The City Council has approved the inclusion of the Bo-Kaap area in a heritage protection overlay zone (HPOZ). This will become effective once published in the Provincial Gazette.

What this means is that the unique historical landscape and way of life in the Bo-Kaap will be conserved by managing development in a sustainable and considered manner. Residents’ plight in getting the Bo-Kaap area included in an HPOZ has been ongoing for nearly four years.

Mayor Dan Plato says the Bo-Kaap is entering a new chapter where residents and land owners can actively promote it as a heritage tourist destination to the benefit of the local community, as well as the broader Cape Town.

The HPOZ for the Bo-Kaap extends to the Table Mountain National Park, and includes the northern green verges to the northwest of Strand Street, and includes Buitengracht between the intersections with Carisbrook and Strand Street.

The HPOZ will have an impact on all of those who own property in the Bo-Kaap, in particular as it relates to new developments, restorations, and the maintenance and alteration of properties.

Some of the HPOZ objectives are as follows:

• to conserve the Bo-Kaap heritage by encouraging owners to retain and rehabilitate the existing residential buildings
• to protect the streetscapes
• to ensure that new developments and alterations to existing buildings complement the historic urban landscape and do not negatively impact the area’s heritage
• to promote and protect public open spaces and pedestrian movement along the roads and lanes; and
• to promote the social and cultural traditions and practices where people live outwardly, on the stoeps and sidewalks