HOUSING
COSMO CITY
Sustainable social housing At the time of its proposal more than a decade ago, the Cosmo City housing development was seen as a pioneering prototype for the post-1994 challenges to redress urban spatial inefficiencies in South Africa. By Jackie Lagus
T
HIS WAS to be achieved through an overhaul in the country’s legislative and policy framework for land-use planning. The project was seen as a benchmark for a new model of low-cost housing that aimed to create integrated and mixed land use closer to urban and transport centres, rather than on the metropolitan edges, which effectively reinforces marginalisation and poverty. In 1996, the Northern Metropolitan Local Council (now the City of Johannesburg), in the preparation of its Land Development Objectives, identified the need to provide
housing for two large informal communities, Zevenfontein and Riverbend. These informal settlements were characterised by substandard living conditions with limited access to basic services. Mixed-use planning The idea was to relocate the communities onto land that would be earmarked on the basis of access to economic opportunities and public transport in a mixed-income and mixed-use development. A public and private sector partnership with strong community involvement and
An aerial view of Cosmo City
buy-in was seen as a way to facilitate a better balance between social responsibility and financial sustainability for the long-term success of the housing development. After identifying land for public use, the City of Johannesburg had to use existing legislation to appropriate the 1 200 ha on which Cosmo City would be built. A protracted period of legal and consultative processes preceded the eventual development framework and technical studies for the project. By 2000, the now City of Johannesburg
IMIESA OCTOBER 2011 - 95