Greenside Residents` Association AGM Committee Reports 13 May

 Greenside Residents’ Association AGM Committee Reports 13 May 2015 Chairperson’s Report – Carol Millard RA Chairpersons Annual Report 2015 on the activities of the association during the preceding period & such concern & proposals facing the community. In essence all previous Committee members should pass on as much knowledge as possible to their replacement. This helps new members to understand their specific role and how the Committee functions. This approach is supported by keeping accurate and up‐to‐date records of all information relevant to particular roles. New members can also use previous minutes to become informed about past decisions of the Committee. The change process can be better managed by including an induction process for new members. This however was not the case for the 2014/15 GRA Committee. I was nominated to Chair the GRA based on previous GRA experience as secretary from 2001‐4 & more recently on a security initiative for Greenside (& Emmarentia) with the CSF/CPF, PV SAP & CAP in 2013. At the outset, my commitment for Greenside was to establish a vision for the future development of this suburb. In doing this my intention was to attempt to move away from a situation of having to react to, and often fight against, proposed new developments, rowdy clubs, towards one of helping to forge a practical, balanced future for the suburb. At the centre of our suburb’s future development is a neighborhood Node which makes provision for mixed land use (i.e. Retail, offices. Medical suites, medium density residential developments) to serve the local community. This neighborhood node located on both sides of Greenway & Gleneagles roads has become the aim of this committee, to become & develop into a world class “High Street”. We have engaged in extensive meetings during our term of office with the local authorities such as the Liquor board, Environmental health, JMPD, the JRA & licensing authorities during a process to reform the quality of many businesses, several who were over trading on hours to way past 2AM, addressing illegal car guards, drunken drivers & many other infringements by landlords, business owners & patrons. As of today’s date, the GRA & the GBA have forged a partnership through mutual trust with the majority of businesses & today can assure residents that our mission is almost accomplished, with less than a handful remaining who have yet to meet the criteria of operational regulations. Apr ’14 – ‘1st GRA Mission’ – a walk through Greenside at 10PM one Saturday night! What we saw was more horrific than the sound & level of music from each establishment! Every Club was competing against the next & regulatory compliance was nowhere to be noted. Patrons smoke in the streets, alcohol in hand, swaying to the beat & tipple as the bottle is tilted towards their throats! Opening of Techno Gym Sir Lionel Phillips Park Donated by 702 WtT Day in the Park Sir Lionel Phillips Park 702 Discovery Walk the Talk Emmarentia & Greenside August/September FTTH Vumatel 2 Public Residents meetings Sep – July appointment of Fibre Sub‐committee of other individuals who could serve since they brought much needed expertise. Greenside Design Centre Series of public meetings for residents re Green Concept & revival of Greenway Road & the Sir Lionel Phillips Park Heritage Day celebrations with GDC – successful & to continue with again in 2015, & larger Trenching of VUMA Fibre started in Greenside & by 27th July ‘15 Greenside to become the 2nd/3rd Fibrehood after Parkhurst Open Access Fibre / open access to Security providers – separate infrastructure & service CCTV converges LPR (licence plate recognition), urban surveillance and vehicle patrols to make neighbourhoods safer. LPR cameras identify number plates, record and keep or cross check against a database for flagged vehicles. LPR can read in shade or at night. Urban surveillance monitors a public area with strategic located CCTV, monitored by 24 hour control room and assisted by patrolling vehicles. Strategic locations for vehicle and foot areas for securing the whole neighbourhood. Once the infrastructure is in place service delivery to an effective Control Room is paramount. Cameras have an 8‐10 lifespan and a 5 year warranty. The bulk of Camera projects in Cape Town are run, owned and managed by Neighbourhood Watches and CIDs. Very few are managed or co‐ordinated by private security companies. Only option: owned, managed and controlled by the community. To reiterate the bulk of camera projects are owned by CID and NW. For the project to be a success it requires transparency, accountability and community participation. Capital costs exceed several million, plus the cost to monitor, needs to be investigated by the community. But can the Community raise the funds for ownership of cameras? A public survey is currently underway by the GRA, was done independently with positive response, so we have now shared it with 2 major security providers, ADT, CAP, CSS. The 1st step of the due diligence is to gather enough accurate information, then to consolidate adequately in order to reply to all 1200 households, without rushing the process. Reason as to why we did not defer the GRA AGM as have done Parktown NRA. Portfolio of Safety & Security, the CPF Executive & CSF committee’s at PV SAP, Victim Support Unit of