CBPS and CBRRA holds successful meeting to re-negotiate partitioned option

TO: CBRRA Manco

The meeting last evening attended by Sandy, Michele and Fiona from the school and John, Brent and myself was positive to the point that they agreed to reconsider the shared option but with the emphasis more on a partition option, in which both the school and club have separate but adjoining facilities. This will (hopefully) remove the liquor licence obstacle.

I will organise a meeting with the club to pursue this matter.

Cheers

Chris 

From: "Fiona Hart" <fionamcintosh@telkomsa.net>

Subject: CPG reply to Chris Willemse's letter

Date: 10 September 2013 11:04:47 AM SAST

To: "'Chris Willemse'" <cnwillemse@gmail.com>

Cc: "'Sandy Van Hoogstraten'" <sandy@palmtreehouse.co.za>, "'Michele Harvey'" <michele@tictac.co.za>

Hi Chris,

Thank you very much for taking the time to meet yesterday.

I do feel that it was constructive and hope that there might be a way that
we could find a suitable solution in the quickest possible time and with the
lease amount of resistance from the community.

We will wait to hear from you regarding a possible proposal from the bowling
club.

As a courtesy I felt I should send you the letter that I send to Atlantic
Sun in response to your letter.  I sent it in last week but missed the
deadline so there is a good chance it will be in this week's edition.

Please feel free to contact Sandy or myself if you have any further
questions.

Kind regards,
Fiona Hart

Re: Letter by Chris Willemse (Chairman of Camps Bay Residents and Ratepayers Assoc) Atlantic Sun 29 August refers.

We, the Concerned Parents Group, are encouraged by the continued commitment expressed by CBRRA to promote the best interest of the community. We all agree that the land currently occupied by the Camps Bay Bowling Club should be used in such a way as to derive maximum benefit for the maximum number of community members.

We are therefore perplexed by Mr Willemse’s assertion that maximum benefit will be derived from a shared arrangement in which the school is allocated “an area” of “the current large parking lot”, while the Bowling Club retains the rest of the facility. While we are definitely in favour of some form of shared facility use with other interest groups, we believe that primary schooling should constitute the main activity on the site. Our reasons are:

1.     According to spatial allocations published by the City and the Western Cape Education Department, Camps Bay is currently over-provided for in terms of active recreation facilities (121% and this does not take into account access to beaches and mountains) and severely under-provided for in terms of primary schooling facilities (31%). Even if the entire piece of land were given over to primary schooling, there would still be a significant imbalance, with active recreation reduced to 112% of the optimal, and primary schooling increased to 40% . (These calculations can be viewed on the CPG’s Facebook page.)

2.     The Prep and Primary Schools in Camps Bay which, though split across two campuses for historical reasons, together constitute the community’s primary schooling facility, run a two-stream system, with two classes per grade for grades R to 7. As evidenced by a significant number of our community’s children being turned away in the past five years, a shift to a three-stream system is well overdue. This implies a 50% growth in pupil numbers and “an area” of the parking lot will be hopelessly inadequate to accommodate this growth. The current Prep School campus does not have any sporting facilities at all; it has minimal play facilities (not a blade of grass); and it has a tiny hall, which can barely accommodate the current numbers.

3.     The Bowling Club, by contrast, is hopelessly underutilizing the land. According to their AGM report for 2012, they were not able to fill two teams (four players per team) to compete in the league, and had to borrow members from the Gardens Club. Meanwhile, the Glen Country Club one kilometer away is concerned about the future of its Bowls section, according to a letter from its president. (See CPG’s Facebook page for both documents.) Clearly, the community’s need for education facilities far outstrips its need for bowling facilities.

4.     The Prep and Primary Schools have a strong community spirit. They already share their facilities with a large number of other interest groups in the community, for judo, spanish dancing, prayer groups and youth groups, to name a few. So the host of community-oriented activities which currently use the bowling club’s hall would probably continue to do so - with the exception of any requiring a liquor license. The rest of the clubhouse would be renovated to suit the school’s needs, and the two bowling greens, currently restricted to single-use due to their fragile nature, would become mixed-use sporting facilities which the school would share with the community. A model for this is the Symmonds Field, which is leased and tended by the Primary School, but used at least as much by the rest of the community.

