August 6, 2007
By Emily Visser
THE Inner City Regeneration Charter has been approved by the City council for the next few years, the charter will guide inner city regeneration and all projects undertaken in the area.
For starters, R400-million has been set aside for the upgrading of physical infrastructure and the public environment in the 2007/08 financial year.
The regeneration of the inner city was first raised in mid-1997, when the then deputy president, Thabo Mbeki, launched a new vision for the area, The Golden Heartbeat of Africa. It was the product of months of intensive dialogue between the City, provincial and national government, business, community and other stakeholders.
In 2000, Executive Mayor Amos Masondo declared inner city regeneration one of six mayoral priorities, resulting in positive changes in the area during the 2000 to 2005 mayoral term; these included establishing Constitution Hill, Newtown cultural precinct, the fashion district, Metro Mall, Mary Fitzgerald Square, Faraday Taxi Rank, Nelson Mandela Bridge and upgrades in Main Street and Braamfontein.
Then, an Inner City Summit was held on 5 May this year, bringing together about a thousand stakeholders from business, community, parastatals and other spheres of government. The aim was to find ways to further inner city regeneration.
Participants considered the draft of an Inner City Regeneration Charter, drawn up out of six intensive stakeholder working groups that ran from November 2006 to May.
Turning the inner city around: Johannesburg has approved an Inner City regeneration charter
The final charter was approved at the council's ordinary meeting on Thursday, 26 July and, according to the councillor, Boeta Rajan, who is also the chairperson of the inner city section 79 committee, the first of the inner city charter programmes will be rolled out by October.
"Everything is in place. We are very optimistic that this model is going to work."
Oversight and monitoring
The inner city section 79 committee, the mayoral inner city sub-committee and the Charter Partnership Forum, the latter consisting of City and inner city stakeholder representatives, will oversee charter commitments. The inner city section 79 committee is the political oversight body for all projects and programmes undertaken in the inner city.
Rajan said the committee recently completed a two-day workshop on its oversight role. It consists of a multidisciplinary team made up of various role players in the inner city. Monitoring will be done through quarterly reports and physical oversight of projects.
"The charter is going to be our guide; it becomes a roadmap. We have to ensure that the expectations of stakeholders are met."
In terms of cash, the mayoral committee approved a budget of R300-million for inner city regeneration projects in the 2007/08 financial year. An additional R100-million has been ringfenced in the budget of the department of development planning and urban management for Region F to control. In total, about R2-billion will be spent on inner city programmes in the next five years.
And the charter has been referred back to the section 79 committee to set clear time-frames for projects. "As a collective we must ensure delivery is expedited within specific time periods," Rajan confirmed.
Speaking at the council meeting, the Democratic Alliance's Nico de Jager confirmed that the opposition party would support the regeneration effort to ensure its success.
And Ruby Mathang, the member of the mayoral committee for development planning and urban management, said clear commitments had been made in the charter after extensive consultation with internal and external parties. These commitments would be personally monitored by the mayor.
"This charter, we believe, will turn the inner city around."
Charter management
Six broad categories have been defined - urban management, safety and security; economic development; community development; transport; residential development; and public spaces, arts, culture and heritage.
Stakeholders identified several issues in each category that are critical to regeneration. Desired outcomes have been identified, together with clear, measurable commitments to resolve the issue. These commitments will be pursued over the next few years.
The City's department of development planning and urban management (DPUM) will be responsible for the co-ordination and implementation of all projects. Yael Horowitz, previously at the Johannesburg Development Agency, has been appointed interim programme manager; she will report to the executive director of the DPUM.
Graeme Gotz, an urban management specialist, said the programme manager's task was to "put the commitments made by the charter into concrete projects". The programme manager will be supported by a programme strategic team and an extended programme management team and will be responsible for delivery outputs.
Charter commitments
Commitments to be set in motion in the next three months include a Regional Urban Management Plan (RUMP) for the urban development zone, mapping service breakdowns and by-law enforcement, and analysing the capability of systems to deal with these challenges.
Block by block blitzes will be undertaken by multidisciplinary law enforcement and service delivery teams to identify key by-law infringement zones and areas of poor service delivery. They will also come up with solutions to these problems.
A by-law enforcement capacity development plan will be finalised by December, and the City will employ more environmental health staff and metro police officers to boost its by-law enforcement capacity. Visible policing will be increased in high priority areas both by day and night over the next three years. At least 100 vehicles and 750 police officers will be deployed in the inner city by 2010, and by June 2008, 216 cameras will be installed in and around the area.
Waste management infrastructure and service delivery systems have also been inadequate. In response, funds will be set aside to buy more mechanical street sweepers, roll out more swivel bins and accelerate the underground bin system.
Phase one of the underground bin system has already been completed, with seven bins installed on the corners of Claim and Noord streets; Leyds and Loveday streets; Bree and Sauer streets; Wanderers and Koch streets; and Wanderers and Bok streets.
"A total of 18 bins will be installed. We are on track to finish all 18 by August," confirmed Tseliso Pitikoe, the Pikitup project manager.
Buildings and public open spaces
As part of its commitments, the City will scale up its Better Buildings Programme. A multidisciplinary team with enhanced legal recourse will be established in Region F's offices by December to deal with bad buildings.
