TAFTA Park Bellair residents have strongly objected to the rezoning of a residential property into a church on Church Avenue, a mere 20 metres distance from the retirement village.
Some residents are concerned about traffic, noise levels and parking space.
“Our concern is not about another church on our road but merely proximity. We are just 20 metres across from the rezoned property and sound travels, taking the swimming pool into account, even though people don’t swim there everyday, we know how annoying the noise and traffic can be,” said resident Anne-Marie White.
While the church is still under renovation, White said they felt it necessary to ‘prevent’ instead of ‘cure’ what may be an inevitable annoyance to them. The Queensburgh News has a copy of a petition of objections with more than 50 signatures which were hand delivered to Land Use Management in July 2015.
Residents’ representative, Wyand Strydom said they were deeply disappointed that the Planning Tribunal had approved the application to rezone despite the objections submitted.
“We note the approval has only one condition, that a noise mitigating plan be submitted at the building plan stage before the church is operational to the head of environmental health, but a noise level to the satisfaction of the objectors, the people ultimately impacted, was not considered,” he said.
Strydom also noted with concern there were already four existing churches on Church Avenue and that a fifth one was unnecessary. “Our further concerns centre on the additional activities like funerals, weddings, choir practice and the running of a créche,” he said.
Attempts to get a hold of church head, Pastor Nelson Daniel were unsuccessful but in a letter to the residents’ representative, he said his church has a membership of 70 people. “Our members live in Chatsworth, Umhlatuzana, Hillary and Cato Manor.
“Most of the families travel with their own vehicles, with the exception of a few disadvantaged members”and the church provides a taxi for them,” he wrote.
It was also noted that the church would be looking to expand its membership to 200 in the future.
Cllr Samantha Windvogel said the anticipated growth in membership of the church would affect the elderly living nearby.
“If the church caters to more than 200 people, where will they find parking space? Church Avenue is a very narrow road and old people live there, which is what we need to be considerate of. They want their peace and quiet,” she said.
eThekwini Municipality’s Communications deputy head, Mandla Nsele said that rezoning is a statutory process which every property owner is entitled to undertake should they wish to do so.
“By design, the process includes public participation through which interested and affected parties are given an opportunity to submit comments which are then evaluated together with other planning aspects in order to arrive at a planning decision. It must be noted that submitting an objection does not automatically result in a refusal of the application and besides, people also have a legal right of appeal should they not be satisfied with the outcome within the stipulated time frames,” said Nsele.
