Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented Development in Johannesburg: Synthesis Report

1 Report 1 in the series Spatial Transformation through Transit‑Oriented Development in Johannesburg

Synthesis Report SPATIAL TRANSFORMATION THROUGH TRANSIT‑ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT IN JOHANNESBURG Dr Margot Rubin and Alexandra Appelbaum

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SYNTHESIS REPORT

SYNTHESIS REPORT

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Partners

Agence Française de Développement (AFD) City of Johannesburg (CoJ) South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning, University of the Witwatersrand (SA&CP, Wits)

Steering committee members

Alexandra Appelbaum (SA&CP) Camille Chastagnol (AFD) Arthur Germond (AFD) Prof. Philip Harrison (SA&CP) Prof. Paul Jenkins (Wits) Herman Pienaar (CoJ) Dr. Margot Rubin (SA&CP) Prof. Alison Todes (Wits) Martha Stein-Sochas (AFD) Liana Strydom (CoJ) Dylan Weakley (CoJ)

At the time that these reports were researched and written, the City of Johannesburg was using the term Corridors of Freedom to refer to the Louis Botha, Empire Perth and Turffontein Strategic Area Frameworks.

Although the name is currently under review we have used the original terminology throughout the reports.

Editors

Prof. Philip Harrison, Dr. Margot Rubin and Alexandra Appelbaum

All quantitative data referred to without an explicit reference is drawn from the survey conducted by Outsourced Insight as part of the Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented Development project. 1200 people (a mix of residents, business owners and users) were surveyed in the four case study areas of this report series. All mapped data was also drawn from this survey.

Project manager

Alexandra Appelbaum

© City of Johannesburg 2016

Authors

Dr. Margot Rubin and Alexandra Appelbaum

Spatial Transformation through Transit‑Oriented Development: synthesis report

Dr. Margot Rubin and Alexandra Appelbaum

The City as a Laboratory: Experimentation, Observation and Theorisation from Urban Labs

Dr. Sylvia Croese

International case studies of Transit-Oriented Development-Corridor implementation

Dr. Kirsten Harrison

Transit Corridors and the Private Sector: Incentives, Regulations and the Property Market

Neil Klug

The more things change, the more they stay the same: a case study of Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park informal settlement

Dr. Tanya Zack

Platform to an Arrival City: Johannesburg’s Park Station and Surrounds

Alexandra Appelbaum

Contestation, Transformation and Competing Visions: a study of Orange Grove and Norwood

Lindsay Howe

Constancy and Change: Marlboro South as an interstice of marginalisation and development in the Gauteng City-Region

Prof. Umakrishnan Kollamparambil

Conditions of Life and Work along the Transit Corridors: quantitative analysis of four Johannesburg nodes

Research assistance

Emmanuel Ayifah Kwanda Lande Mamokete Matjomane Lucky Nkali Lyle Prim

Survey company

Outsourced Insight

Maps

Alexandra Appelbaum and Reitumetse Selepe

Photographs

Mark Lewis, unless otherwise stated

Historical photographs

Museum Africa Collection

Copy editing

Kate Tissington and Alexandra Appelbaum

Design and layout

Louise Carmichael

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SYNTHESIS REPORT

To access the original data please contact the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning, University of the Witwatersrand. www.wits.ac.za/sacp Referencing the report:

Rubin M and Appelbaum A (2016) Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented Development: synthesis report. Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented Development in Johannesburg Research Report Series.

South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning. University of the Witwatersrand: Johannesburg.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

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Foreword

Preface

The City of Johannesburg has inherited an unequal spatial structure. It is one where the poor, often on account of where they live, are excluded from the benefits of urban living. This landscape was created largely by apartheid planning, but also by urban sprawl, and the relegation of the poor to cheap, poorly connected, underserviced land on the outskirts of the City.

This report is one of the key outcomes of an exceptional partnership between the City of Johannesburg, the Agence Française de Développement and the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand. The collaboration brings together institutions, each playing quite different roles in society, around a compelling common agenda; that of building an urban future which meets the needs of and responds to the hopes of all segments of our society.

Recent urban thinking, including the New Urban Agenda launched at the Habitat 3 conference in Ecuador 2016, seeks to reverse the negative effects that sprawl and continual outward growth has on our cities. Like the Johannesburg SDF 2040, it seeks to create more efficient urban forms, where people, including the poor, live in areas that are well located in terms of jobs, schools, healthcare facilities, parks and other urban amenities. This thinking- creating compact cities- promotes higher density living environments that increase efficiency in all facets of urban life. In compact, connected cities, people spend less time and money travelling, emit less carbon, increase opportunities for social mobility and economic growth, and- as more people share infrastructure- reduce costs and increase efficiencies for city administrations.

A specific focus of compaction is Transit Oriented Development (TOD), where more people, jobs and urban amenities are concentrated around public transit, giving urban inhabitants convenient and affordable access to all of the opportunities cities have to offer. In Johannesburg, our Transit Oriented Development Programme has been widely recognised as a leading plan towards reversing the trends of exclusion and inefficiency in our City. The plan is specifically focussed around the City’s new Rea Vaya BRT infrastructure, but also around train stations, including Gautrain and PRASA stations.

While the plan is sound, we all know that a plan alone will not transform the City. Implementation is a long term effort that we must consistently pursue. As a City, we also realise that this implementation cannot be done by us alone.

Many partners, from the public to other spheres of government, private developers, practitioners, and academia (to name a few) are critical in transforming the City into a more spatially just, sustainable, and efficient urban form.

For this reason, the CoJ, with generous funding from the French Development Agency (AFD), entered into a research agreement with the

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University of the Witwatersrand in 2015, towards creating useful research to promote the implementation of our TOD programme. The outcome of this work is vast, and is presented here in a collection of papers relating to TOD in Johannesburg.

The work provides much needed qualitative and quantitative socio-economic nuance to marginalised areas within the TOD programme areas, focussing on Westbury, The Park Station Precinct, Orange Grove/Norwood and Marlboro South. It also provides a large amount of guidance on implementing transit oriented development projects, based on academic theory and international experience.

Research of this kind is often procured by the City.

This creates a client, recipient relationship that can inhibit the rigorous thinking and analysis the academy is known for. In this case, the City sought an independent critical voice with a vast knowledge of Johannesburg and deep roots in the city, Wits University’s School of Architecture and Planning. While the findings are sometimes critical of the work we do, we welcome this as a challenge to continually improve how we engage with our citizens and work to provide a better city for all.

We are proud of the products of this research, and I implore officials (from all spheres of government), ward councillors, residents associations, practitioners and others to use the work to strengthen engagement between the City Administration and its residents to transform the City into one that is economically, environmentally and socially sustainable, serving all of its residents, rich and poor.

Cities are immensely complex configurations of people, space, infrastructure, nature and economy. Working out how to make them function better requires the knowledge, creativity and skill of multiple agents. It is a never-ending task of co-creation as we must deal with both the legacies of our past, and the need to respond adaptively and proactively to new trends, influences, interests and processes.

There is no ‘magic bullet’ to the challenges confronting a fast-growing and everchanging city such as Johannesburg. However, this does not absolve us from working incrementally but insistently to improve the policies, programmes, instruments and capacities that we have to influence the way the future unfolds. In doing so, we must draw on the best knowledge available, and do what we can to deepen and extend this knowledge.

In this report series, we explain the key outcomes of a research programme that has explored the economic and social dynamics along proposed transit-oriented corridors in Johannesburg, and has also drawn on international experience with this form of development. The research confirms the huge value in linking new development to public

transport, and to intensifying development along existing transit routes. Based on the evidence we have at hand, we strongly support and advocate transit-oriented development.

But, our research also reveals the complexities and details we must engage with. Transitoriented development is a long term process and not a quick fix, and it brings risk and even possible failure. It needs to be translated carefully into individual contexts, with a deepening understanding of, and engagement with, the different needs, interests and expectations of the people it affects.

We are hopeful that the knowledge and insights that have been produced through our partnership will strengthen the capacity of local government and other actors to plan and implement transit-oriented development in a way that addresses both the needs of spatial restructuring for the metropolitan city as a whole and the needs of neighbourhoods, communities and individuals.

Professor Philip Harrison South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning University of the Witwatersrand

Councillor Funzela Ngobeni MMC Development Planning City of Johannesburg

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Executive summary The Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented Development in Johannesburg report series is the product of a project undertaken between the Agence Française de Développement (AFD), the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and the NRF South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand.

The project aimed to provide operational support to, and empirical evidence for, the City of Johannesburg’s Transit‑Oriented Development (TOD) programme – at the time known as the Corridors of Freedom (COF). It was a unique and important collaborative endeavour, in which the project proposal, research questions and final approach were co-produced by the three partners. The reports cover a range of topics, from an international comparison of TransitOriented Development Corridors, to an in-depth study of the regulatory, institutional and incentive environments in the COF, and the response from the private sector. It also included a survey of 1 200 residents, users and businesses and an indepth qualitative case study analysis of four nodes: Marlboro South; Park Station Precinct; Orange Grove and Norwood, and Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park. The case studies encompassed a wide range of the environments along Johannesburg’s corridors, including older suburbs, informal settlements, townships, public housing stock, industrial areas and transit nodes in the inner city. The team consisted of academics, officials, consultants and community members.

Methodologically, all reports relied on academic and media sources, with the majority consisting of an integrated analysis of survey findings and key stakeholder interviews.

The summary that follows looks at the key points from each report and offers a concise sense of the main findings.

Key findings: • The international experience supports the case for transit corridors, noting that they are useful and necessary planning instruments in urban regeneration – improving sustainability; increasing access for poorer communities, and improving rates bases in strategic areas.

• Transit corridors have been associated with an improved municipal fiscus that is able to provide denser urban environments with consequently higher efficiencies in the urban form.

• The current forms and institutional arrangements of TOD corridors in the CoJ demonstrate much promise and have some of the key features of successful corridors found elsewhere, i.e. a lead department with high levels of technical skill.

• However, there is a need for greater coherence at both the planning and implementation level, and a need for more buy-in from all departments in the CoJ. • The CoJ has set an ambitious approach to the development of the Corridors – attempting to create a ‘guided’ enabling environment for the private sector that incentivises and attracts investment into these sites, whilst balancing the needs of the public good, and the larger developmental agenda.

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• There are some important locations that will potentially satisfy private sector interests of lowered risk and higher demand; these include affordable housing along Louis Botha Avenue and investment opportunities in the Knowledge Precinct.

• The TOD programme has a long-time horizon.

However, after just four years it has seen some successes, including the provision and use of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) by certain communities; significant public environment and infrastructure upgrades, and the construction of vital services, such as clinics in areas that were previously under-served.

• In order for the impact of TOD – which extends beyond just the BRT – to be maximised, the City must foster a multi-modal transport system, including the BRT, Gautrain, commuter rail, and minibus taxis.

• Across the Corridors it is clear that there is significant youthful energy directed towards micro-businesses, with many residents starting new enterprises. Louis Botha Avenue, Marlboro South and Park Station are already showing signs of being complex multi-use sites that attract people from all over South Africa and the continent.

• The transit corridors already have an important economic function in that they are attractive sites due to their accessibility and the ability of residents to save on transport costs. However, demand is forcing up the price of commercial and residential property, making these areas inaccessible for poorer households.

Nodal findings: Each node faces a set of specific conditions that require particular engagements and services.

• Westbury, as a site of older public housing stock, faces severe social pathologies, and very low rates of employment. Residents feel isolated and parochial – despite being quite close to the inner city in terms of physical distance – and there is a need to consider social infrastructure as a key future intervention.

• Slovo Park as an informal settlement requires better services and housing but also greater participation and engagement with residents about their future.

• Louis Botha Avenue (Orange Grove in particular) is mixed-use and mixed-income area and has important businesses varying in size. Here care needs to be taken to support the organic processes of informal and formal entrepreneurship and to avoid potential gentrification and displacement that could result from interventions. While

the Paterson Park housing project is a vital intervention, the governance dynamics in the area provide important lessons for the CoJ in its future interventions in middle-class areas.

• Marlboro South is an area of enormous potential, but has high rates of poverty and very poor living conditions. It is very well located and has a number of businesses, at a variety of scales, which would like to remain. This area requires housing interventions, service upgrades and consideration of the urban environment, especially safety and security.

• Park Station Precinct, as arguably the most important transit node in Johannesburg, suffers from a governance crisis and as a consequence has not been able to capitalise on its cosmopolitan and vibrant nature. There is a lack of support for the economic activities in the area; insufficient affordable accommodation; and the station requires better linkages into the fabric of the inner city.

Recommendations: • Currently, there is a ‘toolbox’ of incentives that is being developed to enhance partnerships with private sector developers, and there is evidence to suggest that this could be enhanced by considering questions of urban management; the release and development of state-owned land, and examining the development of demand – rather than supply-side investments.

• Safety and security, questions of urban management, and employment were themes that consistently appeared across the corridors.

The City needs to pay close attention to these concerns, as they are affecting all aspects of the Corridors, such as the quality of life for residents and the potential future investment from private developers.

• Public participation protocols require rethinking and possibly reconfiguration. In their current formulation they are not sufficiently able to include the voices of some of the poorest and most marginalised. They are also incorrectly conceptualised as information-sharing sessions, rather than real engagement or consultation.

• Furthermore, public participation needs to be seen as part of long term-relationships with communities and stakeholders that occur throughout the process rather than a once-off compliance-led activity.

• Given the need for cross-sectoral and interdepartmental co-ordination, area-based management models could be highly effective in addressing these issues and should be considered as a way of addressing the host of differentiated needs across the transit corridors.

• The current practice of having ‘point people’ – particularly within the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) – dedicated to specific nodes and corridors is excellent and should be continued.

• All processes in the corridors must be supported by up-to-date websites that are current with ease of access to all relevant information.

• The CoJ needs to promote and publicise its achievements, and let the general public and other departments know what it has accomplished.

• Exceptional care needs to be taken to ensure that built environment interventions do not worsen conditions in vulnerable communities, highlighting the need for better empirical evidence and consultation before implementation.

• Built environment interventions must be complemented with social development and engagement in order for the full potential of the transit corridors to be realised, in terms of addressing the social and economic aspects of marginalisation.

• Overall, there is much to be learned from the first few years of the programme that can improve the CoJ’s TOD initiatives going forward: better engagement and participation; clearer plans; better marketing and overall communication within and outside the CoJ, and careful consideration of the limits of built environment interventions.

