The Spatial Land Use Management (SPLUM) by-laws, described as ‘flawed’ by the DA, have been referred back to the City Planning Oversight Committee, following pressure by the DA during last week’s extraordinary council meeting at the Germiston Council Chambers.
After a hard-hitting speech by DA spokesperson for the City Planning Oversight Committee, Clr Heather Hart, council resolved that the item was problematic, and not procedural compliant.
“The referral of the item back to the oversight committee follows another attempt by the metro to push through the by-laws, which are controversial for a number of reasons, mainly relating to the lack of public participation relating to the drafting of by-laws,” said Hart.
According to the DA, both residents and councillors have been left frustrated by the metro’s refusal to listen to requests to make administration around properties in the metro more accessible.
“Notwithstanding the need for development, the metro has lost a golden opportunity to champion the rights of existing ratepayers by ignoring calls to amend the SPLUM by-laws,” said Hart.
“Reviewing these by-laws would improve the administrative capacity of the City Planning Department and ultimately drastically improve the lives of property owning residents.”
During the council meeting, the DA submitted a Minority Report containing 22 clauses within SPLUMA that it deemed to be administratively unfair.
“One example is the City Planning Department’s refusal to be held accountable in ensuring that ward councillors receive applications more timeously, which would assist them in notifying residents regarding applications that could impact their futures,” said Hart.
“Further, the department also refuses to take accountability should residents not receive notifications on impending land use changes of neighbouring properties, saying instead that the new law allows for this.”
The DA further contended that the A3 size of notices on properties earmarked for rezoning is often the reason for affected parties to not see them, however, the party’s request to make them the bigger A1 size was allegedly rejected by the metro.
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An additional request was that notices include a request for objectors’ contact details in order to be used for notification purposes.
However, this too was allegedly rejected, despite it being cited as a key barrier in objectors receiving correspondence from the metro regarding tribunal hearings.
“Most of the proposed amendments by the DA are reasonable and hardly onerous, but it again shows that the metro neither takes the spirit of public participation as intended by our Constitution seriously, nor does it care for the rights of existing ratepayers and residents,” said Hart.
Hart mentioned there were numerous examples of ward councillors never receiving applications and residents simply never receiving registered letters of applications of tribunal hearings.
“It is an unacceptable situation which could easily be remedied by implementing the DA’s recommendations for a mutual win-win situation,” she said.
“Of even greater concern is that developers employ town planners and attorneys on their payroll and yet very little assistance is provided to the man in the street when it comes to fighting against developments that threaten the nature of their communities.
“The least the metro could do is ensure that they receive the necessary information regarding these matters. ”
The DA and its councillors have committed themselves to ensuring effective oversight on the item until the by-laws are lawful, reasonable and carried according to the necessary procedures.
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