Luxury houses: Kommetjie residents appeal

Melanie Gosling

Environment Writer

KOMMETJIE residents have lodged an appeal against the approval of three large luxury houses to be built outside the urban edge in the buffer zone of the Table Mountain National Park and of the Cape Floristic Kingdom.

The so-called Lighthouse Development, on the slopes near the Slangkop lighthouse, was given environmental authorisation, with conditions, by the provincial Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning in October. The developer, Evert van der Horst of Kommetjie Estates, has also lodged an appeal, asking that the condition set by province that 34ha of the property be ceded to Table Mountain National Park, be removed.

Kommetjie residents said in their appeal document that the City of Cape Town’s urban edge served as a boundary beyond which no new development should be allowed – without compelling justification – until all land inside the urban edge had been developed.

The benefit to the broader public of three large residential houses, greater than 500m2, in this natural spot was negligible.

The site of the housing was in an area that the City of Cape Town had stipulated was one of importance in the city’s Biodiversity Network. The City had said residential development in the area was undesirable because of the impact it would have on sensitive vegetation.

“The development will consume valuable elements of the natural environment for upper income housing of which there is already a proliferation in the vicinity. The approval of three elite units on the last remaining open area adjacent to the Table Mountain National Park is not an appropriate use of the property,” the appeal document said.

Patrick Dowling of the Kommetjie Residents’ Association, which may also lodge an appeal, said this was one of a “suite of developments” in Kommetjie the association has been opposing as undesirable.

“Under the present situation of traffic congestion, and under the strained services, it is very difficult to justify the intensity of developments happening in the far south.

“Although this is only three luxury houses, it is in the park buffer zone and outside the urban edge,” Dowling said.

Van der Horst said in his appeal that the condition that Kommetjie Estates must cede 34ha of the property to the national park may be illegal and asked that it be removed.

The appeals will be considered by Anton Bredell, MEC for Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning.