The City of Cape Town’s (CoCT’s) Development Management Department is in the process of recruiting a team of development and planning specialists to serve in a new Strategic Development Applications Hub (SDH), which should be operational by February next year.

The SDH will be located at the Table Bay District Planning Office in the Cape Town central business district, and will serve as the central point for all high-value, high-impact development applications that are complex in nature.

CoCT says the intention is to ensure that processing times are streamlined and that there are no unnecessary delays that come with such types of developments and construction work.,

The establishment of the SDH is part of a strategic programme that focuses on innovation and capacity-building in the Development Management Department, which also includes strengthening district teams.

“This new service delivery model differentiates between routine applications and those that require a different skills set and focus,” says Cape Town Deputy Mayor and Spatial Planning and Environment MMC Eddie Andrews.

“The Strategic Development Hub is the result of a process I initiated during this term of office, originally known as the Development Management Optimisation Process, to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of development application assessments.

“We are confident that this new hub will ensure a customer-focused service that will reduce turnaround times, support investment, enable sustainable urban growth and improve customer experience.

“The city’s eight district planning offices will continue to assess routine applications, but will also receive additional resources in coming months to improve operational performance.”

The offices for the new team are nearly completed, and the recruitment process is also well on track, adds Andrews.

“We are really excited about the impact this team will make going forward.”

As part of a broader programme of streamlining the property value-chain, the department is also undertaking interventions that will see the phased introduction of AI-assisted and automated processing to reduce manual effort and rework, improve workflow visibility, and progressively automate activities where applications are minor, and of lower value and complexity.

The Development Management Department assesses building plans and land use applications in terms of the Municipal Planning By-law and the city’s Development Management Scheme, which determines the land use for every site or land parcel that falls within the city’s municipal boundaries, as well as the national building regulations.