In short, the research project revealed that transit corridors are an effective programmatic choice in restructuring the spatiality of the City of Johannesburg and dealing with some of the most intractable urban problems; there are a range of ways to improve Johannesburg’s TOD programme going forward. To realise the full value of the TOD vision, it is necessary for the CoJ to continue the programme with the vigour it has demonstrated thus far. The dedicated and skilled teams in the City have already been able to achieve some successes, and with the evidence base that this study now offers, interventions and plans can be more finely honed and refined to focus in on specific community needs, whilst addressing questions of a declining fiscus and the need to restructure and reinvigorate the City of Johannesburg. This project also included a series of urban labs – a number of engagements between City officials, academics, members of civil society and the private sector and other key stakeholders – on particular issues related to Johannesburg’s future. This report is also included in the series.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

VI

Table of Contents 01 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY AND TO

TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT IN JOHANNESBURG

02

1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6

02 02 05 05 07 11

Introduction Background to Transit-Oriented Development and the Corridors of Freedom Aims and intentions of the research Achievements of the Corridors of Freedom Components of the research and their methods Key successes of the research project

02 THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT OF TRANSIT-ORIENTED

DEVELOPMENT: LESSONS FOR JOHANNESBURG

16

2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4

16 17 17 18

The international experience financing transit corridors Legal and institutional mechanisms of support Necessary principles and enabling conditions for success

03 TRANSIT CORRIDORS AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR:

INCENTIVES, REGULATIONS AND THE PROPERTY MARKET

22

3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5

Introduction The property market The regulatory environment Guiding mechanisms and responses Conclusion

22 22 23 26 27

04 NODAL STUDIES ALONG THE TRANSIT CORRIDORS

30

VII

4.1

Overarching view: Looking across the nodes

30

4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.4 4.1.5 4.1.6

30 31 33 33 34 35

Demographics: Residents, businesses and users Income and employment Property and tenure Accessibility, mobility and transport Community conditions Conclusions

4.3.1 4.3.2 4.3.3 4.3.4 4.3.5 4.3.6 4.3.7 4.3.8 4.3.9 4.3.10 4.3.11 4.3.12

Boundaries and spatial identity Historical context Planning Orange Grove and Norwood Businesses Residents Housing Crime and policing Municipal services, urban management and social infrastructure Mobility, transport and access Governance Strengths and opportunities Challenges

Constancy and change in Marlboro South

4.4

4.5

4.4.1 4.4.2 4.4.3 4.4.4 4.4.5 4.4.6 4.4.7 4.4.8 4.4.9 4.4.10 4.4.11 4.4.12

Boundaries and spatial identity Historical context Planning Marlboro South Businesses Residents Housing Crime and policing Municipal services, urban management and social infrastructure Mobility, transport and access Governance Strengths and opportunities Challenges

49 49 51 51 53 54 54 56 56 56 57 57

61 61 61 61 64 64 65 65 65 68 68 68 70

Challenges on the platform to the arrival city: Park Station Precinct

73

4.5.1 4.5.2 4.5.3 4.5.4 4.5.5 4.5.6 4.5.7 4.5.8 4.5.9 4.5.10

73 75 75 77 77 77 79 79 80 80

Boundaries, spatial identity and broader context Economic environment Residents Housing Crime and policing Municipal services, urban management and social infrastructure Mobility, transport and access Governance Strengths and opportunities Challenges

05 RECOMMENDATIONS 82

5.1 5.2

Consultation, community interaction and participation Communication and Marketing

82 83

5.2.1 Internal communication 5.2.2 External communication

83 84

5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7 5.8

Built environment interventions and the BRT Social development Economic development Operational issues: policing and urban management The private sector Gentrification and displacement

84 87 87 89 90 91

4.2 The more things change, the more they stay the same: a case study of Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

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39 39 41 42 42 44 44 44 46 46 46 46

07 REFERENCES 95

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08 INTERVIEWS 96

4.2.1 4.2.2 4.2.3 4.2.4 4.2.5 4.2.6 4.2.7 4.2.8 4.2.9 4.2.10 4.2.11 4.2.12

Boundaries and spatial identity Historical context Planning Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park Business activity Residents Housing Crime and policing Municipal services, urban management and social infrastructure Mobility, transport and access Governance Strengths and opportunities Challenges

4.3 Contestation, transformation and competing visions in Orange Grove and Norwood

06 FURTHER STUDIES 94

VIII

Abbreviations and Acronyms

List of Tables and Figures

ABM

Area-Based Management

JDA

Johannesburg Development Agency

AFD

Agence Française de Développement

JMPD

Johannesburg Metro Police

ANC

African National Congress

JOSHCO

ARP

Alexandra Renewal Plan

ASM

Table 1:

Composition of the survey in each node

11

Johannesburg Social Housing Company

Figure 1:

Johannesburg’s TOD corridors and the study areas in context

03

JPC

Johannesburg Property Company

JRA

Johannesburg Roads Agency

Figure 2:

Westbury Public Environment Upgrade (City of Johannesburg 2016)

Albonico Sack Metacity Architects and Urban Designers

06

MWCC

Marlboro Warehouse Crisis Committee

Figure 3:

Completed Rotunda Park Upgrade (JDA 2016)

06

ATA

Alexandra Taxi Association

NMT

Non-motorised Transport

Social housing currently being developed in Turffontein (JDA 2016)

BRT

Bus Rapid Transit

Figure 4:

08

NGO

Non-Governmental Organisation

CBD

Central Business District

Norwood/Orchards Residents’ Association

Figure 5:

Map of the study areas and the TOD corridors

NORA

09

CBO

Community-Based Organisation

OGRA

Orange Grove Residents’ Association

CLT

Community Land Trust

Figure 6:

Map depicting the context of the study area in the Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park Case Study

40

PPP

Public-Private Partnership

COF

Corridors of Freedom

PRASA

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa

Figure 7:

Levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with standard of accommodation

43

COGTA

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

REIT

Real Estate Investment Trust

CoJ

City of Johannesburg

Figure 8:

45

SA&CP

CORC

Community Organisation Resource Centre

South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning

Overall residential and business dissatisfaction in Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Figure 9:

Map depicting the context of the study area in Orange Grove and Norwood

50

CPF

Community Policing Forum

SADC

Southern African Development Community

Overall residential, business and user dissatisfaction in Orange Grove and Norwood

Citizen Relations and Urban Management

Strategic Area Framework

52

CRUM

SAF

Figure 10:

DA

Democratic Alliance

SAPOA

South African Property Owners Association

Figure 11:

Photographs of the 10-storey police barracks showing broken elevators and windows (Appelbaum 2016)

54

DED

Department of Economic Development

SDF

Spatial Development Framework

EFF

Economic Freedom Fighters

Slum/Shack Dwellers International

Figure 12:

Planned duration of stay in the area

SDI

55

FAR

Floor Area Ratio

SDZs

Special Development Zones

Figure 13:

Map depicting the context of the study area in the Marlboro South study

58

FNB

First National Bank

TDM

Transportation Demand Management

Figure 14:

Interior of a residential factory at 44 2nd street in Marlboro South (Mark Lewis 2016)

66

GDED/ GED

Gauteng Department of Economic Development

TOD

Transit-Oriented Development

UDF

Urban Development Framework

Figure 15:

Rashuma Village’s ‘temporary’ housing (Mark Lewis 2016)

67

GDS

Growth and Development Strategy

UDZ

Urban Development Zone

Figure 16:

Overall residential and business dissatisfaction in Marlboro South

69

GMS

Growth Management Strategy

VOGWRA

Inner City Housing Implementation Plan

Figure 17:

Map depicting the context of the study area in the Park Station Precinct study

ICHIP

Victoria and Orange Grove West Resident’s Association

74

ISN

Informal Settlements Network

WNT

Western Native Township

Figure 18:

Micro-retail in the Park Station Precinct (Mark Lewis 2016)

76

WTDC

Westbury Transformation Development Centre

Figure 19:

Overall residential, business and user dissatisfaction in the Park Station Precinct

78

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SYNTHESIS REPORT

SYNTHESIS REPORT

X

1

BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY AND TO TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT IN JOHANNESBURG 1.1 Introduction

In January 2016, the South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning (SA&CP) partnered with the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and the Agence Française de Développement, or French Development Agency (AFD), to provide the City of Johannesburg with operational support for the Corridors of Freedom (COF) Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) programme instituted by the CoJ. The project had two elements – a research component and a set of Urban Labs. The research endeavour is discussed in the following report, whilst the findings and outcomes of the Urban Labs are accounted for in a separate report in this series. This report serves to outline the project that was undertaken; the components of the study; key findings from each of the reports and case studies, and the implications and recommendations that can be drawn from these studies. As the synthesis report of the Spatial Transformation through Transit-Oriented Development in Johannesburg series, this report seeks to provide a summary and highlight important findings; more detail on any aspect of this report can be found in the other reports in this series.

1.2 Background to Transit-Oriented Development and the Corridors of Freedom Since the late 1990s, Transit-Oriented and Corridor Development have been key features of cities seeking to reform their struggles with economic, social and spatial exclusion, as well as increasing traffic congestion and environmental concerns borne from urban sprawl (Croese, 2016). In general, there is consensus that such interventions constitute longterm mega projects, which aim to restructure urban spaces (Harrison et al. forthcoming). These projects require extensive technical support, sustained political will and partnerships with various civil constituencies, such as the private sector and communities, if they are to achieve their goals. Cases from around the world indicate that the majority of these projects face immense implementation challenges but in both the short- and long-term offer cities a number of sustained benefits. These include: improving the quality of life for poorer households through reducing travel time, as well as making well-located housing more affordable; creating stable mixed-income neighbourhoods; lessening the environmental cost of urbanisation, and reducing the costs associated with inefficient land use (Dittmar et al. 2004: 3–4).

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There is evidence to suggest that focusing on corridor development is “likely to help ‘turn around’ negative brand perceptions, and underpin efforts to ‘repair’, ‘re-enchant’, ‘relate’ and establish ‘rights’ for local communities, thereby regain[ing] a positive identity and brand ownership for a post-industrial city […]”

(Trueman et al. 2007: 20–21). International experience also indicates that intensifying land use along corridors has been able to agglomerate office and retail development near transit stops, increasing employment opportunities, choice and liveability for households living in and close to transit corridors. Further evidence from other contexts demonstrates that: TODs have also been reported to have a positive impact on property values. Research consistently shows that both residential and commercial property values rise with proximity to transit stations. This helps to foster growth of the municipal property tax base and allows revenues to be spent in the very neighbourhoods where public infrastructure and service delivery costs are reduced due to increased densities (Sustainable Cities Institute 2013).

There is also substantial cost reduction to the municipality through a decrease in urban sprawl, SYNTHESIS REPORT

02

as sprawl and peripheral development is often

City of Tshwane

seen to increase development costs because of the City of Johannesburg requirement to expand public infrastructure such

Louis Botha Development as roads, water lines, electrical services and sewer Corridor

lines. Additional costs arise from the increased

Empire Perthservice Development requirements, such as fire and police Corridor services and road and infrastructure maintenance

N1 N14

Midrand

that result from additional roads and distance Turffontein Development (ibid.). Given the goal of the CoJ to achieve 5% Corridor economic growth by 2021, the importance of the

Mogale City

Roodepoort

N1

Soweto Development substantial savings and economic benefits of TOD Corridor

corridor development cannot be underestimated.

Sandton

Marlboro South

N3

Aside Orange Grove and from such obvious economic accruals, there are also substantial social justice benefits.

Norwood

Randburg M1

Reconstructing cities to provide better access to

Park Station employment Precinct and services, whilst creating mixed Westbury, Coronationville income neighbourhoods, assists in fostering more socially and spatially just cities. It does so by and Slovo Park

Johannesburg CBD

Ekurhuleni Soweto

directly addressing spatial marginalisation and peripheralisation of the poor, improving access Arterial Roads to opportunities, bettering living conditions and lessening the substantial burden of commuting Rea Vaya BRT costs on the city’s poorest residents. A recent research report found that the spatial mismatch between residents and jobs results in higher unemployment rates in cities across South Africa (SERI 2016). In Johannesburg, “a 10% increase in job proximity is associated with a 7.7% decrease in unemployment rates,” (SERI 2016: 24).

Improving the proximity of poor residents and jobs through TOD could substantially reduce unemployment in Johannesburg.

Highway

Turffontein

Sow e to

N17

N12

N3

N1

City of Tshwane

City of Johannesburg

Westonaria

Louis Botha Development Midvaal Corridor Empire Perth Development Corridor

N1

Midrand

Emfuleni

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree

Sandton

N3

M1

City of Johannesburg Louis Botha Development Corridor

Johannesburg CBD

Turffontein

Empire Perth Development Ekurhuleni Corridor

Turffontein Development N17 Corridor Soweto Development Corridor N3

Turffontein Development Corridor Soweto Development Corridor Marlboro South Orange Grove and Norwood Park Station Precinct Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park Highway Arterial Roads Rea Vaya BRT

0

3.25

6.5

13

19.5

26 Km

±

The City of Johannesburg’s turn to transit oriented and corridor development was prompted by the need to deal with what seemed to be a set of intractable economic and social issues – the racial and spatial legacy of apartheid. Projected to transform several areas throughout the City, the initiative is structured around a TransitOriented Development approach and involves the creation of transport arteries (or corridors) linked to interchanges around which land use will be intensified to drive economic growth and social change. This approach is used in conjunction with trying to slow down urban sprawl and uncontrolled expansion of low-density developments, which add substantial costs to the municipal budget and actively entrench apartheid segregation.

Marlboro South Orange Grove and Figure 1: Johannesburg’s TOD corridors and the study areas in context Norwood

At the core of the TOD approach is the pursuit of greater densities in order to realise a more

compact Johannesburg. The current geography of the city demonstrates a mismatch between the location of jobs and the location of commercial and tertiary activities, forcing people to travel far distances and in the cases of many job seekers, to limit their job-seeking due to lack of funds. Re-developing manufacturing and financial nodes is a long-term goal of the City, and the transformation of townships and informal settlements into fully developed economic nodes is an important but difficult undertaking. Instead of purely developing township economies or upgrading informal settlements, which are important goals, TransitOriented Development offers a way of changing the city’s geography and developing a more inclusive environment. It does so, through a two-pronged approach: firstly, development within the corridors effectively seeks to change land use so that the corridors offer economic opportunities; greater social integration of different income groups, and access to existing services. Secondly, bringing people from outlying and peripheral areas to jobs, and opportunities in a manner that is swift, convenient and safe and thus reconnecting parts of the city.

The key features of the COF include: • Safe neighbourhoods designed for cycling and walking (non-motorised transport) and attractive street conditions • Mixed-use development, where residential areas, office parks, shops, schools and other public services are close together, stimulating economic activity and creating opportunities • “Rich and poor, black and white living side by side” and housing options provided cover a range of types and prices (CoJ 2017) The intervention has been underway for a little over three years and although the benefits of the Corridors will only realistically be seen over the long term, the recent interventions have already achieved some remarkable changes in the areas in which the TOD programme has been implemented. Key amongst them has been the provision public transport through the BRT, infrastructure upgrades along the corridors, and nodal re-developments. The project has also been lauded by experts:

Park Station Precinct Westbury, Coronationville

SYNTHESIS REPORT 03 and Slovo Park

SYNTHESIS REPORT

04

There can be little doubt that the Corridors of Freedom initiative of Joburg is one of the most important and thoughtful public interventions to systematically transform the spatial dynamics and trajectories of South African cities. It is based on a suite of long-term diagnostic and forecasting instruments that contributes to more astute planning and urban management (Pieterse 2014: 3).

The following research report is intended to provide empirical evidence and information around the current state of interventions and their reception by host communities, as well as data that can assist in strengthening this important and potentially game-changing urban project. With the research led by SA&CP, an academic research unit, the endeavour has been to analyse and critique TOD in Johannesburg as comprehensively as possible, in order to best facilitate the productive future of what we believe to be a vital project in transforming Johannesburg.

1.3 Aims and intentions of the research The research understood the critical necessity of realising the vision of TOD for Johannesburg, laid out in the Corridors of Freedom plans and addressing many of the vexing challenges that this initiative faces. The challenges include: the promotion of corridor-based economies; ensuring that corridor development is socially inclusive; regulating land development; maximising linkages between transit and land development; delivering infrastructure in more sustainable ways; providing effective management for the corridors, and, linking the corridors more strongly to the city and city-region. When considering these issues, it was recognised that a fine-grained and highly textured understanding was required – predominantly of the sites and pre-existing communities in which the COFs are being implemented. As such, the research undertook to explore, in four strategic sites, how local economies along the corridor actually operate; how social networks are constituted; what the existing links are between business and mobility networks; how livelihoods are constituted and supported, and, how the economies, societies and mobility networks of the corridors connect to the city, city-region, and to the world. The intention behind the operational support has been to provide the evidence-base for the CoJ to progressively develop more effective policies and operational programmes for corridor development.

05

SYNTHESIS REPORT

1

1.4 Achievements of the Corridors of Freedom The original Corridors of Freedom programme has a 2040 time horizon and has only been running for four years, so it is still in its early phases. However, since its inception, the programme has seen a number of achievements, and a further set of interventions are currently underway. A key feature of the Corridors has been the implementation of the Rea Vaya BRT system. It is being implemented in phases with the first phase, a trunk route service between Thokoza Park in Soweto and Ellis Park Stadium, to the east of the inner city. This phase runs from Dobsonville in Soweto, passes the CBD and the universities of Johannesburg and the Witwatersrand to Parktown. It will later be extended to Sandton. The third phase, which is currently underway, will run between Alexandra in the north and Cresta in the west. The BRT is also associated with the construction of various pedestrian bridges, improvement of transport interchanges and complementary feeder routes.

Some community members who have been interviewed are already reaping the benefits of the BRT: This Rea Vaya has made us [residents and business in Westbury] quite accessible, I took this Rea Vaya a couple of months ago to Joburg and I’ve never taken the Rea Vaya after that, not because of a bad experience.

