History
Moffat Park is a "green lung" in the South of Johannesburg - see map
"Johan Abram Moffat, a prominent architect, presented Lot D. Farm Klipriviersberg to the City for a Park,
and on 19 May 1936 the Council decided to give the park the donor's name" - Johannesburg Street Names Reference.
"The land is to be used solely for the purposes of a public park" - see "16-Deeds-of-Transfer.pdf" p3(a),p6(f).
Moffat Park is named after John Abraham Moffat (1871-1941), a town planner in Johannesburg.
Organisations that oppose the development in it's current form:
Linmeyer Rate Payers Association
Linhill Football Club
Southampton Football Club
Southhills Rate Payers Association
The Hill Rate Payers Association
St Martin's School
April 2011 - We became aware of the proposed development via an article in the Souther Courier / Comaro Chronicle
See 02-Comaro-Chronicle-Apr-2011-moffat-park-development.jpg
Points to note:
Paragraph 6: Dr Theron "NO RDP Housing will be put up" - latest information indicates RDP housing
Paragraph 6: Dr Theron "2,800+/- mixed units developed" - latest information indicates 5,161 units
Paragraph 4: Traffic Impact Assessment, Services report on roads, water, sewer, storm water, electricity, architectural and ecological
Paragraph 16: More meetings to be held - no meetings have been held to date
Paragraph 16: Site notice boards will be displayed - Boards only put up in Nov 2011.
At this meeting, concerns were raised wrt:
The excessive number of units
Negative effect on values of surrounding properties
LEAP was the only contact we had wrt the development.
www.looklocal.co.za copy of Caxton article
April 2011 - CalgroM3
www.calgrom3.com will be doing the development.
On the calgrom3 website, they show that:
3 Nov 2010 - R1,356 Billion Rand tender was awarded to Standard Bank & Calgro M3
4,217 units will be built
1,702 units will be fully subsidised RDP/BNG units and rental units - R55,706 and up (current subsidy)
1,485 units will be GAP, social and rental housing - up to R300,000 for households which earn between R3,500 and R9,000 per month
1,030 units will be freehold affordable housing up to R500,000 (40-120m²)
3 phases planned
Expected to start early 2012
The area now occupied by Linhill FC will become "GAP" cluster / housing. This was cleared up in later revisions and Linhill is not affected.
The definitions of GAP, RDP/BNG/Affordable are from:
www.calgrom3.com/operations/business_units.asp
4,217 is a large number of units, many of them are multi-level.
As a comparison, Linmeyer which is similar in size to area to be developed (35% of Moffat Park), has 750 units.
Notice that the number of units is now 4,217 - 1.5x more units than on the 13th April 2011 meeting.
The development now includes lowest cost RDP housing - despite the assurances from Dr Theron.
Issues:
Why was a R1,356 Billion Rand tender awarded before public consultation?
The consultation process was not transparent, and did not involve the community.
The community only discovered details on 13 April 2011 via the Southern Chronicle, although a tender for R1,356 Billion Rand was awarded on 3 Nov 2010.
The deal was done in secret on 3 Nov 2010, without consulting the communities that will be impacted.
These are serious allegations and raise questions as to whether due diligence and due process was followed in the tender process.
All that has followed is "Spin Doctoring".
16 Dec 2011 - Notice of Application for establishment of a township - hidden on side of Linhill FC fence
See 20-Notice-for-establishment-of-township-2011-Dec-15.jpg
21 Jan 2012 - Notice Removal Restrictive Conditions - top of Nephin Road
See 20-Notice-Removal-Restrictive-Conditions-2012-Feb-20.JPG
The planers purposefully split and hid the notices.
We were only aware of the first notice and only recently discovered the second.
We counted 6 notices of 2 types
4 notices were located in Nephin road - 1.51km
1 notice in Southern Klipriviersberg road - 1.45km
0 notices in East Road - 1.27km
1 notice in South Rand Road - 1.75km
Only the notices in Nephin road were clearly visible.
See 20-Hidden-Notice-for-establishment-of-township-2012-Feb-24.jpg for example of hidden notice.
See Can all who have the opportunity, go to the Metro and inspect the plans, and object.
Please submit objections to:
Executive Director
Development Planning, Transportation and Environment
8th Floor, Room 8100,
Block A, Metropolitan Centre,
158 Loveday Street,
Braamfontein
Fax: 011-339-4000
19 Dec 2011 - Documents from the JHB Metro:
See 11-South Hills Extension 2 - Memorandum in support of the application for Township Establishment.pdf
Dated Nov 2011, obtained from City of Johannesburg.
Makes for some starling reading.
Section 3 - Page 6 "In terms Deeds of Transfer T14062/1948 Condition (a) must be disposed of" - See attachment "12-T14062-1948-Certificate.jpg" - "The land shall be used for the purposes of a park"
Section 6.3 - Page 20 - "The properties concerned are currently zone 'Public Open Space'. Mayoral Committee on 5 May 2011, resolved to closure of the park" - this is one of the last free open spaces in the South - not enough consideration was given to it's original purpose and use.
Section 6.5 - Page 23: "The combined total units that is envisioned to be developed is 5161 residential units" - this is 6.8x more than Linmeyer
Section 5.3 - Page 18: "BRT" is the only upgraded public transport to be provided - this is not enough.
Section 6.5 - Page 21 - "Careful consideration has been given to the needs of the eventual residents of the area, but also the existing residents of the surrounding area" - very little (no) consolation has been done with the residents of Limeyer, The Hill, etc.
Section 6.5 - Page 22 - "The existing sports facilities on the south west corner of the property are accommodated within erf 1128. These facilities will be formalized and thus will be granted the opportunity to expand to better suite the needs of the community" - no consultation has take place.