Land-Use Management to Support Sustainable Settlements in South Africa

1.   Introduction
            Change required

Land use management

            Argument for change
                        Changing values
                        Democracy in South Africa
                        Local government transition
            Complexity and general resilience
            Structure of the book
             
2.  Evolution of land use management
            Early rules and generative codes
            Regulation based on zoning codes
                        First zoning controls: France, 1810
                        German approach
                        Spread of zoning
Brief overview of the evolution of land use management in South Africa
            Early beginnings
            Influence of the discovery of diamonds and gold
            First provincial planning legislation
            Planning legislation 1900–1994
            Situation prior to 1994
1994–2013: From development control to land use management
            Development Facilitation Act, 1995
            Draft Green Paper
            2001 White Paper on Spatial Planning and Land Use Management
            Land use management bills, draft provincial legislation and SPLUMA
Current land use management system
 
3.  Planning theory and its applicability to the Global South
            Introduction
            Procedural Northern planning theories
                        Modernism and planning
                        Collaborative and communicative planning
            Critical Northern theories
                        Marxism, power, and planning
                        Diffusion of power
                        Social justice and inclusion
Spatial theories: Smart growth, new urbanism, transit-oriented development, and liveability
                        Sustainability
            Northern theories in an African context
            Towards theories for planning in Africa
                        Sustainability
                        Tactical urbanism
            Informality
                        Informal settlements
                        Informality and livelihoods
            Complexity
            Conclusion
           
4.  Why the current system is inadequate for the South African context
            Introduction
Problems of African land use management
                        Inequality and exclusion
                        Overview of the inadequacies of the current system
                        Traditional areas
                        Lack of recognition of African cultures
                        Urban areas
                        Informal livelihoods
                        Informal settlements
                        Backyard dwellings
                        Sprawling, poor quality, and unsustainable urban form
                        Control-orientated
            Causes
                        Power, politics, and corruption
                        Conflicting and competing rationalities
                        Customary land tenure and contested leadership
                        Capacity, bureaucracy, and the aspirations’ mismatch
 
5. Principles and options for a land use management system to support sustainable and equitable settlements
            Introduction
            Principles
                        Acknowledge and work with change
                        Land use regulations can change
                        Regenerative sustainability
                        Social justice and inclusion
                        Economic development and livelihoods
                        Context matters
            Other land use management systems
                        Restrictive conditions and covenants in title deeds
                        Plan-based controls
                        Site development plans
                        Form-based codes
                        Performance standards
                        Nomocracy
Basket of rights
                        Discretionary system
            Conclusion
    
6.  A Southern approach to sustainable land use management
            Simplifying the system
                        Current system
                        Options to simplify the system
            Rural regions
                        Natural areas
                        Commercial farming areas
                        Traditional rural areas
            Urban spaces
                        Small towns
                        Peri-urban regions
                        Townships
                        Informal settlements
                        Suburbia
                        Central areas
            Special areas
                        Industrial
                        Renewable energy
                        Mining
 
7.  Conclusion
 
Glossary

Verna Nel is a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Free State, South Africa. She had extensive experience in local government, including as Chief Town Planner in the Centurion Town Council and the City of Tshwane’s City Planning Function, before joining the university. She has published on spatial governance, urban resilience, secondary cities, and the impacts of mining on communities. She is a consultant on land use management.
Stuart Paul Denoon-Stevens has a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning and is Senior Lecturer at Nottingham Trent University (UK). Initially working as a planner in development control, since 2015 he has been working as an academic, conducting research on topics such as development control, housing, spatial planning for mining towns, and planning practice and education. He has been involved in high-level policy and legislative work relating to planning legislation and spatial planning in South Africa and has previously co-led a major NRF-ESRC project focused on planning education and practice in South Africa.