Ngcolomba steamed up over spa

butlerl@timesmedia.co.za

DEPUTY mayor Chippa Ngcolomba is strongly opposed to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s decision to go to court to force business owners Phillip and Yvette Georgiou to demolish parts of their luxury guesthouse and spa.

The municipality has instituted legal action against the owners of Georgiou’s Guesthouse and Spa in Kragga Kamma Road for allegedly failing to comply with municipal zoning regulations.

In court papers filed at the Port Elizabeth High Court, the municipality claims the Georgious do not have the necessary approval to expand the business and only have special consent to run a four-bedroom guesthouse.

Despite this, the Georgious also offer their guests a health spa, a gym, and a wedding chapel and events venue.

Ngcolomba said he believed the matter should be settled out of court as the Georgious were making an effort to comply with the requirements.

“We have had a meeting with the city manager and the executive director as we believe this matter can be resolved so that the metro benefits and the businessperson benefits.

“As a metro where job creation is stagnant, we cannot encourage investors to leave and invest somewhere else,” he said.

Municipal spokesman Roland Williams said the matter was sub judice and he could thus not elaborate on the details of the case.

However, he agreed with Ngcolomba. “We must always be true to our professed developmental approach and must do whatever we can to encourage economic growth,” he said.

“Unless there is intransigence, many matters can be amicably agreed to outside of court.”

The case has been postponed to March 12. The Georgious have indicated they plan to oppose the application.

Former director of land planning and management Dawn McCarthy said in her affidavit that the metro was seeking to restrain the Georgious from continuing with the construction and expansion of buildings on their Kragga Kamma Road properties until the building plans had been approved by the municipality.

She said they had already built a private gym, an enclosed swimming pool with a braai facility, and a wedding chapel without the necessary approved building plans and were now planning to move their restaurant to the property.

The municipality wanted all the illegal structures demolished.

“The respondents, by their own admission, are in the process of converting the guesthouse and spa into an upmarket five-star hotel,” she said in the affidavit.

“To do so, they will have to remove restrictive conditions of title applicable to their erven, secure the municipality’s approval to rezone the property and ensure that all buildings on the property have been lawfully constructed.”

McCarthy said all three erven were zoned as residential 1 but construction of the hotel had gone ahead without the submission of any building plans.

However, Yvette Georgiou said she had submitted an application in 2007 for special consent to operate a guesthouse, which had been approved. They had then decided to add a room which could be used as a gym, as well as a multi-purpose room which could be used as a dining area or a chapel.

It was only then that they became aware of a restrictive condition in the title deed which would prevent approval.

They had immediately stopped construction work but then discovered that the problem of boundary walls encroaching on the neighbouring property would be solved by acquiring the adjoining erf and consolidating the properties.

The owner of the adjoining property finally agreed towards the middle of last year to sell.

Expecting a quick sale, they restarted the work and completed it by the end of the year.

Yvette said they had applied in March 2009 for special consent to run a health spa on the property, which was later rejected.

However, she had already established a health spa in the house at that point.

After they had made alterations to the building, the municipality challenged her right to operate a spa from the premises and on November 18 last year applied for an interdict to prevent her from doing so.

The Georgious opposed the application, heard on May 8. Judgment was reserved, she said.

McCarthy said permission to operate a four-roomed guesthouse was granted, but permission to operate a spa was expressly declined.

Yet “she [Yvette] has continued to operate the spa and rent out rooms in excess of the four rooms allowed”.

She said the Georgious planned to consolidate the three properties and convert the existing business into a boutique hotel.

Neighbours had submitted complaints to the ward councillor about the unlawful building work taking place.

“The respondents . have embarked on this course recklessly and with full knowledge of the unlawfulness of their actions.”

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