CBRRA
PUBLIC MEETING MINUTES
HELD AT The Rotunda, The Bay Hotel, Camps Bay, 15 April 2015 @ 18:50
1. WELCOME
The Chair welcomed everyone. He thanked Maree Brink and The Bay Hotel who are always most generous with their hospitality, and special thanks here to the Bay’s coordinator, Darryl Gouws and his team, for all of the arrangements. Also to Johannes Lategan who made the wine available.
He also thanked Ann Caras and Mary and Brian Lloyd
who man the membership table, for their tireless efforts.
He extended a special welcome to our guest
speakers Ian Bowker (Head of the City’s Road Pavement and Materials
Department), Adrian Good (Ourhood smartphone app), Ian Merrington (Chair of
CBW)..
He extended a warm welcome to Cllrs. Marga
Haywood and Jacques Webber. They will each give a short address on matters
pertaining to CB. As always, this is also an opportunity for you to address them
on issues that are of concern to you, the ratepayers of Camps Bay. In Jacques
case, he will address the Clifton development issue.
2. APOLOGIES
AND APPROVAL OF PREVIOUS MINUTES
2.1. Apologies: Johan van Pappendorp (CBRRA wishes him a speedy recovery)
2.2. Minutes for last Public meeting held 3 March 2014 was posted on the blog. There were no queries raised and they were accordingly approved.
2.1. Apologies: Johan van Pappendorp (CBRRA wishes him a speedy recovery)
2.2. Minutes for last Public meeting held 3 March 2014 was posted on the blog. There were no queries raised and they were accordingly approved.
3. CLOSURE OF CAMPS BAY DRIVE
The closure of Camps Bay Drive between Geneva
Drive and Rontree Ave was sprung on us last week.
The first most of us heard of this was in the
press on Monday – CBRRA received official notification late on Monday afternoon
– and this is simply not right. The need to upgrade the road is accepted - but
that there was no attempt by the City to engage with the local civic groups as
to the best manner in which to deal with the inevitable traffic chaos that will
result - is unacceptable. One can only begin to imagine what the intersection
at the bottom of Geneva Drive, with Camps Bay Drive, will be like in even
normal conditions – with the traffic light on Victoria Rd effectively only
allowing a few cars at a time to enter from Camps Bay Drive. It will be like
New Years day every day!!
I’ve sent a letter to Brett Herron, the Mayco
member for transport, urgently requesting a meeting between him and the local
civics and hopefully, we’ll be able to at least make some contingency plans
before next Monday.
On a more technical level, Mr Ian Bowker, the
City’s Head of Pavement Materials and upgrading, has kindly agreed to address
this meeting to explain the need for this upgrade.
Per
Ian Bowker
The road surfaces and pavements are poor and the
lane widths are too narrow particularly for busses.
It is now essential to widen the roads and at the
same time they want to fix the road surfaces so that will last for the next 20
years.
Plan is to widen the road from its current 6
metres to 7.4 metres. The extra 1.4
metres will be on the mountain side and the centre line will be moved 0.7
metres so each lane is 3.7 metres.
A new “lookout point” by Prima will also be
created and curves in the road will be softened.
There is a very short window to do the project
(must be done before October).
4. CHAIR’S
REPORT (per Chris Willemse)
4.1 Manco
I am very pleased to announce that Neil Gardner
has been co-opted onto the Manco and Eban Tucker has put himself forward to
serve from this meeting forward. Formal elections will only be held at the AGM
in mid-year but obtaining the services of these 2 gentlemen is a massive boost
to the committee.
Neil is a long-time resident of CB, having
settled here in 1968. Neil has had a
long and distinguished career in the property field and brings that broader
knowledge and perspective to the CBRRA in its dealings with local property
matters.
Eban is known to most of Camps Bay, having served
on the teaching staff at CBHS since 1977 and retiring last year as the head of
department. Eban has also served on many
sporting committees in Camps Bay and he brings a wealth of local knowledge to
the CBRRA Manco.
We will have to forgive him for being a Blue Bulls
supporter!
The remaining 9 members remain dedicated to the
task of ensuring the sustainability and well-being of Camps Bay, despite the
many severe pressures placed on it but, as always at our public meetings, we
need to encourage more people to volunteer their time for this essential civic
function.
