS to an exclusive ga?ted development proposal on the Hout Bay beachfront have less than two weeks left to comment on the developer's response to their protests. No new objections will be considered and this is the last opportunity for residents to stop four luxury houses being built on one of the last expanses of coastal dunes in Hout Bay.

More than 35 objections were submitted to the City of Cape Town?s planning department last year after an application was made for the rezoning of Erf 559 from amenities to private residential. The erf in question is a 22 114 m² tract of land between the Yacht Club and the Beach Club residential estate. The application proposes four 1 963 m² single residential buil?dings of up to 8 m high, each with a swimming pool and parking court.

Many objections focused on the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning?s decision that an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was not ne?cessary, despite the development' inevitable impact on what is arguably a sensitive dune and wetland eco?system.

This decision was signed off by the deputy director of DEADP's planning directorate, Zaahir Toefy, after legal advice on behalf of the applicant to this effect was submitted to provincial government. Consequently, there is no record of decision and it will be up to the city council to decide whether or not to give the proposal the go-ahead.

But, apart from objections on environmental and aesthetic grounds, Cosatu provincial secretary Tony Ehrenreich says the developers are acting with "complete disregard" for the poor of Hout Bay, who are battling to find land, while four rich families will be the sole beneficia?ries of the gated estate.

Ehrenreich says, "Under the new, more sympathetic (to the poor) ANC administration coming to the Western Cape", Cosatu will "take the land back, by force if need be". He warns that developers build and invest at their own peril if they do not attempt to comply with imminent housing policies that will require a portion of the area to be apportioned to "affordable hou?sing".

Len Swimmer, chairperson of the Hout Bay Residents' Association, says he would rather squatters lived there than see another deve?lopment on the beachfront. Swimmer argues that SA Sea Products, which sold the site to Dutch partnership D-Groep BV in 1996, is selling off its many land assets in Hout Bay with little concern for what it might mean for the su?burb?s future.

Approval for rezoning Erf 559 was granted more than 12 years ago, but lapsed because the proposal under con?si?deration at that time for 50 re?sidential units was not submitted. The new application, by Planning Partners on behalf of the Dutch group, grants that the previous proposal didn't take the wetland and the dunes into consideration. It promises to give over 10 666 m² (57,6%) of the erf to dune and wetland conservation in exchange for rezoning and servitude rights.

But, while the impact of four homes on infrastructure and roads would be negligible in comparison to that of 50, the large plots would be out of character with the surrounding developments and not in line with the city's densification policy, says the city's planner for Hout Bay, Erhard Pienaar.

A discrepancy in the file for Erf 559 appears in a letter dated 28 April 2006 from property mogul Marcel Hoogebeen (a director of Engel & Völkers, as well as a company called Colonial Investments 11), in which he informs the planning department that the company has bought Erf 559, and would like to lease the adjacent eight erven from the city on a long-term contract.

The title deeds, however, do not indicate that Colonial 11 did, in fact, ever purchase the land. Hoogebeen claims he is representing D-Groep BV, whose director, Johannes Dreize, is also a director of Colonial 11. Hoogebeen declined to answer any questions.

One of the objectors to the deve?lopment is a co-worker at the Hout Bay branch of Engel & Völkers, Rainer Kloos, who says his dissent is based on environmental factors, adding that the adjacent Beach Club "should never have happened". Justin O'Riain, a doctor of zoology at UCT and an exco member of the residents? association, agrees. "Aside from the fact that the dunes and wetlands have grown and shif?ted since the original reports were done, it is iniquitous that anyone should try to sell a house in those dunes. The south-easter tunnels through there and it is, quite frankly, not fit for human habitation of any kind."

aly@peoplespost.co.za

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