ARPL 4015 Integrated Planning Project Yeoville 2011 Spatial Development Framework: Yeoville Contributors: Simiso Dlamini Danny Flax Raeesa Ghoor Olga Koma Mamokete Matjomane Joseph Myoya Siphiwe Ndaba Ntombenhle Ndwandwe Ntombimpela Nzimande Siphiwe Phakathi diverse Ndivuwo Sadiki Raeesa Soomar inclusive Thandeka Tshabalala CONTENTS 1. Abbreviations 2. History and Background to Yeoville 3. Focus of the Project 4. Locality Maps 5. Methodology 6. Normative Position 7. Table introducing different sectors 8. Analysis 8.1 Governance 8.2 Demographics 8.3 Housing 8.3.1 Formal 8.3.2 Informal 8.4 Economy 8.5 Natural Assets, Open Spaces and Environmental Sustainability 8.6 Amenities 8.7 Infrastructure and Services 8.8 Heritage, Identity and Design 8.9 Transport 9. Interventions 9.1 Housing 9.1.1 Formal 9.1.2 Informal 9.2 Economy 9.3 Natural Assets, Open Spaces and Environmental Sustainability 9.4 Amenities 9.5 Infrastructure and Services 9.6 Heritage, Identity and Design 9.7 Transport 9.8 Land Use Managment 10. Final SDF 11. Concluding Table 12. References Abbreviations BRT- Bus Rapid Transit CBD- Central Business District COJ- City of Johannesburg CWP- Community Works Programme JDA- Johannesburg Development Agency NGO- Non-Governmental Organisations RSDF- Regional Spatial Development Framework RRS- Rockey/Raleigh Street SPTN- Strategic Public Transport Network Statssa- Statistics South Africa UDZ- Urban Development Zone YBCDT- Yeoville Bellevue Community Development Trust YEO- Yeoville Environmental Organisation YSF- Yeoville Stakeholders Forum YSMC- Yeoville Sports ground Management Committee 1 History And Background Of Yeoville Yeoville is a suburb in the inner city of Johannesburg and falls Yeoville has always been separated from other suburbs within Region F of the Johannesburg Metropolitan as the area was dominated by white residents. The municipality, it is one of the oldest neighbourhoods and was arrival of non-whites and mixed-race couples was proclaimed a suburb in 1840. It was one of the initial 'grey' representing the availability of the local culture in the areas of Johannesburg in the 1980s and attracted a diverse area. The “graying” primarily began in the south-west set of residents for that reason. These included people who corner of Yeoville and gradually moved north-east. The were strongly supporting socialism in education, activists, a reason for this being the spill-over effect from Hillbrow white middle class, a black middle class and a large Jewish and Berea which were very densely settled gray areas community in the 1970s. It was considered 'cosmopolitan and at the time. These inhabitants consisted of well bohemian' by its residents, many of whom settled there educated Coloureds, Indians and Blacks who were on because of that environment. These characteristics still their way up the social ladder, moving in from all over persist in the area even today due to its diversity. The the country (Yeoville studio ,2010) residents of Yeoville have always included a large proportion of immigrants from places such as Germany, Italy, Greece and other African countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda and Mozambique (Harrison, N.D). In the 1980s Yeoville's character started to vary, this is when it started to attract many people from other parts of the country and Africa. Most of the businesses in the CBD moved to the prosperous suburbs of the North, as a result, there were residents who felt threatened by urban crime and decline of infrastructure in the CBD and decided to move their belongings in favour of suburban safe bet (Yeoville studio, 2010). Yeoville, Hillbrow and Braamfontein lost both commercial and residential tenants at the upper range of the market (Tomlinson et al. 2003). As a result, the character of Yeoville changed, the high class occupants were replaced by a more diverse group consisting of single people, students, artists and young professionals. Yeoville was a temporary home to many people, some would just stay there for a weekend coming from their different places and it also acted as a receiving place for the Johannesburg first comers. Most of the property conditions in the area depended on rent and as a result most of the buildings were dilapidated because the rent was so low and owners were unable to maintain them (Yeoville studio,2010). 