Sunningdale Residents Enraged as Giant Multi-Purpose Hall Blocks Mountain View

Oct. 14, 2010 - PRLog -- West Coast, Sunningdale 13.10.2010. Sunningdale residents are up in arms over a ten million rand Hall that is being erected at the Sunningdale Sports Club that has resulted in the instant devaluation of their properties. Garden Cities have always enforced a strict building code, preventing residents from disrupting the aesthetic and quiet nature of the neighborhood – until now. On the morning of October 4th, residents collected outside their homes, angry and confused at the sight of a massive +-4 story high steel frame being constructed next to Elkanah High school.

The construction is so vast, that it has blotted out the sun for many of these residential homes on Sunningdale Drive, a main road that runs alongside the high school. Privacy due to the height of the Hall has also become an issue. Garden Cities have effectively made provision for this building to exist, even though it flouts all previously imposed building policies. They went ahead with the construction without consulting the residents about it.

Petitions have been circulating by groups of Sunningdale residents to stop construction, but so far no effort has been made by Garden Cities to rectify the situation. With Elkanah High School right next door, parking facilities were already inadequate, filling the street outside with cars and slow moving traffic every day. Now with this new monster hall the entire area will suffer, as the lack of parking spills over into the surrounding roads.  

“The sports hall looks more like an airoplane hanger, and has no business being in our neighborhood, when we were given guarantees by Garden Cities before we bought here,” some of the residents said.

These residents are currently seeking legal aid and exploring the building and municipal laws, to see if they can put a stop to construction at the Sports Club. There are other legal implications as well, like the fact that Garden Cities agents and other local agents sold them their homes based on the view of Table Mountain. Garden Cities claim that these building plans were approved years before they sold the smaller plots to homeowners.  

The residents say that the Sports Hall could have been positioned next to the club house with the two soccer side courts next to the road. This would have been more acceptable, as their view would not have been interrupted and the towering structure would have been less conspicuous.

The plan is going ahead at the Sports Club – immediately opposite residential housing. With a structure like this in front of their homes, the sales potential of the resident’s properties immediately devalue. These angry residents have called for a full investigation into the process and procedures for getting these plans approved.

They have also called for closure and a total boycott of the club as the intended use of the club for local residents has shifted. Groups from distant areas are being incorporated into the mix. The residents get no benefit from these activities; the only benefit is to the Sports Club and those endorsing it from other areas.

“The original layout of the sporting complex did not indicate that it would be turned into a soccer club, with 5 a side courts and a hall which is approximately +- 4 stories tall,” say the residents.

New developments are happening in the Sunningdale area, and in a village where there are building constraints about how high you can build on your own property, and what you can put up and where, the situation is tense. Investigations are in full swing as more residents join the ranks daily. Construction started on the 4 October 2010 and support groups are standing firm.

Letters have gone out to the CEO J W Matthews/A Alexander and Renier Smith of Garden Cities, the Mayors Office, Blaauwberg Sub Council, Councillor Liz Berry/Peter Deacon and Ina Nielson, City Planning Fiona Ogle, District Manager Susan Matthysen – Mayco Member for Planning and Environment Marian Nieuwouldt, Sunningdale Sports Club Carin Morgan.

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