HENRIËTTE GELDENHUYS

25 September 2005

HYDE Park residents are up in arms over the development of townhouse complexes and apartment buildings in the suburb.

Three new housing complexes are being erected near Hyde Close, next to the Hyde Park Corner shopping centre, but residents and the council say the area does not have the infrastructure to deal with the development.

One of the developers, First Beach Investments 405cc, had an application for rezoning rejected by the council, the Townships Board and the Gauteng Development Tribunal, whereupon they successfully appealed to the Gauteng Development Appeal Tribunal.

But the Hyde Park councillor, Judy Stockhill, said she attended the appeal hearing and believed residents were prejudiced at the hearing.

Andrew Sarkin, a medical doctor, and his girlfriend, Tony Erling, residents of Brookwood, one of the first townhouse complexes in Hyde Park, wrote letters of complaint to the council about the three residential complexes going up near them.

Sarkin said this week that no reasons were given as to why the development had been allowed to proceed.

"The bulldozers have already moved in. They said they would keep the trees, but they’ve knocked down everything. The area will be too congested," said Sarkin.

The chairman of the appeal hearing, Dr W R Woods, was not available for comment.

The residents and the council claim that developers are side-stepping the council by approaching provincial bodies to push through proposals.

They said these provincial bodies were supposed to deal with low-cost housing, but are being used by developers to rezone areas so that they can push through high-density and high-cost developments.

Stockhill said the new developments placed immense strain on the electricity supply, the sewage works and water supply.

The city’s latest regional

spatial development framework for Hyde Park acknowledges that the area is experiencing infrastructure shortages, she said.

As a result, there needed to be a moratorium on high-density developments in Hyde Park, Stockhill said.

"However, council has to bow to province and now the three complexes are going up, but instead of being small apartment blocks, they’re huge," said Stockhill.

One of the developers, OCC, which is putting up Silver Leaf, a block of 23 apartments, denied the claims.

Chris Botha, OCC project manager, denied that the infrastructure would be overloaded.

He admitted residents were complaining that the bulldozing was causing cracks in their walls.

He said all the residents of the area had agreed to the site plan and the council had approved the development.

He said the company would put up a mini-electrical substation and would upgrade the sewage works.