I think it’s beautiful! (Community member in Westbury 2017).1 A recent article also demonstrated that previously isolated community members, such as the elderly, are now finding new ways to access the city through the BRT. Goff Jane Caejar (81) is a frequent Rea Vaya commuter, travelling to his favourite shopping outlet, Maponya Mall, almost every day.“This service gives me the freedom to be independent and to go shopping and visit friends any time,” (Mungoshi 2016).

The BRT has been introduced in Johannesburg with varying degrees of success; it is likely to achieve its full potential when it is properly integrated into a functional multi-modal transport system, which is incorporates the existing – and extended – Gauteng rapid rail (Gautrain) system, traditional commuter rail, and the minibus taxi industry.

In addition to the implementation of BRT infrastructure, the Louis Botha Corridor is witnessing the upgrade of the Orchards and Esselen clinics.

This interview comes from the SA&CP ESRC-funded project and the interview was undertaken

by Planact.

Figure 2 and 3: Westbury Public Environment Upgrade (Chapman 2016)

SYNTHESIS REPORT

06

Along the Empire-Perth Corridor, the following has been completed: • Westbury Clinic • Westbury Pedestrian Bridge • Westbury Public Upgrade • Westdene Dam Redevelopment • Brixton Precinct Upgrade • Brixton Library Although the Turffontein Corridor is not discussed in this report series, there have been significant achievements in that area too, including: • Rotunda Park Upgrade • De Villiers Street Linear Park • Park Crescent and High Street Public Environment Upgrades • Gateway Interventions • Joshco Social Housing • Robinson Deep New Waste Collection • Upgrading of Pioneer Park • Housing Development: Rem 163/100-Turffontein Although much of what follows in this report is constructively critical, it is important to note that our research found many community members who are pleased with the improved infrastructure, connectivity and access. Some respondents have cited the COF as key to opening up their areas to other users and changing long-held perceptions: Yeah, it’s very convenient, people pass through this place, that they feared all these years, and when they actually get out here, especially on Fridays, on pay day weekends. They drink in our location and they walk around…They come, they drink and chill here, not just at that spot, they’ve heard of High Ace? [but] many other spots have opened up now” (Community member in Westbury 2017).2 In the Louis Botha Corridor, the upgraded recreation centre and public space in Paterson Park have received praise, as has the connection of Westbury to the rest of Johannesburg through the BRT. There is also some optimism for the future about what the corridors can bring, with a respondent from Orlando East, arguing: “If it [the Transit Corridors] could be monitored it can bring change. Because there will

be work for the community”. Thus the Corridors have certainly yielded some important spatial changes, and there is little doubt that should the Corridors project continue, further benefits will accrue to some of the most marginalised and vulnerable of Johannesburg’s residents.

1.5 Components of the research and their methods Given the above goals and aims of the project, the research was designed with a number of components and utilised a full range of research methods.

International Case Studies of Transit-Oriented Development – Corridor Implementation focused on global contexts where the implementation of corridors and TOD, with socially inclusionary goals, has taken place and what lessons can be learnt. The work was based on desktop studies, using existing literature and various data sources.

Transit Corridors and the Private Sector: Incentives, regulations and the property market sought to answer the question, to what extent are the governance arrangements and regulatory instruments currently in place inhibiting or promoting the ambitions of the Corridors of Freedom? The question was analysed through a review of the regulatory mechanisms and the response of property developers, as well as an analysis of governance and urban management. In this case, the researcher undertook a desktop review, which was supported by 23 in-depth qualitative interviews held with CoJ officials; property developers; built environment professionals; professionals working on urban management issues, and academic experts.

Researching the full extent of the designated corridors in Johannesburg would have been an impossible task given their scale; instead it was agreed between the partners that the research would involve an in-depth investigation into areas that were broadly representative of three types of areas along the corridors. The choices of the case study areas were governed by the following criteria: where economic efficiency stands to be greatly improved; where there is a reasonably weak information base, and an area with both potential and substantial deficiencies that could be addressed through targeted intervention. As such, the three nodes were selected: Figure 4: Social housing currently being developed in Turffontein (JOSHCO 2017)

07

SYNTHESIS REPORT

2

This interview comes from the SA&CP ESRC-funded project and the interview was undertaken

by Planact.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

08

City of Tshwane

City of Tshwane • Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park Informal Settlement: an area of mainly Orange Grove and working- and lower-middle class residents, Norwood well located on a corridor, which also includes an informal settlement. It is part Park Station Precinct of the Westbury Precinct – one of three Westbury, Coronationville catalytic precincts outlined by the CoJ for the and Slovo Park corridor.

Marlboro South

Marlboro South

Orange Grove and Norwood Park Station Precinct Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Sandton

Sandton

Louis Botha Development Corridor

Randburg

Louis Botha Development • Orange Grove and Norwood: Louis Corridor Botha Avenue runs through some of the

Empire Perth Development Corridor

N1

Empire Perth Development oldest suburbs in Johannesburg, and is Corridor an established arterial route connecting

Turffontein Development Corridor

M1

Pretoria and Johannesburg. The study area Turffontein Development constituted a short fragment of the road Corridor

M1

from Osborn Rd to Garden Rd, contained

Soweto Development Corridor

Soweto Development within the Orange Grove precinct. It is also Corridor an area of mainly small economic enterprise

Highway

Highway

Arterial Roads

Arterial Roads

Rea Vaya BRT

Johannesburg CBD

Johannesburg CBD

M2

Marlboro South Orange Grove and Norwood

Turffontein

Park Station Precinct Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994

Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Sandton Units: Degree

0

0.75 1.5

Date: 2017/05/19

City of Tshwane Marlboro South Orange Grove and Norwood M1

Park Station Precinct Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park Louis Botha Development Corridor Empire Perth Development Corridor

3

09

Turffontein

±

Westbury, Coronationville 4.5 6 Km and Slovo Park

Louis Botha Development Corridor Empire Perth Development Corridor Turffontein Development Corridor Soweto Development Corridor Highway Arterial Roads Rea Vaya BRT

Development FigureTurffontein 5: Map of the study areas and the TOD corridors Corridor Soweto Johannesburg CBD

• Marlboro South: part of an older industrial area and lying along the Louis Botha Corridor, Marlboro South is an area of extreme social marginality that nevertheless offers high potential for livelihood support and economic opportunity. It has become a site of extreme precarity, where previous factory buildings have been occupied informally by very poor households and repurposed for housing and income-generating functions.

City of Tshwane

M2

Soweto

Rea Vaya BRT

0

0.75 1.5

3

immediately alongside a BRT network that could potentially function as a significant strip of inclusionary economic development if better planned, supported and managed.

The CoJ plan for a housing project in Paterson Park is potentially ground-breaking.

4.5

6 Km

±

The Park Station Precinct – the last area identified for the study – is not officially along a TOD corridor but is essential to TOD in Johannesburg as a vibrant transport hub, connecting the CBD to the wider city, region, country and even continent.

The case studies were researched from two perspectives: a quantitative survey and qualitative studies in each site. The survey was composed of 1 200 respondents, divided evenly between the three areas and spread between the categories of residents, businesses and other users (see Table 1 for the composition of respondents to the survey).

The survey was tasked with providing a statistically relevant sample of the socio-economic conditions in each site, as well as an attitudinal survey regarding the COFs, and the engagement with the CoJ around TOD implementation.

In addition, the survey company, Outsourced Insight, undertook three focus groups and several in-depth interviews. The intentions behind this additional step were to fine-tune the questionnaires and to obtain a more detailed understanding of the socioeconomic conditions and community quality of life in the four nodes. For businesses the aim was to obtain a more detailed understanding of the main challenges and opportunities they experience in the nodes where they operate.

Each area was also studied from a qualitative perspective, with dedicated research team for each node. These researchers conducted interviews with residents, officials and other community members considered key stakeholders in the area under study.

They integrated the interviews and the statistical findings from the survey with desktop studies – including existing literature on the area and other data. At least 15 interviews were conducted in each site. The idea was to compile a comprehensive profile of each of the case study sites that provided a sense of the history; demographics; residential profile; social networks; quality of the built environment; social and economic challenges; governance dynamics, and response and engagement with the CoJ and TOD. Conditions of Life and Work along the Transit Corridors: Further analysis was conducted on the statistical survey data by an economist; the aim of this study was to look at points of comparability across the nodes in order to discern larger residential, business and other trends, and to make more generalised statements about the COFs. As a consequence of all of these studies, a number of reports were generated with significant detail; each of which can be read alone as a free-standing study. The following report, however, offers an overview of the key findings, recommendations and implications of the entire study, in order to give the reader a clear sense of what was uncovered what should be considered going forward by the CoJ and other stakeholders who may not have the capacity to engage with the full and detailed documents.

Development

Corridor

SYNTHESIS REPORT

Highway

SYNTHESIS REPORT

10

Node

Residents Businesses

Other Users Total

Westbury/Coronationville/Slovo Park

200

50

50

300

Park Station

100

100

100

300

Orange Grove and Norwood

150

100

50

300

Marlboro South

150

100

50

300

Total

600

350

250

1 200

Table 1: Composition of the survey in each node

1.6 Key successes of the research project The project had a number of successes that bear discussion and reflection; amongst them has been the mode of engagement between the three partners, who have effectively co-conceptualised and co-produced the project ensuring that it satisfies the requirements of all three parties with distinctive characters – a development bank, an academic research unit and a metropolitan municipality. The research that has been produced is sufficiently fine‑grained to assist the CoJ with the implementation of TOD and offers empirical evidence on which to base future implementation and decision-making. However, due to the way it was conceptualised and the autonomy that was granted to the SA&CP, it is also sufficiently rigorous

11

SYNTHESIS REPORT

to be able to respond to a set of academic and theoretical questions that are of key concern to the Academy. The very involved and conscientious steering committee has meant that the research that has been produced is of high quality and is also directly applicable to the concerns of the CoJ. The flexibility of the model has also meant that when and if limits, challenges and concerns arose they could be creatively responded to. Similarly, when the needs of one of the partners changed, the team could include the newly arisen need into the project design, ensuring its applicability and relevance despite the relatively long duration of the project.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

12

International Case Studies of Transport Oriented Development – Corridor Implementation 01

02

03

04

05 06

07

13

Transit Oriented Development (TOD) has gained popularity amongst planners across the world as a way to manage sustainable urban growth.

guide the design and development of such areas; tools to finance, capture or leverage transit investments, such as transferable development rights, density taxes and incentives, public‑private partnerships, as well as land value capture schemes, provided that the right conditions are in place; and the importance of transport demand management measures and investments to discourage car use and encourage non-motorised transport such as walking and cycling.

TOD is associated with mixed-use, walkable, location-efficient development that balances the need for sufficient density to support convenient transit service with the scale of the adjacent community.

As BRT systems have become more sophisticated and increasingly ‘raillike’, there is increased evidence for the potential of BRT for TOD.

08

International experience shows that corridor development is implemented in different context-dependent ways, following local needs, characteristics and resources.

Latin America continues to be at the forefront of practices of socially inclusive corridor development.

The success of corridor development and the potential for TOD is marked by: a clear, overarching and holistic vision of urban development by city leaders; high levels of institutional collaboration and coordination between government agencies; the creation of a single owner-operator of the transport system and autonomous planning agencies; and high levels of popular and investor support through community, private and academic sector consultation, communication and collaboration.

Key tools and measures for implementing and financing TOD include: a comprehensive legal framework and tools to support TOD at the city level, such as zoning regulations and incentives to promote dense and mixed‑use development along transit corridors, as well as guidelines and regulations to

SYNTHESIS REPORT

09

Dangers or weaknesses in terms of achieving or maintaining the benefits of TOD include: the challenge for BRT or other mass public transit systems to be both consistently high quality in their performance as well as sufficiently accessible and affordable to capture passengers across all income levels, or their ability to become viable alternatives to private car use and maintain high ridership rates and levels of satisfaction; the danger of excluding low-income residents from the benefits of transit investments through a lack of affordable housing and insufficient access and connectivity to low-income parts of the city, or the inability to create effectively mixed and diverse neighbourhoods; the lack of effective changes in land uses around transit areas, or the inability to effectively densify, regulate and capture changes in land use and values.

The success in the roll-out of bicycle infrastructures in most cities indicates strong potential for bicycle-based TOD.

Date of commencement first BRT corridor

Population Curitiba 1,879,355

Ottawa

1974

951,727

Bogotá

Curitiba

7,760,500

Ahmedabad

7,535,974

Guangzhou

11,070,654

1983

Lagos

22,583,305

Ottawa

Population Density (Per Km2)

Ottawa 316

Ahmedabad Lagos

Curitiba 4,062

Bogotá

9,900

Guangzhou 1,800

Bogotá

4,000 20,000 (11,009 average)

4,495

2008

BRT system length & corridors

Lagos

2009

Curitiba 83

Ahmedabad

Ottawa 35

2010

Bogotá 112

Guangzhou

Ahmedabad 82 Guangzhou 22 Lagos 22

system length (km) # BRT corridors

Daily demand (passengers per day)

Total cost per km (US$/km) Curitiba

n/a

10

Irrespective of the type of transit, international case studies show that TOD implementation must be a long-term and continuous effort.

2000

561,000

220,000

2,000,000

Ottawa

14,623

Bogotá

n/a

Ahmedabad

4,800

130,000

850,000

200,000

Guangzhou

n/a

Lagos

1,700

Sources: http://worldpopulationreview.com/ and http://brtdata.org/

2

THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT OF TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT: LESSONS FOR JOHANNESBURG 2.1 The international experience3

The study of the international experiences of corridor developments were undertaken in order to understand the larger context of corridor developments, and draw on the experiences of six international case studies of corridor development across the world. The study examined: Curitiba, Brazil; Ottawa, Canada; Bogotá, Colombia; Ahmedabad, India; Guangzhou, China, and Lagos, Nigeria. The cities provided a range of experiences – in some corridor developments have been the main mode of engagement for many years, whilst in others they are relatively new. The case studies demonstrate some of the benefits and drawbacks of corridors, as well as offer insights into what makes these initiatives successful urban interventions.

The international case studies surface an important distinction between Corridor Development and Transit-Oriented Development. TOD is generally associated with “mixed-use, walkable, locationefficient development that balances the need for sufficient density to support convenient transit service with the scale of the adjacent community,” (Dittmar et al 2004: 4). On the other hand, Corridors are a far larger and more encompassing urban intervention, which include TOD but go beyond transit and transport. Corridor Development is usually a project that creates higher density, mixed-use activity areas around public transport nodes within existing cities, which have a set of larger community and social benefits (Buxton and Scheurer 2007). Curitiba – still leading the way in some senses – now hosts a 40 km ‘Employment Corridor’ developed to foster economic growth, social improvement and employment opportunities through investments in urban, social and industrial infrastructures and support and training for smallscale businesses. It also a ‘Green Line’ (Linha Verde), an 18 km corridor that was converted from a federal highway and is intended to construct a pedestrianfriendly, mixed-use corridor that can accommodate up to half a million new residents.

Overall there are three main reasons for corridor development:

3

15

SYNTHESIS REPORT

01 Transit-Oriented Development linking transit investments to changes in land use; as seen in Bogotá, and Guangzhou;

02 As a solution for traffic congestion and the

promotion of non-motorised transport, with the unintended result of changes in land use and intensity, i.e. Ahmedabad and Lagos;

03 A conscious intention where investments in

corridor development are accompanied by measures to ensure social equity and create mixed-income neighbourhoods, for instance through the development of affordable housing for low-income households and employment generation initiatives, with the most notable cases being Curitiba and Bogotá.

Johannesburg’s COFs, with their explicit broad social and economic goals, fit broadly into the last category but go beyond what has been seen internationally and offer a far more ambitious and innovative set of urban practices.

The following sections indicate what is needed in order to successfully implement a transit corridor and the lessons and cautionary tales that can be taken from other contexts. In doing so, it indicates what the CoJ has been doing ‘right’, as well as what it needs to be wary of and consider into plans and future implementation.

he international case studies research is drawn from Sylvia Croese’s report entitled T International case studies of Transit-Oriented Development – Corridor Implementation. For more information, please see report 3 in this series.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

16

2.2 Financing transit corridors There are generally considered to be three types of financing that exist in transit corridors; each one has different aims and intentions: • Infrastructure funding: this can be state‑funded through debt, credit or grants or through the creation of financial incentives for the private sector.

• Support for sustainable and equitable TOD, requiring investments in public spaces, affordable housing and social amenities.

