The Constantia Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association’s new

• Published date: 21 September 2023
• Author: Janice Matthews janice.matthews@acm.co.za
• Publication title: Constantiaberg Bulletin

“Don’t wait for a high-density development or unwanted cellphone mast to suddenly pop up next to you or in your immediate neighbourhood,” the civic association warns in a newsletter to residents

Elected in late July, the new exco says it has finalised portfolio heads and teams, sorted out inherited problems with communication channels, rationalised the accounting system and is preparing for the year-end audit and invoicing.

Its main focus, however, is to tackle what it feels is inappropriate development destroying the character of the Constantia valley and righting some wrongs made by the previous exco, says chairman John McPetrie.

In an interview with the Bulletin, Mr McPetrie said a CRRA proposal of what future development might look like in the area was sent to the City for inclusion in its 2020 municipal plan.

“The proposal included a map which had sections of Constantia earmarked as available for or could be considered for appropriate densification. Essentially what they have done is broken Constantia into a number of areas, which included, for example, the winelands and open areas like the greenbelts. They had an area, which they referred to as the Arcadian, which was to be protected by a heritage protection overlay zone and then there was the rest.

“And the rest included a vast area of Constantia, which is the area that I live and most of the people that came onto the committee live. Which was effectively the smaller plots of Constantia – round about anything between 1350 square meterage of plots and upwards.

“Those areas were not protected by any of the proposals put forward by the then CRRA, and, in fact, the wording there was that they were available to be considered. They were not proposing that they be densified, they were saying this is where appropriate densification might take place, and our attitude was that that was effectively giving the City and developers a toe in,” Mr McPetrie said.

“We have written to the City and said we are retracting that. It may make no difference to the City whatsoever, but we have taken an official position, which says we are opposed to all densification, and that is effectively what we have done by rescinding that document.”

Mr McPetrie said they hoped to show the City that there was a lot to lose by pushing densification in Constantia.

“It is just unbelievable how much construction is going on in Constantia, and this has to make a difference to what Constantia looks like every time the developers go in. The...