Donald Cameron, De Waterkant

I am writing to protest in the strongest possible terms about the contribution from the City at the Impact Assessment meeting for the proposed Strand Quarry development, and also about the misleading information that you gave to the Atlantic Sun following their enquiry about resident concerns (“Residents oppose parking plan, Atlantic Sun, January 30).

The proposal includes the creation of a large car park in De Waterkant by replacing an existing access road to 18 properties in Loader Street, De Waterkant, and also existing parkland that forms part of the scenic route along High Level Road, in order to create a car park.

There was a public consultation about the Quarry proposal that closed on November 2, 2023 and a further consultation that closed on October 11, 2024.

De Waterkant residents and the De Waterkant Civic Association (DWCA) objected to the car park proposal and made many written submissions giving our reasons, including specialist and legal advice. All of this has been ignored and suppressed by the City.

At the Impact Assessment Meeting on February 22, the chairman asked:

“Are all on board and happy? This is a fundamental issue.”

Jeremy Rose, representing the City replied:

“There has been substantial stakeholder engagement over a 12 month period, including public consultation and a 30-day commenting period. The Bo-Kaap and de Waterkant Resident Associations have been fully consulted”.

The minutes of this meeting concluded that the only outstanding issue is a stoep on a neighbouring property to the proposed development. Please listen to a recording of the meeting and get the sense of a clear public manipulation.

This is an abuse of process. It is using consultation to announce decisions instead of listening to stakeholder views in order to find the middle ground.

Contacts at the Council have told us, on a non attributable basis, that the City has already taken the decision to proceed with the quarry proposal and is now manipulating the consultation process to rubber stamp the decision.

Eddie Andrews, the City’s deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment, responds:

The proposed redevelopment of the Strand Street Quarry has been extensively workshopped with stakeholders for nearly three years now. Numerous workshops and meetings were hosted in an effort to involve interested and affected parties. The intention of the extensive engagements is to find a balance between different communities’ proposals/input and a way forward that addresses concerns and aspirations for this site as far as possible.

In the end, the City wants to pursue the best possible outcome that is in the interest of surrounding communities and one that will benefit Capetonians for decades to come.

Part of the proposal is the creation of a managed parking area along Loader Street, opposite the quarry site. In the consultation meetings between the City of Cape Town and members of the De Waterkant Civic Association on the proposed parking area abutting De Waterkant, a middle ground was discussed and the City responded by removing bus parking bays and demarcating permit parking bays on the Site Development Plan, as a direct result of these discussions.

These permits will be issued for the parking bays that are to be used on a first-come first-serve basis, in line with the parking permit system that is currently applicable in De Waterkant, should the proposed redevelopment be approved by all of the authorities involved in this process, including Heritage Western Cape and the Western Cape Government.

The City will, later this month, advertise the proposed Land Use Management application for the redevelopment of the Strand Street Quarry site, including the City-owned land mentioned by the resident.

I encourage Mr Cameron to participate by submitting comments on the proposed LUM application once it has been advertised for public comment. All of the comments received will be considered as part of the assessment of the application as stipulated by the City’s Municipal Planning By-law and other relevant City policies.

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De Waterkant residents ignored

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