Nothing set in stone as building dispute continues

CONSTRUCTION was brought to a halt at a property on Stephen Dlamini Road recently when Berea residents raised their objections about the size of the structure, which now requires area rezoning to be approved by the eThewkinin Municipality.

The eThekwini Municipality’s spokesperson, Msawakhe Mayisela said the property is currently zoned as Medium Density Housing, in terms of the eThekwini Municipal Land Use Scheme: Central Sub-Scheme. Mayisela said the property owner of the 1660m² building made a Land Development Application for rezoning to General Residential 1.

“The Land Development Application rezoning was refused,”said Mayisela.

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However, he said the decision notices only went out recently to the applicant and objectors and the 21-day appeal period was still open on September 13, for the applicant to appeal this decision.

“The Building Plan Application received in November 2020, was approved in February 2021,” added Mayisela.

According to Mayisela, building continued, despite contravention notices.

“The matter of 721 Stephen Dlamini Road started in December 2020 when we received complaints about illegal building work on site. Contravention Notices were issued between December 7, 2020 to January 2021, which were ignored. All notices were forwarded to law enforcement for further action due to non-compliance. On January 27 a Rate Code Change was initiated, which was approved on February 2. The plan for the proposed dwelling was only approved by February 19.

“Building works continued as per the approved plan until June 24, when the area building inspector identified deviations to the approved plans and started issuing notices from June 28, with the latest issued on July 6. All these notices have been forwarded to law enforcement as well. To-date, we have not received any approved deviation plan,” said Mayisela.

Residents speak up
Among those who objected to the building plans were members of civic organisation, Save Our Berea, Cheryl Johnson and Kevin Dunkley.

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In a joint statement, they said, “This is a victory for the surrounding residents who are negatively affected by this development. Hopefully this will send a signal to other developers who think they are above the law to stick to the rules or face the consequences. The developer in this case ignored the town planning regulations and went ahead with construction. What we are wanting to know is if the municipality will order property owner to demolish? If they do, how will the developer respond? One thing is certain, he won’t be allowed to add more floors on to what he has already built – and that, in itself, is a huge win for everyone who opposed the rezoning application.”

The Berea Mail attempted to reach the property owner for comment but no response was received by the time of going to print.