The fact is that, while the land can be used to great benefit by a number of interest groups alongside the school, co-habitation with the CBBC is both unnecessary and impossible. It is unnecessary because no one is being denied access to bowling facilities. It is impossible because the premises cannot accommodate the needs of both school and club simultaneously.

Mr Willemse also made reference to 2014 as a date for the expansion of the Prep School. It is important that the community is aware that 2014 is no longer a possibility. The parents in the community, especially those who have not yet secured a place for their children, hope fervently that the rest of the community will support us in making expansion a reality for 2015. Until then, our children will continue to suffer the consequences of spatial allocations that currently do not derive maximum benefit for the community.

Fiona Hart

Deputy chairperson, Concerned Parents Group

Reply to The Atlantic Sun article “Progress on School expansion” dated 22 August by Freddy Peckam

Click on the article below to enlarge

Entrance to Cape Point is free during SANParks week 9 - 14 Sept

Entrance to Cape Point is free during SANParks week (not specifically mentioned on the flyer).

Green Point's big Award Night-Sat 24 August 2013 Rand National Awards Club ILASA Awards

From: Chris Willemse
Date: 30 August 2013 8:55:47 AM SAST
To: "Johan van Papendorp"
Cc: CBBRA Manco
Subject: Re: Pete FW: Green Point's big Award Night-Sat 24 August 2013 Rand National Awards Club ILASA Awards

Hi Johan

What an amazing achievement - and so richly deserved.
My personal congratulations and from all at CBRRA.

Alma, please place this wonderful news on the blog.

Cheers

Chris

cnwillemse@gmail.com
0836536363


Dear Friends,
This is a once in a lifetime  thing  and I would like to share the news with those that I spend meaningful times with.
Warm regards on a cold morning,
Johan

CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE:

Letter to Atlantic Sun: The Atlantic Sun article “Progress on School expansion” dated 22 August refers.

Chris Willemse, Chair, Camps Bay Ratepayers and Residents Association (CBRRA)

The Atlantic Sun article “Progress on School expansion” dated 22 August refers.

For a considerable time now, the Camps Bay Ratepayers and Residents Association (CBRRA) has been attempting to assist the Camps Bay Preparatory School (CBPPS) and the Camps Bay Bowling Club (CBBC) to arrive at a workable compromise in respect of the mutually beneficial use of the City land which is leased from the City by the CBBC. While it is common cause, at first glance, that the CBPPS is turning away many applicants due to “lack of space” and the CBBC is perceived to be unsustainable and is allegedly underutilizing its leased property area, the circumstances surrounding the above conclusions need to be carefully examined in respect of their accuracy.

The following is common cause:

1.  The CBBC has been in existence in Camps Bay since 1920 and serves the Community by offering a viable bowling club for its members and, at the same time, permitting its premises to be used by a host of community-orientated activities, such as karate, Pilates, ballroom dancing, line dancing, bridge club and various community activities such as a regular supper club, wedding receptions, anniversary celebrations, committee and political meetings etc.
Since the demise of the Civic Centre, this has been the only viable place of assembly available to the public at large.

2.  As recently as March 2013, the City acknowledged the feasibility of the CBBC as a bowling club and in addition as a multi-usage venue for the above community-based activities as well as a meeting place for public meetings. It is wrong that the CBBC should read of this major change of plan by the City through the press, as it smacks of political interference.

3.  Over the period of its existing lease, the bowling club has, at its own cost, erected a considerable amount of improvements on the property, running into millions of rands, for which, if its lease is going to be peremptorily cancelled, it must be compensated in full on a Quantity Surveyor’s current estimate of cost by the new owner of the property.

