Umdloti civic groups have strongly opposed precinct plan amendments proposed by developer Devmco, accusing the company of attempting to bypass proper assessments and fair public scrutiny.

In a joint statement on Friday, the Umdloti Smart Village and Umdloti Conservancy claimed Devmco downplayed the impact of the changes and failed to meet statutory obligations. Devmco denied the allegations.

The applications, submitted on October 3, seek to amend precinct plans for two development nodes between the Sibaya Circle and the Umdloti access road. The proposed changes include revised land-use permissions, relocation of a planned public transport hub and alterations to open space designations. The public comment period opened on December 6 and closes on January 5.

The civic groups appointed an independent town planner to review the 192-page application. Their analysis, they said, identified multiple red flags.

“Devmco appears to be using the festive-season shutdown to limit public scrutiny and has framed these amendments as ‘minor’. They are not, reads the statement.

“The current precinct plans are rooted in the 2009 Environmental Record of Decision and shaped by longstanding community concerns. The proposed amendments introduce substantial planning, environmental and infrastructure risks, without the required assessments and therefore cannot lawfully be approved.”

In a formal objection, the groups said that key specialist studies, including environmental, traffic, sewer, stormwater and land-use reports, should have accompanied the application. They also raised concerns over Umdloti’s downstream sewer and stormwater capacity and called for the application to be withdrawn, properly assessed and re-advertised.

Responding to the criticism, Devmco managing director Schalk Theunissen said it was never the company’s intention for the public participation process to take place over the festive season, but that eThekwini could legally advertise it until December 12.

Theunissen described the proposed changes as largely cosmetic, saying they aimed to align technical discrepancies and would not alter the rights already approved. He said the fundamentals of the plan remain the same and that there would be no additional Floor Area Ratio, no change in approved heights, no additional traffic and no additional burden on services.

“We have completed most of the infrastructure within these nodes already, including all the infrastructure that was in progress during the previous storms and we are constantly assessing each development and their infrastructure requirements to see where improvements can be made.”

The application is available via the eThekwini Municipality website. Written objections can be submitted by January 5 to [email protected].

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