Contextualizing TOD : fostering inclusive and integrated local spatial planning approaches in Cape Town, South Africa

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Contextualizing TOD: Fostering Inclusive and Integrated Local Spatial Planning Approaches in Cape Town, South Africa

By

Taskina Tareen

Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch) Syracuse University Syracuse, New York (2015)

Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master in City Planning at the

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

June 2018

The author hereby grants to MIT the permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of the thesis document in whole or

in part in any medium now known or hereafter created.

A u th o r...

Signature redacted

Departmentf U ban Studies and Planning

May 24, 2018

Signature redacted

.. ,A~ ...

Lecturer of Urban Design and Planning, Marie Law Adams Department of Urban Studies and Planning Thesis Supervisor

Accepted

Signature

redacted

A SCEtd bNSTTUT

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE

OF TECHNOLOGY

-Thfessor of the Practice, Ceasar McDowell

Department of Urban Studies and Planning Chair, MCP Committee

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Contextualizing TOD: Fostering Inclusive and Integrated Local Spatial Planning Approaches in Cape Town, South Africa

By

Taskina Tareen

Submitted to the Department of Urban Studies and Planning on May 24, 2018 in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in City Planning

ABSTRACT

In 2017, the City of Cape Town released a version of its Municipal Spatial Development Framework, in which its principal statement positions Transit Oriented Development (TOD) as a key approach to redressing apartheid spatial legacies, with the intent of building a more inclusive, integrated and vibrant city Accordingly the City made the bold move of integrating the functions of its transport, urban development,

and human settlements departments in order to effectively involve all lines of departments that will have the most impact on achieving TOD. While integrating transport infrastructure and spatial planning can be a promising long-term strategy

as portrayed by other successful cities, its application in the global South comes with certain challenges. In Cape Town, this becomes especially visible at the local planning scale, where existing township contexts are comprised of fragmented urban and social forms that have suffered neglect since apartheid years, and thus present a challenging

arena for a common spatial and urban vision to take place.

This study takes the position that in order to truly build an inclusive, integrated and vibrant city, there needs to be a reciprocal conversation between local contextual

planning at the township settlement scale, and the broader, metropolitan-scale TOD framework. The research therefore asks: What local spatial planning approaches

and processes can foster inclusive TOD initiatives in previously neglected township areas? Using the Philippi Township, one of the city's prioritized station areas as a case study, the thesis employs process tracing, theory, and mapping to identify a series of contextual site elements pertinent to TOD, and then presents suggestions for

alternative integrated urban approaches and inclusive processes that conceptualizes the regeneration of disadvantaged township areas like the Philippi in Cape Town. Thesis Advisor: Marie Law Adams, Lecturer of Urban Design and Planning

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Acknowledgments

This thesis journey would not have been possible or as enlightening as it has been, without the support and assistance of a number of people. Firstly, I would like to thank my thesis advisor, Marie Law Adams, and co-advisor, Gabriella Carolini for their incredible support, encouragement, and patience in shaping the thoughts and processes that have resulted in the final outcome of this study Their insightful comments and critical observations allowed for an interesting conversation to take place between the realms of urban planning/design, and international development, and I am truly grateful for this experience.

I am thankful to the individuals who took time to speak with me in Cape Town, and

share their thoughts and perspectives about the City's future development plans despite certain tensions that were at play. I am particularly grateful to Mercy Brown-Luthango for her insight on local development issues in Cape Town townships and her kind generosity for driving me around the Philippi area. A special thanks also to Claire Du Trevou, for sharing common excitement and insight in the role of the architect and urban designer in rethinking inclusive regeneration of township areas.

The opportunity to travel to Cape Town for this study was made possible by the MISTI MIT-Africa initiative. I am grateful for their support and assistance and hope that this works adds to the goals and conversations around engagement between MIT and the continent. I would also like to express my utmost gratitude to the DUSP community for an incredible and enriching experience the last two years studying the many diverse facets of urban planning.

Lastly, I would like to thank my family and friends, for their endless support and the values that they have instilled me, which have undoubtedly anchored and shaped the impetus behind this thesis. A heartfelt thank you to my wonderful friends, Christina

and Ishaan, for constantly encouraging me to follow my intuitions throughout this

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Cape Town to me has always been a magical city pivoting the tip of Southern Africa. Its urban fabric, comprised of a modern central business district, vibrant neighborhoods holding deeply rooted stories and diverse inhabitants and languages, serves in many ways as a model for other African cities. I have long held an interest in the complex cultural and spatial planning history of the city of Cape Town, given my position as a female architect, and aspiring urban designer and planner, as well as my background of being a Zambian resident of Bangladeshi descent. Through a particular lens, Cape Town is a world-renowned progressive city deserving of its 2014 World Design Capital title and yet in other ways, the city's imbalanced planning trajectory and socially inequitable landscape remains redolent of neighboring African cities, including my hometown of Lusaka. Today, Cape Town is symbolic of worldwide concerns for climate change following the city's recent water crisis. A sustainable model for the city rests on accounting for its current communities and environments, while striving and planning for a transformative future.

There is an inherent tension that lies between planning for today and planning for tomorrow. At the city scale, the repercussions of this tension are felt most by the communities and urban residents who suffer livelihood difficulties as a result of

local governments not taking appropriate urban planning approaches between the pragmatic and projective. Cape Town, like other developed cities in the Southern hemisphere, struggles with this dichotomy in planning. At one hand, the local government imagines projective transformative and integrated spatial planning overtures for undoing the apartheid city, through long-term goals including transit-oriented development, and yet within its current landscape, its peripheral townships continue to be characterized by social and urban challenges including extreme poverty, lack of education, and environmental degradation - incited by environments devoid of adequate housing or urban quality This thesis study, prompted by the duality of planning for today and planning for tomorrow, looks at the relationship between local contextual planning approaches in Cape Town and the City's long-term transformative goals in redressing the apartheid city.

