CRITICAL: Say "NO" to Big Trucks for the safety of our children. Speak up NOW!

This is the most important post I have ever put on this blog. 

Please read this. And if you agree and want to protect the children of Thesen Islands, you MUST make your voice heard. For NOW is the time to speak up.  Email tihoa@tihoa.co.za    
Encourage other owners to stand up. Copy your email to thesenislander@gmail.com and I'll put it on the blog. 

If you have the email addresses of friends and neighbours, please send a link to the blog to them. Or tell them to google "Thesen Islander News". The HOA spins the news to suit their narrative. Just look at how they reported the 80%-90% opposition to the increase in bulk at the AGM in January and how the owners who were there reported it to see what I mean.  

UPDATE: See the video and pictures at the bottom of the page for what the increase in bulk will mean to you in your  home.

This is what I have told the committee investigating the bulk story. They are our last chance to stop this... 

Date: May 9, 2019

To: The Committee Members

Mike Barber
Hugh Bosman
Suyenne Botha
Lester Day (Chairperson)
Orrie Fenn (Trustee Infrastructure) 

Chris Mulder
Mark Stemmett

I refer to the  INCREASED FAR (BULK) COMMITTEE Terms of Reference, published on March 15, 2019:

1.1.2 consider evidence and submissions in writing or verbally from stakeholders

As a stakeholder, I am submitting the following for your consideration.

The disdain of the trustees for the owners, signalled by their heavy-handed approach and lack of transparency, while emitting the lingering odour of self-dealing, in trying to force through the gutting of the Design Guidelines to increase the size of houses, is a bitter pill to swallow.

And as you try to digest that, you have to swallow this: Despite the increase in bulk being rejected by 80% to 90% of the owners at the AGM in January 2019, the trustees still refuse to concede their scam is dead and should be buried. That they still, boldly and without shame, claim this decision is theirs alone to make is a virtual middle finger to owners.  

It is wrong on many levels. But most critically it is wrong in the danger it brings to owners and their families, especially our young children and grandchildren, for it opens up Thesen Islands to a never-ending major building cycle.   

The Trustees decided, without telling owners or getting approval from Knysna Municipality, to allow the increase in the size of the houses on Thesen Islands with their motivation, stated months later, as:

“the real aim (for the changes) was to provide the stimulation for improvements“

- Chairman’s Report December 6, 2018.

So, the Trustees are  aware of the increased construction activity they are unleashing on Thesen Islands. In fact, they want it. 

Yes, there will always be some building activity on Thesen Islands but under the current Guidelines this will mainly be limited to inside work, such as remodelling bathrooms, kitchens, etc. To the point, the sizes of the houses will not be increased. Virtually all are at the maximum size.

The Trustees decision triggers a much bigger, noisier and risky type of building activity - the increasing of the sizes of the houses. It can be argued that having taken this decision, while aware of the consequences, the HOA could be found to be criminally negligent. 

Gutting and increasing the size of houses requires concrete, reinforcing bars, bricks, roof trusses, roofing sheets or tiles, windows, doors, etc to be brought onto the Islands. To get to this stage, parts of existing houses will have to be demolished. Rubble, redundant roof trusses and roof material, doors and so on will have to be removed.  

To move this type of material on and off the Islands, big trucks, including concrete mixer trucks, are required.

These trucks will be travelling on our extremely narrow roads past our houses and parks. Family neighbourhoods where children play, walk and ride their bikes, tricycles and scooters on the sidewalks and streets. The danger to our children & grandchildren cannot be ignored by any reasonable owner. If the luckless Moorhens and Coots at the bird ponds, now getting run over regularly, are the “canaries in the mine”, our children are in grave danger.

It is already happening. The Trustee’s illegal decision has seen the gutting of at least 2 houses already. With the increased trucks and noise this brings.   

The Thesen Islands Development Company (TIDC), the developer of Thesen Islands, decision to impose a 4-year house building time limit was a decision taken for the benefit of those who would be living on Thesen Islands. It ensured that houses were built promptly and building would be concentrated in areas.  This was exactly to guard against what the Trustees now want  - a never-ending building cycle all over the Islands!  See below for an explanation of how the TIDC plan worked.

Yes, the Trustees plan throws the whole of Thesen Islands open to “no time limit” building and resultant big trucks on our narrow roads. I believe that disregarding the potentially dangerous consequences is criminal negligence. While the trustees cannot be held personally liable for their poor decision, the HOA will suffer financial disaster if a large damages judgment is awarded. Each owner will be liable for his/her pro rata share. Read: You, me and our neighbours all pay.

But forget the legal and financial consequences. The potential tragedy of the loss of one life or serious injury is frightening. This must be stopped. Unless your committee is able to talk some sense into the trustees, there could be dark days ahead.    

The more I have thought about this, the more concerned I have become. But while I may end up with financial responsibility, I will not have to accept moral responsibility. I have pointed out the dangers. I have said “no”.

Owners who agree need to stand up and say “NO”.  For the children of Thesen Islands.

Yours sincerely,

Ken Rutherford

Criminal negligence occurs when someone acts in a way that is an extreme departure from the way that a “reasonable” person would have acted in the same or similar situation. Criminal negligence generally involves an indifference or disregard for human life or for the safety of other individuals.

Here is an overview of how the 4 year building time worked:

Each stand sold by the TIDC came with the condition that a house be built within 4 years of the FIRST transfer. If you bought a resale stand 2 years after the first transfer, you only had 2 years to build your house. Failure to comply would result in substantial financial penalties.

The stands on Thesen Islands were sold in phases starting at the Eastern end of the Island and moving West. The first phase was mainly Hammock Island. The stands in the next phase were only put on the market when most, if not all, of the stands in the previous phase had been sold.  

A stand could only be transferred to the buyer when all the infrastructure in that phase was complete – the roads, electrical, water, sewer, waterways.

On completion, each phase would be signed off by the Knysna Municipality, and the TIDC would immediately send this approval to the conveyancing attorneys, who would initiate the transfer of the stands to the new owners in large batches.

As buyers paid a 20% deposit, held by the conveyancer, with the purchase price only paid on transfer, the TIDC was motivated to have quick transfers. This meant that most owners in a phase took transfer of their stands within weeks of each other. So the 4-year time limit clock on the stands started ticking at about the same time.

As most buyers were keen to start enjoying their home on Thesen Islands, most of the house building tended to take place at about the same time. So that an owner who built in, say, the first phase on Hammock Island would be living in his home with most of the homes around him also complete. Early pictures at the HOA and on my blog show this.

UPDATE
What the increase in bulk means in reality to owner's lifestyle. These are pictures taken of the construction at J14 on 17 May, 2019. These plans were approved illegally by both the HOA and the Knysna Municipality as the "increased bulk" change in the Guidelines has not been approved by the Knysna Municipality: 

   

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