{"id":252316,"date":"2023-03-10T09:23:36","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T07:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/article\/cape-towns-notorious-unfinished-freeway-finally-gives-way-to-foreshore-development\/"},"modified":"2023-03-10T09:23:36","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T07:23:36","slug":"cape-towns-notorious-unfinished-freeway-finally-gives-way-to-foreshore-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cape-towns-notorious-unfinished-freeway-finally-gives-way-to-foreshore-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town\u2019s notorious unfinished freeway finally gives way to Foreshore development"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article_body\">\n<p><a class=\"bigger-image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/media\/uploads\/images\/photographers\/Steve%20Kretzmann\/bokaapquarry2.jpeg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cape-towns-notorious-unfinished-freeway-finally-gives-way-to-foreshore-development.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"caption\">Release of land along Buitengracht Street is the beginning of the development of the Gateway Precinct. Photo: Steve Kretzmann\/WCN<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Land reserved for Cape Town\u2019s notorious unfinished Foreshore freeway project has been relinquished by the province to the City.<\/li>\n<li>This removes the main obstacle to develop the Gateway Precinct that will link the Foreshore, Bo-Kaap and De Waterkant.<\/li>\n<li>Activist organisations have pushed for affordable housing to be included in any such development.<\/li>\n<li>Questions over the future of the unfinished freeway remain.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Development of Cape Town Gateway Precinct, linking the Foreshore to the Bo-Kaap, De Waterkant and the V&amp;A Waterfront, can now begin as land along lower Buitengracht Street has been released to the City by the provincial government.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt class=\"leave\" height=\"1\" id=\"gu_counter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cape-towns-notorious-unfinished-freeway-finally-gives-way-to-foreshore-development.gif\" width=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p>Development has been held back for 40 years because of a road reserve along Buitengracht Street kept by the provincial government for the unfinished Foreshore freeway.<\/p>\n<p>The 11,254m<sup>2<\/sup> of land released to the City of Cape Town on 20 January was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.capetown.gov.za\/Media-and-news\/Buitengracht%20road%20scheme%20amended%20to%20release%20City%20land%20for%20development\">announced<\/a> by the City on 14 February.<\/p>\n<p>The land is made up of vacant plots and parking lots along Buitengracht Street, held in line with a 1970s\u2019 plan to create a ring road linking the Foreshore freeway \u2013 nicknamed \u201cSolly\u2019s Folly\u201d after city engineer<a href=\"https:\/\/journals.co.za\/doi\/pdf\/10.10520\/AJA10212019_16097\"> Solly Morris<\/a> \u2013 to Buitengracht Street between Walter Sisulu Avenue and Wale Street.<\/p>\n<p>The City applied to the province in May 2020. It said in a media statement that the road reserve was \u201coutdated\u201d and prevented significant portions of land from being developed.<\/p>\n<p>The Urban Catalytic Investment branch of the City is now in the process of applying to the Development Management Department to rezone the land \u201cto maximise the full development potential\u201d for \u201cretail, commercial, and residential opportunities\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The vacant land was identified in <a href=\"https:\/\/nu.org.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/City-Leases-Cape-Towns-Failure-to-Redistribute-Land.pdf\">a proposal<\/a> for well-located affordable housing published by housing activist organisation Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU) in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The organisation identified 13,700m<sup>2<\/sup> of City-owned land along lower Buitengracht Street that could be developed to provide between 719 and 1,079 affordable housing units in eight to 12-storey mixed-use, mixed-income buildings.<\/p>\n<p>NU did not seem to be aware that most of the land it identified was being held in check by the provincial government at the time.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subheading\">Nothing decided<\/h2>\n<p>Nick Budlender, a researcher at NU, said the organisation would continue to push for affordable housing to be developed along the Buitengracht corridor. He said NU welcomed the release of the land, and that it was \u201cboth desirable and possible\u201d to use it to build a mixture of affordable and market-rate housing.<\/p>\n<p>He said the organisation stood by its 2019 proposals, but the number of units proposed would need to be re-evaluated in line with current pricing models.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe City needs to consult with social housing institutions and companies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing has been decided as yet,\u201d said Deputy Mayor Eddie Andrews, who is Mayco Member for Spatial Planning and Environment.