What really worries me about this bulk scam.... the safety of our little kids

Come join me on my veranda.

Yes, it is a bit noisy but it's still nice and cool.  Great that we are still having some hot days. 

You know what really bothers me about this push to increase the bulk? 

Well, there are 2 things. The first one...

Despite 80% to 90% of the members being against it at the AGM, this group of trustees are still pushing ahead.  You would think that with that sort of opposition they'd put their hands up and say "OK, we get it. "

Can you believe that they were approving plans with increased bulk even when they didn't have approval from the Knysna Municipality? Probably started in July or August last year but they only told us in December. The insiders knew, of course.

See that house over there ... as you can see it has been gutted, the single story area made double story. Construction noise starts at 7.30 and ends after 5 every day.  That is what this increase bulk means, more construction. Which means noise, dust, trucks, bakkies... the negatives don't end.

As I was saying, this noise is a big irritation but the 2nd thing that really worries me is the increased amount of heavy trucks and bakkies on our narrow roads.  

When the 4 year time limit to build a house was in place, there were a lot less peoples living on the Islands. Now we have lots of families with small kids, lots of grandchildren visiting their grandparents, And riding around on bicycles, tricycles, scooters...

I don't have small kids or grandchildren but  I am worried stiff.  

You have grandchildren don't you?  

Well, you owe it to them and to all the other little kids who live here to tell the HOA in no uncertain terms that this attempt to increase the bulk is a dangerously stupid idea and must be stopped. 

It is insane to open Thesen Islands up to continuous building. 

It is coming to crunch time. If you are opposed to this, then you need to add your voice to those fighting against it. Write and tell the HOA where you stand. Get involved! Your levy won’t be doubled. Security won’t drag you out of your house at 3 in the morning and take you to Red Square (HOA building) and give you electrical shocks. Well, it hasn't happened to me yet. But if it does, you will be the first to know.   

These do not mix safely....

  

Submission to the Increased FAR (Bulk) Committee

The fight against the unilateral decision of the HOA/trustees to gut the Design Guidelines and increase the bulk is far from over.  We have a group of trustees who are still pushing ahead despite opposition from 80 to 90% of the owners at the AGM in January 2019.

You only have to read what the HOA/trustees say. See below. 

You only have to look at how the HOA/trustees have changed their story of the reason for this decision to believe that if there was a 3rd story they could come up with to push this through, they would.  

You only have to know that the HOA were approving plans with the increased bulk for about 6 months, before they told us. And they did this WITHOUT having the approval of the Knysna Municipality. Both the HOA and KM confirm this. See below.

I wasn't at the AGM but l, and the rest of the owners who were not there, owe a big vote of thanks to the owners who turned up in numbers and voiced their objection to this "added bulk" scam that will destroy Thesen Islands under our noses. See below for feedback from some owners.  

Let the Increased FAR (Bulk) Committee and the HOA know where you stand. Write your letter today. You are in this fight, too. Don't stand on the sidelines letting others speak for you. If enough owners voice their unhappiness, we may be able to stop it now.  They can ignore 1 or 2 owners, but they cannot ignore hundreds. 

Send a link to this blog to the many other owners who are unaware of it. The HOA can send out an email to every owner at the push of a button, I cannot do that.  

Below is my submission which I sent to each Committee member. Send you submission to the HOA. Ask for confirmation/proof that it was received by the committee. Or email me at thesenislander@gmail.com for the individual addresses of the committee members. I don't want to post them here. 

Your submission can be as short as you want it to be. One sentence stating your position is all that is needed. 

The next meeting is:  Monday, April 1, 2019    

(No indication of when the last meeting is - it could be this one. So get your submission in without delay. We don't want to run into a "disqualified submissions" issue like that happened with the proxies at the AGM)

Date: March 26, 2019

To: The Committee Members

Mike Barber

Hugh Bosman
Suyenne BothaLester Day (Chairperson)
Orrie Fenn (Trustee Infrastructure)
Dr Chris Mulder
Mark Stemmett

From: Ken Rutherford

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 “evidence and submissions” for your consideration.