A streetscape and public environment upgrade plan focusing on paving, trees, furniture, street trading, lighting, refuse bins and other related aspects will also be ready by December. Streets such as Kerk, Diagonal, Eloff and Main have been identified as pedestrian priority areas, while priority precincts are Hillbrow/Berea, Doornfontein, Fordsburg/Pageview and the fashion district, on the eastern edge of the inner city.
A management plan for iconic public places buildings with strong symbolic, cultural or heritage significance will be put in place by December. These include the old Park Station and the Gauteng provincial government precinct square. The Rissik Street Post Office was not mentioned in the charter, but De Jager said that as a heritage building it should be considered in the plan.
Again with a December deadline, an implementation plan for upgrading and maintaining parks will be formulated. Parks identified for this are Donald Mackay, End Street, Pieter Roos, Alec Gorschell and The Wilds.
A major intervention is the construction of a linear, continuous open space "spine" from Yeoville Ridge through Pullinger Kop and along End Street Park. A business plan for this will be ready by July 2008.
Other projects will look at profiling the city as a cultural capital and improving and supporting arts and cultural productions and programmes.
Economic development
The City will target existing key economic sectors and anchor industries as well as small, medium and micro enterprises in its bid to bring an economic resurgence to the inner city. The envisaged result is a dynamic, multifaceted local economy.
There will be a combined approach to micro and street trading, focusing not only on regulating the industry but also on adding a developmental component. New policies and strategies to be finalised in this regard include rolling out a smart card system for registered traders and completing two pilot linear markets - Hoek Street market will be one of these - by December.
There will be stricter law enforcement by March 2008, to coincide with the roll out of new trading spaces and developmental programmes to help traders to consolidate or expand their businesses.
The first demonstration networks for the Johannesburg Broadband Network Project will be rolled out by September and the project will be fully operational by June 2008.
Various new economic activities are also growing in the inner city. Several inner city business working forums will be established by the City by December, with the aim of drawing up a three-year inner city economic development programme.
By September it will have a concrete plan in place delineating and consolidating buildings for the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector and it will fill a further 1 000 BPO seats in the inner city.
In addition, Johannesburg will negotiate an extension of the urban development zone deadline with the national Treasury, and promote this incentive to attract additional investment in the 2007/08 financial year. Existing businesses will be supported as well. A shortlist of 20 key companies in the inner city will be compiled, and their concerns and constraints will be addressed over two years.
On- and off-street parking and reinvestment in conference facilities, hotels and related industries are also being investigated.
Housing
An Inner City Housing Plan will ensure at least 50 000 new residential units by 2015; the first phase of this plan will be released in August and an operational plan will be in place by December. Financial and institutional arrangements will be established by March 2008.
An Inner City Housing Plan will ensure at least 50 000 new units by 2015
Inclusionary housing providing housing across income groups in all new housing developments - is strongly supported by the City, which will put in place South Africa's largest inclusionary housing programme in the inner city. It will have about 20 000 of the promised new residential units in the area.
In addition, systems and structures to support private sector proposals for the plan will be in place by January 2008.
Part of the commitment to accelerate housing delivery will be issuing all clearance certificates within three months. The 40 percent rates rebate on buildings of which at least 80 percent is reserved for residential use, will continue to apply.
The shortage of temporary accommodation is also acknowledged in the charter, and Johannesburg aimed to have at least 500 emergency beds available by July. Another 800 to 1 000 beds will be available by June 2008. Between 10 and 15 buildings will be made available for social housing over the next three financial years.
An extensive social package will also be introduced in the 2007/08 tariff reviews, becoming effective in July 2008. Other housing initiatives will look at hostel upgrades, promotion of ownership and sectional title options, and supporting city improvement districts.
Transport
Joburg lacks a world-class transport and distribution system, and to ease movement to and from the inner city, a plan for an Inner City Distribution System will be devised by December, running within the broader design of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
Construction of key BRT stations at Ellis Park will start in June 2008 and the full inner city system will be rolled out by January 2010.
The Park Station precinct will be developed as a single, integrated, inter-modal transport facility called the International Transit and Shopping Centre. The feasibility study and project structure will be available by March 2008.
A number of train stations along the main east-west railway line have become obsolete or need major upgrades; final decisions on the future of some of these stations will be made public in September.
Joburg aims to create a world-class public tranport system
Public transport stops, lay-bys and taxi ranking and holding facilities are inadequate and require urgent intervention, and a plan for this will be completed by June 2008. In addition, a traffic flow model will look at congestion and mobility, with its findings published by December. Traffic law enforcement will be increased.
Inner city communities
A number of projects will look specifically at communities within the inner city. Vulnerable groups, such as street children, and the high number of migrant workers are a particular concern.
The City will support and work closely with non-government, faith-based and community-based organisations, establishing a database of these organisations by September. In addition, it will establish an Inner City Corporate Social Responsibility Fund by March 2008.
Special groups will be catered for in the City's Housing Plan. Early childhood development facilities will be scaled up and sports and recreation amenities and programmes will be assessed to determine specific needs.
"The challenge going forward is to scale up regeneration efforts to ensure more rapid, even and sustained positive impacts on the entire inner city, without having a detrimental effect on inner city communities," the Inner City Regeneration Charter concluded.
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