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01

//

INTRODUCTION

.Cape Town 2018: Setting the Scene 9

* Cape Town and TOD: Defining the Problem 18

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Cape Town 2018: Setting the Scene

"Day Zero" became the infamous echo through which the world came to reference the city of Cape Town in 2018. A stark difference from its 2014 title of "World Design Capital" - the city, acknowledged as one of Africa's best-managed, and renowned for its push towards effective use of design to drive economic, social, cultural, and environmental development (World Design Organization, 2014), paradoxically became one of the first major developed cities in the world to face a critical water crisis

following a three-year dry period. The looming disaster was a possible reality for all of Cape Town's population to face. Whether rich or devastatingly poor, there was a chance you would be lining up at an emergency water distribution point for your ration of 50 liters to get you through the day.

Ironically, it seemingly took a disaster of sorts to foster collaboration, that is, to bring all the different faces and voices of an otherwise deeply divided city, to work together towards more responsible actions given their common state. "Day Zero" has since then

been pushed to 2019 and its avoidance depends on the city's common vision for a sustainable and socially equitable future.

Cape Town, South Africa's second largest metropolis, has long been a city of two tales. At one hand, it's Central Business District (CBD), world-class waterfront and shopping, white sand beaches and vibrant inner-city neighborhoods, vineyard estates and beautiful university campuses - all nestled in or around extraordinary natural landscapes, render it as a charming and seductive destination for international travelers. On the other hand, the city's immediate peripheries are a bleak antithesis to this vision. Separated from central Cape Town by buffer zones composed of multi-lane freeways and rail infrastructure, river basins and large tracts of unused land, Cape Town's densely-packed Townships are a stark reminder of the fragmented landscapes left behind by South Africa's apartheid legacies and processes.

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oi // INTRODUCTION//Cape Town 2018: Setting the Scene

An April 2017 online article by the Guardian showcasing drone images entitled "unequal scenes" by Cape Townian photographer and filmmaker, Johnny Miller, serve as critical images portraying the city's long haul progress towards a socially equitable landscape, even after the end of apartheid over twenty-two years ago. While national and local governments and various organizations have pushed efforts and initiatives towards reversing the legacies of apartheid, and more recently through adopting a transit oriented development framework, the physical and spatial constructs of the city remain characterized by social inequity. Cape Town's problem is inherently spatial in nature and requires a radical shift in the way the City thinks about movement as an element of 'urban structure' and movement as an element of 'urban space' (Dewar (B.A.) & Todeschini, 2004).

Buffer Zones

Orginal drone images by Johnny Miller

Fig 01-1: 'Lake Michelle / Masiphumelele (cape Town, South Africa)'-wetland areas act as buffers separating informal settlements from wealthier gated neighborhoods.

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Fig 01-2: 'Manenberg/Phola Park, (Cape Town, South Africa)' -nfrastructural

Development such as railways bisect communities and act as buffers between parts of the City.

Fig 01 -3: 'Papwa Sewgolum Golf Course (Durban, South Africa)' - Juxtaposition

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The City's 2017 Comprehensive Transit Oriented Development Framework

Since 2000, immense efforts have gone towards placing greater emphasis on integrated planning for South African Cities to redress legacies of the apartheid city, a vision that is to be addressed by all spheres of the government at national, provincial and municipal/local levels. The introduction of the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process and in particular, the requirement for municipalities to include a Spatial Development Framework susceptible for review every five years, became an important impetus for spatial planning initiatives at the municipal level. In 2017, following a national budgetary focus on infrastructure planning dedicated to Transit, and specifically Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems, the city of Cape Town revised its 2012 Municipal Spatial Development Framework (CTMSDF) and essentially created a new framework through the lens of comprehensive Transit-Oriented Development (TOD). The principal statement in the 2017 CTMSDF positions TOD as a key approach to redressing apartheid spatial legacies, with the intent of building a more 'inclusive,

integrated and vibrant city' (CTMSDF, 2017).

This follows a recent initiative taken by the city of Johannesburg, South Africa's largest metropolis, to link transit infrastructure with spatial planning through a growth management strategy (Todes, 2012). The developmental approach aims to

use strategic spatial planning in the post-apartheid era, to amend the patterns of inequality in the past and create more compact and integrated cities (Todes, 2012). In essence, this would include the regeneration of previously neglected township areas by locating critical public transit interchanges that connect residents to areas of economic and social opportunities and promote intensified mixed-land use outcomes in areas around public transit.

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oi // INTRODUCTION//Cape Town 2018: Setting the Scene -.-- / NN -0 -P

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Fig 01 -4: The 2017 Draft Cape Town Municipal Spatial Development Framework

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In the case of Cape Town, this shift towards a comprehensive transit oriented development approach, prompted an institutional restructuring within the city government to allow for a holistic structural plan and vision to take place. As a result, in 2017 the city extended the functions of its then Transport Authority, Transport for Cape Town (TCT), to include all of urban development (urban planning, human settlements, and urban sustainability) alongside integrated transport. The TDA was then established as the City's 'Transport and Urban Development Authority' and its name changed accordingly to TDA Cape Town. This was effected by means of the

TDA By-law 2017 (CIT 2017). In principle, this institutional restructuring would allow

previously siloed city departments to work collaboratively on the objectives of a comprehensive transit oriented development framework. On closer inspection, this has not effectively been the case.

In its TOD framework, the city of Cape Town identified three integration zones, namely Metro South East (MSE), Voortrekker Road and Blue Downs/Symphony Way. Within these zones, TOD priority precinct areas are identified, within which five separate

'TOD catalytic' projects have been planned: the Foreshore Freeway Precinct, Bellville TOD Catalytic Project, Philippi East MyCiTi Transfer Interchange TOD Catalytic Project, Athlone Power Station Redevelopment TOD Catalytic Project and Paardevlei TOD Catalytic Project (CITP 2017).

Among these projects, the Philippi East MyCiTi Transfer Interchange TOD Catalytic Project located, in the township of Philippi, a low-income settlement area along the Metro South East integration zone has garnered significant interest from, developers, scholars and outsiders alike for a glossy video rendering of its proposed vision that the city released in 2017. The video and its accompanying images showcases a radically different image of what the future of the Philippi could look like compared to its current existing fabric -complete with an extensive transport network, high rise-residential towers, elevated road systems and overhead bridges, and clean divides between formal and informal fabrics. While the image was only a projected vision and certainly one that ignited immense excitement for the regeneration of the Philippi area, its relationship to its immediate context was questionable through the lens of Philippi's historical, physical and social landscape.

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o // INTRODUCTION//Cape Town 2018: Setting the Scene

Fig 01-5: The City's rendered aerial view of projected Philippi East MyCiti Interchange TOD Catalytic Project, showing idealized forms of development in the Philippi area.

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In fact, there had been much debate within the City government itself about the proposed location of the Philippi East TOD catalytic project and the development of its surrounding precinct. Critical questions that emerged from these conversations included, what are the guiding principles of TOD? Does the Philippi East project fit into these principles? Will a 'one-size fits all' approach work in this system? And what exactly does TOD mean for the context of Cape Town? In her research focused on Johannesburg's similar initiative to link strategic spatial planning and infrastructure, Alison Todes, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of

Witwatersrand, demonstrates that while forms of non-traditional approaches to spatial planning such as comprehensive TOD frameworks have commonsense appeal, the potential for these approaches will vary contextually and their role and impact can be more partial than expected (Todes, 2012).

In the global north context, research on transit-oriented development has often been linked to broader "smart growth" movements, suggesting considerable levels of coordination and integration premised under a unified vision (Todes, 2012). The success of this vision also depends highly on consistent programs and policies which solidify relationships between the state and society These systems are usually hard to place in developing contexts and while central Cape Town is a bustling area that may even put some European counterparts to shame, its peripheral settlements are entrenched with livelihood difficulties including high levels of poverty, crime, environmental risk, and violence. In the context of Cape Town, a long history of a physically and socially divided landscape disadvantages the premise for successful TOD to take place without re-thinking what building an 'inclusive, integrated and vibrant city' actually entails when considering mobility, accessibility and contextual development in township areas.

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-oi // INTRODUCTION//Cape Town 2018: Setting the Scene

"What is the right model of public transport for Cape Town in this point in time? My gut is telling me that public transport is critical but bus rapid transport (BRT) might not be the right way....don't come up with a BRT system that was a big hit in South America and plant it over here -because of apartheid, the market and how land-ownership works, you are not going to achieve TOD"

"and what does TOD look like? If you look at the vision of TOD being put out, it's not realistic in this country. We need a different kind -we need a Cape Town TOD, and there won't be one type of TOD in Cape Town, it will be five or six and will be dependent on location."

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Cape Town and TOD: Defining the Problem

Transit Oriented Development or TOD, has always been a part of the Cape Town Municipal Spatial Development Framework (CTMSDF), in one form or the other. The main difference between the City's 2012 and earlier SDFs and its most recent one is simply the enforcing language through which TOD is described as the central developmental approach for achieving the SDF's three stated spatial strategies: 'Building an inclusive, integrated, vibrant city,' 'Managing urban growth and creating a balance between urban development and environmental protection' and finally, 'Planning for employment and improving access to economic opportunities' (CTMSDF,

2017). Chapters 2 and 3 will explore in more detail how the CTMSDF has been revised

over time to reflect the City's development priorities. In principle, an integrated transport and land-use plan is a promising long-term strategy as portrayed by other successful cities; however, its application in the global South comes with certain challenges.

In South African cities, this will be especially visible at the local scale, where existing townships are often composed of fragmented social and urban forms and thus present a difficult arena where a common spatial vision can take place. This is particularly the case in the Philippi area, as mentioned above, where there has been friction within the city government itself over where and how an appropriate development vision that redresses the effects of apartheid can take place. After over two decades of post-apartheid planning initiatives undertaken in Cape Town, the City continues to be characterized by a fragmented realm of low-density sprawl, high levels of social inequality and consequently, deeply segregated urban forms and neighborhoods. The township areas in particular, are often wedged between various forms of infrastructural and land barriers, and their constituent urban forms, existing social, economic and physical landscapes will have to be effectively re-thought if TOD is to promote an 'inclusive, integrated and vibrant city.'

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oi // INTRODUCTION//Cape Town and TOD: Defining the Problem

The capital structure dedicated to national infrastructure development and

consequently the advent of Cape Town's comprehensive TOD framework provides a unique opportunity in Cape Town today, for planners and designers to explore strategies through which the city's TOD framework can incorporate and rethink the environments of previously neglected township areas. These strategies have to look beyond simple notions of increased connection, and accessibility to economic opportunities through more efhcient transport, but in effect, they will also have to explore questions of what mobility, public space and community empowerment can look like within and around identified TOD nodes. Alternative strategies can aim to improve and generate new urban forms, strategic inffl and connective tissues that speak to the identity, needs, and aspirations of these divided areas that are crucial in re-imagining and demonstrating what the post-apartheid landscape could be like for everyone. Strategies have to consider planning for current communities as well as for future communities, through a reciprocal conversation between local contextual planning at the township settlement scale, and the broader, metropolitan-scale planning.

In their 2003 book, "Rethinking Urban Transport after Modernism," University of Cape Town Professors, David Dewar, and Fabio Todeschini, discuss and identify a number of ways in which South African cities could begin to 'close the gap between policy rhetoric and practice' -a process which requires a paradigm shift in the way practitioners and decision-makers think about urban movement within the City. They argue that in the post-apartheid domain of South African cities, it is important to conceptualize movement both as an element of urban structure and as an element of urban space (Dewar (B.A.) & Todeschini, 2004)

The former concept, urban structure, is understood through the lens of large to small scale while the latter, urban space, is explained through a reverse sequencing, -understanding movement from the very local scale to the larger neighborhood and so forth (Dewar (B.A.) & Todeschini, 2004). The latter also starts from understanding the needs and experiences of the pedestrian in relation to their immediate

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oi // INTRODUCTION//Cape Town and TOD: Defining the Problem

to take place in Cape Town. While a comprehensive urban structure in the form of a TOD framework outlining corridor and nodal systems has clearly been defined and is in place by the City of Cape Town, the question of how this system could function appropriately in local contexts is still up for debate.

This thesis research will address this debate by focusing on the Philippi, a low-income settlement on the periphery of the city of Cape Town, where an emerging major public transport node, the Philippi East MyCiTi Transfer Interchange TOD Catalytic Project, as earlier mentioned has been identified and planned. As part of Cape Town's 'MyCiti' Bus Rapid Transit system, the Philippi node will see 6 of the 16 MyCiti trunk routes converging in its path and is planned to be larger than the Civic Center Station in Cape Town's CBD. This implies immense development opportunities for the Philippi, a settlement area that has always been considered a relatively well located site given its proximity to the Cape Town International Airport, the Philippi industrial area and the Philippi horticultural area.

C e To CSO GONP 0Nodes 9 Corridors - Exsdng Possen - Future Possen - Exdsting MVCM Future BRT Trun Town Cwu, ger Rot ge, Roi Trunk Routes nk Routes Tok

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However, the Philippi also comes with a divided past and a fractured social and urban landscape, representative of many of Cape Town's townships. It has indeed,

been on the City's radar for development opportunities for several years, including the Wetton Lansdowne Corridor Program (WLCP), but various projects have either been abandoned or left at a standstill as a result of failure to attract significant public and private investment (Brown-Luthango, 2015, p. 128). Within the Wetton Lansdowne Corridor project itself, there had been several disputes between the city and landowners over the relocation or upgrading of informal settlements in the area (Brown-Luthango, 2015). These sorts of on-and-off project ambitions and disputes over how to approach interventions in brownfield sites have led township areas to not only be segregated from central Cape Town, redolent of the apartheid era, but also led them to become socially divided landscapes in terms of internal urban structure.

Research Questions and Methods of Inquiry

This thesis posits that in order to truly build an inclusive, integrated and vibrant city, there needs to be a reciprocal conversation between local contextual planning at the township settlement scale, and the broader, metropolitan-scale TOD framework. South African cities need to foremost recognize and work with their existing fabrics before attempting blanket approaches to development. The primary aim of this research is to develop and understand the ways in which local contexts can be effectively incorporated into larger TOD urban structures, particularly in the case of Cape Town, where despite the presence of an implied comprehensive framework, comprehensive conversations are not necessarily in place. As such the research uses the Philippi Township as a case study and asks:

What local spatial planning approaches and processes can foster inclusive TOD initiatives in previously neglected township areas?

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oi // INTRODUCTION//Research Questions and Methods of Inquiry

In order to answer this question, a series of sub-questions are explored throughout the thesis:

Sub-questions:

1. What priorities drive post-apartheid spatial planning in Cape Town?

2. How have these priorities addressed inclusivity and integration in the Philippi Township Area?

3. What are some contextual components of the Philippi that incite conversation for

an inclusive and integrated TOD approach in Cape Town?

The first and second sub-questions are answered primarily through a brief process tracing exercise and document analysis highlighted in Chapters 2 and 3. An overview

of Cape Town's 'State of Affairs' in Chapter 2 discusses, in brief the institutional

restructuring and formation of the Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA), the City's current development priorities, and its translation through the Cape Town

Spatial Development Framework and TOD catalytic projects, including the Philippi Area.

Chapter 3 then explores theory and literature relevant to Cape Town's development trajectory and provides a theoretical framework that contextualizes the themes

surfacing in Cape Town's current development priorities. This section includes a study in terms of simple process tracing of the CTMSDF, to glean out how priorities have changed or developed over time and also explores what inclusive urban development

could look like in local contexts. The chapter ends with setting up a framework for studying the Philippi area through a series of four contextual TOD components, informed by Kevin Lynch's performance dimensions of 'good urban form.'

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oi // INTRODUCTION//Research Questions and Methods of Inquiry

Chapter 4 employs a case study approach focused on the Philippi Township area.

A process for building an 'inclusive, integrated and vibrant' settlement is explored

through a series of four contextual TOD place-making components identified in the preceding chapter. The chapter begins with extrapolating urban and social constituents comprising the Philippi settlement area, that aim to reveal relationships linking TOD with local context. The analysis concurrently studies existing systems and suggests/tests new systems, processes, and interventions.

Finally, a field visit and semi-structured interviews conducted during a two week period in Cape Town complemented greatly the process and outcome of this thesis. Interviews were held with current and past City officials directly or indirectly involved with the 2017 CTMSDF and TOD framework process, including an urban economist, urban designer, spatial planner and transport official as well as members of community -based organizations focused on work in the Philippi. These included a researcher from the African Centre for Cities (ACC) who was involved in the Philippi CityLab, a community engagement program facilitated by the University Of Cape Town (UCT) as well as two architects currently working with informal settlement upgrading and informal traders environments in the Philippi area. Conversations with these various individuals unearthed several concerns for the future development of the Philippi as well as questions for what inclusive regeneration of townships could mean in the Cape Town context. In the interest of maintaining anonymity, all interviewee names, particularly informants directly or indirectly linked with the City council are not disclosed

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02 //

CAPE TOWN

STATE OF AFFAIRS

Towards a TOD Philosophy

* The TDA Cape Town: 'A Bold Move for the City" 25

* The 2017 Cape Town Municipal Spatial Development 29

Framework

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Towards a TOD Philosophy

In 2017, the City of Cape Town released a draft version of its revised Municipal Spatial Development Framework (CTMSDF), in which its principal statement positioned Transit Oriented Development (TOD) as a key vision to achieving spatial transformation in the city This was a discernable shift from its 2012 framework which retained similar values and structure, but had not primarily based TOD as its overarching philosophy for guiding the city's transformation priorities listed in the CTMSDF. The City announced a bold move in 2016, to combine the functions of its transport, urban development, and human settlements departments, and establish the newly formed 'Transport and Urban Development Authority' known as the TDA Cape Town. The institutional restructuring was expressed as a necessary step to achieve the fundamental goals of redressing the apartheid city by involving all lines of departments that have the most impact on TOD. This chapter provides a curtain reveal of the TDA formation and its major documents that include prioritized TOD zones and projects for spatial planning, including the Metro-South East integration zone, and the TOD catalytic project of the

Philippi East MyCiti Transfer Interchange. Semi-structured interviews with informants directly or directly related to the TDA formation and CTMSDF process reveal that conversations around a comprehensive TOD framework for the city has not been entirely inclusive. There is a general level of skepticism and lack of consensus within the local government about how TOD should be framed for the context of Cape Town.

The TDA Cape Town: "A Bold Move for the City"

In the executive summary of its draft Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan (CITP), the City of Cape Town describes its intent on delivering an 'integrated, intermodal and interoperable transport' system in Cape Town. Integrated transport, in this regard, is explained to be understood from a larger perspective of how transport can affect the spatial form of Cape Town and build sustainable communities (CITP 2017). It is noted that the City does not see integrated transport as its only goal for spatial development but rather as 'the key driver for addressing Cape Town's spatial reality, with all its urban

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02 / CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The TDA Cape Town

In order to achieve this vision, the City adopts a TOD philosophy that they posit can be used to foster a spatially transformative city, in addition to delivering economic and efficient transport outcomes as TOD has been implemented in other cities (CITP 2017).

TOD as a driver for a spatially transformative and socially inclusive city, given Cape Town's complicated and problematic post-apartheid domain, is certainly a bold conjecture and project to pursue. To anchor this objective, the City decided to

prioritize TOD both at an institutional and governance level, and thereafter leveraged its previous Transport Authority, Transport for Cape Town (TCT) to encompass the plurality of its urban development departments, including urban planning, human settlements and urban sustainability (CITP 2017). In line with its adoption of the Organizational Development and Transformation Plan (ODTP) in 2016, the City of Cape Town established the 'Transport and Development Authority of Cape Town' or 'TDA Cape Town' The organizational restructuring was a merge of somewhat previously siloed city urban departments into one single autonomous authority, and was put into effect by means of the Constitution of the Transport and Urban Development Authority for Cape Town Amendment By-law, No. 7716 of 2017 (TDA By-law 2017).

The Mayor of Cape Town, Patricia de Lille announced this bold move for the city in September 2017, stating that the establishment of the TDA was key to achieving 'goals of spatial transformation' in the city through a Transit-Oriented Development Strategy, 'which aims to create a compact and connected city,' bringing people closer to economic opportunities and providing affordable housing near transport corridors (IOL, 2017).

This virtuous statement is quickly followed by a tumultuous time for De Lille, not only concerning urban mismanagement related to the city's current water crisis, but also a scrutinous spotlight being placed on her, for major corruption and maladministration claims in relation to the previous transport commissioner of Cape Town, Melissa Whitehead (IOL, 2017). The allegations that Whitehead faced, of fraud and tender irregularities was claimed to cost up to a R45 million loss for the MyCiti bus system in

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02 // CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The TDA Cape Town

Cape Town (IOL, 2017) and questions had emerged regarding the objectives of TDA Cape Town. Whitehead was suspended from the Cape Town City Council in January

2018, and since then there has been a conscious effort from transport authorities in

the city to ensure the public that the TDA was prioritizing a number of projects in the city that were 'critical to the spatial transformation of the city' (IOL, 2017). However, there still existed some skepticism among local spatial planners and urban designers

both within and outside the City Council regarding to what extent these TOD visions were indeed addressing issues of inclusivity and just planning, and not simply projects

seduced by capital interests (Informant Interview, 2018).

Having spoken to a few informants who were either directly or indirectly involved in the City's spatial planning process during the institutional restructuring and formation of the TDA, it was quite apparent that there had been tensions and early debates within departments about what exactly TOD would mean for the city of Cape Town. There was a general consensus that land-use planning had a precarious history in the city and that the conventional split between transport and infrastructure, and spatial planning departments, had been problematic for consistent decision making in the city

Accordingly, the principles behind the integration of transport and urban planning departments most related to TOD, according to informants, was a correct and promising move for the city.

However, the scale of change was unanticipated. According to one informant, an urban designer and planner working for the City, by collapsing the departments of transportation, urban development, and human settlements departments into a single authority, there had duplication of functions throughout. Several people were said to have been moved out and shifted side-ways within departments, and given whole new responsibilities that they may or may not have been comfortable with (Informant Interview, 2018). Processes and decisions were being made quickly and sometimes without transparency throughout the institution. Furthermore, the TDA commanded a significant portion of the city's total budget in terms of capital infrastructure and the

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02 // CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The TDA Cape Town

"To have all those functions report to one individual

has been problematic. Institutional change at this

level takes time, including the building of new

relationships as a result of new organizational structures

formed. The idea had been to break silos, but in

my opinion, it has created greater fragmentation."

(Informant Interview, 2018)

Another informant, who had previously worked for the City as a spatial planner, also shared similar sentiments regarding the TDA restructuring phase. According to the informant, the process had started out very well in terms of energy and excitement ignited by collaboration between the previously disconnected sectors of transport and land-use planning. However, the process failed to gain traction due to abrupt and totalitarian decision making (Informant Interview, 2018). There had

been national pressure from the treasury to push a certain kind of development in South African cities, and a considerable amount of capital had been placed on road-based development, in particular improvements and developments of new Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) routes and systems prioritized as corridors. According to the informant, the planning and delivery of that weren't entirely well thought through (Informant

Interview, 2018). However, at the beginning of the process, given this emphasis on transport development, Transit Oriented Development or TOD was gaining

momentum among planners

-"There was a really wonderful time, where transport

planners and spatial planners were having really good

conversations about what TOD could mean for the

city in terms of, what is TOD for our context? How do

we realize it? And where do strategically locate it?"

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02 _{// CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The TDA Cape Town}

But accordingly, the pressures from the national treasury were increasing and the push to deliver certain 'catalytic projects' in the city had been determined. Seemingly this is where it all went down for egalitarian and inter-disciplinary conversations around TOD within the City. "The City went through a restructuring phase and certain persons in the leadership team very quickly shut down conversations between spatial planners and transport planners" (Informant Interview, 2018).

