Residents’ group sues city council over plans to build office block

Nairobi’s Upper Spring Valley residents have moved to court seeking to scuttle the development of a multi-million office park and hotel.

The residents say the complex will dilute their investments.

Developer Dazzler Properties Ltd on July 1, 2011 received approval from the City Council of Nairobi for construction of six commercial buildings, including five storeyed blocks of offices and a four-star hotel, complete with associated external amenities.

The Spring Valley Residents Association has asked the High Court to reverse the council decision on grounds that it falls within Nairobi’s Zone 5 which is designated as a residential area; only allowing the development of low density residential one-family units.
Investors have been fighting for space outside the congested Nairobi city centre.

The opposition to the Sh850 million real estate project comes when the City Council has reviewed the zoning development restrictions to allow the building of commercial and high-rise apartments in hitherto purely residential places like Kilimani, Westlands, Kileleshwa and Woodley.

Under the 2004 zoning, Zone 5 of Nairobi is categorised as a leafy suburb made up of Upper Spring Valley, Kyuna, Loresho and Lavington estates and according to the Nairobi City Development Ordinances and Zones – a blueprint that provides a guide to property development – is marked as residential with a regulated minimum plot size of 0.05Ha (500square metres) and a plot ratio (total build floor space) of 25 per cent.

“We consider that construction of the project would adversely affect traffic, amenities, and services to residents along the length of, and adjacent to Lower Kabete Road,” says the association in a letter dated May 18, 2011 addressed to the Nairobi Town Clerk.

Residents affected by the zoning review fear losing their exclusivity as a result of increasing pressure on the existing infrastructure like sewerage and roads as well as increasing insecurity as a result of opening their neighbourhoods up to more people.

City Hall has dismissed such objections arguing the re-zoning allows developers to distribute the land costs over more units, ultimately pulling down prices and opening access to affordable housing to more people.