The once bare land that was home to vagrants behind Greenstone Crescent Shopping Centre is currently under development and will become a residential area.
In recent months, the NEWS has often been contacted by concerned residents who said they have become wary of the project since it started.
Residents told the NEWS that they had little knowledge of what the development was going to be.
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The NEWS took these concerns to Ward 32 Clr Bongani Nkomo, the developer, Reeflords and the City of Johannesburg Council (CoJ).
“CoJ is pro-development. I anticipate this residential complex would be a success. It is better to have development instead of vacant land,” said Nkomo.
Dora Cheng, Reeflord’s head of sales and marketing department, said the development is still in its beginning stages.
Cheng emphasised the site plan was approved by CoJ.
“The area will host six-storey buildings with elevators compromising of one, two and three-bedroom apartments, a swimming area and other basic service outlets,” said Cheng.
CoJ stakeholder manager in the office of the MMC for development planning, Poppy Louw, confirmed that an application to rezone the property was submitted on October 12, 2017.
“Approval was granted on June 1, 2018, under delegated authority with the following controls; six-storey (buildings) permitting a maximum of 360 units.”
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“Subsequent to the rezoning approval, a site development plan, that was first endorsed by all city entities, was also approved on November 23, 2018,” said Louw.
Residents also questioned whether any public participation process by developers had taken place.
“Public participation was held and all present parties had no problem with the project,” Cheng said in response.
Louw elaborated that the public participation application was advertised on October 25, 2017, in terms of the required legislation, with no objections received.
“Adverts were placed on-site, in newspapers, the Government Gazette and notices were issued to all contiguous neighbours. There was no obligation to hold any community meetings,” said Louw.
Another concern that residents had was about the traffic congestion in the area on completion of the development.
Cheng said that the development will not cause much traffic seeing that it is close to the N3, R25 freeways.
“The site plan included a traffic study, water and environmental studies and all other required studies which were all approved,” said Cheng.
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CoJ said the Joburg Roads Agency approved the development and stipulated several access upgrades.
“No other road upgrades were deemed necessary.”
Louw also mentioned that no environmental studies were required for this application, but the application was circulated and received support from the CoJ’s environment and infrastructure service department.
“The environmental study would have been required when the site was initially established from ‘agricultural’ land to ‘special’ for commercial purposes. Our records indicate this to be pre-2005,” Louw said.
Nkomo highlighted that the Greenstone area has water issues.
Louw said CoJ ensured that an outline scheme report was submitted by the applicant’s engineer for water.
“Joburg Water commented on November 10, 2017, that there is adequate supply to the proposed development.”
The development is located in the Modderfontein sub-drainage basin. Louw said according to Joburg Water and City of Ekhuruleni, adequate sewer capacity was available since February 13, 2018.
Cheng told the NEWS it is anticipated the development will be launched by April this year.