While overall there was immense merit in the model describing the TDA formation, there had been several struggles within it, in terms of genuine collaboration between different departments. My sense, having spoken to a few informants inside and outside of the City, is that leadership influenced by political power, had a big role in orchestrating certain outcomes for the TOD process in Cape Town. "You don't get a lot of integration by chucking a whole bunch of people together and ruling them through fear" said one spatial planner who since left the City (Informant Interview,

2018). There was a sense that while the TDA Cape Town was promoting TOD through

righteous notions of 'reversing the legacies of apartheid spatial planning: the methods and processes within its institutional decision making was indeed highly controlling and centralized. The manifestations of power infiltrating throughout the process was clear when further discussions regarding the 2017 revised Cape Town Municipal Spatial

Development Framework (CTMSDF) came into play.

The Cape Town Municipal Spatial Development Framework

In 2017, following a national budgetary focus on infrastructure planning dedicated to transit, and specifically BRT systems, the City of Cape Town revised and released a draft version of its 2012 Municipal Spatial Development Framework (CTMSDF) and essentially although this notion is not made explicitly, created a new one through the lens of a comprehensive Transit Oriented Development framework. Accordingly, a draft Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan (CITP) was also created to share and describe the City's plan for integrated transport visions.

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02 // CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The CTMSDF

The Municipal Spatial Development Framework is stated to be a 'principal planning instrument to guide and inform long term planning and development' at the

municipal level (CoCt, 2017). It is regarded as an integral component of South Africa's 'Integrated Development Plan' (IDP) process that aims to give an overall framework for integrated development in local municipalities and is regulated in law, by the

Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act (SPLUMA) (CoCt, 2017). The life span of the CTMSDF document is ten years with an interim 5-year review, which directly links with a new Integrated Development Plan (IDP) term of office (CoCT, 2017). The strategies and goals outlined in the CTMSDF have to align with the priorities listed in

the IDPl as well as with national and provincial spatial planning principles.

Every five years, coinciding with a new IDP cycle, the CTMSDF is reviewed for performance of its guiding principles and is then revised for amendments as

necessary While the five pillars or principles outlined by SPLUMA and the IDP process remains the same, emphasis on certain interpretations of spatial planning concepts or strategies can take place. The 2017 CTMSDF lists 11 transformation priorities that

'support a customer-centric, performance-oriented service delivery and the creation

of integrated communities' and considers these priorities as the strategic basis for the

CTMSDF in directing 'spatial transformation and redress through targeted investment

and implementation based on a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) philosophy'

(CTMSDF, 2017). The figure 02-1 shows how the CTMSDF's 11 transformation priorities

fit within the 5 IDP transformation pillars. Here, TOD is designated as most related to the 'Inclusive City' pillar by the City

The 2017 Cape Town MSDF, while considered a revised version of the 2012 framework, had many time scales and delays in its formation (Informant Interview, 2018) and with its new overarching 'TOD' guiding philosophy, a predominant anchoring that was discernably different from the 2012 framework, effectively positioned it as a new framework on its own.

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!The Opportunity The Safe The Caring The Inclusive The Well-Run

City city city City City

006e

//

_10,/

4,

Fig 02-1: Diagram showing how the City's 11 transformation priorities align with 5 IDP principles. Here, TOD is designated as most related to the Indusive City' pillar by the City.

'The Cityis intenton building a more inclusive, integrated

and vibrant city that addresses the legacies of apartheid,

rectifies existing imbalances in the distribution of

different types of residential development, and avoids

the creation of new structural imbalances in the delivery

of services. Key to achieving this spatial transformation

is transit-oriented development (TOD) and associated

densification

and

diversification

of land

uses.'

eA0

.0 A

(32)

The designated transformation pillars and priorities are certainly principled and premised on building a more 'inclusive, integrated and vibrant' city as the

CTMSDF states but much like the TDA restructuring process in the City, the process

behind formulating the revised CTMSDF also involved certain tensions within the departments. One informant described the process as technical and collaborative on the surface, in line with involving various heads of different city departments and coordinated by the spatial planning unit, but it seemed to be known that there had

been clear instructions from the transport commissioner at the time in conjunction with politicians at play, about how the CTMSDF had to be done (Informant, 2018).

"That places them (the MSDF team) in a difficult process because you have to go through a technical and a public process (to ensure that the MSDF is an inclusive document) and yet you are told already what the outcome is going to be."

In my own personal e-mail exchange with a planner directly related in drafting the new CTMSDF, I was cautioned that the CTMSDF process coincided with a 'tumultuous time' in the city and I was further encouraged to reach out to private sector planners who would be in a position to provide me with 'a different perspective. It had been

clear from just a few interactions with planners working in the City that not everyone shared the same view of how the CTMSDF laid out its objectives and projects. Like any planning process, the 2017 CTMSDF involved some competing interests and within those constraints, Cape Town planners did their level best to negotiate the outcome.

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02 // CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The CTMSDF

The CTMSDF: Structural Corridors and Urban Nodes

Some core conceptual components of the spatial plan, outlined in the 2017 CTMSDF included 'structuring (transit) corridors' and 'urban nodes' (CTMSDF, 2017). These were not necessarily new components and have been the sort of 'spatial tools' that Cape Town planners have long conceptualized since the inception of the 1996 Cape Town Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework, for a spatially transformative city in terms of 'compactness' and 'integration. Chapter 3 will provide a snapshot of the trajectory of Cape Town Spatial Planning and the ways in which these conceptual components came to be, and what some of their critiques have been. In the 2017

CTMSDF, the 'structuring corridors; generally referred to as 'areas of intensified and

diversified land-use' are essentially the armature for multiple TOD projects in the city

(CTMSDF, 2017). They include three major identified integration zones incorporating

existing and newly planned BRT trunk routes, namely: the Voortrekker Road corridor, the Metro South East (MSE) corridor and the North/South or Bue Downs/Symphony Way corridor (Fig 02-2).

