ARCHCOM – GORDON HART
Archcom meeting was held on 3 September attended by Gordon Hart, Paul Higgins & Alan Hepple.
6 Plans were scrutinised. Of these 5 were resubmissions.
One of the resubmissions was, again, rejected due to certain information not being included.
I wrote to Management of both LUMS & BDM at CoCT to request that they insist that amended plans be stamped by Archcom prior to resubmission by the Applicant. The motivation for this being that we have found 2 recent cases where Revision 0 of a plan was approved by Archcom and Revision H (in other words 8 resubmissions) was approved by City and the approved plan was not stamped by Archcom and, in one instance was a completely different drawing.
Of significance, one of the plans scrutinised required restamping by Archcom at City’s request which shows that the request has been acted upon.
As suggested at the last EXCOM meeting I assisted in drafting a letter to the City highlighting the perilous state of the PGD wall to the north of Uitsig. This has been dispatched to various Council Managers and the Ward Councillor. It is not known if there has been any response.
In response to a complaint regarding the street facing Vibracrete wall on Oudevlei Road, I referred to the plans approved by Archcom as well as visiting the property. The plan view on the drawings indicated green coloured walls (green being the NBR colour for concrete) in the positions indicated with no indication of material, height or finish. These Walls were not depicted on any elevation of the property. I find it surprising that drawings which lacked such detail were approved by City and suspect that this might be another case of amended plans not being seen by Archcom.
The issue here is a compounded by the fact that the walls in question, although unsightly and not contributing to the Streetscape, are not on the property boundary but further back and in fact behind the first line of the building which technically places them in Zone N (per the Design Manual) where walls other than plastered and painted are permitted. As consequence I believe that Standards should approach this owner, point out the unsightliness of what has been erected and request that trees and shrubs be planted in front of the wall (what is shown on the plans) or that it be plastered and painted
I have been scrutinising proposed amendments to the Development Management Scheme of the City as I am submitting comment on behalf of my practice. One thing that is going to impact the Marina is that small Wind Generators are now going to be permitted and we will need to consider the impact that these will have and include positioning and screening within an amendment to the Design Manual.
Communications – Lise Carswell
Newsletters dispatched as per schedule.
All email addresses on our database updated and current.
EVENTS – VALERIE BENSON
Future events:
Marina Open Gardens Day – scheduled for 13 October 2024 – posters and flyers have been designed. Will be printed closer to the time.
Free vegetable growing sessions with Fulufhelo Sithole from Park Island – next session is on Saturday 21st September 2024 at 11am at the Marina Pub and Bistro, Eastlake.
Spring Walk with Kyran Wright at Zandvlei – on Sunday 29 September 2024 – starting off at his office off Coniston Avenue
Marina Children’s Party – taking place on Saturday 14th December 2024
Marina Christmas Carols – taking place on Sunday 15th December 2024
MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE – ULF MARTZ
- Past Month’s Activities
The last month’s activities revolved around the ongoing liaison with the City of Cape Town officials relating to MDGA infrastructure maintenance.
- Boundary Walls
The responsibility and ownership of boundary walls on the periphery; abutting PGD and the Northern Servitude rests with the individual property owners on whose land it is registered.
The property owners also must ensure that these boundary walls are compliant with the MDGA design manual and regulations as well the City’s DMS.
The PGD private property exterior wall at Erf 94255 had been plastered and painted white
PARKS AND GARDENS – VALERIE BENSON
New council representative for the Parks department, Patrick Williams, did a walk round of Eastlake Island with Andie Pycroft, MDGA Garden representative for Eastlake and Cannon Island, as well as Pam Hicks and Caroline of Eastlake CID, to see what needs to be done by council in Eastlake.
Andie explained what roles the MDGA Gardeners play in the Marina i.e. attending to or creating flower beds on the POS. Andie stressed the necessity of the tar paths being upgraded or maintained by council for the grass not to creep over them and make them unusable. She also stressed that council’s role in mowing the POS and general maintenance of the POS is important as the MDGA Gardeners do not have the equipment or capacity to do the larger functions. Andie explained the MDGA Gardeners schedule i.e. every Tuesday they work in a different area of the Marina so only every third Tuesday, are they in Cannon Island and Eastlake. Patrick advised that the pathways fall under the Roads department and not Parks.
Unfortunately, I could not attend the meeting due to work commitments, but I will set up a meeting with Patrick to introduce myself on behalf of MDGA Excom.
The strimmer has been taken in for repairs due to being damaged when trying to tackle the overgrown pathways. I await the quote for repair before proceeding.
SAFETY & SECURITY – ROBIN CARLYSLE
Only one crime was reported for the month of August – theft from a motor vehicle in East Lake Drive on 2.8.24 approximately midnight – reported to SAPS.
Our first housebreak occurred and will be reported on my next report. The concern is that the perpetrators were not picked up by DB. They have set the monitoring bar too high, and in this year three incidents came in with out triggering a DB response.
On 14.8.24 a body of a male adult found in the water. No foul play suspected.
LPR stats
76 triggers received involving 20 vehicles. 8 vehicles were followed out of the area by Deep Blue.
Liaison with SAPS.
No police/community liaison meeting was held in August – very worrying.