Firstly, I thank you for giving your time and energy to serve on this committee that potentially could sway whether we stay Thesen Islands or become Knysna Quays South over many years of increased building activity.

As you are aware that the position of the trustees, in a message sent out on December 31, 2018, is:

"whilst the trustees stand by their decision" to increase the bulk they are forming a "sub committee" to make "inputs" that the Board of Trustees "will consider, and "if appropriate act upon."

You will also be aware the trustee’s first motivation for the increased bulk: “the real aim (for the changes) was to provide the stimulation for improvements“- Chairman’s Report December 6, 2018.

How many owners benefit from that? More building means more dust, more dirt, more noise, more bakkies, more trucks, more danger for children riding bicycles, more security threats from the increased workers.  There was a solid reason for the 4 year building time limit.

As the trustees stand by their decision, what do you say to the perception that your committee is a bone tossed to owners to make them feel involved in the decision to increase bulk but, at the end of the day, has no relevance?

My concern is that you may have been appointed to give legitimacy to the undemocratic, and illegally implemented without approval of the Knysna Municipality, decision of the trustees to increase bulk?

1.1 The overall objective of the Increased Floor Area Ratio (FAR) (Bulk) Committee is to consider the Increased Bulk agreed by the Trustees while taking cognisance of the majority view of Members at the AGM...

Not surprisingly, this is an attempt to downplay the huge majority of the owner’s opposition to the increase in bulk. In fact, owners who were at the AGM paint a very different story of what happened and what the mandate of your committee was meant to be. I was not at the AGM so I share with you parts of the emails I received:

 Owner 1

“Not sure if you've been informed, but the 'expansion' of Thesens was rejected by a forced vote by the homeowners (as the HOA had removed the topic from the agenda pending the commission - slimy ) . No decision on the insider offenders yet.”

Owner 2

“In a nutshell a member asked for a show of hands from the floor for members who were against the increase in bulk. Nearly 80% of those present did not want it.”

Owner 3

Of significance and importance to us is that the question of the TIHOA DRP and Trustees decisions relevant to the question of “Increased Bulk or FAR” was hotly debated. Although poorly controlled and after many exchanges the action of the Trustees in establishing a sub-committee was put to the vote and their action was carried by the narrowest of margins. Then because of continued pressure It was decided to have a “Straw Poll” for an indication from the meeting to sub-committee as to whether the Members actually wanted any “increase in Bulk or FAR”.  The overwhelming vote was NO – my estimate 90% against, so the Subcommittee has a clear mandate of Members feelings and this really took the Trustees by surprise.

Owner 4

So we survived, although it probably was the largest gathering ever by Members for an AGM it was not overly dramatic. It was interesting to hear the comments, Chris Mulder spoke leaving no doubt that for him and the Developers negotiating the Building Rules for TI were long and hard. Graham Power also spoke and sort of intimated Members take a vote on whether the Committee proceed with their deliberations. Another Member stood up and said, let’s have a show of hands. This was the obvious solution. By far, I mean by a huge margin the overwhelming majority stuck their hands up for leaving the DRP Guidelines concerning Footprint and Bulk as is. There was then a call of hands for the proposal the Committee investigate the issue. If there were twenty it was a lot. This was not a formal vote but a show of hands to guide the Trustees.

The Committee still stands but their job is to resolve the issue of properties who are over Footprint or Bulk.

In real terms I think this means they are not going to let go of the Bulk story, it is bound to raise it’s ugly head again. The Trustees maintain there are more than 30% of houses not in compliance; their inference is that these can be fixed by the Bulk story. Chris strongly disagreed and said that under his guard every building was properly checked.  So that’s where we are, I don’t for one minute think the Bulk issue has gone away.

1.1.4 with the understanding of the data by type of property, or group of properties and the interpretation of the applicable Zoning parameters/scheme, to submit to the Board comment as to whether the change proposed by the Trustees is minor...

In the “IMPORTANT NOTICE TO MEMBERS -TRUSTEES' EXPLANATION OF THE DECISION TO OFFER INCREASED FAR (BULK) TO REGULARISE THE ESTATE dated December 21, 2018, the trustee said:

 “Our attorneys have also concluded that the minor expansion of rights, within the parameters of the Knysna Municipality Zoning Scheme, for which Municipal approval is a mere formality, is indeed a minor change to the Design Guidelines, within the meaning of clause 9.1 of the Constitution.”

