City issues notices to homeowners who illegally encroach on Cape Town’s coastline

Some of the more than 200 homeowners who encroach on Cape Town’s coastline by installing unlawful decks, walkways, gardens, pools, irrigation systems and sea defence structures among others, have been served with pre-notices and final notices to remove these unlawful structures.

The encroachments, the City explained, are where property owners are effectively privatising coastal public open spaces or coastal public property.

“An audit conducted by the City’s Coastal Management Branch identified more than 200 unlawful encroachments where property owners are effectively privatising coastal public open spaces or coastal public property through the installation of unlawful decks, walkways, gardens, pools, irrigation systems, sea defence structures and so forth. These encroachments are unlawful in terms of the City’s Coastal By-law, and the City has now commenced with serving compliance notices on owners to remove the unlawful structures and rehabilitate the affected areas,” the City said.

The Coastal By-law that was adopted in May 2020 is applicable to the coastal environment, and includes both coastal public open space and coastal public property which belongs to all South Africans and should be accessible to all residents and visitors, the City said.

“The by-law gives the City statutory powers to enforce the public’s right to access and enjoy our beaches and sea. Unfortunately, some residents are claiming portions of coastal public open space or coastal public property as their own private areas by either extending their homes or gardens, or building walkways with ‘no-access’ signs on these walkways. Our coastline belongs to all of us, and we are now using the by-law to entrench this right,” said deputy mayor and spatial planning and environment Mayco member Eddie Andrews.

These encroachments were identified along the Atlantic Seaboard and the False Bay coastline.

Cape Times