Video
MOSSEL BAY NEWS - By today, about 200 Mossel Bay Advertiser Facebook page users had commented, expressing their opposition to the housing development proposed along the watercourse in Voorbaai between Island View and Vogelsang Landgoed.
And dozens of Facebook users backed these comments with thumbs-up and so forth, adding their opposition to the development - amounting a substantial number of people opposing the development.
The small river flows to the beach between Dias Beach and Bay View, where it is known as the Twee Kuilen River.
On Friday, 7 March, Mossel Bay Advertiser published an article about the proposed housing project, Eagle Creek.
Then it posted the article on the Advertiser Facebook page on Saturday, 8 March.
The development is proposed for a wetland, susceptible to flooding. The wetland is classified as "sensitive" and sustains antelope, tortoises, turtles, mongoose, several types of birds and indigenous flora, including milkwood trees.
See a video of antelope in the wetland taken on Monday below:
Vogelsang residents also posted their concerns about the development on the public community Facebook page, Mosselbaai Staan Saam, where, in response, someone posted a picture of the river in flood, published in Mossel Bay Advertiser in 1998. Dozens of people expressed their opposition to the development on this Facebook page as well.
Petition
By today, 395 people had signed an ipetitions petition online against the housing project and more than 200 people had posted comments with their signing.
Vogelsang residents met their ward councillor, Stephan Botha, yesterday, Thursday 13 March, to express their opposition to the housing plan.
They asked Botha to request a meeting for them with Mossel Bay mayor Dirk Kotzé in the city hall to accommodate other interested parties because there has been such a public outcry.
Botha undertook to speak to the mayor. The manager and chairman of Twee Kuilen housing complex (alongside the Twee Kuilen River) in Dias were also at the meeting and voiced their concerns.
Vogelsang residents have said they are not aware that any public participation process on the project had taken place.
The municipality noted: "The necessary land use application for the development was submitted to the municipality in terms of its planning by-laws, processed accordingly and approved by the municipality.
See a document here: EAGLE CREEK REZONING MOTIVATION.pdf
"The prescribed public participation process was followed during this land use application process.
"This included a notice published in the local newspaper. This same notice was distributed to the affected landowners in the surrounding area.
"The same notice was also shared with the home owners’ association of Vogelsang."
Read a previous article here: Residents oppose 103-unit housing complex planned for Voorbaai wetland
Bushbuck photographed on Monday, 10 March, in the area where the housing complex is planned. Photos and video: Jurie Strydom
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