MISTY CLIFFS VILLAGE ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER - June 2007
Editor: Tim Anderson

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT OUR COUSINS ?

OUR great love for baboons has grown rather chilly during the last few months. Along with the residents of Scarborough, a good many of us have felt imprisoned by marauding baboons, resentful that one of the joys of mountainside living, al fresco eating and drinking, has been lost to us as ever-more brazen raiders nonchalantly come padding past us and help themselves to our victuals. Some children, among others, have been frightened stiff, and a couple of dogs have been mauled. The supposedly baboon-proof dustbins seem to have been a failure - their designer having under-estimated the intelligence of these creatures who already know how to open almost any kind of door and window; 'tis but a small step of grey matter exercise to discover that a bottle can be jammed under a dustbin lid so that hairy arms can reach inside. (Many thanks to Schalk Visser for this timeous picture.) We have lamented the apparent ineffectualness of the baboon monitors and we have been vexed by the varying times at which the municipal trash collectors pitch up. There is a strong feeling that baboons should be eliminated or relocated as they don't appear to be a vital factor in the environmental balance. Relocation has been mooted but naturalists are opposed to mixing the gene pools. Last year two baboons were shot dead and more recently two young female baboons have been poisoned, not necessarily deliberately, but both bodies harboured airgun pellets so it is likely that other animals have been shot at as well.

There is a viewpoint that we are within a proclaimed nature reserve where wild baboons are endemic and if we're not prepared to accommodate them we shouldn't live here and shouldn't have bought here. Another view is that the baboons are no longer wild but have become semi-domesticated by familiarity with us and by the seemingly unstoppable habit of tourists and trippers of throwing food to them, and by residents who are defiantly unconcerned about trash disposal, who grow fruit trees and grape vines, and who "feed birds". Far too many people continue to be amazingly careless about closing and effectively latching windows and skylights, even when they're away. Baboons being natural foragers it is factual that they will continue to look for food wherever it is available - in unsecured plastic bags, inadequately secured bins, gardens with edible fruits, buildings with unsecured openings. If there's enough of this booty regularly available no one can really blame a troop for taking up residence in the area.

Every year there is a tussle for dominance between male baboons. This may last two or three months, sometimes longer. On occasion this leads to gruesome fights and sometimes it leads to troops splitting up. There is general instability and this makes it extremely difficult for the baboon monitors. These very low-paid men (R45/day) who are expected to work from dawn to sunset in all weathers, are unjustly accused of incompetence and lack of zeal. The reality lies in the almost laughably complex and inefficient organization which manages them but with which we're stuck for the time being because it governs the funding.

Believe it or not it "works" like this: There is a "Baboon Management Team" (BMT) which basically comprises representation from SA National Parks (SANP), the City of Cape Town (City), and Cape Nature. Subsequently, representation grew to include the SPCA, Scarborough Ratepayers, Kommetjie Ratepayers and Simon's Town Civic Association. Funding comes from SANP (R10 000/m) and the City (R20 000/m). However, the SANP contribution originates from the City's funding of Table Mountain National Park. Further funding comes from a "Poverty Relief" project administered by Cape Nature but derived from a R3.5m three-year project originating from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT), and intended for use not only on the Peninsula but also in Hermanus and Cedarberg.

Now that you have a handle on that, let's move on: The total BMT funding is actually managed by the Kommetjie Environmental Awareness Project (KEAG). Previously the monitors were paid by the BMT, but following the involvement of DEAT, recruitment and administration was handed over to Cape Nature. The poverty relief project supposedly covers transport (of monitors), uniforms and training but there appear to be problems in this arrangement, and red tape is said to be excessive and unhelpful.

Jenni Trethowan (the "Baboon Lady") is officially the Field Manager for the BMT which pays her very modestly through her company Baboon Matters which runs the baboon walks and carries out fund raising. A portion of any profit from the baboon walks is paid to the BMT. Jenni is effectively the trainer and carer for the monitors and is fiercely defensive of them (someone has to be!) and also of the baboons.

Ratepayer-type associations, including Scarborough and Misty Cliffs, chip in funding but the arrangement is presently unsatisfactory. Much of the total funding is for areas outside our interest and residents/owners are understandably reluctant to support the big picture. The network of involved parties is frustratingly cumbersome, even to the extent that sometimes the monitors don't get paid. Going unpaid and with some people shouting and swearing at them the men are hard to motivate.

Your committee, together with Scarborough, is now investigating the funding and dynamics of retaining monitors dedicated exclusively to our areas and probably funded independently of the BMT by contributions from all owners, together with, possibly, participation from business organizations. A fund raising effort is contemplated. It seems this is the only way we will be able to ensure effective and consistent "herding" of baboons so that we are minimally bothered by the animals.