<\/p>\n<p>Andrews said the Buitengracht land was part of the Gateway Precinct long-term vision for phased implementation of projects for the western edge of the city centre, parts of the Bo-Kaap, and De Waterkant. This included \u201csignificant public realm improvements\u201d along with \u201cpossible land disposals in line with the relevant and applicable planning policies\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said opportunities for future development included: the Strand Street Quarry as a possible community sports and recreation facility with infrastructure supporting tourism and employment, development of new pedestrian corridors and public parks linking Bo-Kaap, De Waterkant, V&amp;A Waterfront and central business district, as well as new public squares linking Battery Park to Green Market Square.<\/p>\n<p>He invited the submission of ideas and proposals for the land and stated he would announce when a public participation process is opened.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"subheading\">Unfinished freeway an open question<\/h2>\n<p>The question of whether the Foreshore freeway will ever be completed remains open.<\/p>\n<p>Mayco Member for Urban Mobility Rob Quintas said the directorate was working on several proposals for the unfinished freeway.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe work is still at a very early stage, as such, there is no further information available at this point in time,\u201d said Quintas.<\/p>\n<p>In the five year <a href=\"https:\/\/resource.capetown.gov.za\/documentcentre\/Documents\/City%20strategies,%20plans%20and%20frameworks\/IDP_2022-2027.pdf\">integrated development plan<\/a> 2022 to 2027, the City states it will \u201cpursue the completion of the Foreshore freeway\u201d as part of a Targeted Road Capacity Enhancement Project. The Foreshore freeway remains listed under Planned Roads and Streets in the<a href=\"https:\/\/resource.capetown.gov.za\/documentcentre\/Documents\/City%20strategies,%20plans%20and%20frameworks\/Table_Bay_DSDF_EMF_Vol1.pdf\"> Table Bay District Plan<\/a>, while development of the Foreshore Freeway Precinct is listed as an opportunity.<\/p>\n<p>The Cape Town State of Energy and Carbon <a href=\"https:\/\/resource.capetown.gov.za\/documentcentre\/Documents\/City%20research%20reports%20and%20review\/CT_State_of%20Energy_and_Carbon_Report_2021.pdf\">2021 report<\/a> also states \u201ca solution will be pursued\u201d for the unfinished freeway, including the viability of completing the inner viaducts.<\/p>\n<p>The report also states public land in the Foreshore precinct can be used for housing provision in the inner city.<\/p>\n<p>The one building that is situated on the former road reserve is the popular Fireman\u2019s Arms pub, established in 1864. Owner Kevin Phelan said upon hearing of the release of the land he wrote a letter to the City stating he\u2019d like to buy the land on which the pub is situated to secure its future.<\/p>\n<p>Phelan said he sent the letter two weeks ago but has not yet received a reply.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are still investigating how this building can be incorporated into, or complement future development,\u201d said Andrews in relation to the Fireman\u2019s Arms.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"article_copyright\">\n<p>\u00a9 2023 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a <a href=\"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nd\/4.0\/\" rel=\"license\">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You may republish this article, so long as you credit the authors and GroundUp, and do not change the text. Please include a link back to the original article.<\/p>\n<p>We put an invisible pixel in the article so that we can count traffic to republishers. All analytics tools are solely on our servers. We do not give our logs to any third party. Logs are deleted after two weeks. We do not use any IP address identifying information except to count regional traffic. We are solely interested in counting hits, <b>not tracking<\/b> users. If you republish, please do not delete the invisible pixel.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cape-towns-notorious-unfinished-freeway-finally-gives-way-to-foreshore-development.jpg\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.groundup.org.za\/\">Source: GroundUp<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Release of land along Buitengracht Street is the beginning of the development of the Gateway Precinct. Photo: Steve Kretzmann\/WCN Land reserved for Cape Town\u2019s notorious unfinished Foreshore freeway project has been relinquished by the province to the City. This removes the main obstacle to develop the Gateway Precinct that will link the Foreshore, Bo-Kaap and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":252317,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9928,3247],"tags":[28001],"class_list":{"0":"post-252316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-groundup","8":"category-news","9":"tag-groundup","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cape-towns-notorious-unfinished-freeway-finally-gives-way-to-foreshore-development.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}