GRAHAM NORRIS Property Editor

THE time has come for obsolete legislation regarding the use of residential property on heavily trafficked node-linking roads to be altered, says John Weaver, executive director of Inframax Developments.

And, he adds, this is particularly necessary where the building dates from a previous era and is recognised as having architectural merit.

"Today, in all the major cities of South Africa, there are many hundreds of old, large, sometimes historic residential buildings on important link roads which are exceptionally busy.

This proximity to traffic - and traffic noise - frequently makes such buildings unsuitable as residential accommodation - but does not detract from their suitability as office accommodation - if only they could be rezoned.

However, legislation, which often dates back many years, usually prevents the owners from applying successfully for rezoning." Large older homes of this kind, says Weaver, lose their value because the only people with the means to buy and maintain them, prefer to live in quieter areas.

The owners, in the end, are forced to sell or rent at low prices and those who take over such properties usually lack the means to maintain them well.

The current situation, says Weaver, "makes absolutely no sense" in view of the strong demand for conveniently sited decentralised offices on link roads.

However, he says, the authorities remain determined to keep all commercial buildings within defined commercial nodes and often go as far as evicting doctors, lawyers, small businesses and others who are operating from residential premises.

There are, he says, many such "evictions" in the Rondebosch, Claremont, and Kenilworth areas.

 A completely different situation, says Weaver, arises when these older buildings are converted for office use. Under these circumstances they can be well cared for, retain their value and enhance the area in which they are sited.

"Many old buildings in Cape Town and Johannesburg, now used as offices, have well maintained features such as high pressed metal ceilings, brass fittings, solid wood doors, ornate wooden staircases, cast-iron fireplaces and Victorian tiling. These lend prestige to the firms occupying them - and, for such firms, their position on a link road can be a distinct advantage. "From the city's viewpoint, the decentralisation of office space along major ribbon roads can significantly reduce traffic and parking congestion in the major nodes."

Commenting on these remarks, Gideon Roos, a town planner with First Plan, said that the metropolitan policy adopted by the City of Cape Town makes provision for containing urban sprawl within defined limits and restructuring the metropolitan area within specified nodes. This, he said, has resulted in the metropolitan planners insisting that the local authorities undertake studies to define their urban edges - beyond which development will not be allowed to proceed.

The aim, said Roos, is always to protect valuable natural green belt and agricultural areas and to promote development and redevelopment in appropriate areas. This defining of the urban edge, he said, means that within the nodes specified for development, densification is now essential.

"Most of us with urban planning backgrounds have no quarrel with this concept and believe that the metropolitan policy, clearly explained in the Spatial Development Framework, is, on the whole, right. However, local authorities often are against densification because they hold the pre-1960s belief that low density equates to high land value. They have bought into the nodal development non-expansion principle - but they do not understand that quality depends mainly on good urban design and aesthetics. Going upwards, densification, and the introduction of mixed land uses, with commercial and residential properties alongside each other can be wholly positive.

Without a thorough understanding of densification and a healthy land-use mix (in appropriate areas), the urban edges will come under threat and an on-going battle involving the city planners, local authorities, residents and politicians could develop." The current planning framework, said Roos, does make provision for "activity corridors and streets" which will link nodes. "John Weaver's comments should be seen in this context: he is, in effect, asking for further major linking roads to be rezoned as activity corridors and he is challenging all of us to see that suitable roads are considered for this purpose." Roos pointed out that the Spatial Development Framework does not legislate or lay down rules - it merely makes suggestions as to how things should be.

And, recognising that cities and suburbs are ever changing, the general planning policy does require that reassessment and amendments take place at least once every ten years, if not more often. "Weaver's suggestions have great merit because until true quality densification is accepted across the board - which is unlikely to happen - there will always be those wanting commercial properties beyond the urban edge, if possible, on heavily trafficked roads.

"To deny property owners the right to convert ribbon road properties from residential to commercial, as I see it, serves no purpose at all and will, as Weaver has said, inevitably result in many grand old properties becoming derelict and losing their value." For further information please contact John Weaver on 021 686 0220.