The Voortrekker Road corridor is regarded as an established link between the Cape Town CBD and Belville. The Metro South East corridor is identified as a major economic development link between the CBD and south-east areas of Cape Town. The North/South corridor is a newly identified integration zone connecting Belville, where a projected 'Blue Downs' rail link has been planned. Along these integration zones, the TDA anchors various urban nodes that are characterized by density, diversity, and clustering of urban activities and land-use (CTMSDF, 2017). Some of these nodes are areas designated for a series of priority 'TOD catalytic projects' as referenced by the TDA Cape Town namely: The Foreshore Freeway Precinct, Bellville TOD Catalytic Project, The Philippi East MyCiTi Transfer Interchange TOD Catalytic Project, The Athlone Power Station Redevelopment TOD Catalytic Project, Paardevlei TOD Catalytic Project and The Airport Precinct Catalytic Project (Aerotropolis). These 'high-order' TOD priority development precincts are shown in red in figure 02-2.

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02 // CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The CTMSDF

TI

- URBAN CORE

= t.w G " W ~I bs." ~ ~ ~ d...

Fig 02-2: Three major identified integration zones and high-order nodes in the City of

Cape Town, as identified by the TDA.

The high-order nodes, while seemingly appropriately laid out in a conceptual spatial plan, had sparked certain debates internally within the TDA, over their strategic location. This was especially the case with regards to the emerging priority node identified in the Philippi township area. While the Philippi has been earmarked for private and public investment for many years, it is historically a township area with many urban disadvantages including high levels of poverty, lack of education, environmental degradation and crime. There had never quite been consensus over where in Philippi the node should be located and how this node would be executed.

One informant in the city described the process as two-fold; philosophically there were two positions that the City could take with regards to the Philippi. The first would

be to try to leverage opportunities within the existing landscape that houses many historically disadvantaged communities and the second (which the city seems to have taken), would be to promote more development and investment where it is likely to

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02/ CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The CTMSDF

"This (position) places emphasis on moving people

quicker to places of opportunity (rather than an emphasis

on cultivating existing environments). That in my mind,

intensifies and reinforces segregation in the City."

This certainly was not a new dilemma for the City, as the next chapter will reveal. There had been various ambitious assumptions placed on the future of the Philippi since the end of apartheid and inception of the 1996 Cape Town Metropolitan Spatial Development Framework. Within the current CTMSDF and its outlined TOD philosophy, the Philippi Node and the planned Philippi East Interchange is projected to be the largest transfer hub in Cape Town, where six of the nine BRT MyCiti routes

converge (CITF? 2017). Located at the intersection of Govan Mbeki and New Eisleben Roads (fig 02-3), the nodal site is currently one of the City's highly prioritized areas to redress the legacies of apartheid planning through TOD. The City describes the site as 'an opportunity to develop both the interchange itself so that it can become an activity space, as well to create a mixed-use development: (CITP, 2017).

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The Philippi East TOD Catalytic Node

Under the TDA By-law 2017, the TDA is required to develop and implement the 'Strategy of Together' -the strategy essentially aims to reverse effects of apartheid planning by 'implementing TOD as it relates to both integrated transport and urban development so as to bring about the social, economic and spatial transformation of Cape Town' (CITFP 2017). The methodology behind the TOD framework is outlined

by the TDA (fig 02-4). Stage 5 recognizes that TOD means different things at

different scales of planning and provides a diagrammatic explanation of the various scales associated with TOD. Stage 5 additionally explains that appropriate tools and mechanisms will be required to implement TOD depending on the scale of planning being considered. According to the City's TOD framework, the impact of TOD in the Philippi area will fundamentally be addressed at the highlighted 'local/nodal', 'precinct' and 'projects scale'.

As mentioned above, there had been several debates about the location and

viability of an intensified transit node in the Philippi area. The TDA describes the TOD philosophy as a methodology for leveraging economic opportunities at different locations in the city through land-use intensification. Certainly at the level of principle, this works well but not as well when local socio-spatial dynamics and property markets

are considered. "You can't tell the market where to go and locate, especially in terms of the Metro-South East which is a very suppressed area in the City" (Informant, 2018).

Indeed there had been prior studies for locating the TOD prioritized station areas. One major process being used was the Economic Areas Management Programme

(ECAMP), a research and policy initiative designed to regularly track and assess market

performance and long-term growth potential of over seventy precincts across the City of Cape Town (CoCt, 2017). E-Camp was used as an evidence-based reasoning for

how the spatial economy in the metropolitan region is working. Philippi was identified as a major node for investment, although it was being debated exactly where in Philippi, and what the execution of the project would materialize to be. In 2017, the City released a preliminary and schematic visioning of what an intensified node in the Philippi could like.

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02// CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The Philippi East TOD Catalytic Node

TOD Framework Methodology

Stage 1 STRATEGIC INTENT

Stage 2

DEFINING TOD

Stage 3

DESIRED END STATE

Stage 4

STRATEGIC INTERVENTION

INSTITUTIONAL INTEGRATED BUSINESS PRIVATE SECTOR CIVIL SOCIETY ALIGHMENT MODEL COLLABORATION PARTICIPATION

Stage

5

STRATEGIC LEVERS

METRO CORRIDOR

Stage 6

SPATIAL TARGETING

Stage 7

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Stage 8 MONITORING/EVALUATION

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02 // CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The Philippi East TOD Catalytic Node

*0

1. Metropolitan

Planning/Interventions at this scale centre around policy and long term visioning to establish the broader principles and

objectives of TOD.

2. Corridor

Integrated transport and land use planning at a corridor scale is required to give context to local area and precinct planning initiatives. This will promote land development along selected transit corridors, where the combination of transport investment and development would optimise the utilisation of transport.

It'V. Sp

0

3. Noda/Local Area

Urban nodes are characterised by the intensity,

mix and dustering ofactvity or land use. Nodal

planning attiempts to consolidate and define

the role of the node or zone in the context of

the corridors.The aimis to determine the desired density and mix of land use within

the study node or zone.

