8.1 Introduction
This section of the City Development Plan gives a brief overview of the approach in addressing development problems and meeting the challenges of becoming an African world class city.

In planning terms, a positive city experience refers to:

• The benefits, to all residents, or large numbers of people, living in the same area
• The relationship between humans and the environment (built and natural)
• Well functioning urban environments, with a variety of opportunities including livelihood generation and access to services.

The presence of these three aspects does not automatically equate with a good functioning city. The way they relate to one another is important. To ensure efficient urban performance there is a need for certain prerequisites.

8.2 Prerequisites for good urban performance
When all of these qualities listed below are present across the city, it will be an urban place that offers its residents all the positive aspects of city life.

• Easy access to places, resources, services and other people. On a physical level this refers to movement (walking, routes, modes, public transport, private car).
• Integration of land uses facilitates access and efficiency by bringing people and opportunities closer to one another in order to maximise economic, social and cultural possibilities.
• Compact urban form raises the thresholds for economic activity and public transport. It implies that high population density is needed for urban efficiency. It does not mean that all areas of the city have to be high density, but rather that there are a range of densities. Compaction prevents the costly supply and maintenance of services and engineering infrastructure in peripheral areas.
• Legibility and order. Legibility refers to the city pattern and the ease with which people can understand the structure of the city. Order refers to the relationships between structuring elements. A hierarchy (from neighbourhood to metropolitan scale), of public and private places, (including roads, nodes and open spaces), gives legibility.
• Resilience ensures that the structuring elements are robust and will endure over time and adapt to changing needs of future generations. It requires that a long-term view of the city is adopted and that special places, natural and built, are protected and enhanced.
• Efficiency refers to the management of development through various institutional means such as policies and legal mechanisms, as well as the manner in which the structuring elements come together to provide residents with a positive urban experience, such as creating safe environments.

These qualities may appear to be abstract, but they do relate to the spatial arrangement of the city.

8.3 The plan
There are two components to the plan.

• The physical or spatial component. This is a framework which gives direction to urban development by creating preconditions that facilitate positive response. These preconditions are created by focusing on public places (roads, open spaces), and on the physical structure of the city (nodes).
• The aspatial component. This is the institutional arena which includes policy and management systems. It impacts on the way the physical plan develops.

8.4 The structuring elements
The structuring elements can be thought of as the skeleton of the city because they are the spatial basics that give the city form. They should be present in a way that contributes to the prerequisites for good urban performance.

• Open space is required to provide for leisure activity as well as being vital for environmental reasons such as providing water drainage areas. Examples of natural structuring elements are the ridges and waterways.
• Roads. The city has a road network the purpose of which is to provide people and vehicles with movement opportunities. Roads, and the land uses along them, need to be managed so that the mobility function is protected, while selected development opportunities are realised. This is done by:
  • Creating a hierarchy of roads. Some roads are quiet neighbourhood roads, while others are main arterials that cater for fast moving vehicles that are passing through the area.
  • Controlling the number and type of access points to the road determines the intensity of the land use or the mobility level of the road. The more access points, the slower traffic moves and the less mobility there is.
  • Managing the types of land uses along the roads. Different types of uses create different traffic volumes and patterns. By concentrating business and retail activity at nodes, the mobility function of roads is retained. Nodes have other advantages such as concentration of economic activities generating further income producing opportunities and the preservation of residential amenity.
• High density residential development along roads provides the population threshold to support efficient public transport. It also is a means of ensuring a compact city and it has economic advantages.
• Focal built points contribute to creating a city image. Examples are the Brixton tower and the Newtown Precinct.
• Urban boundary is the point beyond which the city cannot expand. It ensures compactness, and allows for the high densities associated with cities internationally and for efficient service provision.

These structuring elements, when correctly managed, enhance the functioning of the city, as described by the prerequisites for good urban performance (easy access, integration of land uses, compact urban form, legibility and order, resilience and efficiency. The structuring elements have to relate to the plan in order to give them substance and to bring the plan to life.

8.5 Focus areas
The structuring elements connect with the plan in various ways. These can be broadly divided into spatial and non-spatial.

i. Spatial

These are specific types of interventions for particular places in order to get the structuring elements to function correctly.