The trustees appear to have lost faith in this “legal opinion”. But as we were told they had one, please investigate, firstly, if it exists, and if it does, what it says and which attorneys provided it. And the date it was provided.  

3.8 Minutes shall be kept in a Minute Book and signed off by the Chairperson at the next meeting. These minutes, because of the confidential nature relating to members, will be made available for viewing to members upon written request, in a redacted form (to comply with POPI) in a reasonable time.

The trustees love to roll out POPI and I suspect that they are getting ready to use it here to hide the names of the trustees and other connected owners who benefited from the approval of plans with increased bulk from about July 2018 through the end of the year when they told the rest of us.

And they didn’t even have the approval of the Knysna Municipality to do this! See below for confirmation of this from both the HOA and the Knysna Municipality. 

Oh, and “made available for viewing” means? Sit and read them in an office at the HOA. Tough luck if you don’t live in Knysna.  How’s that for discouraging an informed membership? But like the ANC, they don't want an informed electorate

Let’s look at the POPI Act:

The Protection of Private Information Act.  “In a technological age, which is governed by social media and characterised by aggressive consumer marketing, the over-arching aim of the bill is to protect individuals’ personal information from misuse. She says privacy is important because data and its relative worth to companies in the form of databases is enormous. She says this means there is a real chance that it will be abused.” 

https://www.property24.com/articles/impact-of-popi-act-on-sectional-title/21092

Fair enough.  But from the Act:

Section 11: Personal information may only be processed if — (c) processing complies with an obligation imposed by law on the responsible party; (d) processing protects the legitimate interests of the data subject; (e) processing is necessary for pursuing the legitimate interests of the responsible party or the third party (the other owners in the scheme) to whom the information is supplied.

I would say it is in the interests of owners to know who the trustees are, it is suspected, who benefited from their positions to get their own increased bulk plans approved and those of connected individuals without the rest of us owners knowing a thing about it. 

I would say this is in the “legitimate interests” of all owners and the gets to the core of good governance:  How and when, or if, the increased bulk was approved by the trustees.  

We already know it was implemented without approval of the Knysna Municipality (1) as the trustees have acknowledged it (2).

(1) Email from KM Town Planner on February 11, 2019 that said “Yes, we have recently received an application for the increase in bulk and the application is still in its initial stage”

(2) See “In order to clarify possible misconceptions, we list the timeline of documents sent to Knysna Municipality relating to, inter alia, FAR” in the email  “Increase in FAR (Bulk)” dated February 15, 2019.

4.2 Any member or person present at a Committee meeting shall recuse themselves while any matter in which they have a direct or personal interest or potential conflict of interest is considered.

Chris Mulder will mostly be sitting in a chair in the lobby. At times, he may be joined by Lester Day.  It is ironic that they throw this in now when they co opted and made chairperson of the Design Review Panel, an interior designer who also sells light and bathroom fittings. 

4.4 As the Committee has an investigative and deliberative function, it will not take formal decisions or votes. However, when the Chairperson reports the findings and recommendations of the Committee to the Board, the Chairperson shall report all matters as agreed by the Committee or as not agreed. Where the Chairperson believes this will assist the Board, he/she shall explain points of internal disagreement in his or her report to the Board.

Nothing has changed. It is the trustee’s call.  As the trustees said in their December 31, 2018 email: “whilst the trustees stand by their decision" to increase the bulk they are forming a "sub committee" to make "inputs" that the Board of Trustees "will consider, and "if appropriate act upon."

The position of the trustees is clear. They want to increase the bulk.  And as they control the work of your committee and more powerfully the means of communication with the owners, only their spin (as it changes) gets communicated to the owners.  This we have seen in the past.

The 80 to 90% of owners at the AGM who oppose the increase in bulk never get to tell the rest of the owners why they feel this way.  Just dismissed in a one liner in the AGM minutes.

