Integrating ecosystem services
considerations into line function
management and operations:
Spatial Planning
Outline of Presentation
Spatial Realities
Cape Town 2040 Vision
Spatial Development Goal
Spatial Development Principles
Land use management framework
Identifying Spatial Structuring Elements
Conceptual Framework & Spatial Development Framework
Strategies, Policy Statements and Policy Guidelines
Spatial Realities
City change and growth are inevitable, and development pressures are a given.
A city with foresight and insight can guide and manage public and private development to ensure the
best possible outcome for its inhabitants.
Most likely spatial growth scenario
High population growth rate coupled with low economic growth rate
Implications for spatial planning
Must manage urban growth, prevent sprawl
Use opportunities created by economic growth
Recognise that natural environment is a critical component of the city's competitive advantage and its servicebased economy
Impacts of urban development on natural and ecological services must be managed - growth directed to lowerimpact areas
Must contain development footprint in order to protect natural, rural and heritage assets with development edges
Rate of land consumption must be reduced by promoting a more compact and efficient form of urban
development
Promote densification in appropriate locations in order to encourage more sustainable use of resources, improve
economies of scale and increase thresholds required for public transport, services maintenance - avoid
development in hazardous areas
Planning of new development areas should be informed by existing infrastructure capacity and planned
infrastructure roll-out
Etc.
Cape Town 2040 Vision
“To, by 2040, turn Cape Town into
one of the world’s greatest cities in
which to live and learn, work, invest
and discover – a place of possibility
and innovation, with a diverse urban
community and all the opportunities
and amenities of city life, within a
natural environment that supports
economic vibrancy and inspires a
sense of belonging in all.”
Source: Cape Town SDF
Spatial Development Goal
Creating a sustainable and equitable city
Sustainability - the capacity to sustain or support indefinitely. In the city context, it means offering an
economic future, while ensuring the preservation of the city's unique biodiversity and cultural heritage; and, at
the same time meeting the sustenance needs of current residents. Sustainability must therefore address
service delivery and infrastructure provision as much as it must address ecosystem services protection.
Equity - refers to quality of life, meaning that people (especially the vulnerable) have access to a broadly
similar range of opportunities, resources and amenities, and that the public good prevails over private,
secondary interests.
Spatial Development Principles
Redress spatial imbalances
The public good should prevail over private interests
All residents should have equal protection and benefits
Work harmoniously with nature
(reduce the city’s ecological footprint, introduce sustainable disaster reduction
measures)
Adopt a precautionary approach to resource utilisation (switch to sustainable patterns of resource
use, and mitigate negative development impacts)
Encourage local, national and international connectivity
Improve urban efficiency and align planned growth with infrastructure provision
Offer maximise access to the city’s opportunities, resources and amenities
Provide stronger link between processes, plans and policies in order to better respond
to basic needs of communities
Create safe, high-quality living environments
Celebrate diversity (living environments, cultures and lifestyle)
Promote cross-sectoral planning, budgeting and growth management approaches
Cape Town
Spatial Development Framework
In the context of climate change and resource depletion, the future growth path needs
to underline the importance of sustainable future growth.
This growth path must be flexible and adaptive and subject to continuous review to
ensure that they remain relevant, realistic and informed by changing dynamics.
The centrepiece in the approach is the Cape Town SDF (CTSDF). It is a long-term
plan with the purpose of managing growth and change in Cape Town:
Long-term vision of the desired spatial form and structure of CT
Aligns spatial development goals, strategies and policies
Guides proposals in District Spatial Development Plans and Local Spatial Plans
Helps spatially coordinate, prioritise and align public investment in IDP
Directs private investment by identifying areas that are suitable for urban development, areas where impacts
need to be managed, areas not suited for urban development
Identifies strategies to prevent indiscriminate loss and degradation of crucial biodiversity areas, and to
ensure the necessary level of protection for the remaining areas
Provides policy guidance to direct decision-making on the nature, form, scale and location of urban
development, disaster mitigation and environmental resource protection
Neither create land use rights nor take land use rights away in terms of the zoning scheme or any other
legislation
Identifying
Spatial Structuring Elements
A resilient and adaptive city
A city within a region approach
Identifying
Spatial Structuring Elements
(Spatial Building blocks)
Natural assets
Multi-directional
accessibility grid
Areas of land use
intensification
Urban growth
management
Destination places
(development corridors, strip
development, urban nodes,
civic precincts)
(development edges – urban
and coastal; growth
directions)
(nature-based, built/
heritage-based, coastalbased, special cultural
landscape)
Conceptual Framework & “The Plan” (CTSDF)
Long term concept
Spatial Development Framework
Spatial Planning Categories (SPCs)
Strategies, Policy Statements
and Policy Guidelines
Key Strategy 1
Key Strategy 2
Key Strategy 2
Facilitate Urban Development
Support property developers by identifying the
locations potentially suited to urban
development
Facilitate urban development and direct the
phasing of urban growth through the deliberate
and integrated use of planning, infrastructure
provision, and the regulatory and fiscal authority
of all spheres of government.