The Manco
thus is made up of the following members:
Chris Willemse (Chair) - Ward
Committee (74) and Planning
Richard Bendel (Vice Chair)
- Membership and Finance
John Powell - Ward Committee (54) and
Planning
Brenda Herbert - Planning and Events
and CPF
Johan van Papendorp – Planning &
Environmental
Gus Millner - Membership
Alma Horn - Membership and PR
Helet Merkling - Clifton
Byron Herbert - Beach and Events
Neil Gardner
Eban Tucker
4.2 Advertising
CW asked how the community reacts to CBRRA’s
advertising, i.e. surface mail vs e-mail.
The majority were happy with e-mail (which is obviously cheaper)
4.3 Buskers on the beachfront
The problem of the buskers on the beachfront has
resulted in a proposal to create a formal busking area over the site of the
kiddie’s paddling pool (in front of the Promenade). CBRRA’s Johan van Papendorp
has sketched a very interesting plan to incorporate this area into a special
focal space, which can be enjoyed by all using the beach. The proposal is
sitting with the Parks branch and we await their further action.
Unfortunately, with Johan being in hospital, he
cannot present the layout – but it will be posted on the CBRRA blog shortly.
4.4 Fibre optics (FO)
Wayne Smith of the CB Watch has been monitoring
this roll-out obo the community and more detail can be had on the CBW website.
Basically, Telkom are the only provider to
install any FO cabling and that is only over about 40% of CB and most of
Clifton. It is believed that the remainder of CB might be completed by the end
of the year.
The area of coverage is between Geneva Drive and
Camps Bay Drive.
It must be pointed out that Telkom still has to
make a physical connection from the trunk into potential subscribers’ homes.
4.5 Bowling Club / School
The Camps Bay Prep School expansion onto the
bowling club land has been discussed extensively over the past few years and
raised at our previous public meetings. There has been quite a lot of activity
in this matter recently.
Most of you will have heard of the City’s
decision to give the club 3 months notice ito its lease agreement. This was
done at the end of January this year.
The CBRRA continues to attempt to facilitate a
shared deal between the club and school. There continues to be positive
dialogue between the two parties and the survival of the bowling club, although
not assured, should certainly be possible. CBRRA firmly believes that the club
has every right to exist and prosper, as it has been doing over the past few
years, into the future. We will not give up and urge the school to be as flexible
as possible in the negotiations.
The CBRRA continues to have concerns on 2 issues
regarding this arrangement:
Firstly, will the WCED honour any agreement
reached by the school in the current negotiations?
Secondly, the City has insisted that this is a
10-year non-renewable lease. This is clearly problematic to the school, which
needs a more secure lease.
So, it remains very worrying to the community
that the land might be sold by the City to developers after the expiry of the
WCED lease. Certainly, it would be much easier to sell off City-owned land that
is zoned education, rather than the process required to dispose of public open
space.
In any event, the CBRRA continues to be actively
engaged in this matter and regards it as most important to the future of the
village.
4.6 Little Glen
I would like to take this opportunity to thank
Arthur Shephard publically for his Herculean efforts in upgrading the Little
Glen.
If you haven’t been to the Glen lately, do
yourself a favour and go and see the amazing work that has been done. Thanks
Arthur.
4.7 CID / SRA
At the last meeting, Marc Truss of the Green
Point City Improvement District outlined the basic workings and desirability of
a CID or SRA. As you will recall, this is when a particular area votes to be registered
by the City as a SRA and then effectively controls certain functions within
that area through a management committee. Residents have to pay a relatively
small, mandatory top up amount on their rates bill and this goes mainly to
subsidize additional services connected with the so-called crime and grime
problems. We continue that theme tonight and will, hopefully, make a more
detailed presentation at our next meeting, including input from the Llandudno
Civic Association, which has recently successfully registered such an SRA.
The need for professional control of our suburb
is long overdue. It is becoming increasingly impossible, both from a time and
financial point of view, to properly protect this beautiful village from crime,
over-development and the general interference that does not have the area’s
interests at heart. The voluntary civic groupings need a specialized management
team to ensure that the will of the community is effectively managed on a
day-to-day basis.
To give his perspective on this, Ian Merrington
(Chair of CBW) discussed the current problems encountered by CBW (eg relying
heavily on a small group of people and lack of funds) and with these problems
the long term sustainability of CBW could be under threat. By having an SRA, additional funds would be
raised and additional resources would be available to ensure the safety and
security of the community.
4.8 Clifton Development
The proposed Clifton development between The
Ridge and Glen Beach has certainly raised many flags. Most of them a very
bright red.
