Friends of Stellenbosch Mountain

FSM Home      Documents      News      Legal      Climate      Environment      Solutions

Current Documents 2018/19

This page:
Agricultural land around Stellenbosch: suspicious exemptions granted by the Department of Agriculture
Stellenbosch IDP and MSDF Documents
Stellenbosch Transport and NMT Documents
Stellenbosch Road Proposals including Roads Master Plan, Western Bypass, R44 upgrade, Eastern link proposals
Stellenbosch Integrated Zoning Scheme October 2018

Specific developments

Farm 372 (Welgegund) development proposals

• The Farm 372 development proposals are intimately connected to the aspirations of building the Eastern Link Road. Detailed documents will be added here in time.

Brandwacht (Farm 1049) urban edge extension

• The remainder of Farm 1049 (Brandwacht) has been included into the new urban edge; see the yellow area south of Brandwacht suburb. See the full map of the proposed urban edge proposal in the 2019 draft MSDF in its Figure 28 More detail will be added here in time.
• Brandwacht application for development, Item 10 of Section 6.2.1 of the Council agenda of 28 May 2018

Paradyskloof Special Development Area proposal

• The Paradyskloof Special Development Area was initiated as an incoherent take-a-chance proposal in 2015. It was fortunately not approved but has made a re-appearance as a proposed extension of the urban edge, the square shown in yellow just below Brandwacht in Figure 28 of the draft MSDF. More detail will be added here in time.
• CBA status

Stellenbosch Road System

Road network in general

• Presentation on draft so-called "Roads Master Plan" as given at the 13 September 2018 meeting of the Mobility Forum
• Map of proposed development contributions showing many new roads being proposed without due process, 31 May 2017
• Questions submitted by FSM in November 2017 as part of the MSDF process regarding the roads proposals
• The cursory reply received in June 2018, seven months later, does not answer the questions at all
• See also 2017/18 Documents

Eastern "Link Road" proposal

• FSM map connecting the dots:  Current and developer-envisioned road network. Relevant existing roads are marked in green, including the R44, Paradyskloof Road marked "P", Wildebosch Road as "W", Blaauwklippen Road as "B", Schuilplaats Road as "S" and Trumali Road as "T". Portions 2, 3 and 4 of Farm 372 approved for development are marked in yellow. Marked in purple and red are the successive "links" in the entire road "chain": WL represents the "Western Link", the RMP-envisaged link between Technopark and Wildebosch Rd, L2 the existing Wildebosch link, L3 a, b and c the three alternative links between Wildebosch Rd and Trumali Rd, L4 the envisaged link between Trumali Rd and Brandwacht suburb, and the dotted lines of L5 the last remaining link between Brandwacht and Central Stellenbosch.
• Letter by DTPW (provincial Department of Transport and Public Works) of 6 April 2017 in connection with a local development application on Farm 372 (Paradyskloof), going beyond that issue to push for the Eastern "Link" in Item 10.
• See also unanswered questions submitted by FSM in November 2017

Western Bypass proposal

• One map of proposed route among others
• ICE Status Report letter 23 April 2017
• Provisional Traffic Modelling results 30 May 2017. These and all current traffic modelling results are in dispute and cannot be trusted.
• Private Transport Variable Demand Assignment, 2017. Numbers are disputed.
• Letter from Stellenbosch Municipality to DTPW of 23 November 2016 in which Stellenbosch Municipality links the R44 upgrade proposal to the Western Bypass
• The letter from Stellenbosch Municipality to CCA of 30 January 2017 explicitly asks the R44 environmental assessment practitioners to include the Western Bypass in the report.
• See also unanswered questions submitted by FSM

R44 upgrade proposals 2013-2019

• 27 August 2019: R44 upgrade proposals: The appeals lodged against the Environmental Authorisation of 29 March 2018 have been largely dismissed. Here is the complete letter from DEADP to DTPW. Voluminous explanations made in Reasons for Decision. Some changes to the major intersections are made; see the Annexures on the last five pages. Some background material appears here; see also Eikestadnuus of 9 Sept 2019.
• The EIA was coordinated by CCA Environmental which is now part of SLR Consulting. The full report is no longer online.
• HC Eggers appeal against the Environmental Authorisation
• Revised Final Basic Assessment Report of proposed R44 upgrades (RFBAR) by CCA Environmental
• Environmental Authorisation of R44 upgrade by DEADP
• 2013 Comment by Councillor Izak Fourie criticising lack of integration
• Letter from Stellenbosch Municipality to CCA of 28 May 2014 setting out in detail why the municipality opposes the proposed upgrades
• Letter from Stellenbosch Municipality to CCA of 12 April 2016 affirms the letter of 2014
• Letter from Stellenbosch Municipality to DTPW of 15 November 2016 and Letter from Stellenbosch Municipality to CCA of 23 November 2016 in which the Municipality is suddenly in favour of the R44 upgrade proposal after previously opposing it.
• Letter from Stellenbosch Municipality to CCA of 30 January 2017 linking the R44 to the Western Bypass
• First set of comments by CCA on the letters; Second Set
• HC Eggers 2016 Comments on Revised DBAR

