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Action taken by Land Use Management in the business node

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Submitted by Administrator on Mon, 10/10/2011 - 20:59.

The The Greenside Resident’s Association (GRA) has been receiving numerous complaints that are directly or indirectly related to the Gleneagles road business node. The complaints include, amongst other things, issues such as unlawful land use, noise pollution, loitering, drug dealing environmental health policy violations and more. According to the Urban Management Sub Committee (UMSC) policies in place, the GRA will investigate complaints made by residents in line with its mandate of protecting community interests.

They have found that there are only 5 or so "bad apples" in the business node that are truly in violation of the law. After a long process of trying to engage these establishments, they were forced to bring the matter to the attention of the Johannesburg City Council. Unfortunately, because so many departments are involved in enforcing the relevant laws, there have been massive delays in addressing the issues raised.

The UMSC has finally submitted its report to the Land Use Management department, who investigated the concerns raised by the GRA. They found that the 5 establishments were indeed violating their zoning prescriptions and notices were accordingly issued in August 2011. Offenders have a 28-day period within which they should bring their operations back within the legal boundaries, failing which the City will prosecute them. The final decision in this regard is expected in October 2011.

Due to the actions taken by law enforcement agencies over the past couple of weeks, they are concerned that some of the business establishments may consider applying for consent usages in order to trade legally as "places of amusement". This would have nothing but an absolutely detrimental effect on the neighbourhood. As previously mentioned, the suburb simply cannot physically tolerate this type of business trading.

They therefore need residents and visitors to Greenside who frequent the business node to alert them as a matter of urgency to any advertisements found around the node, or in local newspapers and websites advertising some or other intention to rezone a property or apply for a consent usage.

Should you detect any such advertisements for consent use applications or property rezoning, please contact the Urban Management Sub Committee at compliance@lovegreenside.org or for general, non-urban management related enquiries at info@lovegreenside.org