In a nutshell, Mayor de Lille pushed through a
Council decision to commence a public participation process in this regard
with, what we regard, as undue haste. Basically a month to comment on what is a
very large, complex proposal. Essentially, the advert describes the interim
conceptual development as being for:
· A 3-level underground parking garage with about 750 bays
(btw, the Gardens Centre has parking for 600 cars!!!);
· about 2750m2 of commercial space including an anchor
retail tenant, a limited number of boutique line shops, the possible relocation
of the La Med restaurant;
· the rationalization of the active recreational
facilities in the precinct which includes the bowling greens (including the
potential development of a covered bowling green), retaining the cricket oval,
retaining the tennis courts;
· conserving and enhancing the use of the natural spaces
in the precinct for active recreation;
A raft of concerns have been raised by the
public, with most people doubtful of the intentions of the City.
The CBRRA and the CBOA have teamed up to try to
unpack what is really going on here, as the proposal is very sketchy and the
sketch drawing provided not even that much of a sketch.
ENS has filed a letter of comment obo both civic
groups within the short time frame available. This letter objects to the
curtailed time-frame, raises issues regarding the paucity of information
provided by the City and questions the whole need for such a development.
The GCC and CTC have also commented on the
proposal.
It is clear that the terms of the proposal are
opaque to say the least but before we go running off, fuelled by rampant
speculation, we need to ascertain the real solid facts.
To this end, CBOA have appointed Janey Ball to
manage its process.
Janey is famous, along with Bennie Rabinowitz,
for the successful challenge to the development of the Sea Point pavilion under
the banner of Seafront for All. CBRRA hopes to dovetail into this arrangement.
Neil Gardner has, with the help of his son John,
very speedily got a website (www.sosclifton.org)
up and running, which will give you the factual background to the matter as it
stands now. In time it will be expanded to include not only updates but
hopefully be interactive as well.
This is a major challenge to our open spaces and
support and funding will be crucial if we are going to be effective in
retaining our green heritage for the benefit of all of CT’s residents and
tourists.
Dave Marais, the City’s Property Development
representative was welcomed to stage and gave the City’s side of this matter. Some aspects he mentioned were the need for
the city to get a decent return on their assets, develop this area that is
under-utilised and looking in a shoddy state amongst others. There were a lot of questions posed to him
from the floor mostly raising concerns and objections for the way the process
has been done as well as what is currently envisaged.
After Dave Marais spoke, Chris asked for a
Mandate from the community to support the CBRRA Manco to challenge Council on
this matter. This mandate was
overwhelmingly received with just about everyone in support.
5. OURHOOD
Chris welcomed Adrian Good from Ourhood which is
a community based app that can be downloaded on smartphones. Adrian discussed
how the app worked and the benefits to any community. All residents were invited to download the
app and register. The more people in the
community who register, the more the benefits will be.
6. COUNCILLOR’S REPORT
Our 2 Councillors (Jacques Weber – Ward 54) and
Marga Haywood (Ward 74) gave an update of what had been happening in their
respective Wards.
7. PLANNING
On the planning front, Chris emphasised that it was
important to consult with the CBRRA planning subcommittee before signing off on
neighbours’ plans. We are here to help you.
Chris mentioned that the volume of applications
is steadily increasing and that we are noticing a tendency to request a raft of
departures, title deed removals and consent uses. It almost seems as if the
Zoning Scheme is there to establish the minimum parameters of a design, rather
than the maximum.
The CBRRA responds to every non-compliant
application and files a letter of comment in every case. This is followed up
with further representations at Subcouncil level. So, all in all – a lot of
work…but it has to be done. Which is why we ask for volunteers….
8. FINANCE (Richard Bendel)
Richard Bendel gave a brief overview of the current cash position of the CBRRA and the latest with regards the Harrison matter.
Richard Bendel gave a brief overview of the current cash position of the CBRRA and the latest with regards the Harrison matter.
With regards the Harrison matter, CBRRA now has a
taxed bill of R294k owing to Council (with interest accruing from November
2014). Of this, CBRRA has already paid a
lumpsum of R150k meaning about R150k is still owing. We have proposed paying this off at R60k per
annum so it should be paid within 3 years.
After the payment of the R150k, we have a cash balance of R130k.
We also owe Harrison an amount of between R75k –
R95k (the taxed bill was R75k, but Harrison has taken this on review, but we
have been advised that the maximum it can be is R95k).
We currently have about 300 paid up members and
we urge all ratepayers and residents to make their nominal annual contribution.
Due to the Clifton Development matter mentioned
above, we are looking to set up a separate fund to raise money for this
8. MATTERS ARISING
None were raised.
9 GENERAL
There were
no further questions from the floor.
The Chair
thanked everyone for coming and declared the meeting closed.
MEETING
CLOSED AT 20:35
