George Municipality airs concern over social housing plans
George Municipality (GM) has aired concern over land pockets identified in George by the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) for an integrated housing development programme for the district that the latter announced at a summit on Monday 29 August.
In a statement (issued after the media reported on the housing programme), George Municipality stated that it
(GM) remains the final decision-maker concerning all land development applications within its jurisdiction. "... as such we must maintain objectivity and promote the sound planning principles and policy contained in our Municipal Spatial Development Framework in a holistic and sustainable manner and will not be swayed by political grandstanding".
'Unrealistic expectations'
Before the summit, George Mayor Leon van Wyk had written to District Mayor Memory Booysen and Western Cape MEC for Infrastructure Tertuis Simmers to raise George Municipality's concerns about GRDM hosting such a summit "prematurely", saying that GRDM "runs the risk of raising unrealistic expectations amongst potential beneficiaries, the public and potential housing partners, in particular where the properties identified may not be suitable for development".
At the summit, GRDM announced three potential land pockets for social housing in George. One of the properties (erf 26823 in Omega Street, opposite the GRDM offices) belongs to the district municipality. The other two pockets, properties of Public Works, are the 'hospital land' in Davidson Road (erven 6231, 6236, 658 and 659 located opposite the hospital) and various erven in Plantation Road (the open land between Arum and Barrie roads), and the land opposite the regional police headquarters (formerly used as parade grounds by the SA Army Women's College).
In response to George Municipality's statement, Marlene Nqumse of the GRDM communications department said Simmers and Booysen "are handling this on a political level". She said they have no comments, as they have made their points perfectly clear during their previous communication. She indicated that a full press release will be provided at a later date.
George Municipality said it is developing a pipeline of social housing projects to accommodate the approximately 1 700 persons listed on the social housing database. These projects will follow the required planning and environmental assessments, including thorough public participation processes.
Crocodile farm site
"George Council has by resolution identified strategically positioned, valuable land which it owns, such as the highly sought-after crocodile farm site, as well as other sites throughout the city which are suited to use for social housing," the GM statement said.
"The George Municipality's focus for social housing is on bringing people into the city, densifying to ensure less infrastructure costs, making sure they are on transport corridors and to have easy, walking access to all amenities."