CT to improve building plan process

the city of cape town has implemented a number of measures to improve the services provided by its planning and building development management (pbdm) department, and appeals to property owners to assist in ensuring that it can process applications smoothly and quickly.


the cape town municipality covers a significantly large area, spanning 2,461sq km and serving 3,2 million residents. processing an application is therefore not a simple process.

“despite this, the pbdm department has shown a good turnover rate. in the previous financial year (2009/10), the department processed 24,265 building plans, while 24,313 were approved (some of these applications were carried over from the previous year). these building plans covered a range of development types across the entire cape metropolitan area,” said planning and environment portfolio committee chairperson, alderman brian watkyns.

in addition to this, building plan submissions and land use applications are increasing every year. during the period april to june 2010, the total number of building plans submitted at the pbdm department’s eight district offices increased by approximately 16% from the same period in the previous year, while land use applications submitted to the district offices saw an increase of over 29% for the same period in the previous year.

sa statistics indicated that projects throughout south africa, especially residential developments, have been stifled and the construction phase thereof is under severe pressure. contrary to the current recession affecting the residential sector in south africa’s greater municipalities, the cape metropole has not experienced such pressure.

from april to june this year, development of residential units increased by 8% to 1,646 units at a value of r991m (a 41% increase), compared to the same period last year.