Last week, the City of Cape Town approved various additions and key amendments to its Municipal Planning By-law (‘the MPBL’) in a bid to stimulate micro-development, encourage a shift from informal shelter to affordable rental units, and crack down on illegal building work.
As part of a broader strategy to boost affordable housing, revisions to the MPBL include enhanced direct support for micro-developers in lower-income areas, such as discounted development charges through a new incentive fund and pre-approved building plans. Crucially, it also encompasses offering utility discounts for social housing projects, releasing more public land for affordable housing, and publishing Land Discount Guidelines to enable substantial reductions on City-owned land.
Cognisant of the rapid densification of informal structures and backyard dwellings, the amendments introduce, inter alia, a new land-use right allowing the construction of affordable rental flats and supplementary dwelling units in high-demand areas, subject to certain limitations. For instance, the number of small-scale affordable rental units on a single erf is limited to eight units and a dwelling house, alternatively 12 units if the property does not feature a dwelling house.
Significantly, these amendments enable the City to regulate development in high-density areas to ensure units comply with the National Building Regulations and are legally connected to utilities, such as electricity, water, and sanitation.
To suppress illegal building work, an additional amendment enables the City to impound movable property used for illegal building or demolition work. Critically, the provision empowers officials to impound movable items belonging to both the developer and contractor.
Single Residential zoning has been renamed ‘Residential Zoning’ (‘R1’) and permits single-family dwelling houses and additional use rights in low- to medium-density residential communities.
To encourage mixed-use development and ease development costs, focal areas, such as Diep River, Bellville, and Parow, are included as new incentive overlay zones, which assign enhanced development rights to properties falling within specific areas.
Additional changes to the MPBL seek to regulate the installation of renewable energy structures, including wind turbines and solar panels, and enable the City to utilise email to contact and notify affected and interested parties.
The date of commencement of the amended MPBL is not yet known.
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