Cape Town - The face of Cape Town and surrounds could change drastically in the next few years, with mixed land use that would incorporate housing, shopping, recreational and transport choices.
The City of Cape Town’s mayoral committee recently adopted a strategic plan that prescribes how the city should be developed to address apartheid spatial inequality and the high cost of public transport.
The strategic framework, called the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) plan, envisages the City locating new developments where residents have easy access to either rail transport or MyCiTi trunk routes by 2032, with mixed land uses to balance travel patterns across the city.
The TOD will be Cape Town’s development blueprint for the next 16 years.
Century City a success
Century City is a good example of how residential and commercial spaces could be successfully integrated. The City’s new developmental approach aims to bring residents closer to their workspaces by either developing more residential housing in existing economic areas, or by establishing economic activity in areas currently mainly used as residential living spaces.
Currently Cape Town is characterised by urban sprawl – new developments are often located on the outskirts of the city, driving up the cost of delivering services and creating long travel distances.
This has a negative impact on the mobility of especially poorer people, who are dependent on public transport. Statistics show that 95% of public transport users are in the low-medium income groups, and that average direct transport costs for low-income public transport users comprise 45% of their monthly household income.
To meet its future projected population growth, it is estimated that by 2032 the City of Cape Town would need an additional 500 000 houses, retail space of 1 000 000m² and industrial development of 4 500 000m².