RESIDENTS of Birchleigh, Birchleigh North and Norkem Park have rejected the metro’s proposed housing development in Esselen Park.
This comes after NEMAI Consulting, who have been hired by Ekurhuleni Metro to conduct environmental impact studies on the identified land, put up their final scoping report for perusal by residents at Kempton Park Library.
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The land in question is a 172-hectare portion of the Witfontein farm area near Esselen Park. The area is earmarked for middle income housing in the current spatial development plan.
All the registered Interested and Affected Parties (I&AP) were invited to a public meeting on August 25 to discuss the response to the scoping report. The residents rejected the report, suggesting a new approach to the housing development where all beneficiaries to the project can contribute to the municipality’s tax basis and not be a liability to the community.
During the meeting, a management team was democratically elected, which was mandated to respond to NEMAI on the residents’ behalf. The management team comprised Dr Stefan Hough (chairman), Pierre Vorster (vice-chairman) and Simiso Gumede (secretary).
The rejection of the development is based on a number of facts, including the public participation process not being done according to legal requirements, because, according to the residents, NEMAI did not adhere to the 30 days review period for public participation.
“NEMAI did not ensure that the draft scoping report was available at Kempton Park Library. The councillor and other witnesses can state this under oath. The implication was that other community members were informed not to waste their time to visit the library, in order to study the Draft Scoping Report, which was not available as stated by NEMAI,” a statement released by the residents said.
“NEMAI also made a mistake when they informed the community about the metro’s proposed ‘low cost housing’ development plan. Now it is a mixed housing development plan. No trace could be found when and why the metro changed their scope.”
The residents also claim that the municipality failed to take certain factors into consideration, such as sufficient electricity to power the new township, road, water and sanitation infrastructure, and whether or not there are enough police stations to address the expected increase in crime rates.
As a result, a recommendation was made by residents at the meeting that the mixed housing project should be stopped, and instead a sustainable job environment be created through the housing development project.
“Taking the above mentioned issues into account, the 1035 I&AP of Norkem Park and Birchleigh, recommend that the proposed Esselen Park mixed housing development be stopped. Instead, a better alternative should be developed where a growth point/sustainable job environment be created and private developers contracted to construct the appropriate housing and infrastructure. This will benefit the EMM where new inhabitants will contribute to the tax payer basis and not be a liability, as NEMAI advocates,” the residents said in a statement.
