Since 1975
DE WATERKANT CIVIC ASSOCIATION
PO BOX 821, GREEN POINT, 8051
the village newsletter
may / june 2016
FROM THE CHAIR OF THE DE WATERKANT CIVIC ASSOCIATION......
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2016 AGM......
MEETING SCHEDULE FOR THE YEAR......
NUMBERS YOU NEED TO KNOW......
FROM THE CHAIR OF THE DE WATERKANT CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Hi, De Waterkanters!
For those who couldn’t make it, we had anefficient and well-attended AGM on April 5. Thanks, again, to Victoria Junction for their in-kind support. The full text of the annual report is carried below, along with additional points of discussion.
Our thanks go to all existing members who renewed their membership for the forthcoming year; to those new members who have joined; and especially to those who are able to come out for our monthly meetings. The network of friends and neighbours, businesses and residents, is a large part of what makes the Village such a special place, and we thank those who contribute to it.
To those who struggle to make the time: there have been two major developments lately, both of which are likely to impact on Village peoples’ lives – please make a great effort to come to our meetings to hear all about them, and to voice your opinion as part of the decision-making process as we debate how to respond.
The2015/2016 management committee was re-elected unopposed for the 2016/2017 year, and it was good to see interest from prospective new members, who we hope to be able to work closely with as our year takes off.
On the other hand, we’re tremendously sad to say goodbye to Elda, who has been a stalwart of this committee for many years. I know many in the Village would want to join me in thanking her for her calm, sane voice of reason, and the excellent thinking she’s brought to the DWCA – and we look forward to seeing her as a regular at the public meetings.
We’ve already had our first management committee meeting, where there were two developments that might interest members:
- Gary de Klerk, who many of you will know as a long-time De Waterkant resident and former member of the DWCA’s management committee, was co-opted to support the committee’s work. We welcome having his deep institutional knowledge and experience in the work team!
- The portfolios were allocated.
While none of the committee needs much of an introduction, see overleaf for who does what, and how to get in touch with them.
Here’s to another great year!
- Ian
ROLE / MAIN CONTACTCHAIR / Ian McMahon
Supported by Francesco Uys Rootenberg
SECRETARY / Francesco Uys Rootenberg
/
Supported by: Heather Parker
TREASURER /
Theo Nortje
/
BUILT ENVIRONMENT / Garth Psaradelis – Plans, changes and renovations submissions and the evaluation of submissions
/ Gary de Klerk – focus on outreach and communications /
CITY LIAISON / Annelien Loots
/
PARKING & PUBLIC SPACES /
Deon de Wet
/
Supported by Ian McMahon
This portfolio includes refuse/litter.
COMMUNICATION / Heather Parker (internal)
Gary de Klerk (media)
MEMBERSHIP ADMINISTRATION / Theo Nortje
Supported by Garth Psaradelis
NOISE, SAFETY & SECURITY / Deon Redman
/
Francesco Uys Rootenberg
TECHNOLOGY / Garth Psaradelis
FILM SHOOTS & EVENTS / Ian McMahon
Supported by Annelien Loots
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2016 AGM
This is an edited text of the DWCA Chairman’s Report:
I’d like to thank the outgoing Management Committee for their work over many hours that has aided our community and the Village in the 2015/16 year. As a committee, we have not always agreed on every issue, the method of achieving our goals, or the way forward – but as a democratic body, we have always found the path of respectful understanding, mutual growth and cohesive debate.
WHAT DO WE DO?
As a community-led civic body, we are asked to determine the community view and response to items such as developments and building or renovation plans, noise complaints and parking constraints, events and the changing patterns of what the City Improvement District (CID) refers to as “crime and grime”. We also get sent many City legislative changes and policy amendments though our City representative Annalien – for which our view and comment is needed.
BUILT ENVIRONMENT SUB-COMMITTEE
We welcomed Garth Psaradelis this year to assist Elda on the Built Environment sub committee and the Membership portfolio. As always theBuilt Environment Sub-Committee dealt with a good number of building applications for alterations and renovations. Thanks largely to the years of work by people like Elda, Gert Coetzee and others, we have a protocol in place for dealing with planning proposals. Our mandate is to view these as a community, in order to get a sense of the collective affect on the membership body. It’s a tough ask to balance the perspective of those who’re submitting the plans against heritage, building by-laws, privacy and aesthetic considerations and so on; and some feel our mandate flawed. In reply, we would invite everyone to join our monthly meetings and take part in these discussions – it’s really tough on the MC for people to not get involved when the issues are presented and then not agree with the decisions made.
We also welcome what is becoming a common courtesy on the part of architects and owners to have a preliminary discussion of the proposed alteration with the DWCA, before submission. This enables us to discuss questionable undertakings in terms of the restraints of this Urban Conservation Area. We think that architects and property owners are appreciating the opportunity to consult early.
We are in the throes of dealing with threemajor developments in the area: Somerset Square, 32 Napier and Cape Quarter 1 add-ons. We met recently regarding the changes the DWCA requested for the second of these, and a third draft of these plans have been submitted for discussion. We shall report back at the next meeting.
