Sisa Ngebulana’s Billion Property Group (BPG) has announced plans to build a mixed-use affordable housing complex of 5,528 flatlets and 1,408 town houses in the East Coast Crossways area in Kwelerha.
But a few community WhatsApp groups in the area believe it will never happen.
An application for the authorisation of an environmental scoping report, the first step, was posted yesterday in the Daily Dispatch by Hanlie van Greunen, an environmental consultant with Environmental Consultants International (ECI), for the development of Farm 1476, bordering the Crossways settlement and several farms.
BPG owns the 467ha farm, of which the affordable housing and open spaces will occupy 103ha.
The farm had been intended to be the Sinati Coastal Golf Estate, but was abandoned when demand for golfing villages started collapsing after 2010.
Ngebulana said the new development would start gradually and keep pace with essential infrastructure requirements.
It would eventually include community amenities, a primary school, a sports complex and shops.
“It took us more than five years to get the first environmental impact assessment [for the golf estate], so it is unlikely that this one will happen quickly.”
He said the project was perfect for an area that had a shortage of affordable accommodation.
Van Greunen said interested and affected parties had 30 days to register.
Already more than 300 people had registered, due mainly to speculation about mass low-cost housing, which was “far from the truth”.
She said the proposed site was in the north of the farm, bordering on the Crossways village and close to Schafli Road, and well away from the Gonubie River and beach.
“It is far smaller than the specifications circulating on social media.”
She said social media reports referring to between 24,000 and 26,000 low-cost housing and 4,608 and 3,600 social development housing were false.
Van Greunen said the project had to satisfy a number of listed activities in terms of the 2014 National Environmental Management Authority's EIA regulations. Without the EIA the project could not start.
Johan Jansen, a director of East Coast Security, said he and his clients’ main concern was that should the project go ahead, the population would surge.
“From leaked documentation, which Van Greunen has now stated is incorrect, our estimate is that it would probably go up to about 150,000 residents, assuming five occupants per unit. The east coast infrastructure can’t handle it.”
Some of the group members were picturing a huge squatter camp, which was unfounded, he said.
“Most of the residents are likely to be employed and would commute to their places of work.”
His main worry was about services.
“BCM has a history of not managing effluent.
“Unless the developer is committed to building and managing a treatment plant, we must anticipate this area, the only pristine one left on the East London neighbouring coastline, going the way of Nahoon Beach, with water not fit for swimming.
“The result would be goodbye tourism.”
Dalene Atterbury of Gonubie Green, the environmentally friendly village bordering the river and sharing an entrance road with Sinati, was fearful that the project would destroy the area, but believed it would not get past the EIA concerns.
Alwyn Krull, owner of Sunrise Eggs, which borders Sinati, said he had been in contact with the developers.
“There is no plan to rush into building units. The project, so I am told, will go ahead slowly, one phase at a time.
“It will grow over many years, with infrastructure matching occupation.”
Chris Lindhorst, a director of Crossways SPAR, who with his brother Craig owns several properties in the area, said they were not at all threatened by the development.
“This is a long-term project. There will obviously be changes, but we don’t view them as detrimental.”
Financially, Ngebulana has had a rough ride recently, but when the self-made billionaire listed Rebosis, Billion’s real estate investment fund, it was the property sector’s biggest initial public offering and the first one owned by a black-controlled group.
He has developed several successful properties and malls, including Bay West City (Gqeberha), and Hemingways (East London).
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