In summary, aside from my questions at the beginning on how you see your roles, these are my questions and requests:

The minutes of the trustee’s meeting approving the increase in bulk.

The minutes of the trustee’s meeting approving the implementation of the increased bulk Guidelines, with subsequent approval of house plans, without the approval of the Knysna Municipality.

The names of the owners, house numbers and architects who had plans approved with the increased bulk.

The legal opinion that the change to the Design Guidelines was “minor” in terms of the Constitution with the name of the attorney and the date it was provided.

In the email, IMPORTANT NOTICE TO MEMBERS - TRUSTEES' EXPLANATION OF THE DECISION TO OFFER INCREASED FAR (BULK) TO REGULARISE THE ESTATE dated December 21, 2019, the trustees made certain claims:

 Apart from the plan submissions to the DRP which highlight that many properties are over bulk according to our existing Design Guidelines, additional investigations by our BCO indicate that as many as a third of properties are non-compliant; and these are only the properties that we are aware of. 

My question: As many as a third? Please investigate the methodology used in this investigation. And the details of the results.

It needs noting that ALL past and present changes have been agreed to and accepted by the Trustees and the Knysna Municipality:  the application is merely a formality. The DRP has as a result been approving plans based on addenda dating back some years.

Do the trustees acknowledge that the claim that the Knysna Municipality had “agreed and accepted” the changes is actually false? I refer to the email from KM Town Planner on February 11, 2019 that said “Yes, we have recently received an application for the increase in bulk and the application is still in its initial stage.”

I submit the following posts from my blog

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-email-that-got-craig-smith-banned.html

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2018/12/more-trucks-more-dust-more-noise-more.html

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2018/12/read-and-weep-selling-of-thesen-islands.html

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2018/12/proposed-increase-in-bulk-is-not-minor.html

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2018/12/hoa-tries-out-new-story-im-not-buying-it.html

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2018/12/ex-md-of-tidc-slams-trustees-intent-to.html

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2018/12/another-owner-says-no-to-hoas-bulk-scam.html

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2018/12/chris-mulder-ex-tidc-director-master.html

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2019/01/what-i-know-summary-of-scam-to-date.html

And just so you know what sort of Design Review Panel we now have:

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2019/01/incompetence-evasion-design-review.html

http://thesenislandernews.blogspot.com/2019/01/more-evasion-from-design-review-panel.html

Depressing isn’t it? Your committee, even as hamstrung and boxed in by the trustees’ “Terms of Reference” as it is, has the last chance to, just maybe, save Thesen Islands from the rampant self interest and greed of a few. I wish you all strength to make the right decisions.  

The Sounds of Thesen Islands.... No, not the birds, it's Jackhammer time

Aah, yes, I used to love the sounds of the birds on Thesen Islands in the early morning...

But lately there are different the sounds I have been waking up to and suffering through every day ... Yes, the sounds of  "improvements."  As the trustees told us, " the real aim (for the changes) to the Design Guidelines" is "the stimulation for improvements. " 

I'm get an up close feel of what we are in for with these "improvements" if we don't roll back this "increased bulk" scam. 

The house across the waterway from me has been gutted and the single story areas made double story, surely the beneficiary of the illegal increase in bulk. Yes, illegal. As in NOT APPROVED by the Knysna Municipality. And this is confirmed by both the KM and the HOA. Read my submission to the Bulk Committee for the details.

Yes, those sticklers for the law when it comes to who can attend the AGM and disallowing unfriendly proxies, ignore the law. With no consequences, no explanation, nothing. Just brazening it out like Eskom executives caught scamming.   

Thesen Islands has turned into a business. The sounds of the "improvements" you are hearing are music to the ears of the builders, architects, interior designers and suppliers of building material, bathroom and light fittings, tiles, carpets, windows... It is a new boom time. 

Having lived through the sensible initial 4 year building time limit, we now have the HOA throwing Thesen Islands open to be a never ending building site. 

Do you know the builders are allowed to work from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m Monday to Friday? And on Saturdays with permission? 

Hey wait a minute, that doesn't seem right, you say? I thought we had a Home Owners Association looking out for the owners? No, friend, it is a Home Builders Association that is now running this building site. 