Key Strategy 2
Support incremental development
processes
Put in place a LUMS that supports a
stepped approach to housing and tenure,
and the development of a single property
market.
Sand mining Urban Edge
Encourage a more compact form of
development
Promote appropriate land use
intensification
Contain the development footprint of the
city and protect natural, rural, urban and
heritage assets with development edges:
urban and coastal edge
Kaolin mining
Coastal Edge
Key Strategy 2
Appropriately protect the citizens of
Cape Town from hazardous areas/
activities
Direct urban development away from
hazardous areas or activities
Sand mining
Kaolin mining
Key Strategy 2
Appropriately manage urban
development impacts on natural
resources and critical biodiversity
networks
Increase efforts to protect and enhance
biodiversity networks at all levels of government
Reduce the impact of urban development on
river systems, wetlands, aquifers, and aquifer
recharge areas and discharge areas
Sand mining
Manage urban development along the coast in
a sustainable and precautionary manner
Protect valuable agricultural areas, existing
farmed areas and horticultural areas from urban
encroachment, and support urban agriculture
Adopt a proactive planning approach to mining
resource management
Kaolin mining
Key Strategy 2
Make efficient use of non-renewable
resources
Promote a culture of sustainable
development and living
Sand mining
Kaolin mining
Key Strategy 2
Protect and enhance the city’s rural
environment
Prevent urban development from
intruding into the rural environment
Support appropriate development and
activities in rural areas, and in and
around unique and culturally significant
rural settlements
Sand mining
Rationalise and proactively manage
smallholdings
Develop and manage rural gateways
Kaolin mining
Key Strategy 3
Key Strategy 3
Enhance the value of heritage resources
and scenic routes
Identify, conserve and manage heritage resources,
including cultural landscapes
Ensure access to and provide information about public
heritage resources
Create an enabling environment for urban regeneration
that allows buildings and sites of historical and
architectural significance to make a positive contribution
to the economy and quality of urban life
Celebrate and reinforce Cape Town’s diverse historical
legacies through urban form, architectural design,
signage and, where appropriate, artwork
Provide positive spaces for cultural and social
ceremonies and life- related events
Carefully manage land uses and interventions along
identified scenic routes, and in places of scenic and
visual quality
Identify additional scenic routes
Key Strategy 3
Enhance the unique sense of place and
quality of the built form of Cape Town
Promote good contextual urban design fit, and ordering
of the relationship between people, urban space and
the environment (built and natural)
New False Bay Coastal Node
Promote accessible, city-wide destination
places
Develop high quality, accessible destinations and public
spaces in newly-developed and neglected areas
Athlone Power Station
Table View Beachfront
Durbanville Hills
Princess Vlei Baptism Site
Priority Action Areas
Economic
Social
Priority Action Areas
Transport and Roads
Housing, Electricity, Waste Water & Water
Priority Action Areas
Environmental
The Way Forward
Put the building blocks
of the policy driven
land use management
system in place
Review of the Cape
Town Spatial
Development
Framework and
related policies
Prepare a 15-Year
Growth Management
Plan
Tasks arising out of the policy statements and their prioritisation
Put the building blocks of the policy driven
Land Use Management System in place
Package of plans
CTSDF (Goals, principles,
spatial structuring elements, policies)
District SDP (district
development objectives, strategies,
guidelines and action plans)
Integrated Zoning
Scheme (base zone, land
use rights, development rules and
provisions)
Linkage
mechanisms
Policies (Local/ sectoral
policies, strategies, guidelines and
local plans)
Regulations (By-laws,
Overlay zones)
Put the building blocks of the policy driven
Land Use Management System in place
(Future Cape 2040)
(Cape Town 2040)
Thank you