14
17 February 2021
www.thevillagenews.co.za
MY OPINION
Hermanus CBD – Quo Vadis? By Phillip Parsons
A
nyone walking through the largely deserted streets of the CBD, confronted by empty shops and few tourists must ask themselves what the future holds for the business heart of Hermanus. I suspect that the answer to that question will depend on how one sees the future unfolding. I am sure many business operators will not be speculating about the future, they will simply be trying to cope with the present situation and ensure that their business enterprise survives over the next few weeks and months. They will be focussed on generating enough income to pay rent, staff salaries, service their debt and put food on their own table.
One can but sympathise with their pain and as residents of this beautiful town we should be doing all we can to ensure their survival through our support for local businesses. Others will be anticipating that the environment that sustained them in the past will be returning soon: overseas visitors will once again come to Hermanus, local tourists will spend their money here and things
will return to pre-Covid-19 normality once again. The years lost to the Coronavirus will become a distant memory. I fear that folk who envisage this scenario are being unrealistic. It is highly likely that even when a semblance of normality returns to our world, fewer people will travel overseas, there will be less discretionary income and Hermanus is not going to attract the same numbers of tourists as in the past. Hoping to re-establish the economy of the CBD based solely on a thriving tourism industry might be a costly illusion. What the CBD needs is a vision of its future not entirely dependent on tourism, and this requires a re-envisioning of the structure of Hermanus in a way that will re-invigorate local businesses and ensure a vibrant and active CBD. What this will require is a vision that sees residents returning to those areas where previously they had been displaced by large and small businesses, and where existing holiday accommodation is converted to units for permanent residents. Existing commercial buildings in the CBD will need to move all businesses to street level, subdividing larger spaces to accommodate smaller
businesses, thus freeing up first and second floor accommodation for conversion into residential units. Houses in the CBD that have been rezoned for business purposes will need to be returned to residential use and no further erosion of the residential core of the town must be allowed. For the CBD to flourish it needs people, people who live in the immediate area, who spend their money there rather than at the malls and who give life to the streets seven days a week. The conversion of office buildings to residential apartments could be a lucrative venture post-Covid-19 and is one of a few options available to property owners facing rising levels of unused office space. Such conversions will not only address the concerning issue of high office vacancy rates but also provide more housing in and near major urban hubs.
of the most attractive towns in the entire country, but the influx of tourists over the years has seen the exodus of locals from the CBD as residential properties have gained value as business premises, and existing accommodation has become unaffordable for the average person who has been forced to purchase an apartment on the outskirts of the town or in surrounding suburbs such as Sandbaai. Undoubtedly many of these would prefer to live in the town of Hermanus itself, if affordable accommodation was available. If this is the future of the CBD, who is going to make it happen? Our municipality, which does an outstanding job of maintaining our infrastructure and providing efficient services, is not likely to have the vision for such a task.
Converting unused office buildings to flats in the country’s CBDs has been a common-sense trend for more than a decade, says Erwin Rode of Rode & Associates… – Bonnie Fourie, July 2020 (https://www.property360.co.za/ news/making-offices-into-flats-postcovid-a-profitable-model)
This needs a team of town planners, architects, spatial engineers, property developers and other specialists to come together and create a comprehensive, achievable programme to reconfigure the physical landscape of the CBD to attract residents back to the town centre and repurpose existing buildings in line with that programme.
Hermanus is acknowledged as one
Clearly the municipal officials would
need to be involved since they would need to implement zoning laws and introduce favourable property rating schemes to encourage property owners to align with this programme, but it needs to be driven by a group of local citizens. Is such a vision achievable? One only has to look at cities that have re-imagined themselves and brought residents back to the city to see that this is not only eminently achievable, it is highly desirable if we are not to experience the ongoing degradation of the Hermanus CBD. Some of the most sought-after places to live are cities and towns that a few years ago were considered almost beyond saving. They have also managed to re-invent themselves as viable commercial centres with a vibrant residential community at their heart. Can Hermanus achieve the same? It remains to be seen if there are enough people with vision and commitment, and whether their subsequent vision has the full support of the municipality. Let’s hope that we can indeed achieve this transformation and ensure the sustainability of the commercial heart of Hermanus.