And if you complain about the noise in the early morning the HBA will ask the builder to please start with the noisy equipment after 8.30. Ask, you say? Yes, ask them! So they can say "No, stuff the people who want a quiet early morning, I've got a wall I want to break down."    

But you, Mr/Ms Owner, will be fined from R500 to R5,000 for making a noise.

Coming soon to a house near you...

What Owners say happened at the AGM about the increase in bulk scam

Not having been at the AGM, I have been waiting for the HOA to send out the minutes. 

Paul Burchell told me that they would be “distributed after the first trustee’s meeting”. This took place on Thursday, February 14, 2019. No minutes have been released as yet. Just a hard to read, and equally to understand, email called “Increase in FAR (Bulk)”. Who writes these things? I feel sorry for Paul Burchell having to attach his name to any email no trustee is willing to put his name on.  

In the absence of the minutes, here are parts of e-mails that I received from owners who were at the AGM. And reading the “Increase in FAR (Bulk)” e-mail, I have to think that the writer was, like me, also not at the AGM.

So I’ll share with you and the writer what owners who were actually at the AGM have told me (bold added by me):

Owner 1

“Not sure if you've been informed, but the 'expansion' of Thesens was rejected by a forced vote by the homeowners (as the HOA had removed the topic from the agenda pending the commission - slimy ) . No decision on the insider offenders yet.”

Owner 2

“In a nutshell a member asked for a show of hands from the floor for members who were against the increase in bulk. Nearly 80% of those present did not want it.”

Owner 3

Of significance and importance to us is that the question of the TIHOA DRP and Trustees decisions relevant to the question of “Increased Bulk or FAR” was hotly debated. Although poorly controlled and after many exchanges the action of the Trustees in establishing a sub-committee was put to the vote and their action was carried by the narrowest of margins. Then because of continued pressure It was decided to have a “Straw Poll” for an indication from the meeting to sub-committee as to whether the Members actually wanted any “increase in Bulk or FAR”.  The overwhelming vote was NO – my estimate 90% against, so the Subcommittee has a clear mandate of Members feelings and this really took the Trustees by surprise.

Owner 4

So we survived, although it probably was the largest gathering ever by Members for an AGM it was not overly dramatic. It was interesting to hear the comments, Chris Mulder spoke leaving no doubt that for him and the Developers negotiating the Building Rules for TI were long and hard. Graham Power also spoke and sort of intimated Members take a vote on whether the Committee proceed with their deliberations. Another Member stood up and said, let’s have a show of hands. This was the obvious solution. By far, I mean by a huge margin the overwhelming majority stuck their hands up for leaving the DRP Guidelines concerning Footprint and Bulk as is. There was then a call of hands for the proposal the Committee investigate the issue. If there were twenty it was a lot. This was not a formal vote but a show of hands to guide the Trustees.

The Committee still stands but their job is to resolve the issue of properties who are over Footprint or Bulk.

In real terms I think this means they are not going to let go of the Bulk story, it is bound to raise it’s ugly head again. The Trustees maintain there are more than 30% of houses not in compliance; their inference is that these can be fixed by the Bulk story. Chris strongly disagreed and said that under his guard every building was properly checked.  So that’s where we are, I don’t for one minute think the Bulk issue has gone away.

This owner’s prediction has proven correct. It hasn’t gone away.

So to the “Increase in FAR (Bulk)” email (all quotes from the email are in italic).

“The implementation of the FAR rules would be held over until the Board of Trustees has considered and, if approved, acted upon the inputs of the sub-committee and the Members.

Just so we are clear here, we have an AGM, one of the best attended ever according to a member, where 80% to 90% of those attending vote NO to increasing the bulk, and the trustees still seem to believe they will decide if the bulk will be increased? This is absurd.  IT IS NOT THEIR CALL.

On top of this, the trustees have not been able to make a coherent argument to owners the reasons for this increase in bulk. They have changed their story on the reason for the increase twice (Read HOA tries out a new story - I'm not buying it. ), shut out any opposing viewpoints and tried to ban an owner, who asked difficult questions, from attending the AGM.  They have also misrepresented and underplayed the huge impact it will have on everyone who lives on Thesen Islands.

