The City of Cape Town is finalising a range of draft plans and policies that will guide the future development of Cape Town. This includes a draft Cape Town Spatial Development Framework and draft Spatial Development Plans/Environmental Management Frameworks for each of the City’s eight planning districts.

The period for public comment on the final draft Cape Town Spatial Development Framework(CTSDF) closed on 31 January 2011. The District Plans support the strategies of the CTSDF at a district scale and give more detailed planning guidance.

The City’s Planning and Environment Portfolio Committee (PEPCO) endorsed the District Spatial Development Plans and Environmental Management Frameworks for four of its eight planning districts on 1 February. This means that the plans for the Blaauwberg, Cape Flats, Southern and Tygerberg planning districts will be put forward for a third and final round of public participation.

The remaining four, namely the Khayelitsha-Mitchells Plain, Helderberg, Southern, and Northern districts will be tabled before PEPCO in early March 2011.

Once PEPCO has endorsed all eight of the revised district plans, the public participation period will commence. This is likely to be mid-March, with a deadline for public comment by 30 April 2011.

These draft plans will then be completed and once approved as structure plans in terms of section 4 (10) of the Provincial Land Use Planning Ordinance(LUPO), the district Spatial Development Plans and Environmental Management Frameworks will enable the City, where appropriate, to review, update and replace historic existing Structure Plans for the Cape Town jurisdictional area approved in terms of Section 4(6) of LUPO.

The afore-mentioned plans identify the following in each of the districts:

• A spatial vision for the district
• Guidelines informing development in that district
• Identification of protected areas
• Identification of areas for planning and implementation of new developments
• Any necessary changes to the existing urban environment

The plans will be advertised in local media, open days will be held in each district and the final draft plans and documents will be available for viewing at libraries, Sub-Council offices and the City’s Planning and Building Development Management Department’s District Offices.

The final draft district plans have been substantially revised following the last two rounds of public comment. A new section has been added which provides stronger guidance for decision-making through updated development guidelines at the district and sub-district scales. The plans also provide spatial guidance to the capital investment plans of the City and other government departments.

“The community responded enthusiastically during the last round of public participation and we hope that they will continue to provide the City with their valuable input,” said the Chairman of PEPCO, Alderman Brian Watkyns.