Council gives high-rise green light

eTHEKWINI's ANC-strong council thumbed its nose at Morningside residents when it voted in favour of the rezoning of a property in Sandile Thusi (Argyle) Road for the development of a high rise building. Neighbouring residents had lodged a number of objections to the rezoning application, but these were largely ignored by council who gave the proposal a green light at last week's monthly council meeting.

Ward councillor Martin Meyer spoke on behalf of residents at the meeting, but to no avail as the application was passed by a majority ANC vote.

“The chair of Town Planning again accused residents of wanting to keep the area as it was in the 1950s, and of thinking flats would bring criminals to the area,” said Meyer.

Meyer said once more, councillors were being asked to ignore the expressed wishes of residents and approve a development.

“Once more we are to ignore the impact on traffic, on quality of life, on resident’s lives, and approve a development. Once more we hear political grandstanding using vague rhetoric on why approving this development is a good idea. This is a 12-storey development, mixed use, including shops, restaurants, bottle stores and others, in a residential area that consists mostly houses and one- and two-storey developments. We are asked to approve a development totally against what currently exists. And this on a major traffic route that is already struggling to cope with the traffic in an area where the aging infrastructure is under severe pressure,” he said.

He said he had invited councillors to drive through the area and see for themselves that it was one of the most multi-cultural areas in this city. “The more than 50 objections came from people of all groups, people who were not trying to preserve the past, but the future, a future for their children that led them to this area,” he said.

“We hear the normal story about how this is all about densification, and how that is benefitting the people living far away. The truth is, like the Poyton Place development, this will not benefit the poor. This will not assist people to live closer to their employment, this will be expensive apartments that will ultimately only benefit the developer. The DA and the people of Ward 27 are not against densification, but this type of densification makes no sense,” he said.

Meyer said the city should be looking at restoring the CBD by fixing the various derelict buildings, by pulling down the empty shells all over the inner city and developing it, therby creating decent and affordable homes for people close to their places of work.