An application to rezone sports fields belonging to St Andrew’s College has recently been approved for development by the Makana council. Since 2008, residents have been making objections and, more recently, took the matter to the office of the Premier of the Eastern Cape, Noxolo Kiviet.
An application to rezone sports fields belonging to St Andrew’s College has recently been approved for development by the Makana council. Since 2008, residents have been making objections and, more recently, took the matter to the office of the Premier of the Eastern Cape, Noxolo Kiviet.
The fields, erven 237 and 238, an upper and lower section, are situated away from the school at the end of Oatlands Road near Henry Street.
The corner of Henry and Speke Street, adjacent to Oatlands Preparatory School, is an area that has also been earmarked for the development of a high density block of flats.
A resident in the area, Ferdy de Moor said St Andrew’s College, as the custodians of the land, have not taken the feelings of the residents into account.
He is concerned about how a restrictive clause, which prohibits the land from being used for residential purposes, was lifted.
Another resident, Fiona Williamson said she could not understand how the application to rezone the land was approved in the face of such a high number of objections.
“There are just too many houses and there is too much traffic down Oatlands Road,” she said. She mentioned that a car accident recently occurred in the area.
De Moor said the area has a lot of problems with the sewage and reticulation system, the land is on the edge of a wetland and is prone to flooding. “In the 1970s the land was said to be unsuitable for development and now all of a sudden it is,” he said.
Peter Sülter of MEH Sülter & Son Professional Land Surveyors and St Andrew’s College representative said erf 237 will be sub-divided into 12 single residential units and erf 238 is zoned for group housing, allowing up to 56 units on the property according to the land use planning ordinance.
Sülter said the application to rezone the land was approved after a two year process. He is aware of the objections to the application, but says these were overwritten by the municipality.
“Those objections still have a right to appeal to Bhisho if they feel they don’t want this plan to go ahead,” he said. However, Sülter believes that the proposed property development would fit into the overall look of the area.
Sülter said they applied to the Department of Housing for the restrictive clause to be lifted which allows St Andrew’s to sell the property to developers.
This was approved after an 18 month period. He added, “for the removal of the restriction application, all surrounding owners were notified by registered post”.
Responding to concerns of the land being prone to flooding he said they would obviously have to conduct in-depth engineering studies.
If there was any chance of that happening, he said engineers would be called in to ensure that the water is channelled past the development or drained through the storm water drain that goes down past Albany Sports field.
“I can’t see anybody doing a plan on a piece of ground that is subject to flooding,” he said. He said a traffic assessment study was conducted by Engineering Advice Services from Port Elizabeth which concluded that the roads were more than adequate for the layout and will not create traffic congestion.
Engineers were also consulted on water availability such as checking the nearest connections and the size of the pipes.
“I would imagine that whoever purchases the ground would put up a mini-sub station to increase the electricity for the area,” he said.
Makana Municipality spokesperson Thandy Matebese has confirmed the removal of the restrictive clause, where the application was approved by the Minister of Minister of Local Government Housing and Traditional Affairs. He agrees with Sülter that the land is suitable for development.
Matebese said that most objections were based on the restrictive clause which was ultimately removed. Sülter said that development creates a huge economic spinoff in terms of employment as it affects everybody such as town planners to gardeners.
“One only needs to look at the poverty in Grahamstown as the unemployment is so high. We do need things like this,” he said.
