Old Zoning Scheme 'was open to abuse'

GEORGE NEWS - The George Municipality's acting director of Planning and Development, Charles Lubbe, responded as follows to Danie de Vries's fears about the wording of the by-law:

The previous George Zoning Scheme did not have a definition of family, nor did it prescribe how many tenants you may have, or prevent an owner from renting rooms to tenants, so it was quite open-ended and subject to abuse.

To address this, the new zoning scheme defines a "family" in its traditional meaning (blood relatives, spouses, grandparents, children, a single person, couples, partners, etc) along with three other people.

Thus, in the traditional meaning, the number of people that can potentially occupy a house can be as few as one person or as many as nine or ten. In the alternative, as stated by the complainant, the house can be occupied by a maximum of five unrelated people - such as students or lodgers.

This type of lodging is regarded as a residential use and not a business and can be compared, in many respects, to a guesthouse, except that in the instance of lodging the tenants will stay for a much longer period. The zoning scheme provides different parking parameters if the house is used solely for lodging purposes.

In most instances, student accommodation agreements are signed between the owner and the university or college. The universities and colleges also set quite strict rules concerning student conduct, so there is a recourse if students become "rowdy".

Notice for no building plan
The owner of the subject property has been served notice for commencing with building work without an approved plan, comprising internal alterations to the house as well as the conversion of the roof space, into a second dwelling.