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The River Club, currently a nine-hole golf course, will be rezoned and will house the new headquarters of the multinational giant Amazon following a decision by the City’s Municipal Planning Court on Friday. (Photo: Steve Kretzmann)
A city court has given way for Amazon to move into the River Club development in Cape Town. Buildings up to 11 stories tall will be constructed on a First Nations site. The rezoning was decided upon 180 patrimonial and environmental objections.
First published by GroundUp.
The rezoning of the River Club property in Observatory, to allow for a R4.5 billion megadevelopment, including Amazon headquarters, received the go-ahead from the Cape Town City Municipal Planning Court on Friday, September 18.
Friday’s decision to change the area from the open space area to commercial designations came over 180 objections from civil society bodies, activist organizations, First Nations groups and individuals.
The development will result in the filling of an alluvial plain, permanently erasing the original course of the Liesbeek River and constructing buildings up to 11 stories tall in an area recognized as important to First Nations.
An environmental authorization, which is a requirement for rezoning, was awarded by the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning August 20. But there were 40 objections, and one appeal process is underway. The deadline for filing appeals was September 10, and the applicants include the city’s environmental management department and Heritage Western Cape, who say the province’s decision violates provisions of the Heritage Resources Act. National and the National Environmental Management Law.
But just eight days after the deadline, and without seeing any environmental clearance appeals, the city’s municipal planning court decided to rezone the site at the confluence of the Black and Liesbeek rivers. Chief Justice David Daniels favorably compared the proposed development to Century City.
The development on the 14.8ha River Club site, which is owned by the Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust and currently features a nine-hole golf course, pub, conference venue and pro shop, has faced sustained civic opposition since that the trust filed a notice of intent to develop in July 2016.
The land is located in Two Rivers Urban Park, considered South Africa’s first colonial dispossession site by the Dutch when they forced the Khoi to abandon their ancestral pasture lands.
In an attempt to temporarily halt development in order to assess the heritage importance of the land, Heritage Western Cape invoked a two-year provisional protection order on the site in April 2018. This was appealed by the developer, backed by the City and two provincial departments. The appeal was rejected by the provincial court of appeals. Since then, the two-year period of the protection order has expired.
The municipal planning court declared Friday that it had not considered Heritage Western Cape’s 20-page appeal, nor the city’s own environmental stewardship (excluding annexes) against environmental clearance on environmental and heritage grounds.
More than one objector noted in their submissions that this gave the impression that the court was taking advantage of the environmental clearance to push for the rezoning of the site.
The president of the Civic Association of the Observatory, Leslie London, in his presentation, pointed out a series of issues that called into question “procedural justice”.
London said that since the initial announcement of the rezoning two years ago, Liesbeek Leisure Properties had inserted new information about “substantial changes” into its application. London said there were eight new reports, but the court did not allow the appellants to provide new information, such as the appeals that have been filed against the environmental clearance.
He said that in order to make a fully informed decision, the court needed to see the appeals, but the appellants were not allowed to present this information to the court.
London said the developers had been able to submit a response from the “applicant’s heritage expert” dated March 31, 2020, “but strangely the actual final comments from Heritage Western Cape”, which were issued on February 13, 2020 and They rejected the impact assessment of the developer’s estate was not included in the court documentation.
The court “will deviate itself if all relevant information related to this decision is not provided,” London said.
In the prelude to the court hearing, one of the five court members, who was not identified in the Skype broadcast, said that the court “accepted and understood and must accept that environmental and heritage aspects are very important.” These aspects “will have to carry considerable weight in the evaluation,” said the court member.
But in the final summary, Daniels rejected the environmental and heritage appeals presented.
He said the court’s findings were unanimous. “I think there are more positives than negatives” regarding environmental impact, he said.
He said that with “the conservatism that we see around us today, I wonder if our environmentalists would ever have approved of that wonderful restaurant at the tip of Cape Point that sits on the edge of a cliff, or that observation deck that we approved in the top of Table Mountain. It would be hard for you to get that approved now. “
He said that none of the objections brought to light any conflict with the 2018 Metropolitan Space Development Framework, which is the planning policy that the court found applicable.
“I think (the River Club development) will be a destination like Century City is a destination,” Daniels said.
I was very impressed that Liesbeek Leisure Properties had secured Amazon as an anchor tenant. “This is a breakthrough for the Western Cape economy and for the Cape Town brand. I think it’s a big problem. “
Liesbeek Leisure Properties Trust spokesperson Jody Aufrichtig called the decision an “unequivocal victory for the people of Cape Town” and an “important milestone in a comprehensive, open and transparent development approval process.” DM