volunteers, Removal of Illegal posters, Reporting of illegal dumping, Vetting of staff on Residential Building sites, Cable Theft & Stolen Manhole covers, Open Driveways, Public Safety. (Show CHARTED Map & Stats) Donations for the CPF, a voluntary organization made up of residents from the community which assists the PV SAP. Town Planning Report Back – Jane Eagle The town planning portfolio has focussed on 3 main issues this year:  Illegal land uses and construction  Heritage applications  Precinct Plan Illegal uses continue to plague the suburb and detract from the other positive features of our suburb. The two main problems are the illegal use of residential properties for full business use, and the ongoing problem of the neighbourhood node where properties zoned for general Business 1 rights are operating as nightclubs and pubs. Business 1 permits restaurants as a primary right, but only permits places of amusement or entertainment and pubs as a Consent use, which means that a formal town planning application process has to be undertaken. No establishments in Greenside have rights for live entertainment, or bars or pubs, yet many properties are being used illegally for this, having a severely detrimental impact on the lives of residents and the value of their properties. The noise and litter and traffic associated with these illegal uses doesn’t only impact negatively on residents, but also drives out good, sustainable businesses who operate within the law. Another major illegal use is the two parking areas which have been developed on the eastern side of Mowbray, with residential homes being demolished and the properties developed as parking to serve the businesses and retail shops along Greenway and Gleneagles. No properties are supposed to be building additional floor area unless they can show that they have the parking to support this. The GRA has continued the work of the previous Committee around pursuing the illegal uses and engaging with the City’s Development Planning department and with town planning law enforcement and building control divisions about various illegal buildings and uses to push for enforcement of the law and to ensure compliance with town planning legislation and other statutory requirements. The litigation which the City of Johannesburg is pursuing against some of the major offenders in the neighbourhood node is still ongoing but taking a long time. The GRA has co‐ordinated a number of objection campaigns to some of the more serious town planning applications for additional floor area, or additional rights which we believe are not in the interests of the suburb, either because they will exacerbate the parking or traffic situation, or because they will permit lawfully the kind of land uses which are proving so detrimental to Greenside. The GRA has also submitted objections and attended hearings to ensure that the views of residents are heard, and the rights of residents are protected. One of the most significant applications was the one proposing the redevelopment of the triangle of land bound by Barry Herzog, Linden Road and Crocodile Road, which in its current form, is likely to have a negative impact on the Greenside node. Although the site is technically within Emmarentia, its impact is likely to be even more on Greenside than Emmarentia, due to its location relative to the node. The GRA were instrumental in requesting a public meeting with the Developer and his consultant team, and a detailed objection submission was made, objecting to the scale of the development and to certain design details. We will continue to ensure that the interests of Greenside are protected in the process for evaluating these proposals which have now given rise to a proposed amendment to the Greenside and Emmarentia precinct plan. Greenside’s Precinct Plan is quite old, and needs to be updated in order to ensure that it is aligned to the City’s new Spatial Development Framework and Regional Spatial Development Framework, and also to improve its credibility as an up to date, relevant plan. The GRA’s town planning sub committee has developed Terms of Reference and called for preliminary estimates of the cost of taking this project forward. Although the City has indicated that they will not be dealing with Precinct Plan amendments in the immediate future, we need to be prepared for the next review phase. These processes take time and also money and we may be looking for contributions towards this project. A revised and up to date Precinct Plan is really urgently required to be able to hold the line against unwanted changes to our suburb and speculative development by developers which does not benefit the suburb as a whole, but results in the kind or urban development problems which we are constantly battling with. Another important study which the GRA is hoping to undertake in the near future is a traffic study. This is a critical input into the Precinct Plan and very much needed for Greenside which has experienced an increase in traffic and rat running through the suburb, particularly from commuters on the East‐West routes, but also as a result of the huge number of night revellers who frequent the suburb. Terms of Reference for the study have been prepared, with inputs from various residents, and we are appealing to any residents who might have expertise in this area, or would be interested in helping to drive this study. The