Emalahleni Rural SDF_Phase 4.pdf - Provincial Spatial ...

EMALAHLENI MUNICIPAL SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK October 20101. INTRODUCTIONThe Department of Rural Development and Land Reform conducted a miniauditand evaluation, which, together with the National IDP Assessment of2008, revealed that many municipalities have not been able to develop credible,comprehensive and purposeful Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs), asrequired in terms of the Municipal Systems Act, No 32 of 2000.In addition, many SDFs were found to be un-strategic, giving no direction forgrowth and not responding to the need for integrated and sustainabledevelopment, particularly in the rural context. This problem was seen to becompounded by the lack of capacity to plan and implement plans inmunicipalities in peripheral and/or largely rural circumstances.As a result, the Department issued a tender for the development of rural-specificSDFs in selected municipalities in all 9 provinces, with the objective ofaddressing spatial, environmental and economic issues confrontingpredominantly rural areas.Following due process, the Department appointed a professional team led byUMHLABA Consulting Group (Pty) Ltd in April 2010, to assist the EmalahleniMunicipality to review and compile a new SDF for its area of jurisdiction.The SDF is to be formulated in compliance with the requirements of Section26(e) of the Municipal Systems Act (Act 32 of 2000) and the Municipal Planning& Performance Management Regulations (R796/2001), read together with theWhite Paper on Spatial Planning and Land Use Management, 2001. In addition,the SDF will aim at incorporating the principles contained in Chapter 1 of theDevelopment Facilitation Act (No 67 of 1995).In addition to giving clear and specific direction with regards to ruraldevelopment issues, the SDF should provide a sound platform from which todevelop and implement an effective Land Use Management System within theMunicipality’s area of jurisdiction and, accordingly, clear guidelines to informland use management are key outputs of the project1.1 PURPOSE OF THIS REPORTThis report, the fourth and final in a series of reports that make up the final SDFdocument, is intended to identify basic strategies to implement the proposals ofthe SDF as well as to outline any specific projects and/or programmes that areseen as important to advance spatial planning, land use management and landdevelopment processes in Emalahleni. As such, this report sets out: -• Land Use Management Guidelines that are intended to guide the activities of theEmalahleni Municipality in managing spatial development as well as in its role asLand Use Regulator. These Guidelines include:o Specific Directive Principles in relation to key concerns for Land UseManagement, including (i) Achieving Densification in appropriatesettlements; (ii) The implementation of Housing/Human Settlementprojects in urban and rural settlements; and (iii) ensuring appropriate preplanningand land development management measures (such as linkinginfrastrcuture provision to development approvals);o A basic framework for categorising different forms and intensities ofsettlement and relating these to a typical Level of Service;o Information drawn from the Eastern Cape Biodiversity Management Plan(ECBMP) that provides direction on how to apply the directives of the Planin spatial planning and land use management in different LandManagement Class areas; ando A more detailed set of Land Use Management Guidelines (based on theGuidelines contained in the Chris Hani District Spatial DevelopmentFramework) to provide guidance and input on how to manage differentcategories of land use/settlement types.• Institutional Proposals on taking the Spatial Planning function forward and usingthe SDF as a tool for the purposes of the IDP; and• Proposed Priority Actions and Projects in relation to identified Spatial PlanningProgrammes2 | Page