All the time, promising “prompt replies” to questions, but never answering them.  Read What I know: A summary of the scam to date

You have to ask what is the real agenda of the trustees to continue to try to force this increase in bulk through? Any reasonable person would say that if 80% to 90% of those attending the AGM are against the increase, that is probably as good a yardstick as you can get for where homeowners stand on this issue.

“Following the AGM, Lester Day has developed a Terms of Reference (ToR) which has been shared with the Trustees.  Clearly this ToR will need to be discussed at the first meeting of the FAR sub-committee and then approved by the Trustees by Round Robin.  This ToR will then be shared with the members.”

Given that the trustees still feel it is their decision alone (and to hell with the owners and the Constitution) to increase the bulk, how likely are the Terms of Reference going to take into account the huge opposition of owners to increasing the bulk?  This was the understanding of many owners who were at the meeting that:

“the Subcommittee has a clear mandate of Members feelings and this really took the Trustees by surprise.”

And that:

“The Committee still stands but their job is to resolve the issue of properties who are over Footprint or Bulk.”

And how come Lester Day (and other trustees) never responded to the owners that he may be a beneficiary of the premature decision to increase the bulk without formal approval?  Read What I know: A summary of the scam to date  Read The Email that got Craig and the Smith banned

“A key element of the work of the sub -committee is to establish the impact of the proposed increase in FAR by property.”

An email from an owner received in the last few days:

“Ken - Not what I, and I believe others, understood would be part of the committee’s mandate.”

“To gather this data accurately and cost effectively has been a challenge.  To this end Orrie Fenn and Lester Day have held 7 meetings with management over the past few weeks and we now believe we have established the best way to gather the data and to trust the integrity thereof.”

Cost effectively? So it’s costing us?  So aside from umpteen thousands of Rands in legal fees, this fiasco continues to cost us even more money. (Good news, the data has integrity and we can trust it. There is a shortage of both around here.)

By the way, do you know that the trustees have stopped dealing directly with one owner, only talking to him though a lawyer*? I know enough about lawyers that they charge for reaching over to sharpen their pencil before taking notes so this is costing us big time.  Oh, and the recent AGM had a first. The first time a lawyer was flown down from Johannesburg, put up in a hotel and paid to attend the AGM.  How has a simple HOA come to this? Well, read my blog. We know how.

Can the HOA tell us how much they have spent on attorney fees since this began?   

*Let me ask you question. If someone ran for trustee and got up and said “I will only speak to an owner through a lawyer” would you vote for him or her? No, you say? So shouldn’t a trustee who doesn’t do what he was elected to do, resign? What’s next, only speaking to an owner through your therapist?

OK, another quick question: How do you know if you a following a trustee on Thesen Islands?  The car has a bumper sticker “Don’t speak to me, speak to my lawyer”.

“We are now getting a grasp of how long it will take to populate the data.  When we have this answer we will be in a position to call the first meeting of the sub-committee next week.”

Populate the data? Huh?

“In order to clarify possible misconceptions, we list the timeline of documents sent to Knysna Municipality relating to, inter alia, FAR.

7 August 2018    E-mail sent to Knysna Municipality with addenda, showing proposed FAR changes relating to T2, T3 and T11 of the Guidelines.

14 August 2018  Follow up with Knysna Municipality, requesting response. Received feedback thereafter from Knysna Municipality that Knysna Municipality required all the additions and amendments to be incorporated into the Design Guidelines document and re submitted in one, all-encompassing document, not in an addendum format.

2 questions that have been asked many times before: 

How many plans have been approved based on the non approved FAR changes? Please provide the date of approval, stand number and owner’s name.  

I refer you to The Email that got Craig and the Smith banned. Please answer the questions he is asking. 

If the HOA is genuinely committed to “clarify(ing) possible misconceptions” then clear up the perception that selected insiders benefited from the illegal increase in bulk.      

