News Bulletin No. 2
1. Results of voting on the SRA proposal
Following the public meeting held on 22 July at which the Business Plan and Budget of the proposed SRA were explained, a team of canvassers proceeded to approach property owners in the intended SRA for their votes, positive or negative, on the SRA proposal. In order for the City Council to consider a proposal for the intended SRA, the approval of owners who own at least 60% by number of rateable properties in the intended SRA had to be obtained.
The canvassers were allocated specific areas to cover and great efforts were made to contact as many property owners as possible.
The result of these canvassing efforts is that 566 “yes” votes were obtained (subject to Council verification) out of a total of 879 votes. This is 64.39% of the total number of votes and safely exceeds the required majority of 60%. [Details of the votes]
Highlights of the voting results include the following:
- The required positive threshold of 60% was exceeded in both St James and Kalk Bay. Views on the proposal were consistent in both areas.
- The percentage of “no” votes of the total votes received was 6.3%.
- Of the owners of units at the Fisherman’s Flats, 81.5% voted in favour (vs. 11.1% “no” votes) clearly indicating that this section of our community is strongly in favour of the proposal.
- Difficulty was experienced in obtaining e-mail response and votes from the majority of unit owners at the Majestic complex, most of whom do not live locally. Consequently only about 50% of available votes were obtained from this section of our community. Clearly this community needs to understand that participation in wider community initiatives is in their best interests.
- If the votes for the Majestic are excluded, the majority vote would increase to 68.2%
Sincere thanks to all canvassers for their efforts and also to everyone who voted, whether positive or negative. Your community spirit is much appreciated.
In view of the positive outcome of the voting process, an application for the establishment of the SRA was filed with the City Council on 29 October.
2. Extended area
The Steering Committee was approached during October to extend the boundary of the intended SRA in a westerly direction along Main Road in order to include the 16 properties (21 votes) on the mountain side of Main Road up to and including Erf 90123.
As is made clear in the Motivation Report, inclusiveness of all of our village is a very strong principle of our community. The Steering Committee attempted to reflect this principle in the delineation of the boundaries. However, in order to ensure that our proposed budget would be able to service the intended SRA adequately, it was originally decided to set the boundary at Quarry Road.
Nevertheless, in view of the small additional number of properties (about 3%) and the fact that these properties are included on the locality map and property data sheet sent to us by the City Council as being included in Kalk Bay, the Steering Committee agreed to include these properties in our application provided at least 60% of votes from these properties were obtained by Sunday 3 November.
The City Council also agreed to this minor extension of the SRA area on this basis.
The 11 required votes were collected in time and delivered to the Council, as arranged, on Wednesday 6 November. In accordance with Council requirements, the SRA will now be referred to as KBSJ SRA (Extended Area).
3. Process going forward
- The application will be advertised for objections on 15 November 2013.
- Notices calling for objections will be sent to property owners by the end of November 2013.
- Meetings with objectors will be held during December and January to discuss their objections.
- A second public meeting will be held on Monday 27 January 2014 to inform all attendees of relevant information pertaining to the application, and to discuss practical implications relating to the application.
- The objection period will close on 7 February 2014.
- 31 March 2014: City Council decides on application.
- April, May, June: prepare for start of operations: elect board, appoint contractors etc.
- 1 July 2014: SRA commences operations.