THOSE DUSTBINS

As we said in a previous newsletter, the nice plastic dustbins are ineffectual in their naked state. In most cases the latches need a bit of strong-arm doctoring plus, of course, either a padlock or a strongly-spring-loaded catch (look in a shop that sells sailing or rock-climbing gear). IN ADDITION the bins should be roped or chained firmly to a vertical surface or tree or pole in order that baboons cannot throw the bins down so as to burst them open. The baboons found out quickly that by standing on the side of a bin it distorted enough for a second animal to get an arm under the lid and fish around inside.

Finally, no bin is any use unless it is used! Does that sound dumb? The fact is that there are houses in Misty Cliffs which have bins but still persist in leaving trash outside the house in plastic bags. Of course that draws raiders! What's wrong with those people? In fairness it seems that the culprits are rarely the actual owners but their friends or lessees. Dear folk, if you let other people use your house you must make it compellingly conditional that they use the bins (properly modified and secured) or else take their trash home with them when they leave your place.

No anti-baboon measure, at any price, will succeed so long as even only one or two people persist in providing bait in any form.

UGLIFICATIONS

One of the matters of ongoing concern to the present and previous MCVA committees is preservation of both the built and the natural environments. This is because with few exceptions owners are drawn to invest in Misty Cliffs largely because it is so visually attractive, with mountains and ocean, rich fynbos, lovely expansive views and a generally pleasing sense of being away from the ugliness and crowding of urban living. Preservation of this jewel corresponds with protection of the owners' investments and is thus rightly a primary responsibility of any committee representing the owners.

However, living in such an area means that buildings and services will appear and therefore will detract from the virgin appeal. Compromise is unavoidable. How far can compromise be taken? Some Misty owners were against upgrading Old Camp Road, thinking it would be uglier than the sand and mud track it replaced. Many wanted Telkom services taken off poles and put underground - until they discovered how unaffordable that would be.

Up to a point the national building regulations are helpful towards achieving a tolerable compromise, and they are reinforced by a code of additional recommendations developed for Scarborough and Misty Cliffs - this is why your committee insists on scrutinizing proposals and plans for new buildings. Our careful and professionally-advised pre-scrutiny is very strongly supported by the local authority, especially because the capacity of its own scrutiny services is seriously insufficient. Architects, especially those not yet familiar with Misty Cliffs, also appreciate our scrutiny, especially at the pre-submission stage, because it saves them time and money.

Occasionally, owners have made attempts to get round regulations by ambiguously wording their proposals, or devising a reasonable argument for why they have a special case. A few years ago the then committee fought a prolonged battle to prevent a building proposal that, while not unreasonable in itself, would have effectively created a precedent for allowing more than one building on a single property.

How effective are the regulations and scrutinies? We are frequently chided by owners, visitors, and estate agents who put this very question to us, invariably instancing one or other building which in their opinion is out of context in the area or a discordant feature along the M65 designated scenic route.

However, those who design buildings work for clients, and are often hard-put to convert an outrageous or impracticable idea into something that will clearly express the personality of the client while surviving technical scrutiny and not unduly offending average perceptions of what might desecrate the visual environment. Every urban area has its share of inappropriate buildings - remember the outrage about the notorious "pepper pots"? And the upended Cadillac sticking out of the Hard Rock restaurant in Sea Point? "How could they have been allowed?" cried the objectors. The answer is that if a building design and detailing conform to the required technicalities it is likely to get approved.

It is very difficult to define aesthetics in a way that can be legislated, and this is where any monitoring system falls down. Monitoring has to take account of architectural fashions and client ideas of style. It is not easy to reject, for example, a hideous design proposal when the client's primary criterion is to make a bold statement. About the best that can be achieved is for the architect to diplomatically sell some "softening" suggestions to the client. It is theoretically possible to involve "DEADP" - the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, but this has certain inherent difficulties as DEADP is not part of local government and, rightly, will not facilitate a quick fix. It invariably requires a formal EIA and other procedures which can take an extraordinarily long time - as we discovered in the prolonged frustrations of gaining approval for the road upgrade.

Successive MCVA committees have gradually become more alert and, we like to think, increasingly more effective in this matter. However, the so-called bottom line is that although "environment" is becoming much more publicly talked about, it has yet to figure competitively alongside financial and political criteria. Until it does, there is unlikely to be any effective filter for excluding ghastly developments.