18 December 2018  A Design Guidelines document encompassing all previous addenda from 2014 - 2018, including the proposed FAR changes, was delivered to Knysna Municipality for consideration and who stamped the TIHOA copy, acknowledging receipt thereof.

On 31 December, 2018, the HOA told homeowners that “the implementation of the new FAR rules will be held over”. But I refer to the Agenda of the Design Review Panel Meeting of 22 January, 2019, which says:    

“Guideline Amendments

6.1. BCO submitted changes to the DG to Knysna Municipality in December 2018. Proof of payment request received by BCO during January 2019 and provided to KM. BCO awaiting feedback over progress of application. BCO to provide feedback to DRP when received.”

If the HOA said on December 31, 2019 that the FAR rules have been "held over", which I assume means the process to increase the bulk has been stopped, then why was the HOA in January 2019, through the Building Control Office (BCO) and the DRP, still engaging with the KM about payment and feedback for the changes submitted?  

14 February 2019  KM was advised that TIHOA have withdrawn the submission delivered to them on 18 December 2018.  A Design Guideline document, excluding all the FAR amendment proposals but including addenda from 2014 - 2018, will be delivered to Knysna Municipality during the course of the week of 18 February 2019.”

What took so long? 6 weeks? Was it due to confirmation from the KM Town Planner on February 11, 2019 that “ Yes, we have recently received an application for the increase in bulk and the application is still in its initial stage”, that triggered this withdrawal 6 weeks after you told homeowners that “the implementation of the new FAR rules will be held over”? 

The problem is the HOA has no credibility. This “Increase in FAR (Bulk)” like all their communications demonstrates that plainly to anyone with insight.

A vote of hands showed 80% to 90% of the owners at the AGM do not want it. Therefore, you can safely assume the majority of owners do not want an increase in bulk.   Your job is to follow the wishes of the owners. Not to impose your wishes on us.  

What I know: A summary of the scam to date

The realization that I have had since I read the HOA communication "Trustees' Explanation of the decision to offer increased bulk" is the lack of trust I now have in the HOA.  I cannot believe anything they tell me. That communication was, to be polite, an attempt to mislead homeowners.

Read HOA tries out a new story. I'm not buying it

I'm not naive. I know that there are people who will lie to gain an advantage. I have a simple way of dealing with this: If I find you lied to me, I never believe anything you tell me again. Unless I know it to be true. Because past conduct is a predictor of future conduct.  

But when it is as simple operation as your Home Owners Association that you have to be "suspicious of", well, that is disheartening. 

I like to relax in my home on Thesen Islands, not be on my guard for what scam the HOA is going to try to pull next. And if you read my blog, in the short few years of Thesen Islands, there was another scam that had to be beaten back. And I wasn't involved in the fight against the Vodacom towers, but there was a smell there, too. 

And to think I started this blog to share pictures of the early stages of the development. Now it has turned into a local version of the corruption exposing "Daily Maverick".

But getting to the here and now...

Okay, so this is what I know and what I think. We are being scammed. Thesen Islands is being redeveloped right under our feet. If we do not stand up and say to the trustees "No, you cannot do this", then look forward to living on a building site. Say goodbye to the Islands as you know it. 

Many questions have been asked of the HOA over the last few weeks. I've written letters myself. None have been answered properly. Even a simple question asking "which trustees are standing for re-election?" hasn't been answered. Yet the HOA promises "prompt answers".

Following up on the embarrassing snow job attempted in their December 21, 2018, communication, they are now, in a message sent out on December 31, 2018, saying that

"whilst the trustees stand by their decision" to increase the bulk they are forming a "sub committee" to make "inputs" that the Board of Trustees "will consider, and "if appropriate act upon."

As they say in America, they're taking a leaf right out of the ANC government playbook.  (To do something in the way someone else would do it) 
This is what the ANC does when it finds itself on the back foot. It forms a committee!  

But the trustees stand by their decision!  Of course, they do. Some of them appear to benefit personally from the increasing of the bulk.  

So what is the point of this talk shop? Chaired by a trustee, nogal!  It is a small bone tossed to the homeowners to make us feel that we have some influence. 

Then they add:  "The implementation of the new FAR rules will be held over." What? "Held over" means delayed. But they have already been implemented. Since July, apparently.  You know it but you just never told us.