This can be done, for example, through the use of incentives, banks and the conversion of underused properties, and the establishment of Municipal Housing Funds that are used to provide affordable accommodation in the corridors.

• Operational costs of transit investments, which can come through direct fees and taxes, or the capturing of the (land) value created by public investments in transit – of which there are a variety of tools (detailed in Section 3).

In the international cases, the private sector was leveraged in various ways in all of these phases.

In Curitiba, private sector financing incentives, such as transferable development rights, have guided the investment of the private sector into certain locations in exchange for the preservation of the city’s historical, cultural and architectural heritage.

In Bogota, a land value capture scheme has allowed the City to receive about 30–50% of the increase in land value that results from public investments. It uses these funds for the construction of affordable housing for low-income households and social facilities, such as schools, hospitals, parks and libraries – all in well-located sites. In the case of India, Ahmedabad earns revenue from the sale of the additional Floor Area Ratio (FAR) along BRT corridors. Operational costs have also been subsidised in a number of ways. Curitiba’s iconic BRT utilises a single flat fare that enables crosssubsidisation between short and long rides and promotes ridership. This is coupled with a national policy, which mandates that employers subsidise a portion of their workers’ transportation costs.

17

SYNTHESIS REPORT

2.3 Legal and institutional mechanisms of support Corridors require a range of institutional and legal mechanisms in order to ensure that they achieve their desired outcome. In order for Corridors or TOD to be successfully implemented, it is important for planning to be coordinated at all scales from the beginning of the intervention (CTOD 2010: 3).

In some of the cities studied, specific units had been established within municipal government, or existing units had been mandated to undertake the planning and co-ordination of corridor development.

The Institute for Research and Urban Planning of Curitiba designs urban development plans, programmes and projects, while the Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited is a special purpose vehicle under the purview of the municipality to serve as a dedicated and independent agency with operating authority for the BRT corridor. The cases also indicate that these institutions require sufficient resources and capacity, as well as support in order to function effectively. The Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority, is a good example of a public transport authority that has the capabilities to plan, regulate and form relationships to enforce and operate public transport, which has been facilitated by the appropriate expertise, energy and desire to succeed.

Political support was also cited as an important determining factor of success. In Bogota, the energy and commitment of Mayor Enrique Peñalosa was vital. He was able to put in place a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that utilised provincial, local and multi-lateral funding; he was also able to claim the success of providing affordable accommodation to 45 000 lower income households. The Ahmedebad project also boasted strong support from local and provincial politicians but ensured ridership and popular support with a policy of early, frequent and targeted community consultation and public relations efforts.

The institutional setting is often wedded to legal frameworks, such as a master plan, zoning regulations and incentives that promote dense, high-rise and mixed land development along the BRT corridors, and provide bureaucrats with the necessary tools to undertake their work. In Ottawa, a Regional Official Plan required that employment opportunities were created close to existing or future Transitway stations through the establishment of primary and secondary employment centres, focusing economic activities

within these areas and ensuring the benefits of collaboration. A lack of sufficient legal tools and instruments may have a negative impact on the intended outcomes of the Corridor developments, excluding poorer households from these areas, and reducing riderships and sustainability. Bogota’s BRT system has been mainly focused on mobility and rapid operation of the buses, leaving development mainly to market forces, with little land use zoning, FAR policies, or other codes related to land development. This has meant that land use around more central or mid-station areas has not become more significantly dense or mixed.

well-located land; promoting sustainable and a less resource-intensive urban form, as well as achieving economic access – which the international cases have achieved to varying levels of success – then various challenges require redress so that these long-term gains can be achieved.

2.4 Necessary principles and enabling conditions for success When looking at the more successful corridor developments, a number of similarities in practice can be identified: • A clear, overarching and holistic vision of urban development and the future of the city by City leaders or authorities.

• High levels of institutional collaboration and coordination between relevant government agencies.

• The creation of a single owner-operator of the transport system and autonomous planning agencies.

• High levels of popular and investor support through community, private and academic sector consultation, communication and collaboration.

• Successful BRTs are often those able to integrate into the overall transport system of the city, as seen in Guangzhou.

In the case of Johannesburg, it is clear that not all of these are in place. Despite political support, the case studies demonstrate significant incoherence at the local level. Although the CoJ’s planning department is autonomous and highly skilled, it is not clear that other agencies and spheres of government have necessarily bought into the idea of Johannesburg’s corridors, which makes implementation and sustainability difficult. The next section will discuss these interventions and the response by the private sector to see the potential of the intended incentives. However, as the CoJ wants to be successful in terms of housing many thousands of low-income households on

SYNTHESIS REPORT

18

Transit Corridors and the Private Sector: Incentives, Regulations and the Property Market 01

It is important to understand that the property market is comprised of multiple developers, investors and financiers. Each of these pursue their own development strategies. City planners need to understand the imperatives of each of them and how this applies to the Corridors of Freedom in all its diversity.

02

The effective and strategic use of municipal land is one of the most important mechanisms cities can use in order to secure transformation. The ability to purchase, hold and develop land provides municipalities with a lever to pursue its own interests but also to potentially shape the market.

City-owned land is an asset in its own right, can be endowed with appealing development rights and can be used to trade in development rights.

The ownership of urban land by governments also provides them with greater control over its final use. Rather than simply steering the market, governments can determine development outcomes. Having a proactive and detailed urban land strategy is key for shaping the market.

03

04

The CoJ is using location-based incentives as the primary instrument through which to attract investment. Yet international studies suggest that there are a multitude of factors that determine location choices and these differ for individual investors/firms. Understanding better the factors that determine location choices will assist in directing development to the COF. Developers unanimously agreed that the development application process was an obstacle in the development process. Developers argued for more efficient development applications.

05

Good urban management is a priority for developers and community members and the function should be strengthened. Building good neighbourhoods requires good urban management.

06

New developers were enthusiastic about the incentives being offered by the CoJ. More established developers were less trusting of the CoJ’s ability to manage the offerings.

19

SYNTHESIS REPORT

07

The provision of appropriate social infrastructure must be a significant intervention in the COF. Specifically, educational facilities are a fundamental component of a good neighbourhood.

The City needs to engage more actively with Departments of Education to guarantee that there is the delivery of sufficient educational facilities to support the densities. It would be worth considering incentives to educational facilities prepared to locate to neighbourhoods in the COF. Social exclusion is often ignored in policy frameworks. Creating an inclusive city is the primary motivation for the COF and it is therefore imperative that direct action be taken to guarantee the provision of affordable and emergency housing and to ensure that exclusion is not an unintended consequence of the strategy.

08

The COF provides a real opportunity for the CoJ to begin a process of demanding more from property developers in the form of high quality inclusionary housing, affordable housing and the provision of community facilities. The regulatory framework could be strengthened both in terms of its abilities to halt unwanted developments but also in terms of clarifying in more detail obligations for developers benefiting from permissive development rights and incentives. There needs to be further thinking around property developer responsibilities.

09

Understanding the frustrations and constraints to development is fundamental to building effective relationships. A directed capacity building programme for CoJ officials is an opportunity to improve relationships.

10

An improved marketing approach by the City itself is important. Despite the research and analysis that has gone into the COF to date, many developers, city residents and City officials are not fully aware of what incentives are available or the social infrastructure promised.

11

The attractiveness of the COF for mixed-use and housing necessitates that the public environment is safe and accessible for all users. A lack of safety will undermine the positive urban design principles of permeability between the public and private space.

Currently too many neighbourhoods in the COF are characterized by poor urban design features that negatively affect safety including public lighting, signage and high quality public space.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

20

3

TRANSIT CORRIDORS AND THE PRIVATE SECTOR: INCENTIVES, REGULATIONS AND THE PROPERTY MARKET4 3.1 Introduction

The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) has chosen a partnership approach to the development of the Corridors; attempting to create a ‘guided’ enabling environment for the private sector that incentivises and attracts investment into these sites, whilst balancing the needs of the public good, and the larger developmental agenda. The following summary investigates the effects of the City, at this very early stage, on incentivising private development, and the impact that the regulations have had on enabling or detracting investment within the current market conditions in the CoJ. In short, it asks the question: to what extent, are the governance arrangements and regulatory instruments currently in place, inhibiting or promoting the ambitions of the Corridors? The report and the summary below respond by providing an overview of the current market and its dynamics, and then outline the regulations and incentives in the transit corridors and the responses by property developers.

3.2 The property market The Corridors, their drivers, dynamics and appeal are operating within a very complex and sophisticated property market, with a number of long-standing actors and a host of new entrants.

The City needs to track and understand the variegated property market because of its huge potential to impact on the City’s ability to realise its strategic planning processes. It cannot be ignored that City policy and interventions are happening within a broader context that will no doubt affect the ability of the City to effectively manage spatial change. In addition, it is important to gain a sense of what needs to be done to develop a constructive relationship between the different parties in order to ensure the success of these partnerships.

The Johannesburg property market is highly complex and segmented – reflecting South Africa more broadly – and there is much that needs to be considered when attempting to understand long-term trends and patterns of development and investment. This includes recognising the links between global and macro-economic forces and their spill-over effects into the local market, as well as the fact that each property sector responds differently to regional, national and international

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forces. The South African and Johannesburg property sector is also a very niche sector, whereby developers are operating in specific geographic regions or subsets of the market and are unlikely to move into terrain with which they are unfamiliar.

As an example, developers of Grade A property will probably not make an appearance in the Corridors; rather, developers already investing in similar markets or these specific locations will most likely invest in the transit corridors. The property sector is also highly differentiated and ranges from small-scale developers with a small portfolio of properties, to larger developers with substantial portfolio of properties, as well as unlisted and listed institutional developers, and investors and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs). These differences could potentially work to the advantage of the corridors, given their variety and the need for diverse housing typologies and investments.

The trick will be matching the demand with the appropriate developer, funder and set of incentives.

When looking at an overview of Johannesburg’s property market, there are key trends in each sector that need to be considered. In the case of office space, the country and the city are experiencing pessimistic business confidence, which means that the commercial sector is quite selective

4 This section is drawn from Kirsten Harrison’s report entitled Transit Corridors and the Private Sector: Incentives, regulations and the property market. For more information, please see report 4 in this series.

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about investing capital. There is clear spatial differentiation in vacancy rates with inner city office vacancies seen to be high and almost double that of decentralised nodes throughout South Africa; in contrast, Sandton is the leading node for office development in Gauteng. There is some appetite for commercial office development but it seems limited at present and located in well-established nodes. Some growth has been seen in industrial property, but once again this is within or very close to existing industrial nodes, indicating that this sector has also not seen expansive growth. The Empire Perth SAF states that the rate of trade for commercial and industrial properties has remained unchanged since 2004, indicating an overall lethargy in the market (CoJ 2014a: 47).

Where growth has occurred, has been in the retail sector and the affordable housing market, especially in student accommodation. Between 2009 and 2013 the most rapid growth across South Africa could be seen in properties valued under R300 000 – a clear reference to the government’s subsidised housing programme. In Johannesburg’s inner city specifically, affordable rental housing has become an important investment opportunity.

The affordable housing market – i.e. rental between R2 000 and R7 000 per month – has seen significant growth, to the point that demand has driven up costs, thereby making it unaffordable and indicating a gap in the residential market. In terms of opportunities within the Corridors, it is important to note that in several areas – including the Inner City, Balfour Park, and along Louis Botha Avenue – population growth is pushing up residential demand and creating a situation where there is now competition between commercial and residential uses, as higher densities in the residential property market allow for competition against the commercial property sector. Given a growing demand for affordable rental housing in proximity to the inner city, Orange Grove’s location and the potential that it seems to offer for financial returns means that this site provides an opportunity for the City, which should be optimised. Furthermore, residential REITs, such as Indluplace, expressed a willingness to invest in residential accommodation in a mix of geographies, income groups and built forms.

Given how the property sector operates and its current rather conservative trend, there are some criteria that need to be considered when thinking

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about the ability of the COFs to attract investment.

Despite CoJ investments, or the public sector offerings and lead in the Johannesburg TOD programme, if there is no demand, and hence no finance available for new developments, the property sector will remain cautious. Different products or areas may be more appealing to different investors as many of them operate within specific geographical or product based niches. Success of attracting the sector may be based on the ability of the CoJ to demonstrate demand for developments and in addition, the less risky a development opportunity, the more likely it is to attract developers. However, there are a set of locations that the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) have identified as offering important partnership opportunities between the public and private sector (SAPOA 2016), and which satisfy private sector requirements for demand and the City’s desire for spatial justice and economic success. Importantly, among the sites identified are: the inner city and urban core development, and densification of existing transportation corridors, including the COF. Furthermore, access to finance plays a huge role in shaping the market. Traditional financiers are risk-averse, including major South African banks (although Nedbank does have an Affordable Housing Development Finance section). The complexity of raising finance is exacerbated by the reality that many large financial institutions are not engaged with City planning processes or their strategic objectives. Hence, it is important to understand who will finance developments, and for the City to continue with its engagements with banks and equity funds to see how they can be brought on board.

3.3 The regulatory environment When considering TOD in Johannesburg, it is important to locate the policies within the legislation and regulation that currently exists, in order to explain some of the motivations and limitations that are exhibited by the proposed programme.

The regulations also provide opportunities for different partners to come on board in a variety of ways. The COF is part of a wider planning hierarchy, with the Growth Management Strategy (GMS) as the overarching strategic plan that directs and prioritises the spatial location of development within the City. Importantly for this discussion it also “was about achieving growth, but doing so in

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ways that were consistent with the intentions of the SDF and the GDS, [which] could be supported in terms of infrastructural development,” (Todes 2015: 90). Furthermore, the GMS linked spatial planning to infrastructure investment, providing the CoJ with an enormously important tool for the COF because that allows the City to directly allocate investment funding in areas of spatial significance.

The City has also developed a Spatial Development Framework (SDF), which seeks to address a number of issues including:

• implementing economic strategies to support the growth of economic activities and create sustainable job opportunities.

• exclusion and disconnection; and • inefficient residential densities and land use patterns (poor mixing).

3.4 Guiding mechanisms and responses

• increasing pressure on the natural environment; • urban sprawl and fragmentation;

Within the COF, there are more detailed locationspecific plans that will guide City interventions called Strategic Area Frameworks (SAFs). Thus far, the City has developed three SAFs to direct the COF, within the framework of existing City plans, including the GMS and SDF. It is important to emphasise that most of the programmes and policies reflected in the SAFs are still under discussion, adding a degree of uncertainty to assumptions and conversations.

However, there are a set of generalisable deliverables that are proposed in the SAFs, which are intended to assist with realising the shared goals of the COF, SDF and the GMS. These include: • investing in bulk infrastructure to accommodate significant increases in development densities; • releasing and developing municipal land to achieve the precinct development visions; • expanding and improving public transit infrastructure and facilities; • investing public funds in public environment upgrading and the provision of public amenities and community facilities to serve a significantly larger and denser population; • fast-tracking development of privately owned properties to achieve higher densities, and more intensive mixed land uses;

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• implementing place-making interventions to ensure that the precincts are activated;

Thus, there is portfolio of mutually enhancing planning documents that are all driving in the same direction, and which are in place to support the realisation of the Johannesburg TOD programme.

The importance of this alignment and policy environment should not be under-estimated, as it through these documents and the coherent vision that they articulate that is the first and most important step in reshaping the city.

• spatial inequalities and the job-housing mismatch;

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• capturing the value generated through proximity to improved transit facilities by introducing relevant fiscal instruments, where appropriate;

Understanding its role as an enabler and its potential to influence spatial change, the City has assembled a set of instruments within its control to guide the development process in the COF. Broadly, the instruments take four generic forms: tools to shape market forces, mechanisms to encourage market support, instruments to prevent undesirable developments, and efforts to build relationships. To provide further detail, they include cost-cutting measures; location-based incentives; extending the Urban Development Zone (UDZ) established by National Treasury; directly investing in bulk infrastructure in areas of significance in the COF to facilitate increased densities; revising the development applications processes in Special Development Zones (SDZs); offering more permissive development rights, and lastly, the City has approved a rates policy that provides rates benefits to developers on the Corridors.

These instruments are being used to support the broader spatial objectives of building an efficient public transport system, the provision of bulk infrastructure, social infrastructure and potentially low-cost housing provision.

