POMONA residents are gearing up to fight a proposed low cost housing project comprising 500 units.
The proposal, made by Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, involves the construction of housing units which will cover about 12 hectares of vacant land bordered by Outeniqua and Methley roads.
The development will be at the back of an existing, upmarket townhouse complex, Sheffield Rock. These residents, especially, are completely against the project.
Ward councilllor Pieter Henning has already been roped in. He said he would give residents his full support to try and stop the development.
A public meeting has been organised for the community on May 8 at Oos-Rand Akademie.
According to a brief outline of the project, supplied by Nemei Consulting, individual stands will be serviced with electricity, potable water and sanitation. The project will also include the construction of formalised roads within the development footprint, providing access to each stand.
Nemai Consulting had been appointed as the independent Environmental Assessment Practitioner (EAP) to complete all requisite environmental processes and seek environmental authorisation on behalf of the applicant.
Rivani Maharaj of Nemei Consulting said another public meeting would be organised by them in the near future.
“We are currently in the notification phase of the project and specialist studies are still being carried out. A 30-day period is given for parties to register with us and a future period will be given for the actual comment period. Due to the large number of responses we have decided to address all issues before submitting the report,” Rivani said.
A notice regarding the environmental impact assessment (EIA) had already gone up at the site, giving all interested and affected parties (I&APs) 30 days from the date of the notice to register with Nemei Consulting in order to receive any further correspondence and information regarding the proposed project.
The notification process also involves, among others, the placement of notice boards and providing written notices to landowners, ward councillors, municipalities, organisations such as ratepayers associations and NGOs.
One resident, who owns two units at Sheffield Rock, expressed concern. “It is a wetland. If you have lots and lots of money to do the foundations correctly and you don’t care about our wetlands and the environment, then you can build there. But low cost housing? It’s insane!” she said.
