Plans to preserve heritage of Princess Vlei

Environment Writer

THEY united to fight proposals to build a shopping mall and taxi rank in one of the few green lungs on the Cape Flats.

Now, three years later, with that battle won, the Princess Vlei Forum will sign an agreement with the city council tomorrow that will enable residents to work with the council in managing the Greater Princess Vlei Conservation Area.

Proposals to build the mall first surfaced in the late 1990s in the form of an unsolicited bid to the City, and were met with strong opposition. Finally in March last year, the council decided to scrap plans for the mall.

Forum secretary Bridget Pitt said yesterday the forum had been formed in 2012 to co-ordinate the efforts by local residents and NGOs to oppose the building of the mall, and later had come up with a different vision for Princess Vlei that was closer to what the community wanted.

“Since the March 2014 victory, the forum has focused on exploring ways to rehabilitate, upgrade and improve the management of the site. The memorandum of agreement will enable the forum to work with the City, streamline stakeholder engagement and help in mobilising funding,” Pitt said.

The forum held workshops with local residents to come up with ideas of what they would like to see at Princess Vlei.

“In a nutshell, the values people came up with were about heritage and nature. They were proposing rehabilitation of the natural processes and the rehabilitation of facilities so they could enjoy the area. There was also a need to have some acknowledgement of the Khoisan heritage. The City has not committed to anything yet, but it has a draft plan which allows for jetties, walkways and paths, and the upgrading of braai facilities. There is a strong emphasis on rehabilitation of the fynbos and the reeds to improve water quality,” Pitt said.

The draft plan proposes to upgrade and develop certain areas around the vlei as well.

“We flagged these because they would need to be sensitively managed. There could be room for a restaurant development, but it must not encroach on the vlei itself.”