Surging ahead with Future Strand Initiative

“We currently reside and do business in a much safer, greener and cleaner Strand.”

Expressing satisfaction with the progress made by Geocentric during the 2016/2017 year, Strand Business Improvement District Board Chairperson Grand Goodwin said this was confirmed by statistics. “We realize that we cannot take the status quo for granted and that the team must consistently work hard to maintain the current standard”, he said.

He went on to say that they were very excited about the proposed new interventions by Gene Lohrentz of Geocentric regarding the management of the Traders Market and the Strand Initiative Marketing project. “We believe that the aforementioned interventions by Geocentric and the CID are important ingredients to our goal of making the Strand a more attractive business and tourist destination.”

The Strand Business Improvement District (SBID), which is a non-profit organisation funded by local property owners whose mandate it is to address the growing challenges in urban management, safety and security, and investment withdrawal within the Strand CBD precinct, recently added from within stakeholder ranks a new initiative named ‘Future Strand’ that will be managed by the SBID.

This stakeholder group aims to consider ways to positively influence the future viability of the Strand as a vibrant central business district.

“Keen to differentiate the Strand business district from neighbouring Helderberg precincts of Somerset West and Gordons Bay, Future Strand’s short-term objective is to build a unique identity for the area that ensures it becomes a leading centre for commercial, residential, cultural, tourism and activities.”

Since its inception three years ago, the SBID has yielded some surprisingly successful results and many of the urban challenges within the CBD of Strand have been halted. Whilst the focus remains on basic safety and cleanliness, a natural shift towards creating and enhancing the people-centric vibrancy has come to the fore.

 

Community involvement is however required. Both SBID and Future Strand embrace partnership thinking, which amongst other things provides for collective and collaborative solutions involving shared human and financial resources.

The objectives of SBID and Future Strand are the following:

  • Improve the public spaces of the Strand CBD to the benefit of the local community, visitors, property owners and businesses.
  • Create a positive image of the Strand CBD with the aim of bringing people and investment back to the CBD
  • Create a vibrant, unique Strand CBD experience
  • Obtain the input of more like-minded partners that can work with existing property and business owners and the community to improve and elevate the image of the strand CBD

 

Improvement Districts and Area Based Partnerships rely on strong relationships between partners, stakeholders and the communities they serve. In the case of the Strand, there is a large number of potential participants (some overlapping), each with a significant stake in the success of SBID and Future Strand:

  • Residential and commercial property owners in the Strand CBD;
  • The City of Cape Town as the governing body, multiple departments, political and operational levels;
  • The Board of the SBID as strategic leaders
  • Property owners/ rates payers associations
  • Sectional titled bodies corporates board members
  • Retailers
  • Informal traders
  • Government services branches
  • Commuters
  • Taxi, bus drivers
  • Tourists, local and international
  • Visitors
  • Service providers
  • Law enforcement agencies
  • Neighbourhood watch initiatives
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Cape Town Mayor outlines status quo of water crisis

During a recent speech delivered at the Atlantis Aquifer, Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille thanked Capetonians who had been making efforts to cut their water usage, saying that about half of water users had restricted their daily usage to 87 litres per day.

But added that this was not enough. “We need each and every Capetonian and business on board as a partner on this journey,” she said.

“We are in an unprecedented drought crisis and this phase is critical because if the City and residents don’t do enough together and simultaneously, we will run out of water.”

She said the City was doing everything in its power to ensure additional supply, including finding and hiring the country’s best team of experts who were working 80-hour weeks with the metro to ensure that additional water could be brought ‘online’.

The Atlantis plant was one of several sites for alternative water sources which form part of the ‘Water Resilience Plan’.

The City of Cape Town had recently refurbished many of the boreholes around this West Coast area to increase the production of this plant. She pointed out that these boreholes formed a part of the City’s unique Artificially Recharged Aquifer System and said a lot of work had gone into ensuring an increase in the volume of water from this aquifer system.

Prior this work, the system had been producing around four million litres of water per day. “We have now increased the yield from this aquifer by an additional five million litres per day.”

The water is serving homes and industrial businesses in Atlantis, Mamre and Pella on the outskirts of the West Coast, which is quite a vast area. “So the additional capacity will be welcomed,” the Mayor said.

“This work demonstrates our commitment to addressing this current drought crisis. I repeat my commitment that I will not allow a well-run city to run out of water.”

She added that she had made it clear when the site of a new desalination plant with the V&A Waterfront had been announced: “we have a plan and we will supply water, but we need Team Cape Town to assist us”.

In the meantime, the City of Cape Town announced that Level 6 water restrictions will be implemented from 1 January 2018, which means that households using more than 10,500 litres per month could face fines and penalties. A proposal for a drought charge of between R45 and R2 800, depending on the value of the property, has also been tabled.

Take a look at these shocking images of Theewaterskloof Dam looking more like a desert than a body of water:

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Pleased with progress – SBID chairperson

In a special message SBID board chairperson Grant Goodwin said they were again pleased with the progress made by Geocentric, the management body of nine metro improvement districts, during the 2016/2017 year.

He went on to say statistics confirmed that “we currently reside and do business in a much safer, greener and cleaner Strand. We realize that we cannot take the status quo for granted and that the team must consistently work hard to maintain the current standard”.

“We are very excited about the proposed new interventions by Gene and his team regarding the management of the Traders Market and the Strand Initiative Marketing project. We believe that the afore-mentioned interventions by Geocentric and the CID are important ingredients to our goal of making the Strand a more attractive business and tourist destination.”

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Informal market intended to add energy, attract spending

The tourist-friendly location of the Strand market and the history of informal traders in the area set the stage for a prime opportunity to transform the newly upgraded market into a modern, vibrant, commercially sustainable business. The market space is located in the Strand Precinct on Beach Road and the draft Strand Informal Trading Plan proposes that it will consist of 70 trading bays.

A series of infrastructural upgrades took place in Strand during 2017, which included among others the reconfiguration and resurfacing of the parking areas, the realigning and upgrading of the sea wall, the redevelopment of the ablution facilities and offices and provision of space for an informal trading market.

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In view of the fact that the traders who will be operating in the market area do not currently have a legal entity – representative of all traders – that would potentially contract with the City of Cape Town for management of the market, the City approached the SBID to consider and propose a management plan for the Strand Pavilion Trading Market. The task of the management body would be to ensure that the facilities are well maintained and that trading activities are managed optimally.

In its call for a proposal the City pointed out that it was a high priority to ensure that the market was well managed and that the space was safe, clean and inviting for customers to have fun and enjoy all that would be on offer.

It would be a priority to create a safe market environment through, amongst other things, monitoring compliance by not only traders, but also visitors with the rules of the market. Law enforcement officials would have to be involved in the event of any law infringements in the market. The City of Cape Town advises that the service provider may employ a combination of CID security and EPWP Unit City Law Enforcement Officers in order to ensure that the market would be safe and secure throughout the week.

In his message SBID chairperson Grant Goodwin said he was excited about the prospect of the intervention and wished Geocentric’s Gene Lohrentz and his team well with the process.

The current management of informal markets is based on the formulation of by-laws and policies, as well as trading plans and permit fees in some cases. Management is also based on the employment of district area cooridinators responsible for informal trading in specific regions.

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The Strand Precint, which is a historic beach resort area that is popular with with tourists and locals alike, is home to many economic activities. Both recreational and small-scale fishers sell fesh fish directly to the public from the slipway. The area also includes a parking area, a hotel, offices, restaurants and public ablution facilities, as well as accommodating traders predominantly over weekends and during the summer season.

 

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