Ilka objects to late notice
Residents wants government to communicate with it direct.
The I Love Kensington Association (Ilka) said not giving residents enough time to comment on property rezoning in the area is tantamount to trampling on their rights.
Ilka’s chairperson, Mr Tony De Munnik, said this after he received a notice to comment on the rezoning of a property along Gloucester Road, Kensington.
The property in question is to be rezoned into a children’s day care centre.
Mr De Munnik said the ward councillor, Clr Mike Spadino, gave him the notice, which calls for comments a month after the deadline for comments has passed.
He said this defeats the purpose of the notice.
“There are processes you go through for this. Residents in the area have a right to analyse what you are planning to do. Residents have the rights to object to what you are going to do. If you decide to disregard those rights, you are abusing residents’ rights. You are operating in your own space. You cannot apply for the rezoning of your property without your neighbours knowing what you are doing,” he said.
“For instance, in the case of the rezoning along Gloucester Road, do the owners have all the necessary certificates to run the day care? Is the road wide enough for the traffic when parents arrive to collect their children? Was the traffic implication taken into consideration? Who is the owner of the business? Everything that happens there will have an effect on the value of the properties around it. Whether negative or positive, that is another story,” he said.
Mr De Munnik said his committee will be approaching the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), asking it to communicate directly with the resident
“We will be talking to the town planning department, saying everything that comes within this jurisdiction, must be submitted straight to us. This would give residents enough time to comment on the matters in time,” he said.
Clr Spadino said he also received the notification late. He said he passed it on to Ilka, even though it was late.
“If I did not do it, I would run the risk of being accused of not passing it to the public,” he said.
He said the residents had to send their comments, even though it was after deadline.
“The process has not ended. We are still going to have responses to the objections. The city will call a public meeting to deal with the concerns of the residents,” he said.
Clr Spadino said he is waiting for the public meeting to address the city on not granting residents enough time to comment.
