The newly enacted Land Use Scheme, the first in 21 years, charts a new path in the correction of historic spatial disparities in the City of Joburg.
Drawn up over two years by a team of five highly experienced town planners with over 100 years of combined expertise in the field, Joburg’s land use scheme is already being benchmarked by smaller municipalities in Gauteng, a huge endorsement for the group.
The document meets international town planning standards and was approved by Council at the end of December 2018. It was enacted on 01 February 2019 following a rigorous two-year public consultative process.
Until January 2019, residents needed to use different land use schemes for different areas of the City. There were over 13 of them spread across the City, with each one tailored for different racial groups.
“The new land use scheme advocates for equality, social justice and transformation,” says Gina Zanti, Deputy Director in Land Use Management, a sub-directorate of the Department of Development Planning.
Zanti says the new scheme promotes working from home and extending your property to create a source of income. It creates the opportunity for economic expansion and social redress.
“The land use scheme also gives impetus to the backyard dwelling business, mostly in townships, by providing regulations for it,” she adds.
It spells out what residents are permitted to do or not do on their properties and related time frames; how high they can build and what their zoning rights are. Its precursor entrenched and enforced spatial segregation, hence it was repealed.
“The City now has one uniform Land Use Scheme,” emphasises Zain Ally, Assistant Director in Land Use Management.
The new land use scheme plays a pivotal role in the property value chain. It facilitates faster plan approvals, simplifies and streamlines subdivision of properties and cuts out certain applications which were previously time consuming. “This is how we’re going to achieve a 5% economic growth rate,” says Ally.
Ally notes that the overall plan was to produce a document that will re-stitch the spatial design of the City. “There are huge spatial inequalities in Johannesburg, with a mining belt that creates a natural north and south divide. We now have one land use scheme that creates uniformity within the City,” he explains.
Julius Sello, Assistant Director in Land Use Management, says since its enactment, there are fewer queues on the 8th floor at the Metro Centre and applicants now work from a single document. “We now have an effective use of resources,” he adds.
“Wherein most municipalities would use consultants to draw up a plan of this magnitude, we did the work in-house,” he notes.
A land use scheme is designed to regulate land use within a municipality and define primary rights accorded to each property owner. It guides municipalities on the management and sustainable development of its communities and helps improve the general public’s quality of life. It dovetails with the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and Spatial Development Framework (SDF) of a municipality.