4.  The presence of the bowling club in Camps Bay for many years has been a feature of the central village area and of significant historical and architectural value, which cannot be swept aside by a simple bureaucratic action without any public participation by the relevant authorities whatsoever, and without reference to the Heritage Western Cape Committee and a thorough EIA process. The clubhouse is the only place in Camps Bay, which has a record of many generations of residents over an extended period, and, as such, has a considerable historic value.

5.   The way Mayco Member (and deputy Mayor) Ald. Ian Nelson is being quoted, the impression is given that the decision by the City to accept the Provincial Government’s request for the land has been decided in the affirmative and that the only real issue now at stake is to agree a market-related value.
This is a cause for great concern by the CBRRA. It would appear as if City-owned land is simply being expropriated without any due process and, more importantly, without public participation. This land is zoned, in the main, as public open space, which is a scarce resource given the developmental pressure on land in the City.

6. Clearly, even with the City’s apparent lack of concern for any form of public participation and possibly coming to an agreement with the Province behind closed doors, there is a long process of re-zoning and consideration of the title deed restrictions that govern the 6 separate erven that make up this site.
In fact, the City’s Director of Planning, Cheryl Walters, warns: ”In statutory terms a re-zoning could take between four and seven months from the date of submission of a completed application.  This would exclude any potential rights of appeal”.
This could possibly extend the rezoning procedure to a few years.
The possibility of the City unilaterally terminating its valid lease with the CBBC, completing the re-zonings and other statutory processes and the CBPS moving onto the premises by the beginning of 2014 is remote, to say the least.

The CBPPS’s need for additional expansion requirements is common cause.
The historical reasons for the present situation result from the ongoing increase in the Camps Bay population, which, after all, should be the primary reason for the school’s existence.
Without debating the merits or otherwise of admitting pupils from far or adjoining suburbs in preference to Camps Bay pupils; the size of the school must always be able to cope with this core pupil population.

With the above in mind, CBBRA is convinced that this very valuable property is far too important for restricted use and must be utilized by as much as is possible of the whole population of Camps Bay.

CBRRA’s architects have produced sketch plans that clearly indicate that a shared option could work and that the time-line to assist the CBPPS with additional space could be dramatically reduced by following this route. The current large parking area could easily be reduced, thereby making an area available for a playground and/or a few classrooms. The proposal that 6000m2 be used for “sport and a playground” is clearly unsustainable and wasteful in the extreme.

CBRRA will continue to contribute positively to this sensitive matter in whatever manner possible, in order that the entire population of Camps Bay can benefit equally from the most effective broad use of what is undoubtedly, with the soccer field, the most valuable piece of real estate in the village.

Letter to the Premier, Helen Zille: Alienation of City owned land for Educational purposes

26 August 2013
Ms Helen Zille
Premier of the Western Cape
Provincial Buildings
Wale Street
Cape Town
8001

Dear Premier Zille

ALIENATION OF CITY OWNED LAND FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES, CAMPS BAY

For a considerable time now, The Camps Ratepayers and Residents Association (CBRRA) has been attempting to assist the Camps Bay Preparatory School (CBPS) and the Camps Bay Bowling Club (CBBC) to arrive at a workable compromise in respect of the mutually beneficial use of the City land which is leased from the City by the CBBC. While it is common cause, at first glance, that the CBPS is turning away many applicants due to “lack of space” and the CBBC is perceived to be unsustainable and allegedly underutilizing its leased property area, the circumstances surrounding the above conclusions need to be carefully examined in respect of their accuracy.

It is with growing alarm that the CBRRA reads and hears that your office is allegedly in support of the City of Cape Town, through representations by the Education Ministry and WC Education Department (WCED), unilaterally cancelling the CBBC lease with the intention of alienating this large portion of land in central Camps Bay for future educational purposes, viz for the specific and sole use by the CBPS.  (See attached document).
Of further concern is that as recently as October 2012, the (then) Mayco member for Community Services, Tandeka Gqada, had publicly announced that the CBBC is a sustainable sporting club and that the City would not interfere with a valid, legal lease agreement. Again, in March 2013, the City confirmed the validity of the CBBC’s lease.

