People-centred plans aim to remake Johannesburg over the next decades

● In its 132-year history, Johannesburg has been transformed from a dusty mining town into a sprawling urban space — and now another reimagination of the city looms.

Two proposals by the city plan to break down the barriers established by apartheid, and reshape the way the city looks over the next two decades.

These are included in the city’s Nodal Review, which is part of the Spatial Development Framework 2040 plan, and the draft Inclusionary Housing Policy.

The housing policy proposes that every new development of 10 dwelling units or more must include 20% inclusionary housing for those who earn less than R7 000 a month. The city will offer incentives for developers to do this.

The Nodal Review plans to turn large parts of suburban areas into urban spaces, creating mixed-use business and residential space.

Dylan Weakley, a senior specialist urban planner in the transformation and spatial planning directorate at the Johannesburg City Council, said that the review was trying to create a more logical density gradient in the city.

“In order to create a more efficient density gradient in the city, we need to support higher densities not only within nodes such as Rosebank and Sandton, but also surrounding these nodes. This would transform some suburban areas into more urban areas over time, called the general urban zone with a mix of land use,” said Weakley.

This does not necessarily mean that the city will approve high-rise buildings in these urban zones.

The proposal includes development guidelines that limit buildings to five storeys. Weakley said areas around nodes would ultimately see mixed land use, such as buildings with shops at the bottom and apartments above, as well as purely residential buildings.

South African cities, unlike most urban areas elsewhere in the world, have high population density on the outskirts of the city, in areas such as Orange Farm and Diepsloot, far from economic opportunities.

This is something the plan aims to reverse through promoting more economic land use in those areas.

Weakley said the city plans to direct development to the proposed urban areas through land-use policy and approvals. The city also plans to limit densification on the outskirts of the city, which has resulted in exclusive estates, while giving more support to developments in areas around nodes.

The city also plans to use infrastructure spend to draw developers to specific areas.

Margot Rubin, a senior researcher in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, said regulation could go some way to shaping where developers invested but it was generally a “constellation of forces” that allowed regulation to work.

Louis Botha Avenue is an example of regulation and investment working together. Situated on one of the city’s “corridors of freedom”, the node has received thousands of applications to rebuild. Rubin said investors already saw it as an extension of the inner city and as an area for the affordable housing market. When the city came along with incentive funding for infrastructure, it only increased the appeal.

Rubin doubted if developers were going to “come to the party” in every place as they were profit-driven. “It’s about a whole bunch of interests coming together at the same time and regulation is just one of them,” she said.

One of the fears about urbanisation in some areas is the effect on property values. Weakley said his team’s expectation was that property prices would continue to rise in the affected areas.

He said the aim of both proposals was to transform the city into one that will be more equitable, more efficient and more sustainable in future.

There is a level of organic densification already happening in some suburbs, such as Houghton, where very large properties are being redeveloped into cluster houses.

Rubin said she did not expect much objection to those types of densification, but in racially and economically homogeneous areas, she expected resistance.

“People always think about the worstcase scenario — ‘What if someone opened up a shebeen next door to me or if someone opened up a leather shoe factory?’ People don’t think about all the home offices, the boutiques or crèches that are all good quality land uses,” said Rubin.

Tomorrow is the last day for public comment on either proposal.

It will be quite a serious transformation

Dylan Weakley Senior specialist urban planner