High court halts Kowie centre development

A MULTIMILLION-RAND housing, office and shopping centre development planned for an environmentally sensitive area of Port Alfred has been stymied.

The Grahamstown High Court has set aside Transnet and Ndlambe Municip joint decision to sell off the environmentally sensitive area in the centre of the seaside town for the multimillion-rand develop

Two prominent businessmen Mark Shelton and Jonathan Cambell took on Transnet, the Ndlambe municipality and the would-be developers of the project near the environmentally sensitive wetland area of Port Alfred.

The proposed development by the PA River Development Company, in the Pascoe Crescent area, included shops, offices, a hotel, a block of flats, houses and restaurants.

Shelton and Campbell said in court papers the area was far too environmentally sensitive for develop

The proposed development is flanked by the Kowie River and includes a small wetland area – which the PA River Development Company claimed in court papers would be protected.

Transnet had owned part of the land in question while the Ndlambe Municipality owned the rest.

Ndlambe and Transnet had in 2002 jointly accepted a development proposal submitted by a company Pegasus Khotso, which Shelton claimed had morphed into the PA River Development Company.

Shelton said in deciding to sell and develop the property, the municipality had failed to consider that it should rather retain it to protect the environment for present and future generations.

He said it could have been developed as a park or an open space – which would be ecologically sustainable.

He said a substantial portion of the property consisted of the tidal Eastern Lagoon, which was part of the natural drainage system of the eastern residential areas of Port Alfred and served as the “tidal flushing mechanism” of the Royal Alfred Marina.

The entire site also fell within the floodplain of the Kowie River and contained algae and submerged macrophytes that provided food for birds and nutrients for the Kowie Estuary.

He said the decision to market the property clearly breached the relationship of trust between the municipality and the ratepayers, was unlawful and should be set aside.

Judge Thamie Beshe declared as void and unlawful the agreement of sale between the municipality and the developers.

The municipality had admitted that the correct procedures were not followed.

She said no money had changed hands since the decision in 2002 and the land had not yet been transferred to the PA River Development Company, which would suffer no prejudice as a result of the decisions being set aside.