Plea for affordable housing in ‘Zero2One’
HOUSING activist group Ndifuna Ukwazi wants the poor to be able to afford living in the planned tallest-building development in the CBD.
The organisation has appealed to the City of Cape Town to ask the developers to include affordable housing in the development.
According to Ndifuna Ukwazi, the building – which will be named “Zero2One” – will be 50% bigger than what zoning permits.
Julian Sendin, a senior researcher for Ndifuna Ukwazi, said that the building would be 140-metres tall and consist of 47 storeys, with three levels of retail stores, nine storeys of parking and 624 apartments.
It will be located on the corner of Strand and Adderley streets.
“Taxpayers’ money has gone into subsidising exclusive property development. Enormous public investments have been made in infrastructure and services in the city centre, such as the MyCiTi and public policing,” Sendin said.
“It is incumbent on the City that it protects both spatial justice objectives and the public’s purse by ensuring that, in exchange for valuable land-use departures, developers include affordable housing in its development.
“The City can negotiate with developers for this.
“In its application, the developers, FWJK, also alluded to using the departure for ‘entry-level, lower-cost apartments’. This commitment is too vague.
“We would like the company to use the existing social housing programme, which makes housing affordable for people.”
Craig Armstrong, the regional director of FWJK Developments, said the plans for Zero2One included the prevision of 104 affordable apartments based on New York inner-city living, and which would sell for less than R800 000 per apartment in 2020.
Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport and urban development, said: “I understand that our Planning and Development Management Department has received a planning application. I am not able to comment on the application but I understand it has not yet been processed or finalised.”