Sydenham hostel angers residents

THE erection of a building in Hugo Road, Sydenham, to house Durban University of Technology students, has angered residents.

Speaking at the Save Our Berea Monster Meeting in Berea recently, resident and Community Policing Forum (CPF) chair, Easlyn Young, said the building was erected without community engagement or consideration and had stripped the society of dignity.

According to Easlyn, town planning or the lack thereof has turned a peaceful street into a hive of student frivolity, bass drum bashing music, crowds that the narrow street cannot accommodate, traffic that leaves no space for residential driveway access or visitors parking and residents are told that the complex has not reached capacity, and the construction of additional apartments, continues unabated.

“The block of apartments was development under the pretext of accommodation for families, but the number of units exceed the original plan of less than 20 and the single storey, possibly double as a compromise, is now a four storey block accommodating DUT students, on a three-year lease. No consultation and agreement was reached with residents, never was any permission granted by residents for this development to continue.

“No communication from the municipality was received to ascertain the interests and concerns of property owners, neither was any impact assessment done to determine the social, economic and geographic outcomes of such development,” said Easlyn.

She said the residents, many of them well into retirement, senior citizens living in bond free homes, have been unnerved by this intrusion on their privacy.

“One resident, a 95-year-old former pastor who used to live in peace, has now developed shingles because of stress from the noise, which he has to endure until the early hours of the morning, and was admitted to hospital thereafter,” she said.

Balconies overlook the residents’ swimming pools, kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms.

“No amount of screening can help but the final resolve is to keep windows and curtains closed all day. This in itself is a health hazard,” she said.

The CPF has stepped in to assist with a conflict sensitive approach towards resolution and a Residents’ Action Committee has been established to create space for venting and to begin the consultation process with all stakeholders. A legal team is being given a mandate to pursue legal action. Health and safety standards and social impact is currently being assessed by community experts in those fields.

“The CPF has proposed a ‘Social Contract’ be drafted and signed between DUT management, students and residents. This contract embodies clauses which call for social tolerance and embracing cultural diversity; respect for property, human dignity and the rule of law; committing each to be vigilant in the protection of the human rights of every citizens as enshrined in the constitution of South Africa,” said Easlyn.

Ward councillor, Jethro Lefevre, said he was very concerned yet again about the flouting of by-laws, especially since it involved an institution that teaches Town Planning as a masters’ subject to architects.

“The main issue for me is that DUT never did due diligence on this building and have now occupied these buildings. How can we trust tertiary education institutes to teach people about the very laws they themselves don’t seem to respect?

“DUT should have immediately pulled those students out when they were informed of the situation and found alternate accommodation. Instead they have defended their position rather than abiding by the law. I’m very disappointed as I’ve always had a very good working relationship with them,” he said.

Save Our Berea’s Cheryl Johnson said this was yet another development where deviations were approved even though the zoning application for the flats was rejected by the community.

“Save Our Berea sees this time and again in eThekwini where developers deviate from original plans and building inspectors turn a blind eye. We are extremely concerned about the continuing threat of overdevelopment in residential areas, such as this Hugo Road development housing 400 students. We are also extremely concerned about the way city officials don’t respond to objections by ratepayers. The City’s Land Use Management team is mandated to ‘develop policies for regulating the use and development of land in support of the City’s IDP plans by lessoning the impact of new development on existing neighborhoods’, but we see less and less promotion of these good practices on the Berea,” she said.

She said Save Our Berea saw the rules broken on a regular basis, particularly around deviating from approved plans and often, the very people who are employed by the city to protect the built environment and the ratepayer, treat objections with contempt by ignoring them.

“It is the function of the local authority to be responsible for ensuring the required level of compliance has been achieved before it can approve a building application,” she said.

Alan Khan, senior director of Corporate Affairs at the Durban University of Technology, said: “In February this year, DUT, through its tender process, leased the block of apartments for three years to accommodate our students. Currently, 267 students are living at the residence. However, by June 2014, this number will increase by an additional 130 students.  The university has been made aware of the concerns of the residents and our staff from student services and student housing have engaged with them in trying to respond to their concerns. The university was present at two community meetings where some members of the community voiced their concerns. Furthermore, DUT held a separate meeting with a group of concerned residents during which various solutions were explored. There are ongoing discussions with both the landlord and the residents.”

He said the university was currently constructing two blocks of student residences on the Steve Biko Campus in Durban. The Student Village should be ready for occupation in early 2015 and will accommodate approximately 800 students.

The eThekwini Municipality’s head of the communications unit, Tozi Mthethwa, said: “An investigation was conducted on the plans and other applications submitted for the above site which was originally zoned as institutional/residential and has since been rezoned by the owner to general residential. The rezoning application was conducted via the appropriate public consultation process, and subsequently approved by the local authority. The general residential zone permits the use of the property as an accommodation establishment. This department met with the owner of the site during the investigation and requested a traffic study/traffic impact analysis on any intended intervention to have students transported by buses at their accommodation.”

Mthethwa said the existing suburban roads would not permit usage as a bus route and that this report was pending.

“Notification has been given to the owner to arrange for students to be transported on a route suitable for buses, within close proximity to the area where they reside,” said Mthethwa.