City buys massive piece of land along N2 for R400m

THE City of Cape Town has bought the last of the old AECI property along the N2 near Somerset West – a massive piece of land about the size of the city bowl – for R400 million.

The City regards the 648ha property as “strategic” as it is one of the last stretches of undeveloped land within Cape Town’s urban footprint.

The city has not specified what it will do with the land, except to say there will be a “mixed use” development, with housing and commercial components.

Mayco member for finance Ian Neilson said yesterday the purchase had been approved by the Competition Tribunal.

“There has already been a lot of planning done on that piece of land and we’ve got all the intellectual rights to those documents. Obviously we’re going to review them, not just accept them as is, so we won’t be starting with development tomorrow,” Neilson said.

“We’ve got to proceed with a proper planning process, but it will be a mixed development, not blanket residential or blanket industrial. What we don’t want is just another Khayelitsha, or just another Epping. It will be a balance between rich and poor, with development for work opportunities.”

However, a “significant portion” would be housing.

The City’s current housing backlog is around 400 000 housing units. Cape Town’s population grew from from 2.6 million in 1996 to to 3.5 million in 2011. “Medium projections are that the population will increase to 4.21 million by 2031.”

Neilson said because of the size and location of the AECI land, the City regarded it as a strategic asset and the R400m price tag was not excessive.

“We were aware there were others looking at it. The key for the City was that it was the last big piece of land within the city’s developed area.”

While there was undeveloped land outside the urban edge, particularly towards Atlantis, the only other undeveloped land within the city footprint was the Denel property and the Philippi farmland.

Neilson said the City was trying to move away from the old model of urban sprawl, with low density housing and long commuting distances to one of densification along main transport nodes, such as the N2 and Voortrekker Road.

Owning the land meant it could control how it was developed.

However, the City had not ruled out selling portions of the property.

“We may parcel it off and sell some and develop some ourselves.”

Because the Triomph chemical factory had operated on the site, some of it would be contaminated and have to be treated and rehabilitated. That would take some time.

Gavin Smith of the Greater Cape Town Civic Alliance said there had been extensive input by the public over the existing development proposals.

The City bought the land from Paardevlei Properties Ltd, a subsidiary of AECI Ltd.

AECI had said the land had become “surplus” to its operational requirements.

AECI’s chief executive, Mark Dytor, said the sale to the City had been supported by the board.