In no specific order they are:

• The East/West Corridor. This relates to the strip of land running through the Inner City and beyond the city boundaries along the mining belt. There are aspects and places along this Corridor that function well, others that require various amounts and types of interventions and some that still have to be developed. The Corridor includes the railway line, major roads as well as existing investment in engineering infrastructure and the built environment. There are employment creation opportunities, e.g. City Deep. Environmental issues such as dust pollution, are problematic. The area provides an opportunity to integrate the city and overcome the rich north - poor south divide. It also is within the urban boundary.
• The North/East High Tech Corridor that stretches from Sandton through Rivonia, Sunninghill and Woodmead to Midrand and from there on towards Centurion and the CSIR in Pretoria requires technical interventions - roads, and engineering services to be upgraded and maintained.
• Areas requiring consolidation, upgrading and containment. These areas are situated on the outer edge of the city such as the Deep South and Diepsloot.
• Areas where normalisation and integration into the greater city are necessary. The Greater Soweto Complex and Alexandra are such areas.
• Areas needing housing development and social development include Bosmont, Westbury, New Clare and Princess agricultural holdings.
• Nodes need to be appropriately managed to protect both public and private investment. Sandton, Cresta, Fourways and Northgate are examples of such nodes.
• Restoration of the Inner City as a prime investment area and diversification through social and housing development.
• Areas that require development to be stimulated through land release, improved access and economic incentives include the Mining Belt, City Deep, Kaserne, Devland and Baralink.
• Improving the bulk infrastructure capacity to release land and stimulate development is a requirement for development in the southern suburbs. The environmental qualities of the area hold potential for it to be an area of regional natural significance.
• An example of an area requiring de-densification and reconstruction is Ivory Park.
• Densification and reconstruction are necessary in areas such as Malvern, Jeppestown

ii. Aspatial

These can be divided into two - policies and management mechanisms.

Policies
Policies are statements about the preferred options. They describe how various aspects of the city should function in order to achieve the aim of urbanism. These policies have not yet been formulated. What is provided here are the concepts that will inform the policies that are to be formulated.

• The movement system
  The mobility function of certain routes has to be protected for ease of movement of both private and public transport vehicles. Roads have to be designated according to the degree of mobility as per a hierarchy of roads. Various management mechanisms will then ensure that appropriate development occurs along these roads and that access is suitable. Roads link various areas and improved linkages are required in parts of the city. East/west linkages in the northern part need to be strengthened to facilitate access to employment opportunities along the knowledge-based employment strip from Sandton, through to Midrand. Improved access is also required across the mining belt in order to integrate the mainly residential areas in the south-western areas with the urban opportunities of the north. This will also assist in creating a compact city as new road linkages will open up areas that have been inaccessible.

• Public transport
  There has to be a focus on public transportation for two main reasons. Firstly, a vast percentage of residents will never be able to afford a private car. Secondly, it is more efficient to move a number of people in one public vehicle than having numerous, usually single occupant, private vehicles clog the roads.

  Public transport has to encompass all modes, i.e. busses, kombi-taxis and trains. There has to be provision for inter-modal and commuter facilities. The following catalyst intermodal transportation nodes have already been identified: Roodepoort, Soweto, Baralink, Inner City, Wynberg/Alexandra, Sandton, Randburg and Strijdom Park. An important advantage that public transport has over private, is that there is less environmental damage.

• Nodal development
  Nodes provide the city with a clear structure and it preserves residential amenity. They are usually associated with the intersection of major roads. Economic activity should be concentrated at nodes as this has economic benefits through increasing thresholds. This does not mean that nodes should be mono-functional. Quite the opposite is true. Nodes should contain a mix of uses and a range within each use. The mix should be appropriate to where the node falls on the nodal hierarchy. So a node of regional significance will obvious contain higher order facilities than a local node.

  Nodes should be surrounded by high density residential development that supports the node and links it to the surrounding residential fabric. Residential uses should not be confined to the outskirts of nodes only. It should be one of he land uses within the node.

  Nodal development supports the promotion of public transport. These are clear destination points and the high population densities in the area will sustain public transport. Facilities, such as taxi ranks and public ablutions, need to be provided.

  It is important to manage the expansion of nodes so that they are contained and that development of commercial uses does not creep into the neighbouring residential fabric. Another important management consideration is allowing development that is consistent with engineering service capacity.