SHEBEENS

Not everyone noticed the mind-boggling advertisement placed in the media by DEADP (part of the provincial government) earlier in the year which effectively sought to encourage and legitimise a mushrooming of shebeens in all areas, including residential, such as Misty Cliffs.

The proposal was to amend the Land Use Planning Ordinance (LUPO) of 1985 to enable consent use of "house taverns", defined as follows:

"House tavern" means an enterprise, conducted from a dwelling house or outbuilding on a residential zoned property on which the primary use is a single dwelling, by the lawful occupant of the dwelling house concerned, for either of the following:

(i) For the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages by customers upon the premises where the liquor is sold.
(ii) For the sale of alcoholic beverages on the premises for consumption on or off the premises where liquor is sold.
(iii) For the sale of alcoholic beverages on the premises for consumption both on and off the premises where the liquor is sold, provided that the dominant use of the dwelling house concerned shall remain for the living accommodation of a single family and that the areas of sale and consumption on the premises and the sale for consumption elsewhere, must physically be separated from each other.

The amendment proposed also allowing for "micro manufacturing", meaning ". . . to manufacture alcoholic beverages at or below the prescribed threshold volume in terms of Chapter 4 of the Liquor Act on a property with an agricultural zone I or II, commercial, industrial or rural zoning." This excludes residential zoning, but note that there are agricultural and rural zoned properties adjacent to Misty Cliffs.

Well what do you make of that? For the cynics, should the amendment become law, it may offer a good way to meet the expected enormous rate increases - just open your own bottle store and beer garden. The advertisement listed various factors which would be germane to obtaining consent use but none appeared very onerous.

The motive behind the proposal is inexplicable and ridiculous on the face of it, but politicking is suspected. Many residents associations, including Misty Cliffs and other bodies, were naturally incredulous and sent in strongly worded objections. At the time of compiling this newsletter we don't know the status of the proposal.

VALUATIONS AND THE IZS

We also still don't quite know where we are in this matter, other than that next month (July) the new ratings will come into force but based on the old (existing) valuations. The deadline for objections to the new valuations was extended but as of this moment none of us has heard the outcomes. There have been rumours that unless an objection was accompanied in the first place with a valuation from a sworn appraiser it would be disregarded, but "insiders" have told us that this is not true.

The latest version of the proposed Integrated Zoning Scheme (IZS) was discussed on 26 May and it should be born in mind that a core theme of it is to promote densification. For this reason vacant land is to be discouraged by taxation and this is theoretically the reason for the apparently illogically high valuations being placed on some (but not all) of the undeveloped erven at Misty Cliffs.

Our main concern about the IZS is that it should include an "overlay zone" which could be defined to cover scenic areas and routes so that these are not spoilt by inappropriate development or undue densification. We are fairly hopeful about this.

THE FAR SOUTH

No, not Antarctica, but an alliance of civic interests to give clout to our input in matters that concern the likes of us.

To this end the MCVA has become a member of the Far South Community Forum which represents all areas south of a line connecting Kalk Bay to Noordhoek. This is a sizeable area with a fast-growing population and particular concerns and interests quite different from areas to the North of the line. We have nominated our chairman to be our official representative, and other committee members to take turns standing in for him whenever he's away. When something material comes about or up for discussion we will notify you either directly if it's necessary or by newsletter.

TAX

We have done absolutely everything required for registration as a Public Benefit Organization which is necessary under law because we receive subscriptions (not very many, by the way!) which may be taxable. We have been waiting for many months for a ruling by SARS but it seems we're not high on their priority list.

FIRES

We are endeavouring to obtain permission to secure a proper fire hose somewhere on site, on the mountain side. A first step will be to flow-test the fire hydrants along the upgraded section of Old Camp Road. This should occur within the next two weeks. It may be necessary to have some residents formally instructed by the Fire Department on the approved operating procedures. A problem is that hydrant water is unmetered and in case any of us contrive to water our gardens with free hydrant water it will probably be necessary to have seals put on the hydrants.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Urgently needed please ! Pay (R300) to Misty Cliffs Village Association, a/c 225 002 7285, Nedbank Noordhoek, branch code 125-009. If you prefer, send your cheque to the MCVA at Box 22709 Scarborough 7975. PLEASE PUT YOUR ERF NUMBER ON YOUR CHEQUE OR AS REFERENCE IN INTERNET PAYMENTS - we sometimes receive third party cheques and have great difficulty attributing them to a particular owner.

COMMITTEE

Chairman: Doug Tunbridge
Treasurer: Lyn Mossop
Richard Court
Leon Morris
Kobus Loots (plans & building)
Tim Anderson (environment & newsletter)
Gerrie van Tonder (architectural advisor)