However, a further point of leverage for the transit corridors is the release and development of stateowned land, including municipal land to achieve precinct development visions. The effective and strategic use of such land is one of the most

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important mechanisms cities can use in order to secure transformation. The ability to purchase, hold and develop land offers the City a ‘lever’ to pursue its own interests and shape the market, since ownership provides the opportunity for greater control over its final use.

Despite the array of incentives on offer it should be remembered that there are some issues, which these tools and instruments are unable to effect. Firstly, the cost of professional fees is predetermined and construction costs are contingent upon building materials, costs of labour and the nature of the site.

Secondly, the cost of finance is also unaffected by the City and its policies. Furthermore, development incentives are often all on the supply-side, instead of the demand-side whereby the demand-side pertains to having a ready market to occupy a new development, be it tenants or an investor-buyer, while supply-side refers to the actual construction of new developments.

The response from the private sector to these incentives has been mixed, with some developers arguing that they are entirely indifferent to the sites of state investment and their decision-making is more heavily influenced by factors, such as demand and land cost; others have been extremely critical of the BRT, not seeing it as important infrastructure against which to leverage investment. In addition, some developers are sceptical and question whether the incentives would ever materialise, given previous experiences with city/stateproffered incentives. This has led to legitimate questions around the likelihood of the efficacy and roll-out of the new incentives under consideration.

Furthermore, location-based incentives, such as the UDZ, have historically not been considered critical to investment choices; rather they are a bonus for developers who had selected the area already. The critical factors for developers revolved around the question of location and yields, and need to be considered in line with the demonstrable costbenefit effect.

driven and at the mercy of a set of forces that are largely outside of its control, or even the City’s. In addition, it is highly risk averse, demands high returns, conservative, and niche-focused. Thus, given the unproven nature of the COFs, the uncertainty around demand and financing, the private sector is unsure if the existing frameworks are sufficient to incentivise their involvement. Demonstrable demand is vital, as is the availability of finance.

However, there is certainly some appetite to get involved in the affordable housing sector and in the long-term mixed-use developments, which is positive for the TOD corridors. Key nodes and areas, such as those close to the CBD and in the knowledge precinct, seem to offer something appealing to the market. In short, the potential engagement of private developers is currently an open question with a sector that would like to see higher profits and a local municipality with a number of powerful tools at hand. The trick will be matching demand, justice, development and profit. The openness from both sides is certainly a good platform on which to build.

3.5 Conclusion The City has constructed a comprehensive planning policy environment, as well as a set of incentives and frameworks to incentivise private sector engagement in the COF. However, the analysis demonstrates that this is a highly heterogeneous sector, with a multitude of interests and drivers. It is also profit-

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4

NODAL STUDIES ALONG THE TRANSIT CORRIDORS The following section will present the nodal studies, beginning with a comparison of the nodes from the socio-economic quantitative data and moving to a summary of each of the in-depth case studies.

4.1 Overarching view: Looking across the nodes The research was conducted using a spatially‑designated nodal survey that allowed for exploration within the nodes, which was then complemented by a set of qualitative interviews and documentary reviews. The in-depth case studies are reflected in Reports 5–8. In addition to these, a report was undertaken to reflect on comparisons across the various nodes – particularly focused on the quantitative data – in order to understand key similarities and differences between the nodes and to compile a more holistic view of the Corridors, and how the components relate to one another. The following is a summary of some of the key findings from the overall analysis, offering a snapshot of the findings across the COF nodes in which the surveys were undertaken.

4.1.1 Demographics: Residents, businesses and users There were some key demographic patterns that could be discerned when looking at the nodes..

Westbury was significantly older (31% were between 51–86 years’ old) and women-dominated (61% were women), whereas the other residents in the other nodes had significantly younger respondents in Park Station and Orange Grove, with 82% and 86% respectively, between the ages of 18 and 40, and both sites with higher numbers of men than women (70% in Park Station and 67% in Orange Grove). Marlboro South had the most even distribution of age cohorts and the most equal balance of genders (44% men and 56% women). These patterns may be explained by the high numbers of cross-border and local migrants in Orange Grove (32% local migrants and 45% from other African countries) and Park Station (37% local migrants and 29% migrants from other African countries) – whereas almost 70% of Westbury respondents were born in Johannesburg, but due

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to high rates of violence and crime, the number of young men has significantly diminished. In Marlboro South 41% of respondents were from Johannesburg, and 48% from other parts of South Africa.

The demographics of business owners were fairly consistent throughout the nodes, with most (between 58–64%) owners between the ages of 30–50, with 35% coming from Johannesburg, 22% from other parts of South Africa, and 39% from other African countries. The vast majority, over two-thirds, were men (the largest variation was in Westbury, where only 15% of business were owned by women, which is particularly noteworthy given the residential gender dynamics). Although both genders had a similar concentration (49%) in the retail sector, there is a statistically significant difference between genders in the business sectors, with men most dominant in catering and women in services. Relatively more men owned business in the motor industry sector compared to women.

Overall, most business owners (68%) in Westbury were from Johannesburg. In Park Station 19% of business owners were from South Africa; 36% were local migrants and 44% African migrants, which is disproportionately higher than the percentage of residents. In Orange Grove, it was lower than the residential percentages with 22% of businesses owned by South Africans and about 52% from the rest of Africa; whereas in Marlboro South, 25% of the businesses owned are by people from other African countries – which is surprising given the residential profile.

The mean age of users in each area was 32.5 years, with significant variation between nodes. Almost half (49%) were aged 30 years or less; this proportion ranged from 42% in Westbury to 53% in Orange Grove. Westbury had the highest proportion, aged over 50 years. Almost two-thirds were men but there were much higher proportions of women in Westbury

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(48%) and Park Station (46%) than there were in Orange Grove (29%) or Marlboro South (27%).

Just over one-third (34%) of the other users had been born in Johannesburg. This proportion varied between nodes, from 18% of those encountered in Orange Grove, to 63% of those interviewed in Westbury. The highest proportions born in the local vicinity were in Westbury itself, where 22% had been born in the node and Marlboro South, where the same percentage had been born in Alexandra. Conversely, the largest proportions of non‑Johannesburgers were interviewed in the Orange Grove node (92%), most notably from Zimbabwe (26%), KwaZulu-Natal (14%), Nigeria (12%), and other parts of Africa (18%).

services; 20% were in the catering industry, and 9% were in the motor industry. Compared across the different nodes, there was not a statistically significant difference in distribution of business types. Retailers formed the majority in all four nodes, but with a range from 55% in the Park Station node to 40% in the Marlboro South node.

Marlboro South had a higher proportion of serviceproviding businesses (27%) than the other nodes, and Westbury had a larger proportion of catering businesses (27%) than elsewhere.

4.1.2 Income and employment

Once again there was a gender dimension: less than one-third of business owners were women.

This was the case with 47% of those in the catering sector, 32% of retailers, 23% of those in the services sector, and 16% of those in the motor industry. Woman-owned businesses were more prevalent in Park Station (37%), Marlboro South (36%) and Orange Grove (33%) than in Westbury (15%). While retail related business was the most prominent business category for locals, internal migrant residents, as well as for foreign residents, more diversity in the business category is observed for local residents and there were far more locals in the motor industry than in either of the migrant categories – perhaps indicating a higher need for imbrication in the local economy. Almost 60% of business owners were South Africans; a further one in ten were Zimbabweans, and about one in twelve were Nigerians.

Interestingly, the average employment rate5 of the total respondents (56%) was lower than both the national and provincial average, with significant disparities across the nodes: relatively high employment rates in Orange Grove (84%), Park Station (86%), with less in Marlboro South (47%) and very low rates in Westbury (24.5%). The situations in Park Station and Orange Grove are also reflective of high rates of entrepreneurship.

Interestingly, overall, fewer women were employed (29% of women and 47% of men) or self-employed (10% of women and 23.5% of men). Westbury’s respondents seem to earn the least with almost 37% claiming they earned no income; about 63% of Marlboro South residents earned less than R2 500 per month, and 58% in Park Station and Orange Grove 59% earned between R2 500 and R8 000.

Unexpectedly, those earning the highest incomes across the sample were self-employed.

Monthly turnover ranged from less than R5 000 (22%) to in excess of R200 000 (3%), and microand small-scale enterprises dominated all four nodes; Westbury and Marlboro South are seen to have higher shares of micro enterprises that have a monthly turnover of under R5 000. Orange Grove has the highest share of businesses, with a monthly turnover of over R200 000. The mean monthly profit overall was R15 032, ranging from R7 646 in Westbury to R20 641 in Orange Grove. About half (53%) of the businesses reported that their profits were staying the same, while 22.5% said they were increasing and 24.5% said they were decreasing.

Businesses in Westbury were far likelier (31%) than those in the other three nodes (23% or less) to indicate that their profits were increasing, while Park Station businesses were most likely (29%) to indicate decreasing profits.

Almost half (48%) of the businesses encountered were in some form of retail trade; 23% provided

Most (78%) businesses had one or more permanent employees and 47% had one or more temporary

The demographics of residents, business owners and users point to the cosmopolitan nature of Orange Grove and Park Station, with their mix of migrants from various countries and parts of South Africa, whereas Westbury seems to be the most insular with the fewest respondents in all categories from elsewhere. Marlboro South offers an odd mix between mostly South African residents but with high numbers of business owners and users from elsewhere in the country and the continent, surfacing an interesting interface between the local and regional links.

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employees. The motor industry was most likely to employ over five people, compared to retail, catering or other services businesses. Retail business was more likely to be owner-operated, without employing anyone. Catering and services businesses were likely to employ one to five workers.

4.1.3 Property and tenure Of the sample, 39% of the households lived in flats or apartments; almost 30% lived in freestanding houses, and about 20% in informal dwellings or shacks. A further 6% lived in backyard flats or cottages; 2% in cluster houses; 1% in warehouses, and 0.5% in semi-detached dwellings. Half of the households owned and had fully paid off their dwellings, with a similar proportion (46%) renting their accommodation, with very small proportions sub-letting (3%). Rental and other costs varied enormously, but with a mean cost of R1 072 per month in rental and R183 in rates and services.

The highest rentals were in Park Station (R2 408/ month), and the lowest in Marlboro South (R43) reflecting both the demand for and the quality of the accommodation.

Most households (78%) comprised a single family, with small proportions being two or more families (12%); one or more unrelated individuals (10%) or other household configurations (0.2%) were living on the same premises. Single-family households were significantly more prevalent in Westbury and Marlboro South than the other two nodes, where other configurations were more common – speaking mostly to housing typologies in the different areas. More than a third (34%) of households included only one adult, another third (33%) had two adults, indicating very small household sizes and reinforcing other findings about the declining size of South African households. About 16% of households had no children younger than 18 years; 29% included one child; 25% had two children; 18% had three children – overall 62% of respondent households included children.

Businesses in the majority of all four categories operated from formal premises, ranging from 59% of service businesses to 80% of those in the motor trade. Retailers had the highest proportion operating on the street (22%), and service businesses had the highest proportion operating from the owners’ homes (13%). Almost three-quarters (72%) of the businesses paid rental for their premises, and just

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over one in five owned the premises, having fully paid off the price thereof. A further 6% sub-let their premises. There were important variations in the tenure of businesses in the four COF nodes with rental being most predominant in the Park Station node (94%) and ownership most frequent in the Marlboro South node (55%). For the more than half (57%) of businesses, their largest expense was for rental. This was the case to a greater extent in the Orange Grove and Park Station nodes than the other two. Monthly rentals paid by businesses along the COF varied widely from zero rent to as high as R220 000, with a monthly average of R8 606. Variations in mean monthly rental were not statistically significant between types of business but not surprisingly, formal premises commanded higher mean rentals (R10 645) than all other types of premises.

More than half (58%) of business owners said that they operated from their current premises because the area was busy or because there were many customers passing by. These reasons were most commonly cited by businesses in Park Station (71%) and Orange Grove (70%), and to a significantly lesser extent in Marlboro South (44%) and Westbury (33%). The second most frequent reason (indicated by 20%) pertained to the locality of the business being perceived as a good space or a place that was personally convenient and well located.

Monthly rates and payments for municipal services varied similarly, from zero to R30 000, with a mean of R2 030. The only significant variation was between businesses in different types of premises.

As far as security and armed response services were concerned, the mean monthly payment being made amounted to R1 498. About one-fifth of businesses indicated that they incur such expenses. These payments were higher, but not significantly so, in Marlboro South, in formal premises and in the motor industry businesses.

The variation in profits earned is the highest within the local resident category of business owner, with almost 47% earning profits below R5 000 and 21% earning over R50 000. In comparison, a larger proportion of foreign business owners (37%) earn profits in the middle range of R10 000–R50 000.

4.1.4 Accessibility, mobility and transport A key feature of the nodes was how conveniently

located they were, allowing large numbers of people to walk to work (which was generally close by) or access cheap transport. As such, across the COF nodes, the majority of residents travelled for work or study to a destination within the node in which they live – i.e. within a distance of two kilometres or less. This finding resonates with the reasons that households gave for living in their specific nodes: whereby 43% of all respondents noted that their choice was influenced by proximity to work or school (only 7% said they chose the sites due to affordable accommodation). Given the above it was not surprising that the primary means of transport was walking – on average over 50%, with 66% in the Park Station, 56% in Orange Grove and 45% in Westbury. It was only in the case of Marlboro South commuters that more travelled regularly by minibus taxi (48%) than by walking (29%). Minibus taxis were the second most used mode of transport, after walking, to reach regular destinations by residents of Westbury (29%), Orange Grove (28%) and Park Station (20%). Overall, only 8% utilised a car, more so among residents of Orange Grove (14%) than elsewhere. The Rea Vaya BRT was used by 5% of regular commuters, most commonly among Westbury (9%) and Marlboro South (8%) residents.

Two-thirds of business owners (67%) lived within a short distance (1 to 2 km) of the location of their business. Thus for the Westbury node, 73% lived in Westbury, Coronationville, Joe Slovo, Newclare or Sophiatown. In the Park Station node, 54% lived in the Johannesburg CBD, or areas such as Hillbrow, Braamfontein, Yeoville, Fordsburg and Berea. A further 11% lived in Soweto; 17% in other areas south of the CBD, and 4% in Alexandra or Marlboro South. Owners of Orange Grove node businesses lived mainly (69%) in the surrounding suburbs of Orange Grove, Norwood, Highlands North and Houghton. Those operating in Marlboro South lived mainly (68%) in Alexandra or Marlboro South, with a further 18% elsewhere in northern Johannesburg.

The majority (80%) of businesses reported having employees living within areas that are located less than 2 km from the business premises. This proportion varied from 63% of Orange Grove businesses to 92% of Marlboro South businesses.

More than one-third (39%) of businesses indicated that they had employees who walked to their place of work. Almost one-quarter (24%) or more said that they had employees who travelled by minibus

taxi. The mean one-way travel time was around 19 minutes; this was highest for Park Station employees and lowest for those employed in Westbury. The mean one-way cost for employees to travel to work was R11, ranging from R8 in Westbury to R12 in the Park Station and Orange Grove nodes.

About one-third (34%) of the other users who were interviewed indicated that they were in the node because they were en route to their places of work. A further 20% were residents of the area, and 16% were on their way home. Two main modes of transport had been utilised by the ‘other user’ respondents to reach the points in the nodes where they were interviewed. These were by minibus taxi (41%) and by walking (37%). Whereas the use of minibus taxis was higher in Park Station (47%) and Marlboro South (49%), walking was more common in Westbury (45%) and Orange Grove (60%).

Not surprisingly, the use of a train was higher at Park Station (15%) than anywhere else, while car transport was higher at the nodes outside of Park Station. The Rea Vaya BRT was used by only 5% of these respondents overall, and highest at Park Station (9%). Importantly, when asked what they liked about the area in which they were interviewed, almost a fifth (19%) mentioned the accessibility of transport to the area, ranging from as high as 26% in Park Station, to 12% in the Orange Grove node.

4.1.5 Community conditions When asking residents about persisting conditions in their area, 23% were of the view that their neighbourhood was improving, 38% said it was staying the same but the same percentage said that it was getting worse. These perceptions differed significantly by node with much higher perceptions of improvement in Orange Grove and Park Station.

