The City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee has adopted a recommendation to remove the Wynberg by-pass scheme – one of a number of outdated Road Schemes in the city. This proposal will now serve before the next full meeting of Council.
The Transport Department is in the process of reviewing approved Road Schemes in the city to determine which can be abandoned. A large number of Road Schemes are no longer required in terms of the City’s updated Road Network Hierarchical Classification Plan and can be scrapped.
The withdrawal of the Wynberg Road Scheme is being made in terms of the New Cape Town Zoning Scheme which will be in place within the next three to four months. It will still take approximately eight months to complete the process.
In 1992 about 300 Road Schemes were recorded which all have to be assessed and either retained, reviewed or abandoned. The assessment process is resource-intensive and requires time to complete. A total of 42 Road Schemes have been identified for scrapping since 1992.
The City’s current Road Scheme Review Plan can be broken down as follows: 316 Road Schemes are under review, with 171 still to be reviewed. Of the remaining 145:
- 15 will be retained
- 69 are currently being reviewed
- 19 are already built
- 42 are being abandoned
“The Road Schemes have resulted in hardship and frustration for property owners and, where reviewed or scrapped, will bring welcome relief as it will free up land for development and allow improvements that have not been possible for many years,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Transport, Roads and Stormwater, Councillor Brett Herron.
The Transport Network and Infrastructure Development Branch of the City has held discussions with officials of the Development Policies and Processes Branch of the Planning and Building Development Management Department, and an appropriate way of removing formerly approved Road Schemes has been established.
“The original Wynberg by-pass scheme is one of a number of approved Road Schemes impacting on the Wynberg CBD and environs that needs to be removed. As a result of the complexity of the project, it was decided not to remove them all at once but to start with the oldest most outdated Road Scheme, the original Wynberg by-pass scheme,” said Councillor Herron.
Council will now be asked to approve this recommendation and amend the City’s zoning map accordingly. The Wynberg by-pass scheme (scheme 656) is located within the boundaries of Subcouncil 20. The subcouncil has expressed support for this removal.
Scheme 656 is listed as a proposed new street and a number of properties are affected. The 61 properties (51 private, 9 City, 1 National Government owned) currently occupy 18,4ha – of which 2,8ha is sterilised by the Road Scheme. The properties are mainly residential properties with the exception of Maynardville Park.
