Camps Bay & Clifton Ratepayers & Association: 2023

Monday 4 December 2023

REMINDER

CBCRA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Please join us at the CBCRA AGM 2023
TONIGHT Monday 04 December 2023

17h30 - registration

18h00 - start of the meeting

MATTERS TO BE DISCUSSED TONIGHT INCLUDE:

The unlawfully approved plans for the 100-room hotel on the Beachfront and the legal battle by CBCRA
Guest speaker: Dr Leon van Rensburg
How the City claim that the 55 million litres of raw sewerage that it pumps into the Atlantic seaboard is healthy
Dealing with the homeless
Camps Bay cleaning
The establishment of a CID in Camps Bay

VENUE
Camps Bay High School Hall, Lower Kloof Rd, Camps Bay

Refreshments will be served.

Thursday 16 November 2023

CID Voting

A friendly reminder that if you haven’t yet voted for the Camps Bay CID, please do so here: https://campsbaycid.org/vote-now/

We need the votes in as soon as possible to have any chance of establishing the CID next year, otherwise it may be delayed until 2025 or later. With CBCSI ceasing to exist next year, this would leave us with no community-wide security solution for at least a year.

Thank you for your support. Vote here: https://campsbaycid.org/vote-now/

*CID Voting Update*

As of 9am on 16 November, 9.5 days after voting opened, the CID has crossed the halfway mark towards the required number of 1,724 yes votes.

So far,

1. 956 votes have been received, of which 899 are positive and 57 are negative

2. This means that 94% of votes received are positive

3. A similar percentage of people who were undecided in pre-vote polling have voted yes

4. Over a third of people who indicated during pre-vote polling that they would vote no have gone on to vote yes instead

5. For people who indicated during pre-vote polling that they would vote yes, less than 2% have changed their minds

While these results are very encouraging, there is still a lot of hard work to do if we are to meet our mid-December target date to reach 1,724 votes, and implement the CID on 1 July next year.

If you’re a property owner and haven’t voted yet, please do so today. Vote online here: https://campsbaycid.org/vote-now/

Thank you.

CBCID Steering Committee

Wednesday 15 November 2023

CBCRA takes building matter to court

The construction has been going on for months now

but the ratepayers are taking the matter to court.

The Camps Bay and Clifton Ratepayers’ Association (CBCRA) are going to court at the end of November to oppose a hotel development in Camps Bay.

A five-star hotel designed by Scott and Partners is under way on Erf 3349 on Victoria Road.

The Place of the Bay hotel once stood on the site “Ratepayers ready to halt beachfront development, March 9, 2023”.

In a statement, the CBCRA accused the City of Cape Town of bias.

“The City has now clearly shown its bias in this matter and its slavish desire to assist unwanted and undesirable development in our world-renowned village.

“In a sworn affidavit before the High Court, a senior City planning official finally conceded that it had incorrectly approved the plans which permit the development of this monster development, which will forever destroy Camps Bay’s iconic beachfront.

“The CBCRA had pointed out this illegality in the plans, relating to the height of the building (15m instead of the permitted 10m) months ago but, somehow, it took this long for the City planners to actually ‘notice’ the problem.

“However, the City is undeterred and has accepted and approved “rider” plans from the developer, to ‘overcome’ this problem. Unsurprisingly, it did the approval in a couple of weeks, rather than waiting time for planning approval offered to the general public, which is months or years.

“Legally, it is not allowed to do this. Once the City has approved plans, it becomes functus officio and cannot in any way amend the plans, as this is the jurisdiction of the courts. The City knows this well and has, over the years, used this legal dictate to tell this ratepayer association (as well as many others in Cape Town) that, even though it concedes a planning problem in some approval, it cannot move to change it as only the High Court can do so (with the associated costs).

“Suddenly, with a very wealthy developer (the site cost R230m) who is unlikely to be too charmed with the City’s ineptitude, the law seems to have magically changed for certain well-paid City officials.

“Further, in a similar case some years ago, which also involved the CBCRA, the presiding judge ruled that a rider plan cannot rescue the unlawfulness of the principal approval (Para 15 of Camps Bay Residents Ratepayers Association and Others v XXX and Others (2005/2009) [2009] ZAWCHC 30; 2009 (6) SA 190 (WCC) (24 March 2009).

