West Coast: SANParks turned land into an eysore

[Toko]

Langebaan beachfront properties an eyesore, warns consultantt

THURSDAY APR 11, 2013


SA National Parks and the defence force have severely neglected prime beachfront properties in Langebaan and turned once prime land into an eyesore, a consultant hired by the local council says.

Langebaan lagoon.

Town planner Francois du Toit, who was engaged by the Saldanha Bay Municipal Council to develop plans to revitalise the Langebaan beachfront areas, said the site was the most valuable for tourism anywhere on the coast from Cape Town to Namibia.

The Langebaan Residents' and Ratepayers' Association has vociferously opposed the plan to put 20 homes for soldiers and their families on the park's site. Chairman Jaco Kotze said SANParks bought the site in 1991 with public donations so that the land was incorporated in the park.

The planned housing will not fit in with plans to develop the area as a tourism node and almost all adjoining property owners of prime land opposed the idea of staff housing.

"To have defence force housing in this area would be as senseless as moving Youngsfield to the V&A Waterfront," he said.

SANParks itself opposes the plan by the Public Works Department - custodian of all state-owned land - to give the defence force a site the parks body has earmarked for a major tourist development.

SANParks manager of planning and development Willem Louw said last week that it had decided to vacate its Langebaan offices this year as it wanted to see long-standing plans come to fruition for a public-private partnership to develop a major new tourist centre to include a new hotel.

Various plans and proposals for such a development dated from the 1980s and the schemes had never got off the ground, he said. It was, however, likely to be given a shot in the arm by municipal thinking on what should happen in the area.

Louw said the parks body was determined to not give up the plot for housing and had decided to move its own offices this year to a site still to be decided on inside the park.

The SANParks office is a blight on the beachfront, along with a navy yard and jetty, SAS Flamingo. Its main purpose is to embark troops daily for training at their Donkergat facilities.

At the meeting Du Toit outlined plans for redevelopment of both sides of Main Street as a trendy magnet for family tourism that would take in the SANParks building and adjacent proposed defence force housing. Some of his proposals raised heated debate when he presented them to the public last month.

Du Toit proposes that the Main Street precinct be developed as a professional and tourism-related business district with medium-density housing and well planned public open spaces.

Langebaan's councillor on the Saldahna Bay municipal council, former army general André Kruger, said the defence force needed to be approached with care.

He warned that the military base had "quite a lot of clout nationally. They won't stand by while their facilities are eroded".

Du Toit said concerted community pressure could force authorities to incorporate SANParks and SANDF areas in the town's plan.

Cape Times