Draft Cape Flats District Baseline and Analysis Report 2019 State of the Built Environment DRAFT Version 1.1 28 November 2019 DRAFT CAPE FLATS DISTRICT BASELINE AND ANALYSIS REPORT 2019 – STATE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT CONTENTS 1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 4 C: STATE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT ....................................................................................... 5 1 LAND USE AND DEVELOPMENT TRENDS ............................................................................. 6 2 Built environment: ................................................................................................................ 8 2.1 Residential ...................................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Industrial ......................................................................................................................... 8 2.3 Retail and Office ........................................................................................................... 9 2.4 Mixed Use ..................................................................................................................... 10 2.5 Agricultural land and smallholdings ......................................................................... 10 2.6 Supportive land uses .................................................................................................. 11 2.7 Development Pressures .............................................................................................. 11 2.8 Vacant land ................................................................................................................ 11 2.9 Key Challenges and Opportunities .......................................................................... 13 3 TRANSPORT AND ACCESSIBILTY ........................................................................................ 15 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................. 15 3.2 Strategic Parameters & Informants .......................................................................... 16 3.3 State of Public Transport ............................................................................................ 17 3.4 State of Road Infrastructure ...................................................................................... 25 3.5 The State of Freight ..................................................................................................... 29 3.6 Travel Patterns ............................................................................................................. 31 3.7 Key Transport Challenges and Opportunities ......................................................... 38 4 INFRASTRUCTURE ................................................................................................................. 39 4.1 Electricity ...................................................................................................................... 39 4.2 Water ............................................................................................................................ 41 4.3 Sanitation (Waste Water and Solid Waste) ............................................................. 42 4.4 Stormwater .................................................................................................................. 50 4.5 Key Opportunities and Constraints .......................................................................... 51 5 HUMAN SETTLEMENTS ......................................................................................................... 52 5.1 Housing Overview ....................................................................................................... 52 5.2 Housing Demand ........................................................................................................ 58 5.3 Housing Supply ............................................................................................................ 60 5.4 Key Opportunities and Constraints .......................................................................... 63 Page 2 of 81 DRAFT CAPE FLATS DISTRICT BASELINE AND ANALYSIS REPORT 2019 – STATE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 6 PUBLIC FACILITIES ................................................................................................................ 66 6.1 State of Supply and Demand ................................................................................... 66 6.2 Key Observations ........................................................................................................ 80 6.3 Key Opportunities and Constraints .......................................................................... 81 Page 3 of 81 DRAFT CAPE FLATS DISTRICT BASELINE AND ANALYSIS REPORT 2019 – STATE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 1. INTRODUCTION The Cape Flats District is located in the southern part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan area and covers approximately 13 200 ha (132 km2). It comprises of a significant part of the Cape Flats, and is bounded by the M5 in the west, N2 freeway to the north, Govan Mbeki Road and Weltevreden Road in the east and the False Bay coastline to the south. The district represents some of the most marginalized areas in the city and has some of the highest population densities with very limited economic activities. It includes areas such as, the greater Athlone and Lansdowne areas, Gugulethu and Nyanga, Ottery, Fairways, Parkwood, Grassy Park, Lotus River, Lavender Hill, Zeekoevlei, Capricorn, Pelican Park, Strandfontein, Rondebosch East and a small portion of the south- western portion of Mitchells Plain. The Philippi Horticultural Area which is a large untransformed piece of urban agricultural land makes up at least one quarter of the district. Page 4 of 81 DRAFT CAPE FLATS DISTRICT BASELINE AND ANALYSIS REPORT 2019 – STATE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT C: STATE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Page 5 of 81 DRAFT CAPE FLATS DISTRICT BASELINE AND ANALYSIS REPORT 2019 – STATE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 1 LAND USE AND DEVELOPMENT TRENDS The Cape Flats District is located in the southern part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan area and covers approximately 13 200 ha (132 km2). It comprises of a significant part of the Cape Flats, and is bounded by the M5 in the west, N2 freeway to the north, Govan Mbeki Road and Weltevreden Road in the east and the False Bay coastline to the south. It is characterized by diverse land use patterns, and contrasting transformed (i.e. urbanized) and untransformed (i.e. natural) landscapes. Mixed land use patterns with higher settlement densities in the older urban fabric in the northern portions of the Cape Flats District. Settlement density and land use diversity decreases as one moves south. All sectors of the metropolitan economy are represented in the Cape Flats District. In terms of the primary sector, the Philippi horticultural area is an important source of Cape Town’s fresh produce, and the farms here provide local job opportunities, particularly for unskilled workers. The Cape Flats District is also of mining significance, with building sand extracted in the PHA and minerals extracted for glass production in the Sand Industria area. Page 6 of 81 DRAFT CAPE FLATS DISTRICT BASELINE AND ANALYSIS REPORT 2019 – STATE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Figure 1: Building plan approvals according to land use type Page 7 of 81 DRAFT CAPE FLATS DISTRICT BASELINE AND ANALYSIS REPORT 2019 – STATE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT 2 BUILT ENVIRONMENT: 2.1 Residential The Cape Flats district has seen an increase in the number of infill developments in the form of small, medium and large blocks of flats in areas like Rondebosch East, Crawford, Athlone, Ottery, Lansdowne, Schaapkraal and Grassy Park. Examples include The Palms, Melville Place, Vanguard Villas, Olive Grove, Baker House, and Sunrise Crescent. Higher density residential developments mostly happened in Muizenberg including Evergreen Phases 2 and 3, Ocean Breeze, Coral Sands and Dune Crest. These trends can be indicative of increased interest in the area and the willingness of property owners in the Cape Flats to invest. Future developments include areas within the airport precinct, Knole Park, Pooke se Bos(Athlone) and Oaklands(private development on South-eastern portion of PHA). It should be noted that the Uvest development, also within the PHA area has been refused. Furthermore, there appears to be increased interest in gated development proposals in the district e.g. Golden Grove farm, The Palms phases 1 and 2, Melville Place as well as in the Schaapkraal area. Densification in the form of small scale subdivisions as well as second (and third) dwellings id frequent. A number of human settlement projects have also been completed and these include Pelikan Park, Chapman’s Peak Street (Heideveld), Table Mountain Street (Heideveld), Cave Peak Street (Heideveld), Helderberg Close (Heideveld), Mpumelelo Bhonge Way (Nyanga) and St Paulus Street (Lavender Hill). There is however uncertainty about Pelikan Park Phase 2 because of numerous environmental constraints on the site. However, it has been requested that the site must be flagged for further investigation. There has been an increase in informal settlements especially along the N2, portions of Guglethu and Nyanga in settlement including Barcelona, Kanana, Philippi SP2, Phola Park as well as Vrygrond