[Image: City of Cape Town]
While Cape Town’s Central Business District (CBD) scrambles to stay liveable, the city council wants residents to weigh in on a newly-updated spatial plan.
They first dropped the idea on Capetonians last year, and now they’re back with what they claim is a better version.
“The draft local spatial development framework (LSDF) intends to transform the Cape Town CBD into a more people-centred environment with urban design interventions to improve mobility and access for pedestrians, efforts to optimise heritage areas, a public land programme to inform land release in support of affordable housing opportunities, and an appropriately scaled urban form and interface to encourage mixed-use intensification,” said City’s deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment, Eddie Andrews.
“With mixed use, we mean development that accommodates multiple uses such as business, retail, and residential opportunities for existing and new buildings. We need the CBD to be accessible, safe, attractive, and inclusive. The LSDF must guide development decisions to accommodate the growth in the property market, facilitate mixed-use and residential intensification, while leveraging the character and traditional urban fabric opportunities.”
Let’s not sugar-coat it: affordable housing in the city centre has been scarce for ages. Rights groups like Ndifuna Ukwazi have been calling ou