“The CBCRA further alleges that the City planners, at the behest of the developer – and behind closed doors and with no public participation – simply changed a decision of the original planning approval to accommodate the developer. This relates to allowing 49 parking bays in lieu of the 120 required.”

The CBCRA said it is certainly not opposed to development that is “sensible, sensitive and sustainable – and within the law”.

“The City has desperately attempted to delay this matter and managed to get the court date of 18 October postponed to 27 November 2023, all to allow the developer to build further and possibly render our legal application nugatory.

“The developer’s builder has worked illegal hours, abused the public resources of the pedestrian pavements, allows its vehicles to block traffic and drive in the wrong direction in one-way streets, has blocked an entire street without any permit and even destroyed the root system of the iconic tree at the corner of The Fairway and Victoria Road, leading to the felling of that landmark in Camps Bay’s history.”

City of Cape Town spokesperson, Luthando Tyhalibongo, said the plans are compliant and responded to the CBCRA.

“The ratepayer association’s attack on the City and its officials is unfounded. In its High Court review application, the association makes misleading and false claims of ‘unlawfulness’ such as (CBCRA chairman Chris) Willemse indicating that the reduction in parking is ‘blatantly unlawful’. That was, as Mr Willemse is aware, however, done due to an amendment to the law in 2019. The 2019 reduction in parking requirements for hotels was publicly advertised.

“The City has refuted all of the association’s review grounds. One error however required correction as the City found that a small part of the fifth-storey, which has not yet been built, would have breached the height limit. This was corrected on 17 October 2023 with an amendment to the building plan. As that part of the hotel had not been built, the height limit was therefore never breached.”

Shahied Joseph

November 2, 2023https://bit.ly/3I1NOdH

Friday 3 November 2023

Beachfront Hotel

2 November 2023

The CBCRA published a statement on its website, dated 30 October 2023.

That statement was withdrawn on 2 November 2023.

The CBCRA apologises to the current developer of the Camps Bay Hotel site, for any incorrect allegations made in that statement about that developer.

Thursday 2 November 2023

Fire on Camps Bay Drive

A blaze on Camps Bay Drive on the slopes of Table Mountain was extinguished within 90 minutes of it being reported on Sunday, October 29, at 5.25pm.

Spokesperson for the City’s Fire and Rescue Service, Jermaine Carelse said the cause of the fire was unknown and there were no injuries.

“We have experienced an increase in vegetation fires. Predominantly the summer season is normally as from December up to end of March. The City’s Fire Service was assisted by SANParks and (NCC Environmental Services). By midnight the area was declared safe and crews inspected the areas every two to three hours to monitor for any flare-ups,” he said.

SANParks spokesperson Lauren Howard-Clayton said invasive plants cannot be blamed for the fire.

“The fire burnt through a stand of mature Proteas so invasive plants did not play a roll in this fire. The rapid spread was as a result of the extreme, local wind conditions,” she said.

“There is a park wide invasive plant management programme managed by SANParks Biodiversity Special Projects. Clearing has been expanded to high altitude with the recent work undertaken on the slopes above Newlands as part of a Helihack.”

https://bit.ly/3SNY7qI

Shahied Joseph

October 31, 2023

Thursday 26 October 2023

Die Burger: Bouwerk in Kampsbaai draai in November in die hof 25 Oktober 2023

Artikel 25 Oktober 2024 in Die Burger deur Jana Breytenbach. ©netwerk24

Victoriaweg in Kampsbaai, Kaapstad, is sekerlik een van die gesogste plekke moontlik vir 'n hotelof restaurant.

Dit is waarom die maatskappy Mas Sam vroeër vanjaar R230 miljoen betaal het vir 'n erf waarvoor reeds voorheen goedkeuring gegee is dat dit herontwikkel kon word.

Kampsbaai se belastingsbetalersvereneging is egter nie hiermee geneë nie en is hof toe om die ontwikkeling te stuit....

