Highlands North residents object to rezoning of neighbouring property
HIGHLANDS NORTH – Dos Santos is concerned about the traffic, noise and congestion that delivery trucks will cause on the road as well as the loss of privacy.
A Highlands North resident of 38 years is angered by the alterations taking place on a neighbouring property for which application has been made to be rezoned for business purposes.
Maria Dos Santos and her daughter Sandra Sequeira wrote to the Gazette after objecting to the rezoning of the property situated on the corner of Louis Botha and 6th avenues, Highlands North.
The property is currently zoned as Residential 1, but according to Dos Santos and Sequeira, construction has already commenced to alter the property in order to become a hardware store.
Dos Santos said that she had no problem with the property being used as offices for the past few years, but objected outright to the use of the land as a store.
Her main concern is the traffic, noise and congestion that delivery trucks will cause on the road as well as the loss of privacy.
Sequeira said, “6th Avenue is a very, very busy road that leads to and from Norwood Mall. Because of the solid concrete middle island running along Louis Botha, many roads have no through access for vehicles from Norwood to Highlands North, diverting most of the traffic to 6th Avenue.
“To use this entrance (less than 50m away from three-phase traffic lights) for delivery trucks, bakkies, vehicles etc. will cause disruption, chaos, interruption of traffic and accidents at this very busy intersection. Also resulting in many home owners’ driveways being obstructed.”
Dos Santos said construction on the property, which runs through to the corner of 5th Avenue and Louis Botha, has been ongoing since January, causing her a great deal of disturbance.
Rick Raven of Rick Raven Town Planners, representing the owner of the property, showed evidence that an application was submitted on 20 August last year requesting rezoning to allow dwelling units, shops and businesses on the property.
Raven said that the owner requested wider zoning rights in order for the property to be used for different purposes. According to Raven, this is aligned with the municipality-approved Louis Botha Corridor Development Framework and the Nodal Review, which received no negative responses from Highlands North residents.
“It is our belief that the objections submitted pertain to general opposition to any change in the nature and character of development along Louis Botha and do not relate to site-specific objections…” said Raven.
He said that while his client is willing to agree to conditions of zoning which will mitigate the potential impact of the rezoning on the objectors’ properties and their general amenity, he believes that the objectors should have submitted their complaints during the public participation process conducted prior to the approval of the Corridor Development Framework and Nodal Review.
Manager of land use management at the City of Joburg Eulenda Abed said that two objections were received concerning the rezoning proposal and no formal complaints have been lodged with law enforcement concerning the property. Abed said that no inspections have taken place at the site yet.
The application has not yet been approved as the department is awaiting comment from City Power after which a town planner will conduct an inspection on the site and present the application at a planning permission meeting where a recommendation will be made and the application can be forwarded to the Municipal Planning Tribunal.
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