The City of Cape Town is considering a land-use application to rezone 1 Glen Alpine Way from Single Residential to Local Business to allow for an “aquarium fish and irrigation shop”.
The closing date for comments and objections is Monday June 10.
The property is on the first
right turn after the Main Road, and is surrounded by mostly single residential properties.
A Local Business 1’s primary use is for an office, dwelling house, boarding house, utility services or flats.
The application was submitted by town-planning firm Olden & Associates on behalf of the owner, PHA Investments. The Bergvliet/Meadowridge Ratepayers’ Association has already written to the district manager objecting to the proposal.
Residents say they want to protect the residential integrity of the suburb.
They describe the area as an established, stable, middle-income suburban residential area and feel that should the application be approved, their peace will be disrupted.
The association’s chairman, Mark Schafer, said in the objection letter that a key concern was that the business proposed for development would not be low key or small scale.
“The business would be detrimental to the residential environment. The business presence would negatively impact the ambience and residential character of the area.” said Mr Schafer.
Residents say the business will be inappropriate for the area and attract more traffic to the mostly residential area.
Michael Olden, of Olden and Associates, said the structure and the plan of the property would remain the same; only the zoning would be affected.
Mr Olden said there were already other shops in the area.
“I think it’s very important to note that the property is the only one that takes direct access off Alpine Road, while the other properties in the area take access off
Dryersdal Road. So we won’t be attracting incoming traffic into the area.”
The City of Cape Town did not respond to questions sent on Monday June 3 by the time the paper went to print.