Lees verder aan die artikel hieronder:

Thursday 5 October 2023

Beachfront Hotel - Help prevent the destruction & desecration of the Camps Bay beachfront

Herewith the APPLICANTS' HEADS OF ARGUMENT 8.11.23 on THE CAMPS BAY & CLIFTON RATEPAYERS’ ASSOCIATION & ANOTHER / THE CAMPS BAY BEACH HOTEL (PTY) LTD AND SIX OTHERS HIGH COURT CASE NO: 8640/2023

Please click on the link below to download the PDF (137 pages, 998kb)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sNKaxtAyzaOQ3_2ZgikVyIN2ZnOvLhny/view?usp=sharing

___________________________________________________________________________

Herewith the legal communication regarding the pending litigation challenge pertaining to the development of the proposed beachfront hotel:

Published on this blog 5 October 2023

Dear Sirs / Mesdames

THE CAMPS BAY & CLIFTON RATEPAYERS’ ASSOCIATION & ANOTHER / THE

CAMPS BAY BEACH HOTEL (PTY) LTD AND SIX OTHERS

HIGH COURT CASE NO: 8640/2023

1. We refer to the above and the pending litigation, wherein the Camps Bay & Clifton

Ratepayers’ Association challenges the legality of the City’s approval/s pertaining to

the development of a new hotel and restaurant building on the property known as Erf

3349 Camps Bay. This letter is addressed to you, at your specific request, to express

an opinion about your prospects of success in the pending litigation.

2. Firstly, we believe that you have a very good prospects of success. We are of the

respectful view that you should succeed to set aside the approval of the aforesaid

development. We shall proceed to set out, in short version below, some of the

primary reasons why we respectfully believe that you should succeed in Court.

3. The formal approval of the development was done on the basis that there should be

at least 120 (one hundred and twenty off-street) off-street parking bays provided for

the hotel and the restaurant. That approval went to the highest level and was also

the decision of the Executive Mayor of Cape Town (which is the highest planning

appeal authority in the City). Thereafter, in what appears to have been a form of

improper “off the record” (secret) meeting between the developer’s architect and 3

(three) planning officials of the City, they decided that the 120 (one hundred and

twenty) off-street parking bay requirement would not apply to this development. One

of these planning officials proceeded to recommend to the department dealing with

building plans that a building plan which only provided for 49 (forty-nine) parking

bays would suffice for the development. The building plan was approved on that

basis. Such approval was clearly unlawfully manipulated. To be lawfully approved, a

building plan must meet the requirements of the underlying planning approvals and

the law as it existed at the time that application was originally made for the planning

approval.

4. The municipal spatial development framework (“the MSDF”) of Cape Town

determines that a general height restriction of 10 (ten) metres applies to all buildings

across Camps Bay (since the imposition of that limitation). Item 190 of the City’s

Development Management Scheme (i.e. the zoning scheme regulations) stipulates

that no facade of any building in Camps Bay may exceed a height of 10 (ten) metres

above any specific point on the ground. The approved development of the hotel and

restaurant exceeds these limitations:

4.1 No height departure was granted to allow for a building which is higher than

10 (ten) meters.

4.2 The facades of the new building will be approximately 15 (fifteen) metres at

several points along the perimeter thereof, once constructed.

4.3 The Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act, 16 of 2013 prohibits a

Municipal Planning Tribunal (“the MPT”) from approving any development

which is in conflict with the MSDF of a municipality. The MPT clearly breached

this statutory prohibition when it approved this development.

4.4 When the MPT approved the development, it set a maximum heights above

mean sea level for the new building. The approved building plans show that

this height limitation is exceeded.

4.5 A building plan cannot be approved which conflicts with existing law and/or the

underlying planning approvals for the development, as granted by the

Municipal Planning Tribunal (“the MPT”) and the Executive Mayor (as the

planning appeal authority).

5. Because the development is one for a hotel and restaurant, there are minimum

requirement applicable for loading bays to be provided. Such loading bays must be

of a minimum specific width and the headroom must also meet specific requirements

(to allow delivery vehicles which need larger bays to park). The approved building

plans show that only one loading bay is provided which does not meet either the

width or the headroom requirements. It is incomprehensible how a building plan for a

development of this nature could be approved, without proper provision being made

for deliveries. Hotels and restaurants require large numbers of deliveries on a daily

basis.

