1st Edition
Land-Use Management to Support Sustainable Settlements in South Africa
This book provides a theoretical and practical foundation needed to change the practice of land use management in Southern Africa.
It presents an overview of alternative land use management system for South African municipalities that is economically, socially, and environmentally more sustainable than many of the land use schemes in effect at present. Land use management is a component of spatial governance that controls the nature and extent of development to prevent harmful impacts on people and the environment. As the current system with its colonial/modernist planning and regulatory mechanisms were never designed to deal with rapid change, urbanisation, and informality, a different form of land development and land use management is necessary. This timely book reflects the culmination of many years of practical experience and research into various aspects of land use management by the authors and studies undertaken by their master’s and doctoral students. The book goes beyond an analysis of the problems and suggests concrete proposals that can be applied throughout Southern Africa based on a rural-to-urban transect.
This book is directed to a broad range of readers interested in spatial planning and land use management. It will be of interest to those in the fields of geography, urban studies, urban design, planning, and architecture.
1. Introduction
Change required
Land use management
Argument for change
Changing values
Democracy in South Africa
Local government transition
Complexity and general resilience
Structure of the book
2. Evolution of land use management
Early rules and generative codes
Regulation based on zoning codes
First zoning controls: France, 1810
German approach
Spread of zoning
Brief overview of the evolution of land use management in South Africa
Early beginnings
Influence of the discovery of diamonds and gold
First provincial planning legislation
Planning legislation 1900–1994
Situation prior to 1994
1994–2013: From development control to land use management
Development Facilitation Act, 1995
Draft Green Paper
2001 White Paper on Spatial Planning and Land Use Management
Land use management bills, draft provincial legislation and SPLUMA
Current land use management system
3. Planning theory and its applicability to the Global South
Introduction
Procedural Northern planning theories
Modernism and planning
Collaborative and communicative planning
Critical Northern theories
Marxism, power, and planning
Diffusion of power
Social justice and inclusion
Spatial theories: Smart growth, new urbanism, transit-oriented development, and liveability
Sustainability
Northern theories in an African context
Towards theories for planning in Africa
Sustainability
Tactical urbanism
Informality
Informal settlements
Informality and livelihoods
Complexity
Conclusion
4. Why the current system is inadequate for the South African context
Introduction
Problems of African land use management
Inequality and exclusion
Overview of the inadequacies of the current system
Traditional areas
Lack of recognition of African cultures
Urban areas
Informal livelihoods
Informal settlements
Backyard dwellings
Sprawling, poor quality, and unsustainable urban form
Control-orientated
Causes
Power, politics, and corruption
Conflicting and competing rationalities
Customary land tenure and contested leadership
Capacity, bureaucracy, and the aspirations’ mismatch
5. Principles and options for a land use management system to support sustainable and equitable settlements
Introduction
Principles
Acknowledge and work with change
Land use regulations can change
Regenerative sustainability
Social justice and inclusion
Economic development and livelihoods
Context matters
Other land use management systems
Restrictive conditions and covenants in title deeds
Plan-based controls
Site development plans
Form-based codes
Performance standards
Nomocracy
Basket of rights
Discretionary system
Conclusion
6. A Southern approach to sustainable land use management
Simplifying the system
Current system
Options to simplify the system
Rural regions
Natural areas
Commercial farming areas
Traditional rural areas
Urban spaces
Small towns
Peri-urban regions
Townships
Informal settlements
Suburbia
Central areas
Special areas
Industrial
Renewable energy
Mining
7. Conclusion
Glossary
Biography
Verna Nel is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Free State, South Africa. She had extensive experience in local government, including as Chief Town Planner in the Centurion Town Council and the City of Tshwane’s City Planning Function, before joining the university. She has published on spatial governance, urban resilience, secondary cities, and the impacts of mining on communities. She is a consultant on land use management.
Stuart Paul Denoon-Stevens has a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning and is Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University (UK). Initially working as a planner in development control, since 2015 he has been working as an academic, conducting research on topics such as development control, housing, spatial planning for mining towns, and planning practice and education. He has been involved in high-level policy and legislative work relating to planning legislation and spatial planning in South Africa and has previously co-led a major NRF-ESRC project focused on planning education and practice in South Africa.
