CID for Athlone needed

THE future of the Athlone CBD is in the hands of the property owners of  the area and unless they are prepared to form a City Improvement District (CID) and pay an extra levy on their municipal rates to finance the CID the area will not recover.

This was the clear message at the breakfast seminar on the area organised by the Athlone Branch of the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry at the Belmont Conference Centre in Cape Town yesterday.

The Provincial Minister for planning and Economic Development, Ms Tasneem Essop bluntly told more than 100 delegates that a CID was necessary and this would followed by a redevelopment plan.

Property economist, Erwin Rode, said a CID was a necessary precondition for the recovery of the area but it was not in itself the solution to the area's problems.

One of the essential problems was that people with money to spend used their cars to go to shopping centres while Athlone was supported by people who used public transport and did not have much money to spend. The same thing had happened in the Bellville CBD along the Voortrekker Road which lost customers to Tyger Valley.

Mr Andrew Boraine, CEO of the Cape Town Partnership, told delegates that a CID was necessary to improve the services to the area and ensure that the basics were in place. This included reducing the crime and grime and improving the management of the area.

He said that when the CID was formed in Cape Town, capital flight from the city was already taking place, the management of kerbside parking had collapsed, about 20 percent of offices were vacant and 200 shops had been boarded up. The city's rates income from the CBD had halved. Now vacancies were down to four percent, rents had gone up and there were 3 000 apartments in the CBD. He said the key steps were to manage the area, promote it and introduce new development.

He pointed out that a CID in which the property owners were actively involved would have better communication and influence with the council and this would also lead to improvements.

Delegates were left with the clear impression that the property and business owners in Athlone would have to take the initiative if they wanted the area to improve and their buildings to increase in value.

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