CAPE TOWN

SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT
FRAMEWORK
OVERVIEW
CONTENTS
Introduction 1

What is the role of Cape Town

Spatial Development Framework? 1

How was the CTSDF drafted? 1

What is the legal status of CTSDF? 2

What are the big ideas guiding

Cape Town’s growth and
development? 2
Resilience and adaptiveness 2
A city within a region 2
Natural assets 2
The multidirectional accessibility grid 2
Areas of land use intensification 2
Development edges and
growth directions 2
Destination places 2

How do we get there? 2

Strategy 1: 4
Plan for employment, and improve
access to economic opportunities
Strategy 2: 4
Manage urban growth, and create a
balance between urban development
and environmental protection
Strategy 3: 5
Build an inclusive, integrated,
vibrant city

CTSDF OVERVIEW 2012

OVERVIEW OF THE
CAPE TOWN SPATIAL
DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK
Introduction
Cape Town is constantly changing and growing. To ensure that
the city remains a quality place in which to live, work and invest,
as well as to visit, it needs a plan to guide this future growth and
change in the best possible way.

This plan is known as the Cape Town Spatial Development

Framework (CTSDF).

What is the role of Cape Town Spatial

Development Framework?
The CTSDF is a long-term (20+ years) plan that will be used to Key elements of the new policy driven land use
manage the spatial growth and development of Cape Town. It management system
provides the overarching framework for the City’s new policy
driven land use management system.
How was the CTSDF drafted?
More specifically the plans and policies of the CTSDF:
The residents of Cape Town, government bodies and state
• Align the city’s spatial development goals, strategies and owned enterprises were invited to voice their views about how
policies with those of the national and provincial spheres of the growth and development of Cape Town should be managed
government. through the public participation processes held in 2007, 2009 and
• Indicate the land best suited to urban development, the areas 2010.
that should be protected, and the areas where development
may occur if it is sensitively managed. The City welcomed the comprehensive and wide-ranging
• Do not give or take away zoning rights. They CTSDF guide comments received. When revising the CTSDF on the basis
changes the assessment of applications for land-use rights. of these comments, the City sought to find the most fair and
sustainable compromise to serve the public interest in the long
• Indicate the desired phasing of urban development.
term. This meant that it had to strike a balance between the
• Support the City’s 5 year Integrated Development Plan by views and interests of communities, property developers, built
spatially guiding and aligning public investment. environment professionals and the environmental sector. The
Provincial Government: Western Cape ensured that the public
The CTSDF will be reviewed and updated at least every 10 years participation process was fair and the content of the CTSDF
and the Urban Edge will be proactively reviewed every 5 years. aligned with relevant legislation and policy.

2007/2008 2008 2009 2010 2012

Advertising and 1st PUBLIC 2nd PUBLIC 3rd PUBLIC CTSDF

registration of interested CONSULTATION CONSULTATION CONSULTATION APPROVED
and affected parties Awareness, vision and principle Content of draft Comment on final
issues district plans draft district plans

Public participation process

CTSDF OVERVIEW 2012 1

 What is the legal status of CTSDF? Natural assets
The natural features (such as the mountains, biodiversity and
The CTSDF has been approved in terms of two different sets of coastline) that make Cape Town a unique and desirable place
legislation. It has been approved as a component of the City’s to live, work and play should shape where and how the city
Integrated Development Plan in terms of the Municipal Systems develops.
Act (Act No 32 of 2000, section 34) ‘MSA’ and Land Use Planning
Ordinance (No 15 of 1985, section 4(6)) ‘LUPO’. It, together The multidirectional accessibility grid
with the Provincial Spatial Development Framework (PSDF), is the
Cape Town’s spatial organisation must shift towards a public
spatial planning document applicable to the municipal area of
transport-orientated and grid-based movement system that
Cape Town that has the highest legal status. The sections of the
facilitates convenient access to the city’s opportunities and
CTSDF that are most important are the policy statements, policy
amenities. Activity routes and development routes are key
guidelines and the Cape Town Spatial Development Framework
elements of this grid.
(Map 6.1).
Areas of land use intensification
When assessing a development application the City will need to
determine whether an application is consistent with the CTSDF A diverse mix of land uses should be concentrated in accessible,
and PSDF. If the application is not consistent with the CTSDF and/ high-opportunity locations on and adjacent to the accessibility
or the PSDF the developer will need to apply for an amendment grid. Areas of land use intensification include areas well served by
from the delegated authority. public transport and close to job and social facilities.

Applications to amend the CTSDF must be submitted in terms Development edges and growth directions
of both the Section 3 (4)(b) of the Municipal Planning and City growth should be managed through urban and coastal edge
Performance Management Regulations in the MSA and Section which contain sprawl and protect natural, heritage and urban
4(7) of LUPO. areas. Identified growth directions will serve to direct urban
expansion in the medium to longer term.