Stellenbosch IDP and MSDF Documents

• Draft 2019 MSDF as published for comment
• Schedule of IDP public participation meetings, first round
• Draft Process Plan setting out the various dates and governing legislation
• IDP as approved in May 2018
• MSDF as approved in May 2018
• Stellenbosch Urban Edge appearing in the 2018/19 MSDF
• 2005 Urban Edge Guidelines and the 2005 Urban Edge Report
• the current Urban Edge as determined by Stellenbosch Heritage Survey
• Applications for development as listed in the Council agenda of 28 May 2018, including Remainder of Brandwacht Farm 1049 above Brandwacht On River by TV3, Libertas and Fleurbaix by Foundation Capital, Mountain Breeze Farm 1166 by TV3.
• Transit-Oriented Development (2015): good report by Royal Haskoning on sustainable development around the Adam Tas/R44 corridor, the train stations, van der Stel etc. This should be the starting point for both spatial and transport planning discussions
• Shaping Stellenbosch Report (2016): a good guide to what should have been included into the MSDF from the start
• last year's IDP of 2017 and MSDF of 2017
• Draft IDP of 2018 leading up to the above final document
• See also Documents up to April 2017
  

Stellenbosch Transport and NMT Documents

• Stellenbosch Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan (CITP) 2016-2020
• Summary of 2017-2020 Stellenbosch MTREF Budgets, note especially the last lines on Page 24.
• Council Item on Public Transport Memorandum of Agreement, 16 November 2016
• Memorandum of Agreement on Public Transport signed between Province and Municipality in July 2016

Provincial Sustainable Transport Programme (PSTP)

• Presentation at Council November 2016
• Powerpoint Presentation, November 2017
• Business Plan dated December 2016 part of November 2017 Agenda
• Business Plan Executive Summary of December 2016, part of November 2017 Agenda

Stellenbosch Mobility Forum

• 31 July 2019 MF meeting: transcript and draft minutes
• 2 April 2019 MF meeting: transcript and minutes as amended by Municipality (still being disputed)
• 29 January 2019 MF meeting: transcript and minutes
• 21 November 2018 MF meeting: transcript minutes plus the presentation by Transport Futures.
• Presentation on Draft so-called "Roads Master Plan" given at Mobility Forum meeting on 13 September 2018
• Partial transcript which was updated a few days later to correct obvious omissions and errors
• Presentation at launch of Mobility Forum in May 2018
• Constitution of the Mobility Forum

Transport-related facts and research

• A study done in 2018 in San Francisco shows that Uber and Lyft do not help in solving traffic congestion problems but make them worse. Sustainable mobility is not necessarily aided by modern technology. What matters is that more people use public transport and NMT, not that more use Transportation Network Companies such as Uber and Lyft.

Integrated Zoning Scheme (IZS)

• October 2018 Draft Integrated Zoning Scheme together with Comments and Responses and other appendices
• Zoning Maps October 2018:   Stellenbosch Rural North    Stellenbosch Rural South    Franschhoek Rural
  Cloetesville    Idas Valley    Uniepark    Stellenbosch Central    Die Boord    Onderpapegaaiberg    Paradyskloof    Jamestown    De Zalze    Kayamandi    Franschhoek 1    Franschhoek 2    Franschhoek 3    Wemmershoek    Kylemore    Pniel-Lanquedoc    La Motte    Lynedoch    Raithby    Vlottenburg    Klapmuts    Devonvale   

Agricultural Land around Stellenbosch: suspicious exemptions granted

• 20 April 2018 letter by Stellenbosch Municipality Heritage Survey Report regarding the suspicious exemption of some agricultural land as per the Government Gazette below. Normally, any land proposed for subdivision must obtain permission by the national Department of Agriculture, so any application for exemption for a particular farm implies that there is an intention to develop or at least subdivide such farm.
• See also Stellenbosch Heritage Foundation   Heritage Western Cape
• Government Gazette of March 2018, declaring many erven and farms exempt from the Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act of 1970
• Partial map of farms and erven as identified by Stellenbosch Heritage Survey. These include many farms on the route of the proposed Western Bypass, the Libertas and Fleurbaix farms which submitted application for inclusion into the urban edge in May 2018 as well as large tracts in and around Jamestown. Even the Papegaaiberg Nature Reserve is included. See the 20 April 2018 letter for many more maps.
• This Government Gazette raises many questions; for example: Who applied for these exemptions? Was there some local agent who collected and submitted all these cadaster numbers? Did that agent have permission from the land owners of these farms and erven to do so? Is the fact that these exemptions seem to coincide with current (and possible future) development applications significant? Were these applications submitted for vetting by the local and provincial authorities? How are such exemptions conveyed from a town to the national Department of Agriculture? If they were not, why not? If they were, what motivated the approvals? Did the national Department of Agriculture do background checks?