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City Improvement Districts (CIDs)

Property owners wanting enhanced service delivery in their area have the opportunity to establish a City Improvement District through a partnership with the City of Cape Town. The CID establishment process is done “at risk” as the City does not provide seed capital and cannot guarantee approval.

What is a CID?

A CID is a clearly defined geographical area in which property owners pay additional property rates to fund enhanced and supplementary municipal services to improve or upgrade that specific area.

Enhanced and supplementary municipal services typically relate to:

Municipal service	Examples
Public safety	Patrolling (foot, bicycle, vehicles) Installing and monitoring of CCTV cameras Licence Plate Recognition cameras Contracting City law enforcement officers
Cleansing services	Litter picking, additional emptying of public litter bins Sweeping of sidewalks, removal of graffiti and illegal posters
Urban maintenance	Painting road lines, markings and street names Fixing potholes, maintaining sidewalks and medians Installing or maintain street furniture Stormwater drain cleaning
Environmental development	Recycling, planting trees, maintaining of street verges Maintaining tree wells, installing sidewalk planters Maintaining of parks and open spaces
Social and economic development	Assisting destitute people directly/indirectly through an NGO Directly/indirectly creating employment opportunities Promoting the district as safe, clean and vibrant

CID business plans

Access all existing CID business plans.

access

Setting up a CID

Remember

A CID is always initiated by the community, and is run by the community for the benefit of the community. It can be established in residential, business or industrial areas or in areas with a combination of any of the three.

Initiators should be property owners from the area who form a steering committee. The steering committee MUST first meet with us before starting the process. This will help create a better understanding of what a CID is and what will be expected of you when you start with the establishment process.

The next step will be to define the boundary of the proposed CID and consult with the community on what the needs are for the area and with the local Sub-Council in respect of current City services and level and frequency thereof, before compiling a business plan of how the needs will be addressed.

At this point the CID Branch will make available the “CID Guidelines", which serve as a source of information on specific City services with various options available to participate in enhanced service delivery. The contact details of the relevant officials is also included to ensure first-hand information can be acquired where needed. It is not mandatory for any CID to participate in enhanced service delivery but does create opportunities for broader collaboration with City departments.

At a public meeting the draft business plan must be presented to the community where the community are allowed to ask questions. After this, the community will have 30 days to submit comments to the steering committee for consideration. A second public meeting must then be arranged to present the final business plan to the community.

A further 30 days must be allowed after the second public meeting for additional comments on the final business plan. Should this lead to a material amendment to the final business plan a third public meeting will be required.

Following the consultation process on the business plan you will need to obtain a majority percentage of property owners – over 50% for commercial areas, and at least 60% for areas classified as residential – to agree to the business plan and give written consent or object to the establishment, before your steering committee can submit an application to the City.

Please note

The application must be received by 31 October if it is to be considered for implementation on 1 July of the following year. Obtaining the required support does not guarantee Council approval.

Once we have received your application and verified that the application is valid, you must notify the community of the lodging of the application and where the application can be inspected. The application, which includes all the comments and objections, is then submitted to Council for consideration.

More information

Please read our helpful FAQ sheet for more information on how CIDs work.

We work strictly according to legislation detailed in the City Improvement District By-law and Policy. Please read these documents in depth to ensure you have a proper understanding of the processes involved.

CIDs in action

In Cape Town there are three types of City Improvement Districts:

Mixed-Use Improvement Districts (Both residential and business property owners pay)
Business Improvement Districts (Only owners of business properties pay)
Residential Improvement Districts (Only owners of residential properties pay)