Revised plan for Kirstenhof flats

The public have until Saturday to comment on a revised plan for a block of flats on Main Road in Kirstenhof.

The proposed development by Tintswalo Classic Collection (Pty) Ltd for erf 4678 is for a seven-storey block of 113 units, eight of which will be “affordable" housing units for people earning no more than R18 000 a month.

About a third of the size of a rugby field, 260 Main Road accommodates a café, a picture-framing studio and wood sales. Former owner Mohammed Banderker sold it to Tintswalo in 2023.

Tintswalo has applied to cancel the approved plan for a 192-unit block of flats on three plots (erven 4678, 4679 and 4680) in favour of developing the “scaled down” 113-unit block on just erf 4678. It also wants permission to provide 154 parking bays instead of the required 174.

According to the City, the initial application, in 2020, for approvals to put up the seven-storey 192-unit block with ground floor shops “generated 91 objections, one comment and one letter of support”.

After the City approved that application in 2021, the Kirstenhof and Environs Residents Association (Kera) and residents appealed, but the appeals were dismissed in April 2022.

Responding to objections to the original development, a report by City officials said the City’s transport impact assessment and development control department (TIA department) was satisfied with a traffic impact assessment, and, as to objections that the original proposed development would increase sewage blockages municipal sewage and stormwater flooding, the report said the development would have no impact on the bulk sewer infrastructure.

Speaking to about 50 residents at Kera’s annual general meeting on Monday November 4, the association’s chairperson, Darryl Lawrence, said that after objecting more than two years ago, they would not object again.

Residents at the meeting voiced concerns about the development turning into a slum, aggravating traffic congestion and straining sewage infrastructure.

“The reports do state that Raapkraal sewer pump station does have the capacity, but we know that the minute there's any sort of power cut, if it is unscheduled, we have an overflow. So with 113 additional units, that's where my concern lies,” said Orchard Village resident Kerryn Rehse.

Responding to the concerns, ward councillor Carolynne Franklin said the City’s proposal to convert the roads surrounding Kirstenhof Primary School into one-ways would reduce traffic coming into Kirstenhof.

“We have also managed to put in a request to the developer to please put a lot of budget into traffic calming. There will be a raised intersection at the entrance into the proposed development.”

Many of the new development’s residents would rely on Main Road public transport, not private vehicles, she said.

“The development is for that missing middle of civil servants, nurses and policemen who have to spend 80% of their money coming in to work every day. So it fits perfectly within the City's integrated development plan and in their middle income housing that developers are encouraged to participate in and to invest in.”

The Raapkraal sewage pump station had capacity as it took “untreated effluent from as far as Claremont”, she said, adding that its telemetry had been upgraded and there was a new 24-hour control room.

Kera executive member Nathan Geffen said despite residents' anxiety over the development, the City was drastically short of housing and lacked alternatives.

“It's not in the landlord's interest for it to turn into a slum. It's not in the interests of the tenants who are going to live there for it to turn into a slum. We don't know how it's going to turn out. I'm quite optimistic about it. I think it can work. And the best way to make it work is for us to accept that it's going to happen and to advocate for the measures that will be put in place to maximise the chance of this development succeeding,” he said, adding that it was an opportunity to push for better public transport along Main Road.

Mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews said that in terms of municipal spatial planning, the site was in an area “generally associated with higher densities and land use intensification”.

Some properties west of Ferdinand Street were also identified for “contextually appropriate residential densification”, he said.