The biggest challenges in the area were seen as being the abuse of drugs (26%), crime in general (23%), unemployment (15%) and overcrowding of accommodation (7%). The particular challenges varied significantly between nodes, with drugs being by far the most serious challenge in Westbury (50%), crime in general being the biggest issue in Park Station (46%) and Orange Grove (21%), and overcrowding of accommodation (22%) in Marlboro South.

The most important issue that residents wished to be addressed was the elimination of crime (22%).

This was mentioned most in the Park Station node (48%). The second most frequently mentioned

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issue was the need for improvement to municipal services in general (17%), notably electricity, water and sewerage reticulation. This was a particular priority in Marlboro South (29%). Other desired improvements were employment generation (15%), better housing (12%), tackling of drug abuse (6%), a cleaner environment (5%), and traffic/ transport issues (2%) – especially the completion of construction along Louis Botha Avenue.

Dissatisfaction in respect of safety and security was 27%.

In terms of business owners, 20% were dissatisfied with municipal services, most of these mentioning the disruptions or cut-offs of water and/or electricity services to their businesses. 12% of businesses were dissatisfied with their business premises, mainly because the premises were too small. Dissatisfaction with the size of the market (11%) and with business opportunities in their areas (7%) were ascribed to excessive competition, and dissatisfaction with business infrastructure (7%), mainly being attributed to the poor quality thereof. When asked what could be done by the state to assist, most owners stated that a reduction in municipal rates (63%) and direct financial assistance (60%) were most desirable forms of support that businesses would like to receive from the City of Johannesburg. High on the list was also improved infrastructure (59%), improved services (58%), better regulation of the area (55%), and assistance with bank loans (54%).

resulted as a consequence of some of the more successful nodes with the best access is that rental costs for commercial and residential property has gone up, making these sites unaffordable for very poor people. Gender is playing a larger role than expected with fewer women residents and business owners than would be expected for a city where women outnumber men, raising questions about what is driving this gender disparity.

Conditions in the nodes reflect concerns around urban management and safety and security and the call is to the state to assist with improving social and physical infrastructure. Perhaps more importantly, there is a resounding demand for the CoJ to make sites safe and improve the possibilities for income generation. Overall, the nodes along the transit corridors offer a snapshot of life; work and use along the Corridors and indicate high levels of potential and much optimism.

4.1.6 Conclusions Overall, the nodes reflect the heterogeneity and wide diversity of the City of Johannesburg. Some areas are burgeoning with economic opportunities and migrants from all over the country and the continent, while others demonstrate a particular kind of economic and social isolation – even parochialism – with the inhabitants working and living in the same area into which they were born.

Micro-enterprises are a key feature of all of the nodes, offering profits and livelihoods for locals and migrants alike, and in some cases offering the chance to employ others on temporary or permanent basis. Key to all of the nodes was their accessibility; the chance to access work; the ability to walk or take low-cost transport was an important factor in location decisions for both businesses and residents. However, what has

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Westbury/Coronationville/Slovo Park 01

The history of this area has had a profound impact on its continued development, affecting identity politics, economic marginalisation, unemployment and crime.

02

High unemployment is influenced by gender and age. The bulk of women are unemployed due to a lack of skills and childcare constraints. In terms of age, only one third of the population is economically active; criminal records limit many of this group.

03

04

05

06

07

08

09

The community is stable: rates of property ownership are high and most residents are South African citizens. This is beneficial for community engagement.

Densification has occurred through the sharing of houses, construction of backyard rooms and the conversion of garages for leasing. While the increased densities are positive, there are issues of service overloads and impingement into public space.

Despite a plethora of planning frameworks including Westbury, most do not build on previous plans; the understanding of context has been weak; there has been little implementation; and few residents are aware of planning initiatives, including the Corridors of Freedom.

Established businesses are struggling as a result of the influx of foreign-owned tuckshops, which are accused of being highly competitive due to tax avoidance and collaborative strategies. There is also a lack of support for small businesses. Despite this, there is confidence in the potential for business in the area, given established clientele and movement of people.

Westbury is experiencing a perceived and real downward spiral of unemployment, poverty, drug abuse and crime. The result is a decline in morale of the community and mistrust of state-driven initiatives.

10

The area lacks an effective integrated response to the social and economic challenges facing the area, despite the high number of government and nongovernmental social institutions, and relatively high levels of community volunteerism.

It is necessary to build an institutional structure – such as an area-based management framework – that will facilitate effective integrated crosssectoral implementations of socioeconomic programs and Corridors of Freedom physical interventions.

Initiatives should include social rehabilitation, crime prevention, skills development and food security.

The development of appropriate financial, planning and property development instruments is important in ensuring local residents benefit from the Corridors of Freedom project. Instruments should include: Community Land Trusts and land pooling to secure long term access to land for the poor; special development zones for social housing developments; land value capture; loan guarantee areas; micro-loan financing and micro-enterprise development.

16.4%

68.6% Jhb 29.8% Other SA 1.6% Foreign migrants

Employed

44.3% 98%

Unemployed, seeking work

of residents originate from South Africa

3.6% 12.9%

7.9%

Self-employed

7.1%

Home duties

7.9%

Unemployed, not seeking work

In education

Retired/ pensioner None R1-R200 R201-R500 R501-R1000 R1001-R1500 R1501-R2500 R2501-R3500 R3501-R4500 R4501-R6000 R6001-R8000 R8001-R11000 R11001-R16000 R16001-R30000

49% households earn between R1001 and R6000 per month

>R30000 Don’t know Refusal 0% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15%

Drugs Crime Unemployment Overcrowding Poor services Poverty Litter/ dirt Foreigners Other challenges No challenges

37

SYNTHESIS REPORT

0% 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50%

City of Tshwane Marlboro South

4.2

D !

Sophiatown

The Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park informal settlement case study (Westbury/Coronationville area), has always played an important role in Johannesburg – as the service area for the city and as the site of the first formal ‘black township’ in Johannesburg.

The residents of this area have consistently had a difficult relationship with the state, with long-term residents noting that they have generally felt poorly treated by the government. Initially this was through forced removals, as a result of the Group Areas Act, poor policing, gangsterism and crime. More recently, the community has experienced further inadequate policing and a sense of alienation from ! ! the government. The area has been subjected to a number of poor spatial planning interventions over the past 60 years, and the apartheid legacy of forced removals has left a deep scar on the psyche of the population, resulting in mistrust of the state and a feeling of disempowerment as a community.

The issue of ‘Coloured identity’, which is a legacy of apartheid segregation, is a complex issue of identity and community in Westbury and Coronationville.

Coloured people were defined by their liminality, ! ! between black and white. As a consequences of these many factors, there are a number of elements that contribute to the community’s continued sense of marginalisation.

4.2.1 Boundaries and spatial identity The Westbury/Coronationville case study area is located along the Empire-Perth Corridor in Region B, which lies less than 6 km west of the Johannesburg CBD (or an 11-minute drive). The area comprises approximately 1.88 km² and incorporates the suburbs of Westbury and Coronationville, which both lie in Ward 69 of the City of Johannesburg.

The Slovo Park informal settlement ! was formed in 1995, during the rapid urbanisation resulting from the repeal of apartheid legislation. This was established on occupied Transnet land in the south‑eastern corner of Coronationville (interview ! with Local Resident A, 7 September 2016).

Louis Botha Development

Randburg

!

Coronationville was established in 1937,N1close to the pre-existing Sophiatown and Newclare areas, which initially formed the Western Native Township (WNT) known as the Western Areas of Johannesburg (Beinart 1975). The WNT lay between two major east-west public transport systems: the electric tram route, and the light rail system and initially was well laid out, with a number or urban amenities. Despite the area initially seen as a salubrious area, with good state provided housing, by the early 1940s Coronationville could not avoid becoming enmeshed in the crime wave emanating from the rest of the WNT. Contributing to the problem was dysfunctional policing focused on enforcing apartheid-related laws, rather than crime and widespread corruption. In the late 1940s, the situation was made worse by the emergence of a number of gangs in Sophiatown.DIn response to ! this, local communities set up a civic guard to help fight crime. However, the guard had limited success & probably due to collusion between Sowetothe police and ! certain gangs, allowing for a situation in which crime and violence were used as a means of control by the state (Goodhew 1990). Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Units: Degree

!

Turffontein Development Corridor

M1

Soweto Development ! !

Corridor

!

Highway

Newclare

&

Arterial Roads &

Rea Vaya BRT

!

!

I 2 ! !

Coronationville

Johannesburg CBD

!City of Tshwane ! !

Westbury, Coronationville

M2

Industria

Sophiatown

Industria West

Westbury

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/29 Units: Degree

!

Empire Perth Development Corridor

Turffontein

!

0

Arterial Roads

0.75 1.5

3

4.5

Main Roads

City of Tshwane

Slovo Park 6 Km

±

0

0.1

0.2

0.4

0.6

Local Roads

! !

Westbury, Coronationville

Railway

and Slovo Park

Rea Vaya BRT

Empire Perth Development Corridor Open!Spaces !

2 I

Rail Stations

! !

Recreation Centre

¬ Health Facilities & ! Schools

Arterial Roads Main Roads

D !

Local Roads

!

!

Crosby

and Slovo Park

Open Spaces

Police Stations

Railway

I 2!!!

! !

!

! ! !

&

Date: 2017/05/19

6 This section is drawn from Neil Klug’s report entitled The More Things Change, the More Newclare they Stay the Same: A Case Study of Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park Informal Settlement. For more information, please see report 5 in this series. Industria

Empire Perth Development Corridor

!

!

In 1985, the Johannesburg City Council undertook an urban renewal scheme for the area, redeveloping the WNT into the township of Westbury (Lupton ! !

D ! !

1992). This was opposed by the local residents.

The ! & reconfiguration of the area resulted in a new outbreak !

Sophiatown of gang violence due to the changing of gang ! territories (Chapman 2013). The problems of crime, violence and gangsterism remained rife in the WNT ! and continue to affect Westbury and Coronationville.

Thus, the areaNewclare has suffered from a sense of continued official apathy and indifference, which has contributed !

Westbury to an area that lacks urban management and suffers ! & from significant social pathology. ! &

! Corridor

Westbury

4.2.2 Historical context

! !

SYNTHESIS REPORT

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Sandton

Coronationville

!

Park Station Precinct

!

The more things change, the more they stay the same: a case study of Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park6

39

Orange Grove and Norwood

Rea Vaya BRT

2 Rail Stations I Figure 6: Map depicting the context of the study area in the Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park Case Study !

Recreation Centre ! ¬ Health Facilities & ! Schools D !

Crosby

Police Stations

!

SYNTHESIS REPORT

40

4.2.3 Planning Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park Year

Plan

Description

2008

Newclare-Coronationville-Brixton Corridor UDF

Densification and intensification of land use residential and mixed-use densities, together with commercial land uses, along Fuel Road, as well as medium-density housing (row houses and semi-detached) along the eastern edge of Coronationville.

2009

Unified, Maraisburg, Bosmont, Newclare and Westbury Rail Stations UDF

A TOD plan for the area proposing higher densities than the previous plan around stations.

2011

Planning proposal upgrade of the Slovo Park informal settlement

Demolition of the existing informal settlement and the total redevelopment of the site – including sites to the north and east of Slovo Park – into a fully integrated neighbourhood, accommodating 2 148 units in three- and four-storey buildings.

2014

Empire-Perth Development Corridor SAF Part of the COF project, Westbury is identified as a social cluster with development potential.

2015

Westbury Precinct Development Plan

Related to the Empire-Perth SAF and contains detailed proposed projects for Westbury. This plan addresses the issue of implementation and considers the identification and elaboration of priority projects in terms of their location, budgets and timeframes.

2016 –ongoing

Martindale Integrated Operations Centre Precinct

Proposes a concentration of local government departments into one operations centre (just north of Westbury across Main Road).

2016 –ongoing

Housing study

This project is a detailed housing case study on a portion of Westbury and although not a plan will influence the housing plans for the area in the future.

Westbury and Coronationville have remained much the same since the late 1980s. However, between 2008 and 2016, the City commissioned a spate of urban development and urban design frameworks, as well as detailed site plan proposals. These include the current infrastructure upgrades associated with the BRT system and Corridors of Freedom project.

The Newclare-Coronationville-Brixton Corridor Urban Development Framework (UDF), commissioned by the City in 2008, effectively introduced the notion of a transport corridor to the area and the densification and commercialisation on either side of Fuel Road. The only significant aspect of the plan to have been implemented to date was the R15 million rail underpass, linking Bosmont with Newclare. A planning proposal commissioned in 2011 by the CoJ in line with the UDF 2011 plan details the demolition and complete reestablishment of Slovo Park informal settlement.

41

SYNTHESIS REPORT

Related to the Corridors of Freedom, the EmpirePerth Strategic Area Framework (SAF) acknowledges issues of the local spatial economy, key land uses, spatial linkages, access to public transport, infrastructure capacities, as well as economic conditions at a broad level. Key proposals relevant to the Coronationville-Westbury study area include: exploring the clustering of services on Main Road on the northern boundary of Westbury; densifying along Fuel Road and parts of Main Road, and zoning these sites as mixed-use ‘active edge’ areas. The framework also provides urban design guidelines.

The densification is proposing 100–160 dwelling units per hectare, with a built form of four to six storey flats. Importantly, the SAF suggests approaches on how to densify areas and provides the most comprehensive vision of how this densification could be implemented incrementally.

The Empire-Perth SAF also emphasises the

importance of a range of institutional mechanisms to implement projects, and sets out four key functional requirements for implementation: project planning; project implementation; urban management and development facilitation.

The most recent plan for the area is the 2015 Westbury Development Precinct Plan, which identifies priority projects. This plan strategically targets projects that can be implemented by local government, such as pedestrian bridges, park upgrades and affordable housing. It relies on public sector investment and catalytic projects, as well as conventional planning mechanisms (e.g. zoning rights), to facilitate private sector developments in the area. However, the desire of the private sector to become involved in Westbury/Coronationville remains doubtful, which may jeopardise the likelihood of these plans being implemented.

4.2.4 Business activity Economic activity in Westbury/Coronationville is characterised by small scale enterprises that make relatively little profit, generate minimal employment and struggle to access financial resources.

Specifically, the survey7 found that businesses are dominated by the retail sector (48%) but remains fairly diverse, with catering (27%), services (15%) and the motor industry (10%). The businesses are connected into local networks of supply, sourcing their material primarily from south of the CBD in Crown Mines, City Deep, and Booysens (49%), from the Johannesburg CBD (33%), and within the Westbury and Coronationville area (17%). The bulk of the retail shops in Westbury/Coronationville are small-scale tuck shops, which tend to be located on the main roads through the area, and have relatively small income and profit margins. There has been increased competition from ‘foreign’ tuck shop owners, which has contributed to xenophobic attacks in the area.

Businesses maximise profits by reducing labour costs. On average, Westbury/Coronationville businesses only employ 2.4 permanent staff and 2.3 temporary staff. The mean monthly profit of businesses within the area ranges from between R5 000 and R10 000 per month. Rental costs consume a significant proportion of businesses’ income (47% on average). Very few businesses own the premises where they operate and conduct their activities; 60.5% of business owners rent their

premises. The majority (83%) of business owners reside within the area; 64% of business owners have resided in the area since birth. Businesses are located within formal premises (47%), within the homes of residents (25.5%), and on the street in the form of vendors (22%).

Safety and security are a problem for businesses, as well as conditions of the business premises.

Businesses would like more support from government. Some local businesses are aware they need to get access to the Perth Road corridor to enhance their business visibility, but have no idea how to do that, apart from placing a stall on the pavement on Perth Road (which they are aware is illegal). Given the above it can be seen that the area’s economy is not robust, and requires assistance in improving its fortunes.

4.2.5 Residents The area of Westbury hosts a population of some 13 461 people in an area of 1.03 km², while Coronationville has a population of 4 848 people in an area of 0.85 km² (CoJ 2008). Slovo Park informal settlement (which falls within the boundary of Coronationville) comprises an estimated 2 000 to 2 500 people (CoJ 2008). The population density is between 108 and 133 persons per hectare.

