City to engage with community about local neighbourhood plan for District Six
16 July 2020
The City has noted that the National Government has commenced with preparatory work related to the redevelopment of District Six. The City is not involved with the restitution process. However, we will soon embark on a series of engagements with the local community about a neighbourhood plan for District Six.
Although the City is not involved with the restitution process, we are responsible for the drafting of a local neighbourhood plan – or Local Spatial Development Framework (LSDF) – for District Six, as well as the approval of land use and building plan submissions.
‘The process of developing a LSDF will be undertaken in collaboration with the District Six community, other residents, and interested and affected parties. I will make an announcement about the upcoming engagements in due course given that we are still in the process of obtaining approval from the local subcouncil to commence with the process.
‘The purpose of this plan is, among others, to formulate a vision and related policy guidelines and intervention projects that will assist in re-establishing this once vibrant neighbourhood, to create a sense of belonging and place, and to indicate the spatial restructuring and integration within the district and surrounding areas,’ said Alderman Marian Nieuwoudt, the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Development.
The City’s immediate focus will be on the public realm improvements – the open spaces and amenities of the future District Six.
‘With the community’s input and collaboration, we want to reinforce the need for quality public spaces and places that remember the past, celebrate the present and showcase the hope and belief of a better, more integrated future. These principles were already established in previous work that was undertaken in 2012 and we will be elaborating on this during our upcoming engagements.
‘A community forms over time. We become a community in the places where we meet, mostly outside of our homes, and most often than not, by chance. We will be engaging with residents about how we can shape and form the future District Six community with public open spaces; what we want these spaces to look like, how we want to use them, and how we want them to connect us with one another, and the other surrounding neighbourhoods,’ said Alderman Nieuwoudt.
In the meantime, the City wants to reiterate that the National Department of Rural Development and Land Reform is responsible for the overall redevelopment of District Six, and the construction of houses for the beneficiaries.
The City is not involved with the restitution process, nor the development itself and has not made any of its land in District Six available to private developers.
We are aware that Heritage Western Cape issued an archaeological permit to the National Department for the removal of the rubble to prepare the applicable sites for development. The City was informed that there is an independent archaeologist monitoring the site. The (archaeological) permit allows for the clearing of rubble from above historic levels; and as the City understands, the intention is to retain as much of the in-situ historic fabric, particularly any road surfaces, kerb stones and anything similar. These will be recorded as part of the permit report, and left as is to inform the upcoming Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) process. Any sites or features of particular significance will be considered during the HIA phase.
Some of the ongoing earthworks on site are related to the installation of services for which the City has issued a wayleave to permit work taking place within the area of the City’s stormwater services.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
