Johannesburg - Joburg property developers and owners are losing millions of rand each year because of the shambles in the City of Joburg’s development planning department.
It can take years to get plans, site development plans and rezoning approved.
They claim the city’s growth is being stunted by the delays.
And, these delays are illegal because a city ordinance states plans have to be approved or rejected within 30 days of submission.
The most common complaints are staff shortages; the bad attitude of staff who hold people to ransom by delaying plans if they complain; staff not allocated to specific areas any more, meaning they are not all familiar with every town-planning scheme in the city. There are 70 different town-planning schemes and areas such as Randburg, Roodepoort and Sandton all have different regulations.
Draughtsman Willie van Wyk, who has been working with the town planning department for many years, says rezoning and township applications, which bring in huge income for the city, can take up to four years.
“To add insult to injury, when plans are looked at and amendments have to be done, clients are given 21 days in which to rectify things,” he said.
Even minor building line relaxation approvals can take up to eight months.
“Developers are losing millions of rand as they are unable to start building, losing money daily as they have costs to cover,” he said.
Van Wyk explains the situation and how it affects normal people.
For example, he says, if a couple want to build a house, they go to their bank which, say, gives them R1 million to build. They get an architect to draw up the plans which are then submitted to the town planning department.
The plans are then registered but it takes between two weeks and six months before they get to the actual town planners and another five to seven months to get approval.
If something is wrong, it has to be corrected, and resubmitted, by which time over a year has lapsed.
The builder then says costs have increased and he can no longer build for R1m.
The owner changes his plans to make the house smaller, but the bank then decreases the value of the bond, saying the house is now smaller.
So the owners have spent thousands of rand on fees only to have their dreams shattered.
The local economy suffers because the owners would have been paying for rates and services.
“People are being forced into building illegally to save money,” he said.
The city is encouraging the development of vacant land, yet it is placing huge obstacles in the way.
For example, he says, second dwellings are a problem. They are not allowed to have a sink - only a basin and a toilet. Also, to register these second dwellings costs R100 000.
“So if you have a granny and you want her to live with you instead of becoming a burden on the state, unless you can afford it, it is not going to happen. This is also depriving property owners of getting additional income by renting out second dwellings,” he said.
A frustrated Cassim Mansoor said he had been waiting for four years for two township applications to be approved.
“We have now requested an attorney to demand that the council issues the approvals.
“I have also approached the Joburg ombudsman to assist, but I was told they have a backlog and no staff to handle the complaints,” he said.
The letter was served last month.
He said he was so frustrated that he even approached the President’s Office and the city’s legal department.
The City of Joburg has admitted there are problems, but says it is addressing them.
Spokesman Virgil James said the city acknowledged that it was not operating at maximum capacity, but the challenges were receiving attention and it was “endeavouring to meet the targets even within this fiscally constrained environment”.
James said: “There is no tolerance for poor client relations and holding of clients at ransom.
“An applicant or member of the public who is subjected to this is requested to escalate this to the management of the department and the city in general.”
As regards time of approval of plans, part of the service, said James, the department tracked the turnaround times for various types of applications.
Site development plans and building line relaxations, without objections, take an average of 28 days to finalise.
About 75 percent of rezoning applications were finalised within three months, he said.
The major causes of delays are technical reports such as traffic impact assessments which are required, as well as the post-approval administration - for instance, promulgation and the payment of bulk services.
James admitted the city was obliged to process plans within 30 days of submission and said they currently processed about 73 percent of those submitted within this 30-day period.
“We also track applications that are delayed with an age analysis and in many instances, applications are held up because of additional information required from the applicant or the process of hearing objectors and appeals is still under way.
“Admittedly, there is room to improve on these efficiencies as well as streamlining the application process, especially in instances where a building plan is submitted which triggers a building line relaxation.
“We are currently reconfiguring our plans submission and examination processes with a view to streamlining processes and improving processing times.
“We are also looking to improve our communication and interface with applicants during the processing stage to keep them informed of progress and advise of additional information requirements timeously,” he said.
Applicants could also take the municipality on appeal or review to the relevant structures stipulated in the legislation in terms of which the application was submitted, for undue delays, he said.
“The city is aware of the impact of any undue delays on the property sector and the economy as a whole.
“We are working closely with our clients to refine our operations while paying attention to the quality of the decisions we make.
“Having said that, a big driver of efficiency is the quality of applications received. A significant proportion of land-use applications are not prepared by professionals and as such, are of poor quality which impacts on ease of finalisation.
“The city recently reviewed its building plan submission check list with a view to improving the quality of the plans it takes in and this should greatly improve efficiency,” said James.
Regarding second dwellings, the city says it is only in servants’ quarters that sinks are not allowed. It is aware of these discrepancies and will address them in the new town planning scheme, he said.
Other problems builders are facing
Even minor building line relaxation approvals can take up to eight months.
The city says building line relaxations take 28 days to finalise provided there are no objections.
If there are, the applications are referred to the Municipal Planning Tribunal, which could delay the process as all objectors need to be heard and even after finalisation, await possible appeals against the tribunal's decision.
It is virtually impossible to have a one-on-one consultation about the plans.
The city says the building development management provides a one-on-one consultation facility at Metro Link Centre for pre-submission assessment with an immediate response before the application process.
During the plan assessment process, clients also have a platform to follow up on their applications on the 6th Floor at Metro Centre. However, appointments need to be scheduled with the plans examiners.
The town planning department has fixed times when people can get approvals and stamps which often conflict, so people have to return twice to get one document stamped.
If the computers are down, applicants have to return three to four times a week.
The city admits there have been problems but says it has invested in stabilising its IT. In instances where there are problems, the city will endeavour to advise clients timeously and, where necessary, work overtime. It is also able to process some applications manually.
Many fully developed townships in Joburg dating from 2007 are still zoned as agriculture and where building plans have been approved without site-development plans.
The city says it has streamlined its processes to ensure that doesn't happen. Where there are buildings that don't comply with land use rights those responsible would be prosecuted and penalised. Plans often disappear from the city’s archives. The city says records of plans were captured on a building applications systems and microfilm, and archived.
Approved plans were kept for the council’s record, however it remained the owner's responsibility to have copies. In the event that the owner does not have a copy, by law the onus is on them to have “as built” plans drawn up.
@annacox
The Star