I have a suggestion for the Trustees: Before you set up a committee, first find out if the majority of homeowners want to increase the bulk and turn Thesen Islands into Knysna Quays? You have never asked us!    

As to the rest of what has been happening, In this void of no answers, a homeowner (me) can only speculate. Here's what I think has happened:

The Design Review Panel (DRP) chaired by Sam Lurie, has been turned into a vehicle to promote business. What type of business, you ask? The business of promoting building on Thesen Islands through renovations, additions and upgrading.

To achieve this, they gutted the Design Guidelines. As Max Diethelm, an owner, says in his letter to the HOA:

"the bulk increase (allowed in the new Guidelines) amounts to some 15 500 m2 or the equivalent of two rugby fields. At only 13 000.00 per m2 it translates into some R 200 million of building activity."

Good business for the designers and architects on the DRP.

And business is what they are very clear about. This is what the DRP in the Chairman's Report, the author unidentified, said in December, 2018:

The "real aim was to provide the stimulation for improvements and possibilities, which we think is now achievable."

Blunt, isn't it? Why the DRP chose to show their cards and disclose their agenda in such a blatant way is a mystery. But we can be thankful that they were so upfront. At least we know where we stand.

Then the mystery is, why did the rest of the trustees go along with this? Surely, they saw that it wasn't in the interests of the huge majority of homeowners? Whose interests they are meant to be representing?

I don't know. But perhaps the answer is in Craig Smith's email. The one that got him banned. Read it here.

In it, you will read that 3 of the trustees, Mark Williams, Lester Day and Remia Eksteen apparently had plans approved with the new added bulk. I say, apparently, as the HOA has refused to answer the questions in Craig Smith's email. Instead, they banned him. But pressure from homeowners has got him un-banned.

Looks like these 3 trustees decided to take advantage of their insider knowledge and submit plans for bigger houses. The other trustees? What did they know about this? They are keeping quiet. And the 3 trustees? They're keeping quiet, too. No explanations, no protests of innocence. Nothing. Surprising? You'd think if there was a plausible explanation, we'd have heard it.

Then the 2nd mystery is that these changes were apparently approved in July, 2018. But only the connected homeowners were told of this. And plans continued to be approved with the new added bulk up right up to when the rest of us were told in the Chairman's Report in December, 2018.

Why this subterfuge? I don't know. Perhaps they thought they wouldn't get away with it. But wanted to get away with as much as they could, for as long as they could? Here also, the HOA is silent.  But it looks like a betrayal of homeowners, for sure.

Then another mystery to me is where was Bill Cooper while all this was happening? Cooper has done a lot of good in his time as Chairman. He came in at a difficult time and steadied the ship. He has overseen a lot of innovative thinking and forward planning.

Obviously trustees change every year, so Cooper hasn't had the same team, but I think he's been a decent Chairman.  Until now, sadly. I hear he was away when this scam was hatched. But what happened when he got back? He's not telling. But he owes us an explanation. And maybe save what's left of his reputation.

So where do we go from here? I think Williams, Day, Eksteen and Lurie need to go. They have no credibility.

In truth, I think the whole lot of them need to go. They haven't looked out for the homeowners. It has been all bullying and bluffing as they try to force through the increased bulk changes.

Some new trustees need to be elected. Paul Burchell appears to be an excellent and experienced manager. He can guide the new trustees. 

The changes to the Design Guidelines must be rolled back immediately. No building permits issued.

A thorough investigation needs to be done into what plans have been approved with the added bulk or any other changes. Whose houses, who were the architects, what were the owners promised and what was expected of them?  

Don't be under any illusions, the Thesen Islands HOA is in big trouble with possibly financial exposure.    Read HOA asks Ex TIDC MD: Why refer this to our accountants? Read his reply

Owners need to stand up an be counted at the AGM. Or give your proxy in to someone you trust. 

We need to take Thesen Islands back. Or suffer the consequences of rampant self interest and greed.

I won't be at the AGM. Thankfully, I am away as the meeting would make me nauseous.

Ken Rutherford