Historic Sea Point buildings make way for apartments

Residents of the Atlantic Seaboard have expressed growing concern over the continuous demolition of heritage buildings to make way for apartment blocks.

Their latest appeal and disapproval concern two 60 years old properties located at 29 and 31 St Johns Road, Sea Point.

The properties are under the development of well-known property giants, whose name is known to the Cape Argus.

Queries to them have yet to receive a response.

The destruction and demolition process of the buildings has been met with concern by residents, who are appealing its process.

One of the residents' representatives, Lindsay Rogers, said they were concerned that the historic Victorian and Art Deco buildings are being lost to overdevelopment, not rejuvenation, leading to multi-storey apartment blocks with insufficient parking.

Rogers said residents are forced to fund costly legal action against wealthy developers due to the City's lack of planning regulation enforcement.

Rogers said demolition had taken place during the past three weeks and the sites are now clear and ready for development.

The two historic Sea Point homes, one heritage-graded, was slated for demolition and replacement by a five-storey block of flats, Rogers said, despite community objections and support from a town planner.

Rogers said the two properties were purchased privately in 2023.

“Following the private purchases of a pair of adjacent, historic homes, demolition permits were first obtained from Heritage Western Cape before a planning application for construction was submitted later that year,” Rogers said.

Rogers claimed the plans were not initially advertised for public consultation.

“The latest application was publicly advertised, in late 2024, for the consolidation of the two erven only, in order that the two separate buildings be reconfigured into a single block of nine units across the two combined plots.

“It was contested that the separately approved plans were not realistically viable as two individual projects, but was merely a strategy to force through a consolidation approval.

"But, the application was approved and the decision upheld by the Municipal Planning Tribunal (MPT), by simply citing the pre-existing approvals for the two separate apartment blocks by way of justification.”

Rogers explained the residents appeal process: "We now must allow the appeal process to run its course, and await a response to our request for a hearing before the Planning Appeals Advisory Panel committee. In the event our appeal is summarily dismissed, the only remaining option to recourse will be to fund an expensive review, to test the legality of the development plan in the High Court."

The City’s Deputy Mayor and mayco member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Eddie Andrews, said it was too premature to comment extensively on the development due to the appeal.

“Although the existing buildings were over 60 years old, Heritage Western Cape granted a permit for their complete demolition in May 2023.

"The Land Use Management application was subsequently approved by the Municipal Planning Tribunal on April 1, 2025,” he said.

“As appeals have been lodged against the MPT’s decision, the City is unable to provide further comment at this stage, pending the outcome of the appeal process."

In a heritage application against the application shared with the Cape Argus, the document reveals that opponents argue the proposed block of flats is out of context and doesn't positively respond to the area's heritage. 

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