• Engineering infrastructure
  Services that function well contribute to the positive experience of the city. This requires that development is in line with service capacity and that it is located in areas where the costs of service provision and maintenance are reasonable. A compact city is important in this regard. It is essential for infrastructural services to be co-ordinated. For example, an area with spare water capacity may be ideal for development, but if electricity cannot be provided at the same time, the development will fail. The formulation of Service Master Plans for all the technical services will provide a basis for understanding the engineering requirements of the city.

• Housing
  The issue of concern here is not the Housing Strategy as such, but the location of a housing development. Housing is the largest land use in the city and where it occurs is important for the urban form and the provision of services ranging from transportation and sanitation to clinics. Housing can be used to integrate the city physically. It is also essential that the poorest of the poor are not placed in housing on the periphery furthest away from urban facilities and employment opportunities and where transportation costs are highest. The East/West Corridor and the Mining Belt are important areas in this regard.

  Residential densities have to be provided on a differential basis. Higher densities are vital for the provision of public transport and should be concentrated along major routes and around nodes. High densities imply that the single house on a single plot is a notion that has to be reconsidered (also there is not sufficient land for this to be viable). A variety of residential unit types are required, as are various tenure options. Rental stock, in particular, is needed in the city.

• Natural environment
  The opportunity currently exists to secure the remaining natural environment as a legacy to the future. All international world-class cities have large public open spaces that serve recreational and environmental purposes. These environmental assets need to be protected or else they will be lost to inappropriate development.

• Zero tolerance
  For the city to function efficiently and effectively, illegal land and building uses cannot be tolerated. Illegal uses can be broadly divided into two types.
  • Land and building invasion. The function of all open land and unutilised buildings should be clear or else invasion is likely. The Council can legally only react to public-owned property, therefore private sector property owners should be encouraged to protect their properties.
  • Illegal uses. This ranges from illegal dumping of waste, to spray painting in residential areas, to not adhering to building regulations. These illegal uses all have negative consequences for neighbours. For example: noise, fumes, health hazards, loss of privacy.

Management systems

Management of the plan is essential. A single land use management system (LUMS) will replace the various town planning schemes and other legislation that currently regulate land use in the city. This will be in line with the requirement in the Gauteng Development Planning Bill requiring local authorities to create LUMS. The LUMS will be a uniform system that applies to all areas and residents equally. The LUMS will incorporate policy approaches and development directives that are fundamental to the local integrated development plans (LIDPs), and by implication, the Integrated Metropolitan Development Framework (IMDF). Proposals have been drawn up on use zones and definitions, and work is being done on exceptions to the rule. The proposals have been workshopped with Council but the process has been delayed due to the LIDP process having to feed into it and due to the restructuring exercise. Proposals are being made to streamline and standardise systems such as registration and circulation of applications and record keeping procedures. In addition all existing scheme information is being captured on to a single planning information database.

Four parallel processes are being focused on. Namely:

• The verification of property information and updating of schemes
• The standardisation of operational systems
• Legal issues such as the relationship between various acts
• Debating and standardising further issues to form a single approach to matters such as cell phone masts, home offices, shebeens, etc.

8.6 The process
This spatial aspect of the City Development Plan is derived from the Integrated Metropolitan Development Framework (IMDF), which is itself a current process in which the Local Integrated Development Plans (LIDPs) are being consolidated. The process began a few years ago with the formulation of Land Development Objectives (LDOs) which were a requirement of the Development Facilitation Act. However, these were vague and contained little detail. Nevertheless, they did, together with the Strategic Metropolitan Development Framework (SMDF), lay the foundation on which more detailed plans could be designed. The LIDPs are a follow up of the LDOs. These plans have been formulated, with input from stakeholder representatives, for all areas of the city. The plans integrate land use, transportation, infrastructure, environment, social and local economic aspects of development. They highlight areas that still require more detailed "precinct plans" as well as the need for certain types of policies to manage development. The LIDPs serve as a tool to direct development and can be utilised by residents, developers, investors, officials and planning tribunals. The LIDPs are currently being tested and each tested LIDP will be submitted to Council for approval as policy. Concurrent to the finalisation of the LIDPs, is the formulation of the IMDF. This Framework provides overall structure and development direction for the entire metropolitan area.

8.7 Conclusion
The plan can be put into place if it is supported by the correct policies and management interventions. This in turn requires political support and determination to adopt a long-term approach to getting the spatial basics of the city working together in a manner that will bring about the qualities of urbanism. In this way the spatial component of the city vision, an African world-class city, can be achieved.

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