Residents don’t have ‘the craving’
The City Council has meanwhile halted the construction.
Members of 270-odd households in Florida Park are up in arms after construction of a Chicken Licken drive-through outlet started in their upscale suburb early last December.
Florida Park Neighbourhood Watch (FPNW), which also acts as a residents association, is representing the residents in their fight to stop the outlet from becoming a reality, citing a variety of objections and concerns. According to Mike Ndobela, chairperson of FPNW, the property, situated on the corner of Ontdekkers Service Road and Snell Drive, is zoned for a ‘public garage’ but consent for a ‘quick-service restaurant’ was applied for. The residents feel “quick-service restaurant” is a misleading term as it is different in nature to a drive-through outlet, which poses a different set of challenges.
The group also claims that due to the consent having been denied, no building or site development plan (SDP) could have been approved, which means the building operations are illegal. They went on to say that no traffic impact assessment or environmental impact assessment was done. The traffic impact is of great concern to the residents as the area surrounding the property is already congested and would worsen with the volume of traffic the outlet would attract. “There is also not enough parking space,” said Ndobela. “Those travelling from Roodepoort towards Johannesburg who would want to go to the Chicken Licken would have to turn and cross Ontdekkers Road, which is potentially dangerous,” said Ndobela.
Another irk for the group is that, according to them, a notice of intent was never posted and the community was not consulted until a meeting with the franchisee and his developer was held on 16 January. At the meeting the franchisee and developer allegedly undertook to supply them with all documents pertaining to the building plans, SDP, notice of intent, copies of the Government Gazettes in which they advertised and proof of the consolidation of Erven 1184 and 1035 “within 24 hours”. According to Ndobela this has yet to happen.
The residents also raised other concerns and objections. These include that the outlet would attract beggars, vagrants and other shady characters to the suburb. They are also worried about the trading hours of the chicken outlet. “I do not want to smell fried chicken the whole day,” said one resident while another general complaint is that the business would seriously affect their property value.
The Record asked the franchisee to comment on the list of objections and allegations, but was referred to his lawyer. In a brief email the lawyer had the following to say: “Our client advises that there was no timeous objection at the city council, that your information appears unsupported and not factual, and that our client is not accountable to a community watch program, rather to the appropriate forums and to the appropriate procedures. It is not our client’s duty to refute bald allegations advanced from third parties, and our client’s rights are reserved to take the remedial steps at its disposal should unsupported and untrue information be published”.
On 17 February the assistant director of Development Planning, Jan Pretorius, sent an email to Ndobela stating, “We hereby confirm that no permission to commence with building work in terms of section 7 (6) of the National Building Regulations Act has been granted for the development on Erf 1184 and 1035 Florida Park”.
The City Council has meanwhile halted the construction.
When the Record contacted Chicken Licken head office their representative sounded confused. According to her they received an email stating that all the documents were in place. But she then referred the matter to the company’s director who in turn referred it to the board of directors. She said they will most likely refer it to their legal team.
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