A total of 64% of survey respondents were born in Johannesburg (85% of Westbury/Coronationville respondents and 17% of Slovo Park respondents) and 98.5% of those interviewed are South African nationals. The age distribution within the Westbury area is very evenly spread amongst cohorts, although it has a significantly higher number of older residents than in the other case study areas (30.5% of the 51–86 years cohort). Westbury displays a gender disparity, with its population consisting of 61% women and only 39% men. The survey indicates that in this area only 26% of the men are unemployed, while 48% of the women are unemployed.

The most startling findings emerging from the survey are the extremely high levels of unemployment at 41%. The spatial distribution of these unemployed is evenly spread throughout the area, including the Slovo Park informal settlement.

At the household level, 48.5% are within the modal categories falling within the R1 001–R6 000 per month income range.

7 S ince there are few studies of the Westbury economy, the survey of 51 businesses provides an invaluable data source.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

42

City of Tshwane

In terms of residential satisfaction, the survey

Marlboro South Sophiatown

Westbury, Coronationville found that the highest levels of action were and Slovo Park around safety and security (45%), police services

Orange Grove and Norwood

and job opportunities (51%) in the area. The Empire Perth(52%) Development dominant narrative in almost all interviews was Corridor

Park Station Precinct

of unemployment, poverty and crime, caused by the apartheid history of the ‘Coloured community’, Arterial Roadspoor parenting and poor policing.

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Sandton

burg

Open Spaces

Louis Botha Development Corridor

Westbury

Main Roads Local Roads The area has a very stable population. Only 65% of

Empire Perth Development Corridor

those surveyed in Slovo Park had lived elsewhere; only one-third of respondents from Westbury Rea Vaya BRT or Coronationville had lived in another area.

2 Rail Stations This indicates a relatively entrenched or locally I committed community, particularly amongst the Westbury/Coronationville residents. This was Satisfaction with further reinforced by 86% of those surveyed (94% from Slovo Park and 82% from Westbury/ standard of accommodation Coronationville) claiming that they intend to stay in the area for another ten years or more.

Very satisfiedOf those surveyed, 47% stayed in Slovo Park for work-related reasons; respondents from Westbury Satisfied and Coronationville stayed in the area mostly for Neutral reasons relating to their birthplace (85%).

Railway

Turffontein Development Corridor

M1

Soweto Development Corridor

Newclare

Highway Arterial Roads

2 I

Rea Vaya BRT

City of Tshwane Coronationville Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

iatown

rk

City of Tshwane

Dissatisfied

Johannesburg CBD Empire

Perth Development Corridor

Very dissatisfied 4.2.6 Housing Crosby

Open Spaces M2

Arterial Roads Industria

Main Roads

Industria West

Turffontein

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/29 Units: Degree

0

0.75 1.5

2 I

City of Tshwane

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park Empire Perth Development Corridor

Local Roads

Slovo Park

Railway Rea Vaya BRT 3

4.5

Rail Stations

6 Km

±

Satisfaction with standard of accommodation Very satisfied

Open Spaces

Satisfied

Arterial Roads

Neutral

Main Roads

Dissatisfied

Local Roads

Very dissatisfied

Railway

Crosby

Rea Vaya BRT

2 I

Rail Stations

Figure 7: Levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with standard of accommodation

Satisfaction with standard of SYNTHESIS REPORT 43 accommodation

0 0.0750.15

0.3

0.45

0 0.0750.15

0.3

0.45

0.6 Km

±

The Westbury/Coronationville area primarily comprises freestanding homes (39%), informal shacks (29%) and flats/apartments (28%). In Slovo Park, 70% of those surveyed sub-let their dwellings (compared with only 7.5% in the rest of the area). It is significant that 75% of households in the study area fully own their houses or units. This could be due to people being offered first-time ownership bonds in the late 1980s and the Enhanced Extended Discount Benefit Scheme, which transferred pre1994 rental housing stock to qualifying occupants.

Theoretically, this relatively high percentage of property owners should be extremely well placed to benefit from the additional rights benefits that could be accrued from the densification and increased rights opportunities offered in the EmpirePerth Corridor Strategic Area Framework and the Westbury Development Precinct plan. However, people in the area have very little knowledge of the City’s plans, and property owners appeared to have no awareness of the potential financial advantages of holding an asset or property for leveraging or obtaining additional financial resources.

In terms of satisfaction with accommodation within the study area, most residents in Westbury and

Coronationville are largely satisfied, as opposed to Slovo Park informal settlement where there are high levels of dissatisfaction (see Figure 7). According to interviewees in Slovo Park, over 700 households reside within the informal settlement. People are living in very poor conditions in a dense layout of shacks, with limited access to water, sanitation and electricity. The housing conditions are also very poor, with the bulk of building materials consisting of corrugated iron and wood. The settlement has been scheduled for an upgrade, and the community was informed about this many months ago, however residents do not believe that this will ever happen.

4.2.7 Crime and policing Westbury has witnessed high levels of crime and violence since the early 1930s. Over the past two years, gang-related crime and violence has peaked; in August 2016 the community held a large demonstration against crime in the area. The survey bore this out and recorded that the three most significant challenges in the area are drug dealing (50.5%) followed by crime (17%) and unemployment (15%). A large proportion of residents (45%) are dissatisfied with safety and security, and a further 51% noted that they are dissatisfied with policing. The dominant narrative is that the high unemployment rate and the resultant poverty are the factors causing recent drug abuse and criminal activities. They attribute the petty robberies to the drug addicts who are desperate to get money and the violent crime (shootings) to gang battles.

There are also security concerns directly related to the Rea Vaya, as residents are fearful of crime along the road, which is apparently often violent. The Colonel of Sophiatown police station highlights the importance of urban design, and argues that the layout and design of the area and buildings allow criminals to be evasive; the upgrades done to roads as part of the BRT project have posed challenges to police officers, as some parts restrict the rapid crossing of the road by police vehicles (interview with SAPS Officer, 7 September 2016).

4.2.8 Municipal services, urban management and social infrastructure Service delivery issues are considerably less prominent in the Westbury/Coronationville area than in the other case studies. With the exception of Slovo Park informal settlement, residents and businesses are relatively satisfied with municipal services, urban management and social SYNTHESIS REPORT

0.6

44

infrastructure. Arguably, plans for the area have put too much of a focus on infrastructure and physical planning, and not enough on social development programmes. The key issues in Westbury/ Coronationville are social in nature and demand a different set of responses from the state.

Dissatisfaction with the area

Safety & security

4.2.9 Mobility, transport and access

Job/business opportunities Access to health services Quality of health services

Residents Business

Access to schools / educational facilities Quality of schools / educational facilities

4.2.10 Governance There are few residents’ associations and committees in Westbury/Coronationville, but a large number of NGOs play a minor role in terms of governance, and mostly focus on addressing single issues, such as drugs. The Westbury Transformation Development Centre (WTDC) was created to be the link between the people and the government, this facility covers the entire Region B, with the main programme conducted by the City’s Department of Social Development directed at drug abuse and awareness and training for the youth in the area. The success of the WTDC has arguably been questionable as it is severely understaffed. Over two-thirds of surveyed residents were aware of a Community Policing Forum (CPF), but meeting turnout is low and the organisation struggles to launch successful initiatives. Therefore, the CPF impact on local area governance seems minimal.

Municipal services Cleanliness of area Police services Recreational & leisure facilities Roads &public transport & infrastructure Standard of accommodation / business premises Regulation enforcement Size of the market

0 10 20 30 40 50% Percentage dissatisfied

Figure 8: Overall residential and business dissatisfaction in Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

45

SYNTHESIS REPORT

The primary modes of transport used within the area are walking and minibus taxis, with less than 10% of the residents using the Rea Vaya. The cost of the Rea Vaya is a major issue in accessing this form of transport, as 37% of residents have no monthly income, while the majority of those employed earn only between R1 001 and R1 500 per month. Very few residents earn more than R3 500 per month, making the cost of the Rea Vaya unaffordable and the poverty rates within the area thus restrict the movement of residents.

According to interviewees,the Slovo Park community is not organised into any coherent formal development committee and has no elected representatives or leadership structure. There are various informal groups (based on ethnic description) representing interests of their particular groups and assuming, or trying to assume, leadership of the area, but little could be gleaned about these groups.

Overall, there are some key issues concerning governance in the area: networks of gangs, crime and drug syndicates operating in Westbury, and residents and business owners complaining about a lack of communication, especially in Slovo Park informal

settlement (with the state). In terms of interventions, the general sentiment is that the upgrades have taken too long and there has been little communication about the timeframes. In addition, there is tension between members of different political parties, which plays out in community meetings. All of this has diminished the trust between the communities and government, a situation that the new ward councillor is trying to change.

4.2.11 Strengths and opportunities Encouragingly, there are generally high levels of volunteerism within the community, including individuals who run feeding schemes and counselling services. There are also over 35 active community-based organisations, NGOs and state initiatives operating in the area, mainly focused on: HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and rehabilitation, diversion services for convicted criminals, family mediation services, skills development, and crime prevention and rehabilitation. Most of these organisations are members of the Westbury Local Drug Action Committee, an umbrella organisation that meets on a monthly basis at the WTDC to share information, report back and coordinate their activities. This umbrella body consists of organisations and stakeholders from all sectors involved in substance abuse and related problems, including officials from justice, police, probation and correctional services, education, health, social development and community. However, the overall findings from the study suggest that this umbrella has not been as effective as it could be. Once again this may be an issue of capacity as the WTDC is short-staffed and have only between two and three social workers to train people but is in the process of being redeveloped.

4.2.12 Challenges The key challenges in Westbury/Coronationville relate to poverty, unemployment, drugs and crime. Employment initiatives and upliftment programmes are vital. With regards to drug abuse, gangsterism and crime, efficient policing is of immense importance. However, there are concerns around policing including allegations of corruption, which deter people from trusting the police and reporting crime (interview with SAPS Officer, 7 September 2016). The police force is also understaffed and faces resource constraints and is hindered by the urban design in the area.

Furthermore, the community feels isolated from the City; proper community engagement could go a long way in rectifying this.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

46

Orange Grove and Norwood 01

02

03

04

47

Orange Grove and Norwood developed in the early 20th century, benefitting from their proximity to the city centre. Economic and demographic shifts in the CBD in the 1970s and 1980s affected Louis Botha Avenue and Orange Grove experienced ‘decline’. Norwood benefitted from its proximity to Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, becoming increasingly desirable for middle class residents. Given the history of these areas, in terms of policy and approach, it is advisable to see Orange Grove as a complex extension of the CBD, and to understand Norwood in light of Sandton.

Orange Grove already typifies much of what the Corridors of Freedom initiative is aiming to achieve. Densities are higher than the Johannesburg average; many employees live in the area and walk to work; it is a transit hub; there is a multitude of business activity; and its residents are diverse in terms of race, religion, nationality and income.

The major Corridors of Freedom related intervention in the area is the Paterson Park social housing project – a CoJ initiative aiming to increase densities in the area through providing 1400-2000 social housing units. The location of this project demands the study area to be widened to include Norwood as an important area with key stakeholders.

The Paterson Park project is a prominent fault-line across the communities of Orange Grove and Norwood and between the CoJ and local residents. It has sparked tensions between the two major residents’ associations – the Orange Grove Residents’ Association and the Norwood/Orchards Residents’ Association.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

05

Not all residents are represented by the residents’ associations. Two notable excluded groups are the residents of the police barracks and the homeless population. It is important for CoJ considerations to extend to these groups; especially the homeless who have already been evicted from Paterson Park as a result of the City’s development.

06

There are a multitude of businesses in the area, mostly congregated along Louis Botha Avenue and Grant Avenue. There are differences in business satisfaction between Orange Grove and Norwood, with Norwood businesses being more satisfied on the whole. Business owners generally agree that they would like assistance from the CoJ, through a reduction in rates, upgraded infrastructure, improved services, financial assistance or better regulation.

07

While there is street trading in the area, most informality in business occurs through sub-letting arrangement. A littleregulated environment has enabled informal business and residential renting arrangements. This has been vital in the growth of the area and should be protected.

08

The CoJ has fuelled uncertainty in the area through practices lacking transparency and forged a deeply antagonistic environment.

Reflection on this is important to prevent the situation repeating itself in other areas and the unnecessary diversion of CoJ resources.

09

Many of the most complex features of post‑apartheid transformation are evident in Orange Grove and Norwood; it is an excellent learning opportunity for policy and research.

City of Tshwane Marlboro South

4.3

Park Station Precinct

Contestation, transformation and competing visions in Orange Grove and Norwood8 Orange Grove, a node along one of Johannesburg’s oldest roads and now a central TOD corridor, Louis Botha Avenue, is a complex area, where the postapartheid imperative of ‘transformation’ manifests in multifaceted ways. A site of significance in terms of realising the potential positive impact of TOD in Johannesburg, Orange Grove provides insight into the dynamics of diverse and unequal communities and their interaction with the state.

The story of Orange Grove is one of many narratives and no single truth. Stakeholders in the area present their ‘truths’, which differ widely and cause conflict.

Nowhere is this clearer than in the case of Paterson Park, where a social housing project by the CoJ has caused massive contestation and fuelled tension between the two powerful residents’ associations, Norwood/Orchards Residents’ Association (NORA) and Orange Grove Residents’ Association (OGRA).

A common belief within Johannesburg’s urban planning circles is that Orange Grove is an area in which residents and businesses are well-organised and well-represented. However the reality is considerably more complex.

4.3.1 Boundaries and spatial identity

Randburg

The Orange Grove area has a long history of accommodating immigrants and migrants, with European migrants in the mid-twentieth century earning the suburb the name ‘Little Italy’. However, the area has historically been fundamentally Soweto exclusionary. While the Radium Beer Hall has always provided a mixed-race space – somehow passing under the radar of segregationist law enforcers – Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 the majority of black people in the area Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 prior to the Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree 1980s were domestic workers (Scheidegger 2015). !

Louis Botha Avenue was always a more complex space than the suburbs on either side: PUTCO buses Orchards ran along the road, transporting black workers from !

Alexandra to the CBD (Bonner and Nieftagodien 2008) and during bus boycotts and during other Norwood Park transportation shortages, black workers walked ! to work using Louis Botha Avenue, disrupting the spatial norms of the area (ibid.). Interestingly, Louis Botha Avenue stillNorwood causes a disruption in the ! desired spatial norms of the suburbs that flank the Paterson Park avenue on either side. !

e nu ve

! !

! !

Orchards

Empire Perth Development Corridor Turffontein Development !

Corridor

Norwood Park M1

!

Soweto Development Corridor

Orange Grove

Norwood

Highway

Paterson Park

an Gr

!

D !

e nu ve tA

Arterial Roads Rea Vaya BRT

! !

Linksfield Fairwood

!

Johannesburg CBD Fellside

Linksfield Ridge !

City of Tshwane

M2

!

Orange Grove and Norwood

!

Turffontein

0

0.75 1.5

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree

Louis Botha Development Corridor Open Spaces 4.5 6

3

Km

Arterial Roads

City of Tshwane

! !

Louis Botha Development Corridor

!

Orange Grove

Open Spaces Arterial Roads

±

0

0.15

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2 Km

Main Roads Local Roads

Orange Grove and Norwood

Rea Vaya BRT

! Schools ! !

D !

Recreation Centre Police Stations

Main Roads !

Local Roads Rea Vaya BRT

!

SYNTHESIS REPORT

Louis Botha Development Corridor

!

Orange Grove and Norwood is inextricable from the development of Johannesburg asN1 a city since its foundation. Previously known as Pretoria Road, Louis Botha Avenue became the critical route between Pretoria and Johannesburg, soon after Johannesburg’s founding as a mining town (Burgess 2016). Orange Grove and Norwood – some of Johannesburg’s first suburbs – developed as a result of their location, benefitting from both their proximity to and distance from the city centre. These suburbs catered to the growing middle class, providing a hybrid lifestyle of town and country. Louis Botha Avenue has historically always hosted public transport – including a horsedrawn tram, an electric tram, a trolleybus, modern busses and minibus taxis – making it an appropriate route for the BRT.

8 This section is drawn from Alexandra Appelbaum’s report entitled Contestation, Paterson Park Transformation and Competing Visions: A Study of !

Orange Grove and Norwood. For more Din this series. information, please see !report 7!

