Star - Neighbours fed up with bid to control communes
By Candice Bailey
Melville, Auckland Park and Westdene residents are up in arms over a city proposal to regulate communes. They say it will not stop problems with communes in the area.
The city's Residential Commune Policy, which is still in its draft state, is an attempt by the city to control communes, which have become problematic in many suburbs.
Constant complaints of noise, regular partying, traffic congestion and illegal parking are just some of the problems.
In the past residents have complained that their quality of life has been lost as they could not sleep two to three days a week and had even received death threats.
But the residents do not think the policy is the solution to this.
At a public community meeting this week, the Melville Residents' Association was inundated with complaints about student housing and concerns about the policy.
The policy would mean commune owners would need to apply for permits through the department of environmental health to run communes.
But residents say the proposal is incomplete and inaccurate and the policy will not address their current problems with the student housing.
City of Johannesburg spokesman Nthatisi Modingoane said the commune proposal was still a draft in its rawest form.
This house in Westdene is used as student accommodation with R1 200 rent per single room.
Published on the web by Star on March 27, 2009.
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The commune policy is a step in the right direction - we find it amazing that residents say it will not solve the problem.
ReplyDeleteIf dedicated rental agents such as ourselves are used reported problems can be dealt with and avoided.
95% of students in the area do not have cars and stay in the area because they dont need cars. We find it facinating that there are complaints about traffic congestion and illegal parking given this fact.