City mum on land rezoning claims

The City says it cannot comment on the acquisition of land — regardless of where it is located — addressing allegations that they are looking to buy prime agricultural land inside the Philippi Horticultural Area (PHA).

Activists opposed to commercial development on the PHA have alleged that the City is attempting to buy portions of the valuable land, which Heritage Western Cape in a recent ruling refused to rezone for commercial development, saying if any development of this fragile area is allowed, it will be the beginning of the end of protecting this cultural landscape in total.

Last week, the activists hailed as a victory Heritage Western Cape’s (HWC) dismissal of a second appeal by developer Uvest Property Group, appearing as Exclusive Access Trading 570, who applied to rezone 96 hectares of land on the PHA.

This Uvest development is just one of the proposals for the land — there has also been widespread opposition to a 472.36ha planned housing development called Oakland City.

The campaign claims that in a twist of due process to facilitate the sale, the City asked for and had been granted permission from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning to rezone the land without an environmental impact assessment.

Mayco member for the Transport and Urban Development Authority Brett Herron said while Heritage Western Cape’s ruling was related to the heritage impact assessment, the City was assessing the rezoning application in terms of the Land Use Planning Ordinance (Act 15/1985).

“Heritage Western Cape’s decision to dismiss the applicant’s appeal will be taken into account by the City of Cape Town," he said.

"It is important to note that the City’s assessment of the rezoning application is being done in terms of different legislation, using different assessment criteria.”

Herron said the applicant, Uvest, received a communication dated November 16, 2016, from the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, saying the development application did not trigger an Environmental Impact Assessment. 

“We cannot comment on the acquisition of land, regardless of where it is located,” he added.