Game on as developer battles Cape farmers

THERE was ferment in the winelands when Durbanville farmer Boetie Louw sold a 150ha chunk of land that grew into a new suburb on the edge of Cape Town.

Now the 83-year-old farmer-turnedproperty-developer is at it again. This time he has applied to build a R1.5billion gated housing estate on another piece of land — and some local ratepayers are objecting.

A dispute over the 240ha Uitkamp farm is the latest skirmish between developers and farmers in the hills around Durbanville.

Farmers are concerned that the city is growing too fast, but developers say there is a huge demand for housing.

The Durbanville stand-off comes on the back of another property row in the middle of Cape Town where the city council is under fire for recommending the rezoning of farmland used by smallscale vegetable farmers.

The land is to be used for low-cost housing development.

The council resolved this week to visit Durbanville before deciding on Louw’s development, which includes plans for 500 houses, a 175-unit retirement village, private high school and nature reserve stocked with game.

Louw’s farm has already received partial approval from Anton Bredell, the Western Cape MEC for local government. It now awaits rezoning approval because the land falls outside the city’s urban edge.

“This thing is a monster,” said George Sieraha, chairman of the Durbanville Community Forum, which opposes the development.

Several Durbanville farmers said the area was being swamped by the ad- vancing city, which has limited space to grow owing to the mountains and sea. Soaring land prices meant struggling farmers were easily persuaded to sell.

Local farmer Danny St Dare said the dispute centred on a disagreement about the agricultural potential of the Uitkamp farm.

He disputed Louw’s claim, backed by a soil-analysis report, that the land had low agricultural potential.

“For the past 12 years the developers have made out that the land was of such poor quality there is nothing else you could do with it. Yet the development site is surrounded by wine farms in the heart of the Durbanville wine valley,” he said.

Uitkamp’s developers said the city could amend the urban edge because of population growth, and the development offered a potential R44.9-million a year in rates and levies for the city.

Alwyn Laubscher, managing director of the property development consultancy that is driving the project, said: “People don’t want to see that our city is growing and we must manage it. They would rather put their heads in the sand and say no development at all.

“The marketing pitch is aimed at the top end of the market. We are inundated with potential buyers who would like to get an opportunity.”

Louw, who lives on a farm across the valley from the proposed development, declined to comment.