PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - The decades-long controversy over the concrete ''eyesore'' on Signal Hill in Plett is expected to be over by the end of the month.
A final resolution seems to be on the cards: the Bitou Council is to bite the bullet at its next meeting and go ahead with a demolition order granted in 2016, which will cost an estimated R688 000 (excluding Vat) to complete.
"It's the first major clean-up action by the new coalition government in the Bitou Council," said Mayor Dave Swart.
He told a recent ward report-back meeting that the council decided to finally bring to an end to a ''decades-long saga of skulduggery and alleged corruption" by parties involved in the matter.
The structure, in Sinclair Street, is in one of Plett's most sought-after and affluent residential areas where property prices reach about R15m. Erf 156 is currently zoned as single residential and an application has been made to rezone it to allow for a proposed 18-room boutique hotel. However, no plans have been passed for a proposed boutique hotel on the site.
Mason Lecuona, the present owner, whose father started the construction more than 30 years ago, says it has been "a nightmare" for him working with some former Bitou municipal officials.
"It has taken so many years to rezone - and it has been approved - on the advice of independent consultants by the council," says Lecuona, whose father died in 2010.
Asked about rumours of corruption connected to Erf 156, Lecuona says a former mayor, via a third party, had hinted that a bribe should be paid to him.
"I refused," says Lecuona, who has written a narrative on the property which he says was therapeutic for him.
The four-storey concrete structure has been dubbed "Villa Vagrants" after homeless people started squatting there, leaving the structure in a terrible mess, according to neighbours. "They used to sit on top of the structure drinking - and then hurled the empty bottles as missiles onto neighbouring residences," one said.
Plastic containers were apparently burned to provide warmth for the vagrants and the resultant smoke and pollution was a health hazard for neighbours.
The property will be going under the hammer on a live virtual auction at the Bryanston County Club in Sandton on 8 September.
Auctioneer Shawn van Jaarsveld of High Street Auctions said the process will be open and transparent and that those participating in the auction for Erf 156 will be supplied with all documents, including the demolition order. The documents also contain a resolution taken in February this year that revokes a previous acting mayor and sitting councillor's approval for an 18-room boutique hotel.
As seen from above, the building is still incomplete.
Auction documents include:
- Demolition Court Order, 2016
- 21 June 2021: acting executive mayor decision granting approval for rezoning from Single Residential to General Residential
- 21 January 2022: council minutes on a motion passed to revoke the acting executive mayor's decision
- Sigma Consulting Engineer report
- Plett Hotel SDP
The engineering report concludes that the structure can be developed into an occupied building, but that some structural rehabilitation and strengthening is required.
The face of the eyesore.
Ratepayers Association
The Plettenberg Bay Ratepayers and Residents Association described it as an "unsightly skeleton" of a four-storey building high up on the eastern side of the Signal Hill viewsite that has not been completed for more than three decades and an "eyesore" clearly visible from Central Beach.
The association said that the "unsightly" structure on Erf 156 is illegal and that the original building was constructed without approved plans or approval from the municipality. Building and zoning restrictions were also ignored and repeated orders to cease construction were defied.
"The family-owned property has been involved in much litigation over the years, due to the illegal construction, culminating in a court order ordering the owner to demolish the building within 210 days in November 2016, failing which the municipality was authorised to demolish the structure.
"As the owner had failed to comply with the court order, demolition tenders were issued in 2018 and provision was made in the municipal budget of several million rand for the demolition. However, this was never carried out and in April 2018, the owner lodged an application to develop the structure into an 18-unit boutique hotel."
The view of Plettenberg Bay from the building.
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