The Cape Town City Council approved the Local Spatial Development Framework (LSDF) for Mamre at its meeting on 26 April.
The LSDF will guide spatial development and land-use management on a local level and provides an overall spatial vision for Mamre, said Deputy Mayor and Mayco Member for Spatial Planning and Environment Eddie Andrews. The City concluded the public engagement process for the LSDF at the end of 2022.
Andrews said with help and input from the Mamre community the City’s Spatial Planning Department crafted a vision for future development in Mamre and surrounding areas. “By adopting this LSDF, Council aims to promote and accelerate development and investment in Mamre as the LSDF provides residents and potential investors with certainty for planning purposes,” he said.
The LSDF will guide and to some extent fast-track the City’s decisions when we assess development and land-use applications for Mamre.
“We have consulted the residents of Mamre and presented the proposals,” Andrews explained. He added he is confident the spatial planning tool has already sparked fresh hope and confidence in the future of the town and the possibilities for new developments.
“We want Mamre to become a town that is more sustainable, resilient and efficient in the years that lie ahead,” the Deputy Mayor said.
“This is an opportunity to strengthen Mamre as a gateway into the city from the north by enhancing the sense of place, and making it a tourist friendly destination. The vision is that future developments and investments use the identified six precincts as a guideline to build a resilient future with a community that is integrated with its surrounding environment, given the variety of natural assets in Mamre.”
Andrews said the Mamre community initially requested the City to assist them with the provision of housing.
Initial research in response to this request highlighted that there are various projects in either planning or implementation phase that has been initiated by various stakeholders within Mamre.
The need for a holistic approach that would provide guidance for a future development vision for Mamre was subsequently identified.
“We facilitated a public engagement process for the compilation of the LSDF which started in November 2019. This was done through various platforms including workshops, meetings and open days,” he added.
These efforts were then further supplemented with assistance provided by the Development Action Group (DAG), which facilitated additional community engagements in order to obtain inputs into the LSDF Andrews said.
The statutory 60-day commenting period ended in December to ensure stakeholders had sufficient opportunity to provide their inputs.
All comments received from the public and internally were considered and where appropriate amendments have been made Andrews concluded.