2 History And Background Of Yeoville Yeoville has been regarded as the area with a high crime rate and it also started to falloff due to overcrowding of houses. A larger amount of the neighbourhood`s population was renting property rather than owning it. The majority of these are black South Africans from all over the country and immigrants from some parts of Africa. Renting was not cheap then, and the poverty of tenants in these properties meant that many overcrowded the property to share the rental with a number of people (United colors of Yeoville, 2010). This resulted in the neglect of and damage to the properties and an increased pressure on the infrastructure of the area. In this way Yeoville was becoming more like Hillbrow. This has stirred up uncertainties and caused the flow of capital into the area to be considerably reduced. Real estate values have decreased and selling of those properties contributed to high loss because the area was not desirable to buy property. As a result, owners have stopped maintaining the buildings and have quietly written their buildings off. Aside from the physical decay of Yeoville, there has also been a marked socio economic change in the area. This is visible from the increase in street prostitution, illegal taxi stands and car repairs among others (Yeoville studio, 2010). Yeoville has continued to witness a demographics transition during the mid 1990s with the population of Yeoville changing from 85% white in 1990 to 90% black in 1998 (United colors of yeoville, 2010). Immigrants from South Africa's neighbouring countries as well as the rest of Africa have been moving into the inner city. Like the non-whites that moved into Yeoville during the 1980s, many were willing to pay the higher rents because they would settle at any place they could find first and they paid their rent on time scared of being reported by their land lords. The streets of Yeoville and especially the informal sector were increasingly dominated by immigrants (Yeoville studio, 2010). 3 Focus of the Project The aim of this report is the production of a Spatial It has one of the world's weakest economies and it also has Development Framework for Yeoville in response to various an extremely weak state with limited involvement in urban sectoral issues that have been identified in the area and are development. As a result there's vast amounts of growing detailed in the chapters that follow. The SDF is a spatial informal activities both in the economic and housing (urban vision (interventions) and a set of spatial policies for the markets and land acquisition) sectors as civil society seeks to area which will indicate the nature of development to be sustain themselves in the context of this weak state and fostered based on specific sectoral issues, a particular economy. normative position to be outlined shortly and, experiences from cities in other countries- particularly Maputo in The greater city land area of the city is about 675 km2 with a Mozambique. The purpose of this report, therefore, is to high water table particularly in the valleys, coastal plains and illustrate and document a developmental path for the depressions. The estimated total population for the greater Yeoville neighbourhood which takes into cognizance urban area is at 1, 380, 000 inhabitants and 260 500 experiences from similar contextual localities in different households, an average of 5.3 persons per household. In countries. terms of social conditions, it is estimated that more than 60% of the urban population at national level live in absolute The significance of Maputo as the key reference point is: its poverty (Jenkins, 2000). location as a City in a Southern African country which also has a colonial background and therefore similar developmental challenges as South African Cities. It also demonstrates some of the different realities that exist in other African cities, particularly when it comes to issues of informality and governance, and the functional responses thereof. Some of the sectors in this report make explicit reference to lessons that can be learnt from Maputo, by way of translating and implementing those lessons into the space of Yeoville without disrupting the existing contextual character thereof. This is a brief background on Maputo to put one in perspective in terms of our close reference thereto: Maputo city is one of the eleven provinces, largest city and the capital of Mozambique- a country just north east of South Africa, bordering Swaziland. It is divided into seven municipal districts which constitute 61 neighbourhoods (Palalane, 2010). During the last 30 years Mozambique has been governed by fascist colonial power, a Marxist oriented regime and more recently an aid-dominated free- market elite (Jenkins, 2001). 4 Location Map Captions This particular map radiates southwards because this is the A. A-Yeoville in the inner portion of Region F which is at the extreme north of the city located in region region. Hence, analysis beyond this northern part of region f F would lack in academic quality and rigour due to time constraints as it would reguire an analysis of some parts of Region B and E. Therefore, this map will be bounded by Parktown, Houghton, Yeoville and Observatory/Kensington/bezuidenhout at its northern end. The inner city as a whole is the regional node that services almost the whole of Johannesburg due to its economic nodes (in other words, it’s regional facilities ). Source: COJ, All major arterial routes radiate from the inner city (and to a 2011 lesser extent into other areas of the city.