By Eddie Andrews
Cape Town - Your front-page article “Al Jama-ah challenges City’s final draft of Bo-Kaap local spatial framework”, on Tuesday, refers: The allegations that the City ignored residents from Bo-Kaap during the process of drafting the local spatial development framework (LSDF) are simply not true.
The City followed an extensive and robust public participation process and these meetings were well attended.
Residents from Bo-Kaap had nearly four months to submit comments on the draft LSDF, and also, during this time, the City hosted numerous meetings to facilitate engagement with residents and stakeholders.
The public participation process comprised numerous engagement processes and collaborative workshops with a variety of stakeholders and interested and affected parties.
The statutory advertisement of the draft framework commenced on August 31, 2021, and was extended beyond the normal 60 days, until December 15, 2021, to City went to great lengths to engage Bo Kaap residents over spatial framework allow for greater involvement.
Despite the challenges we faced at the time due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the City embarked on broader discussions with the community.
The platform of these discussions varied and mostly took place during the evenings and weekends in an attempt to accommodate most of the residents and interested parties.
The following list highlights some of the public engagements that took place with residents, the Tana Baru Trust, and the Bo-Kaap Civic Ratepayers’ Association: An Open Day was held at the Schotschekloof Civic Centre on October 12, 2021.
The session was well attended with 44 members of the public, councillors and City officials. The session entailed a presentation and a plenary session.
Members of the public also engaged with posters on display and officials on the draft document content.
A walkabout was planned for Saturday October 23, 2021, with hopes of taking the community through the study area and highlighting some of the proposals. However, due to very poor attendance on the day, the walkabout had to be cancelled.
An in-person meeting with the Tana Baru Trust took place at the Civic Centre on November 11, 2021.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss proposals relating to the Tana Baru Cemetery and understand some of the challenges facing the site.
A site visit to the Tana Baru Cemetery took place on November 22, 2021, which better explained some of the issues raised in the previous meeting. It also helped officials visualise some of the proposals and potentials of the site.
An in-person meeting with the Bo-Kaap Civic Ratepayers’ Association was held at the Westec building in Bo-Kaap on December 8, 2021, with approximately 29 members of the public attending.
The purpose of the engagement was to get feedback on the draft LSDF and discuss key challenges and ways forward.
To accommodate members who were unable to attend in-person engagement sessions, an online survey was created to gather pertinent information.
In terms of our notification process, the City used various channels and platforms to reach out to residents and make them aware of the ongoing process.
The above highlights most of, but not all, the engagements done with the public. These do not include the various internal meetings and site visits conducted with City officials from various departments.
Andrews is the Deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment
Cape Times
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