Municipalities countrywide have the ability to crack down on gung-ho developers following a landmark court decision on development in the South Coast area.

The case against errant developers in Shelley Beach, who started development without getting the necessary permission or complying with aspects of the town-planning scheme, was heralded as a signal success for the Hibiscus Coast Municipality.

“A culture seems to have developed in recent years of building first and worrying about getting development approval later”, commented, Dr Johan van der Walt, Director of Engineering Services, following the ruling in favour of the Municipality.

"It has come to our attention that some planning and development consultants actively encourage their clients to do this, promising that they will 'fix up the paperwork' later.  This will not be tolerated in future."

He added that this is the beginning of a campaign to bring the many unlawfully developed properties that abound in the Hibiscus Coast area, and particularly in Shelley Beach, back into line with building and planning regulations. He also warned that similar action would shortly be initiated against other owners who have developed their properties without the appropriate planning permission. 

The Shelley Beach property, which had been zoned for Intermediate Residential development, and had also been converted to sectional title status.  The owners were in the process of selling and transferring the units to third parties when it came to the attention of municipal planning officials that not only was this the intention of the owners but that there was one more unit than was allowed in terms of the Town Planning Scheme. 

According to specialist planning attorney, Michael Hands of Shepstone & Wylie, who represented the municipality in the matter, there were certain other infringements of the Scheme which were also identified.

Urgent steps were taken to approach the High Court for an interdict restricting the transfer of units until the requirements of the Scheme had been observed.  The owners acknowledged the illegality of certain aspects of the development, and undertook not to transfer the additional units until the requirements of the Scheme had been met.  In addition, they agreed to deposit a sum of money as security for the costs which might be incurred by the Municipality in enforcing compliance with the Scheme.

According to Hands, under the agreement, the owners are now obliged to make application for special consent to regularize the development, and if this is not granted, they will be obliged to demolish the offending buildings.

"Experience in the past has been that it is extremely difficult to obtain court orders for demolition of existing buildings" he said.  "The Courts are reluctant to issue such orders because of the difficulty of ensuring that the order is properly carried out.  In the present instance, however, the owners and their attorney conceded after considering the contents of our application papers."

Hands believes that more positive actions of this kind should be taken by Municipalities generally.  He says it is pointless having Town Planning Schemes if people simply ignore them.  He also considers it is high time the Ordinance was updated, and more effective remedies for infringements should be introduced.

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Issued By:
Marshall Inc Communications
Kerry Osborne
031 563 2942
083 779 5458