The City of Cape Town has turned down an application to develop a city block that includes the 18th-Century Lutheran church complex. It has asked the South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) to assess the block and report on its historical significance as a matter of urgency.
The Augoustides family, which owns one of the buildings in the block, commissioned architects Gawie and Gwen Fagan to design the development proposal. But this was turned down when the city’s Spatial Planning, Environment and Land Us Management committee met to decide on the future of the development.
Chairman of this committee, Bryan Watkyns said that it was turned down because the view of the committee was that the Lutheran church complex had been incorrectly graded. He said that the development would have been detrimental for the entire block.
He said that application for the development was refused and instead, Sahra has been asked to assess the potential significance of the city block and the church complex. Watkyns says that the committee believes that Sahra had not graded the Luthern church complex correctly.
The block is in Strand, Bree, Waterkant and part of Buitengracht streets. It has sparked head debate among architects and historians about the importance of preserving the historic church complex.
The development project was endorsed by Heritage Western Cape, the Cape Town Partnership and the Central City Improvement District but was rejected by the City Bowl Residents’ and Ratepayers’ association.
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