In terms of background to this matter, please note the following:
The CBRRA accepts that both the CBBC and the CBPS have needs that can be better served by a rationalization of the usage of the property concerned, with the intention of finding a shared option. The CBPS is in need of a certain amount of land for expansion and the CBBC could well reconfigure its needs to accommodate the CBPS. To this end, many meetings, discussions and planning sessions were held last year. These interactions progressed to the “buy-in” by the DA councillor for the Ward and the DA MPL for the area and to an advanced sketch plan stage. Sadly, a small grouping of concerned parents (CPG), purporting to represent the school, did an about-turn and have publically vowed to annex the entire property with the concomitant demise of an active and sustainable sports club. Not only is the CBRRA, in representing the community, totally opposed to this stratagem, but also the CBBC is quite rightly reluctant to enter into any further negotiations in the face of this attitude.

The CBRRA is still firmly in favour of a shared solution and will, with the encouragement of the City and Provincial Governments, continue to use its position as the only community based organization in the suburb to achieve what is considered amongst the majority of ratepayers as a “win-win” situation. Through sharing, a synergy between (relatively) senior and younger members of the community is envisaged. This has to be first prize.

We believe that it will set a dangerous precedent in land matters if such unilateral actions are accommodated without any reference to the opinions and needs of the community and indeed, a proper public participation process. Clearly, this would smack of political interference of the greatest order and be at a complete variance with stated DA policy, as the voters of Camps Bay read it.

It is also completely unsustainable for the WCED to annex over 6000m2 of prime public open space to the general exclusion of the needs and requirements of the community as a whole.
A sporting club that has recently been assessed as sustainable by the City, as well as catering for other activities such as karate, Pilates, bridge, various dancing codes and community activities on an on-going daily basis uses this land.

Not only this, but the land is not zoned as a single entity and is further regulated by six different title deeds with a raft of individual restrictions that may not be summarily expunged or amended. There is also a public right of way servitude registered over the property.
The legal implications for the rezoning of this land, in order that it may be alienated for the use by the Education Department, are extremely onerous and will take many years to complete, even in the face of total community support for the process – which it doesn’t currently enjoy.

It is the opinion of the CBRRA that a shared option between the various parties, preferably facilitated by the CBRRA, is the only rational solution to this matter.

Your support, as Premier of the Western Cape, for a fair and equitable, community-based solution is sought in this instance, as well as the co-operation of the various other departments of the Authorities concerned.

In the event that the CPG of Camps Bay has misrepresented the situation vis-a-vis your offices’ involvement in this matter, then the CBRRA apologizes for its statement in this letter but, again, requests your support as per the above paragraph, in order that a sensible, sustainable and acceptable solution can be attained for a problem that clearly is not going to go away.

Kind regards

Chris Willemse
Chair: CBRRA


ATTACHMENT: 1

EXTRACT FROM CONCERNED PARENTS GROUP FACEBOOK PAGE

Things are looking hopeful for 2014! Premier Helen Zille and the Western Cape Education Department have indicated that the expansion project has their full support. The City has also agreed in principle to support the project but has not given notice to the Bowling Club – this is what is still preventing the expansion from going ahead.

For the expansion to happen for next year, the City must give notice to the bowling club ideally by the 1st of June (so that they vacate by the 1st of September this year), or at the very latest by 1st August (to vacate 1st November). This would give the school time to conduct the necessary inspections, begin renovations and open for 2014.

Although aware of the above deadlines, the City has not committed to any dates for the project or even to a date for a progress report. The Camps Bay School expansion team and CPG therefore appeal to all of you to be ready to assist with a possible publicity campaign/protest action – watch this space!

If the expansion goes ahead, the school will also need parents to assist with the renovation at very short notice towards the end of this year and into January. Assistance from anyone with building, renovation or project management skills or contacts would be hugely appreciated – please stand by to help! We’ll keep you posted.

CBRRA Financials 2012