CoCT proposes Parow Station Precinct exemption from heritage protection

29 May 2019

Residents and interested parties are invited to comment on the City of Cape Town's proposal to exempt the Parow Station Precinct from heritage protections under the National Heritage Resources Act. This will allow owners to alter, improve and demolish buildings that are older than 60 years; and for the consolidation of three or more properties that fall within this area without going through provincial heritage processes.

Image by Hansueli Krapf, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Currently, all buildings that are older than 60 years of age enjoy heritage protection in terms of the National Heritage Resources Act (NHRA).

"Thus, all owners of buildings older than 60 years must first submit a heritage application to the Provincial Heritage Regulator, which is Heritage Western Cape, for approval in terms of the NHRA. They can only submit a development application or a building plan to the city once HWC has granted them the go-ahead. Thus, should this proposal be approved, it will reduce unnecessary regulatory processes, and it could also reduce the development approval times and cost which will improve the financial viability of development in the Parow Station Precinct," said the city’s mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment Marian Nieuwoudt.

The Parow Station Precinct is adjacent to the Parow Station and bounded by Voortrekker Road, Tygervallei Street, Cloete and Picton Streets. The proposed exemption does not give or take away any development rights. Property owners who wish their current properties to remain as is will not be affected.

The proposal is available at www.capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay and at the local subcouncil office in Parow. Objections and comments, together with reasons, may be submitted before or on 27 June 2019:

By sending an email to az.vog.nwotepac@htworg.ytic
Online at www.capetown.gov.za/haveyoursay
Written submissions can be handed in or posted to: Urban Integration Department, City Growth Management; 18th Floor (2-Bay Side), Civic Centre, 12 Hertzog Boulevard, Cape Town 8000.

Parow Station Precinct audit

In 2016 the city’s Department for Environment and Heritage Resources conducted an audit of the properties in the Parow Station Precinct to identify buildings that are worthy of conservation. They found that more than 70% of the buildings in this precinct are less than 60 years old, and that the alteration or demolishing of buildings older than 60 years in this precinct will not have a significant negative heritage impact.

The outcome of this audit was submitted to Heritage Western Cape’s Committee for Inventories, Grading and Interpretation for consideration in 2017. In November 2018 the committee indicated it supported the proposal, subject to the outcome of a public participation process for residents and interested and affected parties to comment or object.