Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government Presentation at Planning and Land Use Reference Group 14 March 2011 Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government Project Intention Understand the current status quo with Provincial legislation (old and new) Understand how Provincial Land Use legislation is working in each Province Obtain a municipal perspective of how the legislation affects municipal planning Empower and inform Provincial and Municipal spheres to engage around legislative reform at National, Provincial and Municipal Spheres Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government Project Requirements Identify key municipal hubs and understand their challenges and needs with land use management – this is the key focus of the study and needs to really bring out the practical aspects of implementing land use laws at municipal sphere Based on the Provincial legal review, and applying the practical experiences, develop suggestions for Provincial legislation reform Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government Project Requirements Contd Link to the National legislative processes (LUMB) in order to inform and assist Provinces and Municipalities to engage meaningfully in land use management reform Assist with dissemination of information Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government How we propose undertaking the Project Divided the project into 5 steps: Step 1: Understanding Provincial Land Use Management Legislation (desktop, interviews) Step 2: Understanding the practical implementation of Provincial legislation for municipalities (meetings in identified hubs) Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government How we propose undertaking the Project contd Divided the project into 5 steps: Step 3: Assimilation of findings and development of a Framework for Provincial legislation Step 4: Engagement with National legislative processes (LUMB) Step 5: Information Dissemination Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government Our Team We understand that land use management legislation is quite a contested and complex terrain. South Africa struggled with these reforms for nearly 20 years! We felt is was therefore important to pull together a team that has two main strengths: been involved in these legal processes in the past/currently; have strong hands-on understanding of land use management ‘at the coal face’ Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government Key Considerations in the Current Context There have been some important changes brought about the Constitutional Court Judgment on the DFA: 1. We are now clearer about what constitutes “Municipal Planning” That the DFA is unlikely to be around for much longer: “I am satisfied that it would be just and equitable to suspend the invalidity order for a period of 24 months as this will be a reasonable time for Parliament to rectify the defects or to enact new legislation”. J. Jafta -18 June 2010 National Government is in the process of revising the National Land Use Planning Bill – most likely to be Framework Legislation Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government The Challenges Municipalities Now have secured rights to make land use decisions (rezoning and township establishment): Can all municipalities do this? Can this be done for all parts of the municipality (areas outside of existing Ordinances, traditional areas, informal settlements)? How do all the related Provincial requirements and decisions impact on this? (e.g. EIA, Act 70 of 70, Heritage, etc) Have you thought about what this means for Appeals? Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government The Challenges Provinces Have mandate to draft Provincial Planning Legislation: Some Provinces already have drafted Acts/Bills Do we want / need 9 different Planning Laws? What can be done about related laws such as LFTEA, Proc R293, Proc R188? Do we need some “fast track” procedures with DFA and LFTEA no longer applicable? How to include more innovative , inclusionary approaches such as incremental tenure, informal settlement upgrading? How to really respond to needs of municipal planning? Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government The Challenges National In his judgment, J. Jafta, in sketching out the planning legislation state of affairs, came to the conclusion that “This situation cries out for legislative reform.” He explained that the DFA “was intended to provide a temporary stop-gap, pending the enactment of comprehensive land use legislation that would rationalise the existing laws.” Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government The Challenges National National government has taken up this challenge. We know it is not an easy challenge National legislation would need to balance many things: Need to be within the Constitution Levels of prescription vs guidance/norms and standards How reformist/bold given the ‘ticking clock’ of June 2012? How to align different laws? Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government What we hope to achieve So, there are very hard issues to consider at each sphere of government. But this project is focussed on being practical – on understanding what the main issues, constraints and innovations are at municipal level and seeing how this can enrich Provincial legislation and feed into National Processes. Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government What we hope to achieve contd We believe we have the ability to help SACN achieve its objectives with this project and make a positive contribution to reforming land use legislation. We believe that this study will complement any other processes by bringing solid, on the ground experiences of municipalities into Provincial and National processes to add value. The desire to enrich these all important processes is a major motivation for our team who all feel passionate about land use planning legislative reform. THANK YOU Gemey Abrahams Consultants and Tirana Consulting

Provincial Land Use Legislative Reform – A Response by Provincial and Municipal Government