GRA has also followed up on a number of queries and complaints about traffic related issues, such as the new traffic light at the intersection of Clovelly and Muirfield Road, but to date has not been able to get any explanation from the City as to the purpose of this traffic light. GRA has also followed up on a range of other queries and complaints from residents, such as complaints about street trees. No resident is permitted to chop down a street tree – these are assets of the City. Application has to be made to Jhb City Parks and Zoo for a street tree to be pruned or felled, but we appeal to Greenside residents to preserve the green character of the suburb, which contributes to the value of all our properties. Alterations and/or additions to buildings which are older than 60 years are subject to approval by the Provincial Heritage authority in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act (Act No. 25 of 1999). Much of Greenside was built in the 1930’s and a number of the buildings are good example of the Art Deco style. Many of the buildings and homes are now of the age that they are covered by Heritage legislation and any changes to the original structures require authorisation from the Provincial Heritage Resources Authority of Gauteng. PHRAG require that applications are accompanied by a letter from the GRA advising of their support for the proposed alterations. The GRA have dealt with a number of requests from residents or their architects over the past year. We are fortunate that a number of residents responded to our appeal for volunteers to assist with this portfolio, and hope that with the added capacity the GRA will now be able to deal with these requests more speedily in the future. We have prepared an overview to assist residents and architects, and details about the process and the information required will be available on the GRA website shortly. The character of Greenside’s houses and streetscape is one of the aspects which attracts people to the suburb, and contributes to the value of homes in Greenside, so it is important to conserve the architecture and special features of houses in the suburb. If you see construction work going on which seems out of order, please do not hesitate to bring this to the attention of the GRA who can then follow up with PHRAG and the City’s building control department. We are currently dealing with a very unfortunate case where one of Greenside’s most charming old houses was demolished to make way for a new dwelling, with the demolition being very advanced by the time the GRA became aware of it. There is a lot of confusion about the different permits and licences which are required for businesses to operate and often problems have been caused by liquor licences being granted to businesses for uses or activities which are not permitted in terms of the fundamental property zoning rights. The property rights must be in place in the first place. Then the trade licence and liquor licence are issued for a particular business entity to trade. The GRA have submitted objections for a number of liquor licence applications by businesses for uses which are not regarded as suitable for the node – particularly where the licence applications are for restaurants which are already contravening their town planning rights by trading as pubs or clubs and causing the kind of urban management problems which are causing such disturbance to residents and law abiding businesses. Bridget Steer will elaborate on the whole issue of liquor licences in her report back ……. Compliance Report Back – Bridget Steer This has been a very busy and successful year for us in terms of tackling Non-compliance
issues in the Suburb! The GRA was invited by CoJ Transport Dept to attend Preliminary Paid Parking Discussions
in August 2014. When discussing the Parking Problems with them we advised them that the
City had in fact caused a number, if not most, of the traffic and parking problems
themselves, by either allowing illegal land uses, businesses or not enforcing their own bylaws.
The GRA and Cllr. Amanda Forsythe demanded that a formal audit was done by the various
City Departments to evaluate the non-compliance situation on the High Street to determine
how the parking problem had come to be. The area to be audited was Gleneagles from
Barry Hertzog to the intersection of Greenfield / Glenside, and Greenway Road from Hoylake
to Gleneagles.
One of the main issues that came up was that in a very short space of time Greenside had
gone from having a couple restaurants to having 18. Logically if each of these restaurants
each has 30 patrons at the same time, we potentially have about 600 people in the area,
which in turn means about 150 cars! That in its self is a problem. However problem has
been further exacerbated because some of these restaurants are actually operating a clubs,
so this number now jumps to upwards to 1000 people in the area. This means that people
are now spilling out of the venues and onto the streets, vehicles are being parked on
Residential roads, and the late night revelry is disturbing the peace and keeping residents
awake until past 2am most nights.
This issue also has the knock on effect of bringing car guards into the area. As we all know,
the car guards are actually nothing more than a nuisance and are usually involved in criminal
behaviour, drug pedalling and are commonly drunk.
