Scarborough wetland proposal proves controversial

SCARBOROUGH residents and conservationists are up in arms over a proposed development they say will impact on a sensitive coastal wetland.

This is the latest in a 20-year history of attempts to develop Erf 766 in the Schusterskraal wetland, which borders the Cape Point nature reserve on the Atlantic Coast.

These were successfully opposed by the local community, according to Scarborough Residents and Ratepayers' Association chairman Graham Noble.

Noble said that he knew of 40 parties that had opposed the recent application which was brought by the developer Brendhan Kannemeyer.

The period for public comment closes tomorrow.

Kannemeyer plans to build three, 85m² cottages, a staff cottage and a garage on an artificial berm - built by the old Regional Services Council in the 1980s - which raises the ground above the one-in-fifty-year flood line.

He said he intended the development to function as a private nature reserve, according to its present zoning, which includes development rights.

"They are very modest cottages to be built so their impact is minimised," said Kannemeyer, adding that the development would occupy less than 1 percent of the site.

According to a 2004 scoping report, which included an assessment of the wetland, an environmental impact assessment was not needed as the berm was not part of the wetland.

Objectors have, however, contested this and called for a resurvey of the wetland.

According to an objection by ecologist and consultant Freda Jones: "The proposed development is in a wetland, which - despite being partially infilled - remains a wetland with respect to seasonally inundated soils, water-loving and water-dependent plants and probably soil profile."

She said ecologists today had a better understanding of how to identify a functioning seasonal wetland than they did in 2004.

Wetland ecologist and consultant Kate Snaddon, whose property borders Erf 766, said: "Development on the berm will effectively destroy any chance of rehabilitation of the wetland."

The wetland has been mapped as part of the City of Cape Town's Biodiversity Network, and is classified as a "critical biodiversity area" and therefore must be conserved.

Kannemeyer said he had rehabilitated the property by removing invasive, non-indigenous Port Jackson trees.

"The conservation of this land through low-key development allowing access to this land is my main objective," he said.

According to both Noble and Kannemeyer, the former land owner had attempted to drain the Schusterskraal wetland in an attempt to develop the site.

Posted at 09:15AM Feb 04, 2010 by Editor in Residential  |