GEORDIN HILL-LEWIS: Cape Town must think long term

It is incorrect and superficial to cast the growth and investment that every successful city in the world faces, as a “DA densification agenda” for Cape Town. (“Troubling developments in the Mother City”, FM, November 14-20).

Cape Town is increasingly a very desirable place to live for new residents across the income spectrum, from across the country, and indeed the world.

The paucity of reasonably affordable accommodation means many people who have decent jobs are forced to live in shacks because there is nothing available on the market for their income level. At the other side of the spectrum, there is enormous interest from South Africans of means and foreigners to come and live in Cape Town’s finest neighbourhoods.

This pressure, not matched by new supply, means prices have risen steeply. Residents with jobs in informal settlements frequently pay R2,500-R3,000 a month to live in a shack room made of tin and wood. And young people from middle-class families who aim to move out of their parents’ home can’t do so.

Usually it would stand to reason that upward price pressure would deliver healthy returns to developers and encourage more new supply into the market. We see some of this happening, but not at the pace required to make a difference. Our response to these market failures must be to address the causes of the lag in new supply — primarily the very long time it takes between initiating a project and seeing new supply of accommodation in the market.

Our municipal planning bylaw amendment proposals seek to address this market failure by removing some (but certainly not all) of the red tape which slows down new supply and which drives up the cost of housing in Cape Town.

Cape Town faces a second and connected problem: urban sprawl. Every new extension of the city’s urban boundaries means new pipelines, cables, roads, public spaces and so on which need to be built and maintained.

This is a one-way road to eventual bankruptcy for the city. It is not feasible to keep expanding outwards — the city must densify. Cape Town is one of the least dense major cities in the world.

Our amendments do not support inappropriate densification, or densification anywhere and always. Rather, our proposed bylaw amendments are focused on supporting appropriate densification along major transport corridors and public transport routes (both existent and future planned). 

It does not, as has been suggested by certain residents’ associations, abrogate the need for public consultation, nor the rights of affected residents to be heard and to object. In fact, in some ways it strengthens these rights.

The law requires us to notify affected parties by registered mail using the South African Post Office. These letters are always sent but hardly ever delivered because of the collapse of the Post Office. We are now proposing to inform neighbours and affected parties by e-mail and phone, so that we can ensure everyone gets proper notice. 

Our amendments also answer one of the main concerns raised by residents’ associations — the lack of enforcement teeth when illegal building works happen. When compliance notices and “stop works” orders are ignored, our bylaw proposes to empower building inspectors to impound building equipment like cement mixers and tools. This will, we envisage, lead to a big drop in illegal works.

Both of these proposals have come from residents, confirming that we are taking note of proposals and implementing those that make sense.

It is also demonstrably untrue that the city approves every application it gets — the city often declines subdivisions or new development applications which are inappropriately dense.

I often frame our discussions in the city by asking our team to think of a “Cape Town of 10-million people”. I find it’s a useful device for getting people to think deliberately long term, instead of the short-termism that usually pervades political decision-making.

By thinking of what Cape Town will be like with 10-million residents, we can try to work back from there to deduce the right thing to do now to be best prepared for that future.

Cape Town’s future densification can happen haphazardly and without the necessary care and planning. Or we can act now with that future in mind, and make sure our city densifies in a thoughtful, appropriate manner. I believe that can be done. 

Our vision is for a city of hope for all, and we are making the decisions now to make this a reality. That is the spirit of our intent, and we will carefully consider feedback from the ongoing public participation in great detail.

*Geordin Hill-Lewis is the mayor of Cape Town