SOS! Save Our Sea Point

The Save Our Sea Point residents association (SOS) was formed by area residents of East Sea Point, exacerbated by the proposed imposition of an over-massed block of flats in the midst of their historic residential community. Its purpose was to launch a legal challenge to a construction that was effectively declared non-compliant by the Executive Mayor of the City of Cape Town (CoCT), and to prevent an appalling precedent from being set for similarly oversized future development proposals.

The same community had previously co-ordinated an appeal against the CoCT Planning Department's approval for a construction on St John's Road, which was believed to be in contravention of the City's own planning restrictions.

In quite unprecedented circumstances, the Executive Mayor, Alderman Geordin Hill-Lewis, in his capacity as the final Appeal Authority, upheld the appeal by finding fully in their favour: That the building plans for the proposed development were in contravention of the City's own Development Management Scheme (DMS) regulations, and that t...