4. Precinct

At the lowest level, the Precinct Plan must

enswe appropriate urban design and placing

of irastructure and facilities, in support of both the higher order corridor and local

destinations within the node or zone.

S. Projects and Programmes

Projects and Programmes are identified in the

Nodal and Precinct planning stages They are

seen as practical mechanims to improve the

quality and attractiveness of the urban

environment in order to faciitate the

contextual objectives of TODatthe

appropriate scale.

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02 _{// CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The Philippi East TOD Catalytic Node}

The images provided were highly idealized relative to what the existing state of the site was, including multi-storey complexes, a water park and a modern, clean and efficient new transport hub. Almost all informants expressed skepticism for City's intended vision for the Philippi area. Criticism was vastly related to contextual understanding of the site, and ranged from why the City chose to locate the TOD project in a site in which they scarcely owned land, to the inconsistencies of how access is located in the visualized illustration, to the lack of engagement with informal systems in the area, to questionable assumptions of how the property market worked in the area.

"The Government hasn't been particularly successful in undoing the apartheid city. You cannot keep

accepting urban edge extensions while promoting

densification. The Philippi is a massive area. There are parts where the City owns a lot of land, and there are other parts where the City does not. It is not clear what the City's objectives are in each of these nodes and how they will measure the success of these areas."

While the illustrations released by the City were conceptual renderings and it is not what necessarily will be materialized, the images certainly provided a glimpse of what certain actors in the City conceived as a favorable vision of 're-imagining' the Philippi Area. This sort of thinking was not necessarily new in Cape Town either, and Chapter

3 will touch on what 'compact and integrated development' has meant to certain

people in power. Regardless, while the city outlines an imperative to understand and create TOD at a local level, its rendering of this vision and implied execution prompts avenues for criticism, especially with regards to one of the TDAs intended goals: 'building a more inclusive, integrated and vibrant city' (CTMSDF 2017).

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02 // CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The Philippi East TOD Catalytic Node

Fig 02-6 Photograph of undeveloped wetland area in the Philippi with the Philippi Village in the background.

Fig 02-7: Entrance to the Philippi Village, a business and innovation hub that occupies a restored site of a former cement

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02 // CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The Philippi East TOD Catalytic Node

+

Fig 02-8: Philippi residents walking to a nearby transit change.

Fig 02-9: Inadequate housing conditions are common sight in the Philippi Township.

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02 // CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The Philippi East TOD Catalytic Node

Fig 02-10: The current environment where the prioritized TOD Catalytic Node is to be located does not cater to

pedestrian activity

Fig 02-11: The Philippi is characterized by flat development and is bounded by vehicle-oriented routes that present

(43)

02 // _{CAPE TOWN STATE OF AFFAIRS//The Philippi East TOD Catalytic Node}

This chapter synthesizes the challenges inherent in spatial planning for the City of Cape Town. While there exists forward-looking, socially-inclusive and sustainable principles laid out by the TDA, both in the Cape Town Municipal Spatial Development Framework (CTMSDF) and the Comprehensive Integrated Transport Plan (CITP) for what TOD could achieve in local areas, there remains questions for how this can be executed in a transparent and inclusive manner that is sensitive to contextual conditions. The tensions and debates within the TDA restructuring and CTMSDF process described earlier, indicate that decisions have not always been transparent and inclusive in nature. Given Cape Town's apartheid past and imbalanced

development trajectory, it is critical that urban visions for previously neglected township areas take into account matters of social equity and contextual sensitivity.

From the get go, the language described by the Transport Commissioner at the time of the TDA formation, in 'collapsing Spatial planning into Transport' was considered deeply flawed by some actors in the City (Informant, 2018). In particular, the Spatial

Planning Unit at the time had been split in various ways to appropriate the new institutional restructuring, and in certain aspects, some departments like the urban design department have been marginalized. It was implied that on the surface, the previous Transport Commissioner may have declared that urban design was of importance in the local TOD context areas, but there was no sense of prioritization in what was entailed. According to one informant, the Transport Commissioner had indicated that urban design for the TOD catalytic projects would be outsourced, despite Cape Town having one of the strongest urban design departments in the country (Informant Interview, 2018). What this could mean for local area planning became of concern.

Informants have noted that in Cape Town, it must be recognized that TOD indubitably has an agenda, and it is indeed a political one (Informant Interview, 2018). That

despite grand statements and formal plans, things will get done outside of this, and the challenge will be how to plan for this uncertainty.

Contextualizing TOD : fostering inclusive and integrated local spatial planning approaches in Cape Town, South Africa

Signature redacted

Signature redacted

Accepted

Signature

redacted

Contents

//

INTRODUCTION

Cape Town 2018: Setting the Scene

Buffer Zones

0

Cape Town and TOD: Defining the Problem

Research Questions and Methods of Inquiry

02

//

CAPE TOWN

STATE OF AFFAIRS

Towards a TOD Philosophy

"To have all those functions report to one individual

has been problematic. Institutional change at this

level takes time, including the building of new

relationships as a result of new organizational structures

formed. The idea had been to break silos, but in

my opinion, it has created greater fragmentation."

-"There was a really wonderful time, where transport

planners and spatial planners were having really good

conversations about what TOD could mean for the

city in terms of, what is TOD for our context? How do

we realize it? And where do strategically locate it?"

006e

//

10,/

4,

'The Cityis intenton building a more inclusive, integrated

and vibrant city that addresses the legacies of apartheid,

rectifies existing imbalances in the distribution of

different types of residential development, and avoids

the creation of new structural imbalances in the delivery

of services. Key to achieving this spatial transformation

is transit-oriented development (TOD) and associated

densification

and

diversification

of land

uses.'

eA0

TI

"This (position) places emphasis on moving people

quicker to places of opportunity (rather than an emphasis

on cultivating existing environments). That in my mind,

intensifies and reinforces segregation in the City."

TOD Framework Methodology

Stage 2

Stage 3

Stage 4

5

Stage 6

Stage 7

_10,/