LSDF – Why is it important to comment?

Jean Paul van der Mescht

This is a last call for you to weigh in on matters to do with Large Developments in Obs before Christmas holidays arrive. As previously indicated, the City has published a Local Spatial Development Framework specifically for the Two Rivers Urban Park ( see HERE for the Two Rivers LSDF ). It has held three public meetings to discuss the proposals and has given the public till December 17th ( meaning Tuesday after the long weekend ) to comment. We urge you to make comment before midnight on the 17th at the addresses below.

Why is it important to comment?

  1. The new TRUP LSDF will become the new policy framework for development in the TRUP precinct.
  2. The new TRUP LSDF has essentially incorporated the developer’s idea of development in the River Club area, almost word for word. This means the City is essentially changing the rules under which the River Club application to rezone will be considered in the future. By the time they apply, it will be much easier to rezone the River Club site to enable their development.
  3. The City is fast tracking this policy – faster than the District SDFs. And they are seeking to adopt it before Heritage Western Cape has begun to grade the site. HWC has been tied up in a convoluted appeal by the River Club (and the City and province) over provisional protection for the past two years and has done nothing to grade the River Club area, let alone get to grading the TRUP area.
  4. The City and its team of consultants have also renamed the LSDF as a “Two Rivers LSDF”, dropping the “Urban Park” from the description, ostensibly because the site is too mixed to be considered a park. This is a fiction that suits the idea of part of the park being suited for dense development.
  5. Heritage features strongly in the LSDF in that there is a whole report devoted to the First Nation narratives. This is welcome. However, it is also the case that despite the strong first nation narrative and an acknowledgment that the whole of TRUP is probably of grade II (provincial) significance, there is no recommendation to grade the area, and there is no comment on the inappropriateness of the River Club development (or any possible future other developments) from a heritage perspective.
  6. There has also appeared in the last 6 months a significant divide between different Khoi and other first nation chiefs on the River Club development, a divide that was not present at the first River Club Heritage Appeal Tribunal in 2018. We do not believe this is coincidental to the process currently underway.

 

For the reasons above, we ask you please send in your comments to the City by 17thDecember.