A constant headache has been the resolution of by-law transgressions which have already taken place, notably additions like tented rooftop structures etc. More work is needed by us to find out how best to address these challenges, streamline the process and rectify the situation.We have regular meetings with the Regional Manager of Environmental and Heritage Management, Dimitri Georgeades, and thank him for his assistance in determining areas that we are unsure how to handle.
EVENTS, FILM AND NOISE SUB-COMMITTEE
Another hotbed of activity comes from the busy Events, Film and Noise Sub Committee. They report that 51 formal noise complaints were submitted during the year, of which 35 related to Manhattan. It was finally the Liquor Authority which came through, and they mandated that the restaurant cease sales of alcohol by 11pm – as perthe Zoning scheme – which has dropped the complaint rate considerably. Monitoring continues.
Batstone Pool was also in the news with a loud event. Again, we asked the community to formally log any disturbances on our systems (find noise complaint forms on our website), which constitutes a mandate for MC intervention.
In reviewing the effectiveness of the DWCA's handling of noise issues over the last two years, the sub-comm noted a high level of success where venues were willing to enter mediation process. However, they also noted the complex- ity of holding private homes and uncooperative busines- ses to task; and observed that the first and most effective recourse to dealing with the latter still be via the accredited law enforcement and city agencies.
PARKING SUB-COMMITTEE
The City’s approval of the2014 Parking Policy leads the way for the DWCA to implement its own community parking policy.
We know that much of the available parking in the Village is taken up by all-day parkers, who parkin our streets free and pop over the pedestrian bridge to town or their place of work.
Changing this, Deon de Wet reports, is a long process. Along with the CID, the DWCA has approached the City to discuss the implementation of a community parking plan making use of residential discs. We are slowly making good progress.
The three major building developments we mentioned before – Somerset Square, 32 Napier and Cape Quarter 1 – are all required to submit a transport plan covering their intentions during the building phase, and the impact once their development comes on-stream. The DWCA met with and proposed to Spire Properties, which ownstwo of the three developments, that we take a view on the combined effects of the three developments from a traffic management point of view. Along with the CID, we will be setting up this dialogue intended to achieve buy-in to conduct a Traffic Impact Assessment. The ouput of this will be a proposal to the City’s transport management team on how best to think about and address the situation – we need to ensure that major developments always give due consideration to impact on traffic flow, and that our roads don’t grind to a halt.
COMMUNICATION
Communication was a major drive this past year, and Heather has been instrumental in distributing DWCA informational newsletters both electronically and through your postbox now and then. We have also used Whatsapp for immediate communication; and both that and our Facebook page have been useful for dissemination of information. We’d urge all to be hooked up.
SAFETY & SECURITY
Safety and security have been headaches to us as residents and to the CID, tasked wth managing it (see right). We are requested to flagsuspicious behaviour to the patrol car on 0822 143228.
Marc Truss gave a report: see right.
EVENTS
Events come and go – and more often than not, they are well planned,leavingfew negative aftereffects. We engage intensively with producers and we have seen improvements in levels of traffic access control, for instance. We will continue to work with the producers of these events to ensure that as much as possible, the issues are discussed and plans put in place to prevent any bottlenecks.
CITY SERVICES
We acknowledge the City and our Councillor, Dave Bryant, for our often tested relationship as members of a community, as an organisation and as residents. There are times when we thank the City for their outstanding work and response; and there are moments when we gnash our teeth. But the responsibility remains on our shoulders, as citizens, to ensure we are part of the process in achieving the service we expect. It’s up to us to make the change, to assist with the administration and logging, to do our bit and help make the DWCA’s area and our joined democracy work. It’s an election year – we propose that we all do what is needed.
Among successful engagements with the City in the 20152016 year:
- The De Smidt Street steps were finally completed.
- Cllr Bryant was instrumental in having the park fence improved and moved to where it delivers better protection from vagrants and crime.
FINANCIALS
Theo reports that we are secure in our membership fees (please go to the website for the financial report). Thanks also to Deon and Heather for their efforts in soliciting donations from film shoot companies when they use our streets and area.
Finally, I want to again thank the management committee for their many hours of hard work; and to thank all those who attend our monthly meetings and help us work.
MEETING SCHEDULE FOR THE YEAR
Please diarise these dates now! The DWCA meetings will take place on the first Tuesday of every month. Every third meeting is an internal committee meeting, so these are the dates we’d like you to hold:
June 7, 2016
July 5, 2016
September 6, 2016
October 4, 2016
December 6, 2016
February 7, 2017
The next AGM will be held in late March, 2017
NUMBERS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Local contacts: CIDTo report noise
Ward Councillor / Green Point CID shift manager / 072 944 6811 / 071 670 3019
Green Point CID CEO Marc Truss / / 082 560 0684
Green Point CID mobile reaction unit (noise & light disturbances)
If you get no joy, call on SAPS central control / 082 214 3228
021 467 8002
Dave Bryant / 071 855 9554
Parking infringements / Report cars illegally parked (across driveways, blocking access etc) / 021 596 1999
When in doubt about anything from parking, to noise, to building, here’s a useful link that will take you to all the City’s by-laws:
DE WATERKANT CIVIC ASSOCIATION - MARCH/APRIL 2015 NEWSLETTER / 1