Cape Town - A year after the much-anticipated Fisherman's Lane, “Broken Road” was completed following a R25 million reconstruction, the City has revealed plans to redevelop Strandfontein Pavilion in 2026 and that the public participation process starts this month.
Eddie Andrews, the City's Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment said they could not project at this stage how much the development and redesign could cost due to extortion risks.
Upgrades at the Pavilion is expected to take place in three phases.
Insight into the motion for development of the Strandfontein Coastal Node, spatial framework reveals the site will include a range of facilities such as businesses, shops, services, restaurants, social facilities including recreation and resorts and residential development.
The development is expected to include 1 200 residential units including subsidised housing.
According to a document shared with Weekend Argus about the historical background, it stated The False Bay Coastline stretching from Macassar Beach to Strandfontein Pavilion was the demarcated area for black and coloured people during the apartheid era.
The development is set to boost the economy and deliver employment opportunities.
“The “The Strandfontein Pavilion is currently in the design phase and the City is embarking on a public participation process scheduled from 04 October
2024 to 04 November 2024 with an anticipated open day on 26 October 2024,” said Andrews.
“The City does not provide project value figures due to risks related to extortion.”
The area is also seeing new development regarding the commencement of the False Bay TVET College (FBC) which began recently, which will be the new Mitchell's Plain campus.
Fisherman-Lane, also known as “Broken Road” reconstruction and upgrade was completed in November 2023 and will tie in with the Node development of the Pavilion.
Ward Ward Councillor Elton Jansen said the proposed upgrade of the previous existing infrastructure was to remove extensive damage to the Fisherman's Lane seawall and to improve parking areas, construct a new timber walkway structure and upgrade a recreational picnic area.
The refurbishment included: upgrade to the parking areas; 25 braai facilities; construction of a road link between the eastern and western parking area; a formalised raised Timber walk way structure. It has also included erosion protection by means of Rock revetments and constructing a 3m wide x 1.3m thick x 17.4 m long reinforced mass staircase leading from the parking area onto the beachfront within the tidal zone.
“It has hard and soft landscaping; including the installation of play equipment,” explained Jansen.
“Solar street lighting; coastal protection of facilities and services; and rehabilitation of the dunes and beach back to a natural state.
“A section of the western parking area was cut back and a gabion wall was constructed as an additional precautionary measure.”
Jansen revealed the final approved contract expenditure contract value was R16 249 244 with contingencies/ Variations R 834 101.88, special materials R190 180.90 with a sub-total of R17 273 526.78
Jansen explained the development of the pavilion would include three different phases: “This work will tie in with the future Nodal development which includes ground around the Pavilion and upgrades at the Strandfontein Pavilion itself.
“Upgrades at the Pavilion itself are anticipated to commence in 2026. So it must be noted that the upgrades at the Pavilion consist of three different projects which tie into each other.”
Mario Oostendurp, of the Strandfontein
Ratepayers Association said they were eager to be part of the next phase of public participation.
“At the first public participation session, they gave us an overview of what they were planning to do, and there were ideas from the floor.
“The second interaction was in Lentegeur Sub-council office where they presented plans and ideas which we had presented to them and then they presented us with four plans and the floor agreed on one plan.
“We received nothing after the second session, it is spoken of as low-cost housing but it was never discussed, we spoke about recreation with the additional retail sector to it.”
Community members, including Sandy Schuter Flowers from the Strandfontein Community Policing Forum, also expressed a need for clarity.
She emphasised the importance of collaboration and consultation with local ratepayers to ensure the developments reflect the community's needs and aspirations.