6. Also, there are minimum requirements which apply to a development of this nature

insofar as a refuse room is concerned. The amount of refuse produced by a hotel

and restaurant of this nature, will be enormous. The refuse room provided for this

development is far too small to accommodate the requirements of a hotel and

restaurant of this scale. There is no provision made for the sorting of refuse; only 24

(twenty-four) wheely bins can be accommodated; and the placing of the refuse room,

which is on a different level to the street, does not provide easy access to the street,

from which refuse removal is supposed to take place by the City. The Solid Waste

Department of the City did not support the approval of the building plans. Yet the

department responsible for the approval of building plans was informed, incorrectly,

that there was no objection to the draft building plans. Had the correct facts been

known, the building plans would not have been approved.

7. Victoria Road, which is the road onto which the hotel and restaurant will primarily

face, is a provincial main road. There is a 5 (five) meter building line set-back

applicable to that road. Only the Premier of the Western Cape can approve a setback

from the building line on Victoria Road. The Premier can legally do so, only

after plans are submitted to the Premier which show the purpose of the set-back and

the development. A relaxation of the building line was done by officials of the

provincial Department of Transport, who had no authority to do so, but even that

approval (on which the developer relies) lapsed years ago. Notwithstanding, the

building plan was approved with the support of the planning department of the City.

The department responsible for the approval of building plans was not made aware

of this legal requirement.

8. There are numerous other smaller technical requirements with which the building

plans and the planning approvals for the development did not comply. All these

issues are in the Court papers and will be argued when the matter does come before

the High Court for judicial review.

9. In short, based on the above, we are of the respectful view that you should succeed

before the High Court and that the development of the hotel and restaurant building

on Victoria Road, Camps Bay will not be allowed to proceed. The approval thereof

should be set aside and we are very positive about your prospects of success.

10. Please advise if you have any further questions.

Yours faithfully

VAN RENSBURG & CO

Per:

L J VAN RENSBURG

ATTORNEYS, NOTARIES, CONVEYANCERS, ADMINISTRATORS OF ESTATES

_____________________________________________________________________

PROKUREURS, NOTARISSE, AKTEVERVAARDIGERS, BOEDELBEREDDERAARS

Tel: (021) 713-2100 PO Box 249

Cell / Selfoon: 082-872-6340 BERGVLIET

7864

E-pos / E-mail: Leon@vrlegal.co.za 127 Main Road

BERGVLIET, 7945

Website: www.legalassistance.co.za /

www.vrlegal.co.za Datum / Date: 10/08/23

_______________________________________________________________

Director/Direkteur: Leon Jansen van Rensburg B.Juris, LLB, LLM, LLD (PU vir CHO)

Professional Assistants/Professionele Assistente: Vanessa Dean LLB (UNISA), Cornelia Jansen van Rensburg BA LLB (US)

Consultant/Konsultant: Sheila Camerer BA LLB (UCT)

U verw / Your ref:

Ons verw / Our ref: LJVR/pk/VRC0510

The Camps Bay & Clifton Ratepayers’ Association

CAMPS BAY

Via email: campsbayratepayers@gmail.com

___________________________________________________________________________

Below are links pertaining to the proposed beachfront hotel in Victoria Road. Please click on the links to access the pdf files:

BFH- Attorney Van Rensburg Letter to CBCRA re High Court prospects 2023-10-08.pdf

BFH- Founding Affidavit 2023-05-29.pdf

BFH- Founding Affidavit Supplementary1.pdf

BFH- Founding Affidavit Supplementary2.pdf

BFH- Answering Affidavit Developer MAS SAM 7th Respondent.pdf

BFH- Answering Affidavit Mayor Hill-Lewis 3rd respondent and CCT Mr Marx Mupariwa 2nd respondent.pdf

BFH- Answering Affidavit Minister Rural Development and Land Reform 6th Respondent.pdf

BFH- Replying Affidavit to 6th respondent Min Rural Dev and 7th respondent Developer MAS SAM.pdf

APPLICANTS' HEADS OF ARGUMENT 8.11.23