The City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Ernest Sonnenberg, conducted a site visit to Pelican Park on Monday, 22 October 2012.
” I am very excited about this project because it is a mixed use development and will bring together people from different income groups. The houses are aesthetically pleasing and it is a ground breaking project because it brings together a diverse group of people. This is in line with our goal to create integrated human settlements and encapsulates all five strategic focus areas of the city namely, an opportunity city, a safe city, a caring city, an inclusive city and a well-run city,” said the councillor.
Pelican Park is one of Cape Town’s biggest housing development projects currently under construction and will house about 3 200 families when complete. Situated between Zeekoevlei and Strandfontein Road, about five kilometres north of the False Bay coast, it will feature 2 100 subsidy houses, 760 GAP houses, 70 shops/houses and 360 open market houses. The development also includes the provision of two sites for schools, a clinic and another community utility, places of worship, as well as a commercial precinct.
The current development is in phase one, immediately north of the existing Pelican Park. Phase two will be planned on approximately the same size piece of ground immediately south of the existing Pelican Park while phase three will comprise a limited number of erven on the east and west fringes of Pelican Heights.
The land between phase two and Pelican Heights is in the process of being declared a nature reserve, on account of the “dune strandveld” ecosystems that prevail. This is one of the last remaining viable examples of the system in the metro.
The Pelican Park project is sensitive to the environment and houses will feature a 100-litre solar water heating system and grey water recycling. The subsidy houses will also have solar water heating systems, electricity reticulated to plug points and lights in all rooms, a tiled roof, street boundary walls, lateral and rear boundary fences, solid hardwood external doors, and a grassed front yard which enhances the value of the homes. In addition, all electricity power reticulation in the subsidy housing precincts will be underground, in keeping with the rest of the development and reducing the maintenance costs for the City in future.
Pelican Park was acquired by the government in the 1980s for the development of housing, but two previous attempts to further develop Pelican Park housing estate failed due to a lack of funding.
The city recently finalised its list of 2 000 potential beneficiaries for the development.
