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Posted On Friday, 08 August 2008 02:00 Published by
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The consortium that bought iconic wine estate Boschendal near Franschhoek has finally won approval for its first small development project.

Ian Fife

After five years and R200m in costs, the consortium that bought iconic wine estate Boschendal near Franschhoek has finally won approval for its first small development project.

The step allows Boschendal to sell its 19 “founders’ estates” — 22ha agricultural sites priced at about R22m each. This is in spite of vigorous objections by local ratepayers, heritage bodies and the Cape Institute of Architects over the past four years.

But that was the easy part. “The next phase scares the life out of me,” says Sue Parker Johnson, until recently chair of the Franschhoek Valley Conservation Trust, who led the battle against Boschendal’s developers. The new phase of Boschendal’s application for development approval will include half a dozen residential “villages”.

Though the fight has been more intense than is usually the case, it is typical of the messy, expensive and often fruitless conflict between property developers and organisations that defend the environment, empowerment and heritage.

But there were unique reasons, too, for the delay. For besides the many historical and environmental sensitivities, Boschendal is the centre of a possible world heritage site — a factor demanding careful scrutiny. That scrutiny was largely the responsibility of the SA Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra), but its key council wasn’t appointed for two years, which effectively prevented Boschendal from proceeding with its plans.

Meanwhile, the disputes played out in the age-old way, with developers being accused of greed, insensitivity and deviousness, government authorities of incompetence, and rights defenders of short-sighted “nimby-ism” (“not-in-my backyard-ism”).

To understand the heart of the dispute, it is important to note that only about 5% of Boschendal was ever developed, and most of the “new” development is slated to take place on that part, says CEO Clive Venning

The estate’s current rights, he says, are actually more limiting to development than historical rights were. For, despite the single name, Boschendal is really a cluster of 26 small farms that De Beers founder Cecil John Rhodes surreptitiously assembled about 100 years ago under single ownership. And each of the farms used to be entitled to a number of dwellings and outbuildings that, Venning says, collectively exceeded the number of units Boschendal wants to develop.

His urban designer, Dennis Moss, says the application for approval of the founders’ estates restricts each property to a single dwelling, and gives the Boschendal management a 99-year leasehold over the fynbos and vineyards as well as rights to ensure the farm remains pristine enough to earn a world heritage rating.

Both Parker Johnson and the Cape Institute of Architects’ Laura Robinson say they have no objection to the principle of development on Boschendal. They even favour Boschendal’s idea of starting the villages — justified by the concept of the historic Cape Dutch “werf” — as a sort of urbanised farmyard. Rather, their concerns centre mainly on the way government, particularly Sahra, handles the processing of development applications, and they question the developer’s true intentions.

Parker Johnson complains that Sahra does not properly examine applicants’ documentation; that critical documents are accepted without being verified, for instance. She and Robinson consider SA’s heritage legislation to be enlightened and strong. “But our heritage resources are vulnerable, despite the legislation,” says Parker Johnson.

“People are always talking about problems of capacity, but it’s really about competence. And once this heritage is gone, you can’t take it back.”

Yet by far the biggest obstacle has been the lack of trust between the developers and the civic organisations. “Developers often have unrealistic expectations and can, frankly, be greedy,” says Robinson. “Ratepayers and other civics, on the other hand, can be purely reactionary.”

Boschendal’s management seems to have triggered mistrust from the start by the flashy way it announced its plans through the media. The modern SA emphasis on equity and the empowerment of local communities worsened matters, “forcing us into the socioeconomic playing field and away from the environment,” complains Parker Johnson. Some activists saw the empowerment as a red herring to win lax environmental controls from government.

Whatever happens next, Boschendal will have to proceed with sensitivity and care if it is to achieve its goals without much greater cost and time.

Source: Financial Mail


Publisher: I-Net Bridge
Source: I-Net Bridge

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