Destination places
What are the big ideas guiding Cape Town’s
Landmarks or locations that are significant points of attraction,
growth and development? and form part of Cape Town’s unique identity, should be preserved
and new destinations developed, particularly in underserved or
The preparation of the CTSDF has been guided by the desire to
neglected areas.
make Cape Town a more sustainable, equitable and economically
vibrant city. The ideas and spatial building blocks that will put
Cape Town on this development path, and shape where and how
the city grows, are described below: How do we get there?
Resilience and adaptiveness Some of the most important strategies and interventions that will
assist in the implementation of the CTSDF are summarised below.
Cape Town’s spatial organisation must be flexible in order to be
The more detailed sub strategies and policy statements flowing
able to respond and adapt to changes such as rapid urbanisation,
from the key strategies can be found in the CTSDF.
infrastructure and service backlogs and climate change.

A city within a region

Cape Town’s functional interrelationships with neighbouring
towns (such as Stellenbosch), require greater coordination in
planning, budgeting, and growth and resource management.

Multidirectional Areas of land use Growth edges

Natural assets Destination places
accessibility grid intensification and directions

2 CTSDF OVERVIEW 2012

Cape Town Spatial Development Framework

CTSDF STATUTORY REPORT 2012 3

 STRATEGY 1: PLAN FOR EMPLOYMENT, AND IMPROVE • Reduce the distance between where people live and work,
ACCESS TO ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES especially for those in the metropolitan southeast (Khayelitsha,
Mitchells Plain, Philippi, Gugulethu, etc.) and Atlantis by
The interventions that will help achieve this include the
encouraging investment and job creation in or near these
following:
areas;
• Maintain the assets of Cape Town, such as its infrastructure
• Support the development of a good public transport system
(airports, road network, etc.), natural environment, universities
that conveniently takes people to wherever they live, work and
and other social facilities, which attract investors, visitors and
play; and
high-skilled labour;
• Encourage shops, businesses, higher-density residential
• Help small and large formal businesses as well as informal
development and industries to locate on routes well served by
business to set up and trade in appropriate locations, by
public transport, namely activity and development routes, so
facilitating their access to information and land, and by
that people can reach them more easily.
simplifying application procedures;

Access to economic opportunities

STRATEGY 2: MANAGE URBAN GROWTH, AND CREATE

A BALANCE BETWEEN URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
The following more specific interventions are proposed:
• Ensure that the spatial development of Cape Town takes place
in a planned and efficient way ;
• Plan and manage development in a way that makes
responsible use of resources and integrates planning and
infrastructure provision;
• Minimise the negative environmental impacts of new
development in the city ;
• Support development approaches that allow the incremental
(step-by-step) improvement of living environments of the poor
over time;
Coastal edge
• Carefully manage urban development in areas that could put
people in danger or affect quality of life, for example areas
too close to airports and Koeberg Nuclear Power Station and
refuse sites ;
• Encourage more intense use of land across the city, and
allow higher densities in areas with good public transport, at
concentrations of employment, commercial development and/
or social facilities as well as in areas of high amenity;
• Protect the city’s rural and farming land from urban
development;
• Use an urban edge to reduce urban sprawl and protect
natural, agricultural, cultural and heritage assets; and
• Use a coastal edge to protect coastal processes and protect
residents from the possible impacts of climate change, such as
Urban edge
sea-level rise.

4 CTSDF OVERVIEW 2012

STRATEGY 3: BUILD AN INCLUSIVE, INTEGRATED,
VIBRANT CITY
Actions that will help build a vibrant city, where people have
more equal access to the city’s amenities and opportunities,
include the following:
• Transform the apartheid city by encouraging a better social
and land use mix in neighbourhoods
• Identify land for subsidised and other forms of affordable
housing in order to help create opportunities for housing
delivery
• Encourage the effective use of publicly owned land
• Guide the City’s budget and decision making to ensure that all
communities have access to an adequate and broadly similar Durbanville winelands
range of social facilities, open spaces and public institutions
• Protect and enhance the unique sense of space and value of
the diverse cultural and scenic assets and heritage that Cape
Town offers
• Create more great places that are easy to reach and can be
enjoyed by all. Existing examples of such destinations are
Sea Point Promenade, Kalk Bay and Kirstenbosch. New great
places could be developed on the Athlone power station site,
in the False Bay and Silwerstoomstrand coastal nodes and
Durbanville winelands.

False Bay coastal node

CTSDF OVERVIEW 2012 5

OVERVIEW
2012