To suggest so-called “waterfront development” alongside a dry dam in a town subjected to continued severe water restrictions, and to envisage massive residential and commercial expansion in a town with a defunct and overloaded sewage system, is not only dangerously misleading, it borders on total absurdity. The credibility and even sanity of invasive development plans in a highly sensitive riverbed area in such a town must be seriously questioned. The town’s embattled northern Greenbelt Area has, however, the potential to be developed into the “Kirstenbosch” of Limpopo, if sanity prevails.

These comments followed last week’s report about the proposed commercial and residential developments in the northern, most sensitive part of the Greenbelt Area in Makhado (Louis Trichardt). The controversial development proposals were part of the motivation for a rezoning application for the Greenbelt Area north of Stubbs Street and bordered on the eastern side by the N1, on the western side by Kruger Street, River Street, President Steyn Street and Forestry Road, and on the north by the extension of Bergh Street and the southern border of the Hanglip forestry reserve.

The area was proclaimed as a residential area (the so-called Extension 9 West) in the 1980’s and was later in its entirety zoned for upmarket residential development. This according to a planning layout which made provision for well on 200 stands, cluttered with houses and streets from Stubbs Street northward, along the contours of the two dam areas and along the N1 up to the border of the Hanglip plantation and stretching westward up to Forestry Road – thus totally swamping the areas outside the dam and between the two mountain stream inlets.

The greater part of this proposed development lies below the level of the two existing adjoining residential areas, and is situated on the river banks sloping down to the dry river bed and dam area between the N1 and the Extension 1 residential area. The entire densely vegetated area serves as an air- and sound filter against the noise and exhaust gas pollution on the adjacent busy N1. The proposed development will create massive visual pollution in this low-lying area. It will also create a situation where at least 200 additional vehicles will emit air pollutive agents on a daily basis, upwind from the existing Extension 1 residential homes, schools, hostels and hospital, to accumulate right in the centre of the existing vital “filter” area for these residents.

The proposed residential development was initially stalled by the spontaneous protest of residents and environmental experts who strongly advised against such massive interference in this ecologically strategic natural system, which can, in the long run, have a far-reaching negative impact on the quality of life and health of all residents in the vicinity of the proposed development area.

It once again came up for development when the municipal council gave carte blanche to the previous municipal manager to identify municipal land which could be sold off to help alleviate the town’s financial problems. Both the mayor and municipal manager have since been dramatically removed.

The latest successful tenderer for this land initially proposed the erection of mainly environmentally friendly tourist and recreational commercial facilities for which a rezoning application would be necessary. When the rezoning application came up during February this year, the development plans radically changed to include a garage, workshop, filling station, massive shopping mall and motor showroom facility, described as a “high-tech industrial development,” plus a 200-unit, high-density residential development. A major part of the existing vegetation would have to be bulldozed to make way for these plans. In the same way, the existing natural vegetation alongside the N1 will have to be destroyed to allow for the visibility of the proposed mall complex from the N1, which the developer describes as an important precondition for the success of the venture.

In an official announcement the Concerned Citizens Group reacted strongly this week against “the continued irresponsible efforts to destroy the most valuable natural asset of the town by allowing totally unnecessary, unsuitable, unethical and morally highly contentious and potentially destructive ventures” in this area.

The Concerned Group says it is senseless to continue to perpetuate the town planning mistakes of the past. The only meaningful rezoning for the area would be from residential to “public open space” so that it could be developed into a safe and secure meaningful display window of the rich natural biodiversity and valuable cultural heritage of the region, with easy but controlled access for residents and tourists. It has the potential to become the “Kirstenbosch” of Limpopo, with wide-ranging sustainable job creation, educational and recreational advantages, adding enormous value to the town’s international tourism potential.

In the meantime, a spokesperson for the Department of Environmental Affairs warned this week that the only people who can make a difference in the proposed development plans for the area are the residents in the immediate vicinity of the proposed development.

“We will only be able to assist if it becomes abundantly clear that the majority of these residents have sound reasons to object to the proposals. Unless the majority of residents react with written objections to the developer and to the municipality, the proposed development will proceed,” the spokesperson said.