26 December 2006

Essop to decide 2010 stadium rezoning

23 December 2006

Western Cape environment MEC Tasneem Essop would decide on the rezoning of the Green Point stadium in January next year, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Friday.

She would decide on the City of Cape Town's application for rezoning the stadium precinct from "public open space" to "community facilities" by the end of the first week in January, according to Rasool's statement.

This was agreed to on Friday following meetings between legal and technical experts from the Western Cape provincial government and the City of Cape Town.

Essop also needed to decide on appeals against the granting of authorisation, in terms of the Environment Conservation Act, for the stadium, urban park and associated infrastructure.

If Essop granted the rezoning, Cape Town's municipal council then had to determine the city's application for consent to build the stadium as well as an electrical substation.

If the council gave its approval for the construction, objectors could then appeal to Essop.

Rasool said the Western Cape government would ensure the city's "complex and interrelated" applications were dealt with as "lawfully and expeditiously as possible".

Cape Town mayor Helen Zille said she regretted that province had failed to meet a December 20 deadline to make the rezoning decisions.

"This [rezoning] decision is now extremely urgent, if we are to avoid undue delays in the preparations for 2010," she wrote in a statement.

The province previously claimed that a bungle by the city in the approvals process has threatened the already tight timetable for construction of the R2,9-billion project.

Zille has said there was nothing stopping Essop from making a decision on the city's rezoning application. It appeared that the province's motive was to try to force the city to agree to the establishment of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) in which it could have joint control of the 2010 project.

Zille said the city had no problem with working jointly with the province, but could not agree to a separate SPV because National Treasury, Fifa and the Local Organising Committee had entered into contracts with cities, not provinces, for 2010. - Sapa

Source: IOL

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