Working with the GLB we confirmed that no Club Liquor Licences have ever been issued in
Greenside. There are only Restaurant Liquor Licences. The GLB also advised that they
would not consider a Club Liquor Licence appropriate for a residential area like Greenside.
CoJ Health Department, who issue the Business Licences for Restaurants and Clubs
(Places of Amusement / Entertainment) also confirmed that they have not, and would not,
issue any Club Licences in a residential area.
So we asked ourselves, how does Greenside have legal nightclubs? The answer is - We
don’t – they are all illegal!
In October of 2014 the GRA and Cllr. Amanda Forsythe met with the Head of Compliance at
the GLB and presented evidence of all the clubs that were operating in Greenside. The GLB
then send their own inspectors to Greenside to investigate and verify our concerns. Having
received the reports back from the inspectors confirming non-compliant use of Liquor
Licences, the GLB issued 7 non-compliance notices to various establishments in Greenside.
These establishments were given 30 day to comply and right their ways. Some took this
seriously and decided to change their business models, some didn’t.
One of those businesses issued with a non-compliance order was Tokyo Star. Unfortunately
rather than accept that they were trading illegally, they decided to try and apply for a Licence
for a Place of Amusement to legitimise their business. The Notice of the Application from
the Building / Land Owners went up early Nov 2014. The GRA immediately started an
Objection campaign to oppose this application and in a matter of 3 weeks we managed to
gather over 700 objections. This was an overwhelmingly positive result, and sent a very
clear message that the residents and businesses of Greenside will not tolerate Night Clubs
in the Suburb.
In January of 2015 a Summons for Non-Complaince was issued by the GLB to Tokyo Star.
At the same time the Building owners put up a further notice indicating that they would be
applying for a Pub Liquor Licence.
The Tokyo Star hearings started in February and finished in March. The result was that the
GLB decided to revoke and cancel the Liquor Licence.
We were very fortunate in that the building “Comtec House” was sold to the Business
tenants, who took ownership in February of this year. The building is now called “Greenside
Studios”. The new owners immediately engaged with the GRA and realising the problems
with the illegal activities of Tokyo Star, they cancelled the Application for a Place of
Amusement and withdrew the application for a Pub Liquor Licence. After failed negotiations
to get Tokyo Star to operate as a bone-fide restaurant, the building owners were forced to
evict Tokyo Star from the premises late March 2015.
This was a hugely successful campaign for the Residents. We thank everyone involved.
The GLB have assured us that they will be issuing further summons to other establishments
who are trading illegally and causing nuisances during the course of the year
Town Planning Law Enforcement has issued TP 15’s for illegal land use against the owner of
the illegal parking lots on Mowbray Road. We await further updates from their legal
department as to what will become of these spaces.
One of the other issues Town Planning Law Enforcement has noted is that the northern
section of Gleneagles, from Barry Hertzog to Greenfield Road, has many illegal retail
businesses operating without consent. This section is buffer zone, where only offices and
showrooms are permitted, so as to protect the residents on Summerside and Greenfield
Roads from noise and evening trade disturbances. Aside from one Erf that has be re-zoned
for business to allow for high denisity residential purposes, most of these properties are still
zoned Residential with no consent use at all. This year we will be engaging with the
landowners in this specific section to assist them with getting the correct zoning in place.
Unfortunately retail uses cannot be supported, as they are not permitted in terms of the
RSDF. Town Planning Enforcement has indicated to us that non-compliant landowners
operating businesses in Greenside without proper zoning can expect to be back fined for
business rates plus additional penalties. We urge anyone who may be affected to contact us
so we can assist them in getting the correct zoning in place as soon as possible.
I think we can all agree that we have already seen a dramatic turnaround on the High Street.
I am confident that we will continue to see the more improvements as we further engage with
the residents and businesses.
It’s comforting to know that we all have a common vision for our lovely suburb and that most
of us are committed to achieving our goal of Greenside being Clean, Green and Safe.
Finally I would like to extend my most grateful thanks to Carol and the GRA Committee for
their support this year. Amanda Forsythe for her support, invaluable advice and facilitating
meetings for us with the Liquor Board and all the City Departments. A special mention to a
wonderful group of Residents who have consistently offered their support, legal advice and
put very long hours into our campaigns. Thank you so much!