Council gives Poynton Place rezoning green light

eTHEKWINI council has approved the rezoning of Poynton Place despite the pleas from ward councillor Martin Meyer, who addressed the contentious matter on behalf of Berea residents at a full council meeting at City Hall last week.

More than 40 letters of objection were submitted to Land Use Management (LUM) by residents against the rezoning application, but according to Cheryl Johnson from Save Our Berea (SOB), the town planning committee. chaired by Mr Velile Lutyeko, which had met prior to the council meeting had dismissed 250 pages of objections in just three minutes

In his speech to a full council, Meyer said he was addressing the matter as the representative of the people of the ward who elected him.

“I believe praise should be given where praise is deserved and one of the good principles promoted in this country after 1994 is the principle of public participation, but I also believe we must criticise where criticism is due, and while the concept of public participation is fantastic, the execution of it, in this council at least, is not. What is the use of a public participation process if no one is going to listen to the public?” he asked.

Meyer noted that the more than 40 objections through the public participation process regarding the rezoning of 10 Poynton Place had been condensed into a few sentences and bluntly rejected as not being of any importance. He said the committee had happily accepted the summary and rejection. Only one person on the committee had voted against the rezoning.

“I wonder how many members of the committee have even read the objections. I cannot help but wonder how many councillors have even bothered to find out why so many residents objected. Do we as a council not have the responsibility to also listen to the wishes and concerns of our residents? The DA is not against densification. The DA is not against development, but there is densification, and then there is densification. And this sort of tower block densification that will change the look of one of our jewels forever, is not what we should be aiming for. It is not in the interest of the city, and in this case at least, it is against the will of the people living there already,” said Meyer.

Despite his pleas to council to listen to the voice of the people, Meyer's appeal was ignored and the rezoning was approved.

Commenting on council's approaval, Johnson said the town planning committee chairman Velile Lutyeko claimed there were already flats across the road of the site marked for rezoning. She said Lutyeko had accused Berea residents of wanting to 'live in 1950s' and keep 'outsiders' out of their area.”

Kevin Dunkley, a co founder of the civic organisation, Save Our Berea, said the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act, 1977 indicated that if a local authority was satisfied that a building to which the application in question related was to be erected in such a manner or would be of such a nature or appearance that it would probably or in fact derogate from the value of adjoining or neighbouring properties, then the local authority should refuse to grant its approval and give written reasons for such refusal.

“To me this is quite clear and these decisions, until overturned by a higher court, are legally binding. I am not a lawyer but it really seems to me that this applies. I would have thought that in the light of my objection, and maybe in the case of others too, that where an objector raises a legal issue, it would have been prudent for the local authority to get a legal opinion from their legal department or counsel on the matter. If I am right then this application for re-zoning would get rejected by the courts and the councillors who are steaming ahead without any regard for objections could be incurring huge costs for the council, which of course we as ratepayers would pay,” said Dunkley.

The 30 day appeal period started on 25 June and SOB urges all residents who sent in letters of objection to exercise their right to appeal.

Log on to the Big Yellow Taxi Facebook page where Wayne Webb will be updating his page over the next few days with information on how to lodge an appeal.