Sell – or we’ll take land for link road

sell – or we’ll take land for link road

land needed for the road linking beacon bay and gonubie could be expropriated if property owners refused to sell willingly.

this was one of the recommendations by buffalo city municipality (bcm) that was approved by the council during a meeting at east london city hall yesterday.

bcm has been in negotiations with 16 beacon bay property owners to purchase land it needs to build the new quenera drive four-lane highway. this forms part of a 10-year plan to link the two suburbs.

two of the property owners, namely diddle daddle investments cc and purple moss 29 (pty) ltd, have not responded to offers by the municipality to purchase a portion of their land.

if negotiations fail, the land would be expropriated in terms of section 124(4) of the municipal ordinance no 20 of 1974.

most owners have, however, shown a willingness to sell.

construction of the road started in january and is set to be completed by october. the first 1.5km stretch of road starts behind the eskom buildings opposite retail park in beacon bay.

it then follows a south-easterly route and intersects with edge road and the quenera river.

the r30.5-million contract to construct the road was awarded to mpumalanga construction (pty) ltd in november.

the project, however, hit its first snag when beacon bay property owners insisted that the municipality pay up front for the 16 metres of private land it needs.

this was after a letter from bcm instructed owners that construction would start by november.

owners also raised concern that the municipality did not have the necessary funds to purchase the properties.

yesterday the council gave approval for the properties to be purchased at a price of about r23m, according to market valuations.

chief financial officer brian shepherd will make the payments as soon as the deeds of sale between the municipality and the sellers have been executed, provided all parties agree.

if home owners continue to stall over the selling prices, the municipality will step in and expropriate the land.

according to the agenda tabled, the total cost of acquiring the land actually amounts to r16.9m because seven of the 16 properties have submitted proposals to develop their remaining plots and it is estimated that the levy due to the municipality amounts to about r7.05m.

if the rest of the properties were to submit development proposals, bcm would have been able to acquire the land at no outlay because of the additional levies it would receive.