Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa February/March 2019 | Page 40
LEGAL
City of Johannesburg Land Use
Scheme, 2018: New requirements
for land use and development
BY JOHN WEBBER & MELISSA PENEDA
T
he new City of Johannesburg Land Use Scheme, 2018
was published by The City of Johannesburg Metropol-
itan Municipality (Council) on 2 January 2019 and
comes into operation on 1 February 2019.
This Land Use Scheme is published in terms of the Spatial
Planning and Land Use Management Act, 2013 (SPLUMA)
and the City of Johannesburg Municipal Planning By-law,
2016 (Council By-laws) which provide that the Council must
adopt and approve a single land use scheme for its entire area
that will determine the rules and processes regulating the use
and the extent of the development of land therein.
The City of Johannesburg Land Use Scheme, 2018
therefore replaces the 16 different town planning schemes
previously in operation applying to all properties within the
City of Johannesburg.
Any consent, approval or land use right permitted in
terms of one of the previous town planning schemes in force
immediately prior to commencement of the new Land Use
Scheme on 1 February 2019 shall be deemed valid under
the new Land Use Scheme (provided that it is exercised
by 31 January 2021) and all applications submitted to and
pending before the Municipality prior to 1 February 2019
shall be dealt with in terms of the town planning scheme
applicable at the time of submission.
The definitions of the new Land Use Scheme are, however,
of importance here. An “application” is defined as “a complete
application” and a “complete application” is only considered
“complete” when all information necessary for the Council to
assess the application as set out Schedule 1 to the Council By-
laws has been submitted to the Council.
When read together with the relevant provisions of the
Council By-laws, this essentially means that if a land use
development application has not yet reached a certain stage
of the submission process by 31 January 2019 (for instance,
in the case of a township establishment, if a traffic impact
assessment that was a requirement at submission of an
application has not yet been submitted to the Johannesburg
Roads Agency) then it will not be regarded as “complete” and
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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
a new application will have to be made in terms of the new
Land Use Scheme.
The Land Use Scheme sets out the various Use Zones
applicable to land and buildings in the City of Johannesburg
and lists the purpose for which such land may and may not be
used, and the purpose for which such land and buildings may
only be used with consent of the Council.
The Land Use Scheme sets out, among other things,
general conditions applicable to all erven as well as new
rules relating to “Spaza” or house shops, home enterprises,
subsidiary dwelling units, child care centres on residential
erven, land to be used for religious purposes, and conditions
relating to agricultural holdings and farm land.
This approach is meant to introduce a departure from
the inconsistent approach of the previous 16 town planning
schemes, which date back to the apartheid era. Town
planning schemes for certain areas prescribed more stringent
requirements for land development than others.
The new approach introduces an integrated and uniform
framework of conditions of use and rules for development
that are applicable across all regions falling within the City
of Johannesburg.
The new Land Use Scheme introduces several new
rules and processes that are intended to promote economic
development, attract investment and represent a more
inclusive and integrated approach towards the regulation and
enforcement of land use and development rules in the City of
Johannesburg.
Developers would be well advised to carefully consider the
new Land Use Scheme’s provisions, together with SPLUMA
and the Council’s By-laws in preparation of all envisaged land
development applications ahead of its commencement on 1
February 2019.
The report is available as a download from www.reimag.
co.za
SOURCES Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr; John Webber, National Prac-
tice Head; Melissa Peneda, Associate in the Real Estate practice