SPATIAL PLANNING
A LOOK AT URBAN DESIGN PRECINCT PLANS
The City of Ekurhuleni recently approved a number of urban design precinct plans, which are intended to restructure the municipal area into a series of more efficient, inclusive and productive urban spaces.
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rban design precinct plans are spatial planning tools used to guide the future development and capital investment in a precinct or region. They are developed by the City Planning Department and are made up of proposals and recommendations for developing precincts as well as addressing and rectifying the flaws and inefficiencies in our current urban structure, which are largely the result of apartheid’s social engineering policies. The City of Ekurhuleni’s Metropolitan Spatial Planning Development Framework (MSPDF) recommends that the City should adopt an ‘urban design approach’ in all its efforts towards the restructuring of the urban environment. The urban design precinct plan makes proposals and recommendations for the particular precinct, in line with the Metropolitan Spatial Planning Development Framework (MSDF), as well as other regulatory frameworks, such as:
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• land-use framework, which reflects on land uses and activities supported in the precinct • development guidelines, in respect of built forms • public space guidelines • movement and circulation framework, which specifies, among others, different types of access and movement routes, non-motorised transport routes and facilities, etc.
• projects and initiatives that facilitate new relationships between the public and private realms and serve as catalysts for various role players to participate in the implementation of the precinct plan.
CITY-APPROVED PLANS During the 2020/21 financial year, 18 urban design precinct plans that were developed by the City Planning Department between the financial years of 2014/2015 and 2019/2020, were approved by the City Manager in terms of Section 18(2) of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Spatial Planning and Land Use Management By-law. These urban design precinct plans are as follows: • Actonville-Wattville Rail Reserve Precinct Plan