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Sandton

The original idea for this area-based study was to gain fine-grained understanding of the political and socio-economic realities for residents and businesses along a strip of Louis Botha Avenue and its two adjacent blocks. The Garden Road boundary in the north, and Osborn Road boundary in the south, place this section of Louis Botha Avenue within the historic suburb of Orange Grove. However, the context of the COF project caused the boundaries of the study area to be redrawn. The Paterson Park project, which is seen as vital in realising the TOD vision, sits between Orange Grove and Norwood.

D ! !e Both Norwood and Orange Grove will playOrchards central nu e ! v roles in the success of the TOD vision along Louis Since the 1980s, Louisnt ABotha Avenue and the a r G Botha Avenue.

Norwood Park surrounding Orange Grove have developed in line with the inner city – mirroring much! of its !

4.3.2 Historical context ‘decline’ and leading to lower property prices, Orange Grove trajectory, The historical development of Louis Botha Avenue, enabling greater social equity. Norwood’s Norwood Fellside

49

Orange Grove and Norwood

!

! Schools

Linksfield !

Recreation Centre !

Fairwood Figure 9: Map depicting the context of the study area in Orange Grove and Norwood and Slovo Park !

D !

Police Stations

Linksfield Ridge

SYNTHESIS REPORT

50

±

benefiting from its proximity to Houghton, has been more closely aligned with Johannesburg’s northern suburbs. This disparity is significant in terms of how the areas are currently conceptualised in terms of policy; perhaps two targeted approaches based on the areas’ recent histories would be sensible.

4.3.3 Planning Orange Grove and Norwood Currently, three key plans are significant in Orange Grove and Norwood: the Louis Botha Development Corridor SAF, the Paterson Park Precinct Plan and, when passed by Council, the Grant Avenue Precinct Plan. The SAF translates the COF vision into its spatial form, identifying the interventions necessary to foster transformation, including those related to public transit, bulk and social infrastructure, and public environment projects (CoJ 2014c). Its central outcomes are: safe neighbourhoods; mixed-use developments; integrated spaces; limited parking; convenient public transport, and safe streets (CoJ 2014c). The four key interventions identified are the development of Paterson Park social housing project; the upgrading of recreational facilities and environmental infrastructure in Paterson Park; the development of the former First National Bank (FNB) building on Louis Botha Avenue as a community facility, and the development of the Orange Grove Triangle, public space adjacent to Louis Botha Avenue.

The plan for the redevelopment of Paterson Park into a multi-use precinct with a substantial portion of housing has been under consideration since 2005 (interview with Roger Chadwick, 31 October 2016). With the COF project and the need for densification, the plan has been reinvigorated in recent years and was passed by the Council in 2015.

The CoJ plans to build between 1 445 and 2 277 social housing units on the Paterson Park property, 50 m2 on average, in two- and twelve-storey buildings (CoJ 2015). The plan also provides for an upgraded recreation centre, public open space, with the park remaining at a reduced size, but improved environmentally through the ‘day-lighting’ of the river. With improved mobility through the precinct, the plan hopes to enable much-needed integration between Norwood and Orange Grove.

The Paterson Park plan has caused considerable tension and arguably the JDA has initiated the Grant Avenue Precinct Plan (2016) to appease Norwood residents; to discover potential collaborations between private and public sector in the area,

51

SYNTHESIS REPORT

and to enhance the value of the CoJ’s investments in the Louis Botha Corridor. The plan proposes the formation of an area-based management framework (CoJ 2016a). Suggested urban upgrades include walkability improvement on Grant Avenue, including traffic calming, art interventions, street lighting, reconfiguration of parking and landscaping, and the creation of a ‘town square’, amongst others.

Noting the social challenges in the area, the plan also calls for a homeless shelter and support for homeless people and car guard training.

4.3.4 Businesses Businesses in Orange Grove and Norwood are diverse, but retail dominates with half the business engaged in this sector. Of the remainder of business, 26% offer services; 12% are caterers, and 11% are in the motor industry. Despite the wide variety of businesses in Orange Grove and Norwood, only 3.5% of businesses source their supplies locally. Almost half (49%) of the suppliers of goods to businesses in the node are based in the CBD, while 19% of businesses source their supplies from elsewhere in Johannesburg and 12% from the broader Gauteng area, demonstrating important economic links into the rest of the city-region.

Fewer than half (45%) of the businesses are owned

by South Africans; Zimbabweans and Nigerians own 18% and 12% of businesses respectively. The majority of businesses have a small employee base of between one and five people (52%), and one quarter are run by the owner with no employees.

Overall, the 75 businesses that answered the survey question about employee numbers are collectively responsible for 300 jobs in the area (excluding business owners). Support to businesses and their growth could see more jobs generated in this area; the job creation potential is far from maximised.

The mean profit for Norwood businesses surveyed is R23 500, compared to Orange Grove at R19 500.

The survey results indicate a stable business environment: 64% of business owners believe their profits have stayed the same over the past few years (70% in Norwood and 57% in Orange Grove). However, perceived performance varies considerably between Norwood and Orange Grove.

While 58% of businesses in Norwood say that they have performed well over the past year, only 41% of Orange Grove businesses feel the same way. Business dissatisfaction is generally greater along Louis Botha Avenue than on Grant Avenue;

Dissatisfaction with the area Safety & security Job/business opportunities Access to health services Quality of health services Residents

Access to schools / educational facilities

Business Users

Quality of schools / educational facilities Municipal services Cleanliness of area Police services Recreational & leisure facilities Roads & public transport and infrastructure Standard of accommodation / business premises Regulation enforcement Size of the market Quality of public space Variety of businesses on offer

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40% Percentage dissatisfied

Figure 10: Overall residential, business and user dissatisfaction in Orange Grove and Norwood

SYNTHESIS REPORT

52

satisfaction with business opportunities depends, to a large extent, on location. Twelve per cent of Orange Grove businesses were dissatisfied; 64% felt neutral about business opportunities, and only 24% were satisfied. On the other hand, Norwood had 56% of businesses citing satisfaction, or immense satisfaction; only 2% of Norwood businesses were dissatisfied with the business opportunities presented by the area. Furthermore, established businesses, of which there are many, have a stake in the politics of the area; the less established businesses tend not to be consulted and are more vulnerable to economic change and displacement.

There has also been a change in land use and a re‑territorialisation of some of the older buildings in the area, which have been converted to churches.

The precise number is unclear, but according to OGRA there are 11 churches within a 1.7 km stretch of Louis Botha Avenue, and the number seems to be increasing. These churches form a bone of contention between congregants and residents in the surrounding areas.

There are a substantial number of informal businesses in both Orange Grove and Norwood.

While in Norwood, there are a number of street traders, in Orange Grove – because of the relative affordability and size of the premises available on Louis Botha Avenue – informality manifests in subletting arrangements and multi-purpose spaces altering building typologies. Part of what makes Louis Botha Avenue such a vibrant place is its ability to respond to the market swiftly – new businesses start up and others adapt without needing to go through formal processes. This informality should be protected, although not confused with illegal taverns that do not deserve the same protection.

4.3.5 Residents The Orange Grove and Norwood areas host a diverse range of residents, with a number of representative bodies that are discussed in section 4.3.10. There is a wide range of religious affiliations in the area. Between 2001 and 2011, Orange Grove transformed from a majority white area to a majority black area. This is a substantial transformation in line with the goals of the postapartheid city. However, this has caused racial and class tensions in the community. Residents in Orange Grove and Norwood receive, on average, higher incomes than the other areas detailed and

53

SYNTHESIS REPORT

profiled for this study, in line with its status as a more middle-class area. However, the survey data reveals substantial variations in household income levels, indicative of the wide variety of residents and inequality that exists in the area.

The middle class, the most vocal constituency in the area, mostly live in Norwood or in Orange Grove, east of Louis Botha Avenue. The majority of this group, and its representatives are white, although there is some racial diversity among the middle class in Orange Grove and Norwood.

There is a mixture within this group of younger residents, who bought houses in Norwood due to its relative affordability as a middle-class area in Johannesburg, and older residents who have lived in Orange Grove and Norwood for decades. In some ways, this has the markers of a progressive community – hosting a number of gay and lesbian couples, for instance (Scheidegger 2015); in other ways, it is deeply exclusionary.

Aside from the middle class residents, there are also an unknown number of people who live in the dilapidated police barracks. Who resides in the barracks is debated with some residents arguing that it is only police members and their families, whilst others argue that it is the centre of crime and drug dealing in the area, with all the units having been sub-let to non-police residents (interview with Brett McDougall, 21 August 2016).

Inequality in the Orange Grove and Norwood areas is perhaps best symbolised by the homeless population who live in the public parks and on the streets of these suburbs. While there are no clear figures indicating the homeless population size in this area, informants estimate that there are approximately 30 to 40 people – mostly men – living in Norwood Park, many of whom were displaced from Paterson Park by the CoJ construction (interview with homeless residents of Norwood Park, 18 August 2016).

There is also a considerable population of foreign migrants in the Louis Botha Avenue area – many of whom operate businesses along the street and live within Orange Grove, creating significant cultural diversity in the area. While many foreign migrants move to the Orange Grove area to escape xenophobia, seeing the suburbs as a relative sanctuary, there is still animosity towards foreign nationals. The survey found that 9% of residents surveyed in Orange Grove listed ‘foreigners’ as the

Figure 11: Photographs of the 10-storey police barracks showing broken elevators and windows (Appelbaum 2016)

biggest challenge in the area – a fact that the CoJ is aware of and is sensitive to the vulnerability of this community.

4.3.6 Housing Housing typologies in Orange Grove and Norwood consist mostly of apartments along Louis Botha Avenue and free-standing houses in the suburbs.

Contrary to common perceptions that the flats along Louis Botha Avenue are largely inhabited by foreign migrants, the survey found that the majority of South Africans are living in these flats (65%) and in backyard rooms (64%), while foreign migrants are living in freestanding houses (67%) and cluster houses (60%). This is significant in that it indicates that a number of key figures in planning the arena – residents’ association chairs, local government officials and others in strategic positions – do not necessarily have a nuanced understanding of the living patterns of the area and the lives of foreign migrants. Despite the fact that dwellings along Louis Botha Avenue are often seen by planners to be inadequate, it seems that residents along and near this street are planning to be long-term residents (see Figure 12).

Aside from flats and houses, there is also the police barracks, which looms large over the area. The building is owned by the Department of Public Works and is supposed to provide accommodation to police officers working in Johannesburg. The building itself is in a state of considerable disrepair, with no functioning elevators for its 10-storeys, and broken windows and inadequate sanitation facilities.

4.3.7 Crime and policing Crime and violence are fears for almost all residents and businesses in the area. For the middle-class residents in Orange Grove and Norwood, it is that of crime and security and each residents’ association has some kind of relationship with security companies, sometimes paying them directly for security in the area. This fear manifests in the many gated communities produced through road closures – an attempt to segregate Louis Botha Avenue from the suburbs. As a JDA official suggests, securitisation of houses is also an attempt by the middle class to protect their property values (interview with Matt Jackson, 29 July 2016). The fear exists despite the fact that instances of crime in the area have decreased steadily over the past decade and crime

SYNTHESIS REPORT

54

City of Tshwane

City of Tshwane rates are lower than many other middle-class areas

Marlboro South

Orange Grove and (Crime Stats SA 2016).

Norwood

Orange Grove and Norwood

Louis Botha Development There is considerable disenchantment with police Corridor services in the area. For the middle class, this is largely

Park Station Precinct

Open Spacesdue to a perceived lack of law enforcement; for the poor,

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Sandton

it is the perception of police harassment that drives discontent. The most vulnerable – the homeless and Arterial Roads informal traders – are disproportionately victimised Main Roads by the middle class who desire order in the midst of perceived chaos and insecurity (Scheidegger 2015).

Local Roads While this research argues strongly for informality Rea Vaya BRT to be protected along Louis Botha Avenue, the range of illegal businesses should not necessarily be treated in the same way. There is considerable drug Residents’ planned trafficking along the street, as well as a number of duration of stay in the illegal taverns (Scheidegger 2015). This creates a area safety issue for women on the street, especially at >10 years night, when they are frequently harassed (interview with Pedestrian 1, 2 September 2016). >5 years Highways

Louis Botha Development Corridor

Orchards

Empire Perth Development Corridor Turffontein Development Corridor

Norwood Park M1

Soweto Development Corridor

Norwood

Orange Grove

Highway

Paterson Park

an Gr

nu ve tA

Arterial Roads

e

Rea Vaya BRT

>1 years

City of Tshwane Johannesburg CBD Fellside

4.3.8 Municipal services, urban management >6 months and social infrastructure

Linksfield Fairwood

>1 month

Orange Grove and Norwood

<1 month Linksfield Ridge

Louis Botha Development Corridor

M2

Open Spaces Highways Arterial Roads

Turffontein

Main Roads 0

0.75 1.5

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree

City of Tshwane

Orange Grove and Norwood

ange Grove

Fairwood

Louis Botha Development Corridor

3

Local 4.5Roads 6

Km

Rea Vaya BRT

Residents’ planned duration of stay in the area >10 years

Open Spaces

>5 years

Highways

>1 years

Linksfield Arterial Roads

Main Roads Local Roads

>6 months >1 month <1 month

Rea Vaya BRT Linksfield Ridge Figure 12: Planned duration of stay in the area Residents’ planned duration of stay in the area SYNTHESIS 55 >10 years REPORT

±

0

0.15

0.3

0.6

0.9

1.2 Km

±

The survey found that the key causes of residential dissatisfaction are municipal services, cleanlines9, safety and security, police services and job opportunities. The most prominent issue of residents and businesses is with City Power over frequent service disruptions and the lack of speedy resolution of problems. Business owners are also dissatisfied with water and electricity rates and interrupted supply. Norwood businesses are more satisfied with municipal services (54%) compared to Orange Grove (21%). Cleanliness showed a similar picture, with Norwood 63% satisfied and only 19% of Orange Grove satisfied.

While social infrastructure is generally not a serious issue in the area, the survey did find that foreign migrants are dissatisfied with both access to and quality of healthcare. This is noteworthy, given that foreign migrants show higher satisfaction levels across most other categories. The other central issue is the lack of support for the homeless – the most vulnerable population in the area.

4.3.9 Mobility, transport and access One of the ways in which the Orange Grove and Norwood area already aligns with one of the goals of TOD is the fact that a large number of people both live and work in the area, and walking is a key form of transport. Fifty-seven per cent of employees of

surveyed businesses live within the Orange Grove and Norwood areas; 40% of them walk to work; and 28% rely on minibus taxis. Of the business owners, 41% walk and 48% use a personal vehicle. The average travel time for employees is 18 minutes and the average cost is R12. Approximately 17% of employees live along the Corridors – in Alexandra, Soweto, various parts of Louis Botha Avenue and in the inner city. Assuming that the pricing of the BRT is affordable for employees, it should be a useful form of public transport for many.

4.3.10 Governance Governance in the area is dominated by the various resident associations, their dynamics and tensions with each other, the City of Johannesburg and other constituencies. The two most prominent residents’ associations in the area are the Norwood Orchards Residents Association (NORA) and the Orange Grove Residents Association (OGRA). Both associations are run by white, male middle-class residents who are very active and prominent in their respective communities. Others, such as Victoria Orange Grove West Residents Association (VOGWRA) are less active and considerably less visible. The residents’ associations largely cater to property owners, rather than renters, which means that they tend to be a vehicle of the middle class. They do exhibit some exclusionary practices, i.e. VOGWRA have not invited the residents of the police barracks to join the organisation (Scheidegger 2015). There is also some concern around several important figures that claim to speak on behalf of the community and often serve as ‘gatekeepers’ to those seeking to become involved in the area. Some of these figures are seen as representative of their communities; others are deemed illegitimate and an imposition.

Residents in Norwood and Orange Grove are generally wary of government programmes. The middle class fears a decline in property values and a loss of choice, and wishes to protect its lifestyle and investments. Poor residents are fearful of displacement due to rising rents, harassment by police (particularly in the case of homeless people and informal traders) and being deemed ‘illegal’ (immigrants without papers, etc.). However, it appears that the CoJ has not approached this issue with particular awareness or sensitivity. The manner in which the buying of property by the JPC was handled – i.e. using real estate agents and allegedly trying to convince people to sell on

9 The prominence of municipal services and cleanliness may have been inflated because the survey was conducted during a Pikitup strike. However, complaints about municipal services pre- and post-dated this event.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

56

City of Tshwane the basis that their properties were going to lose value as a result of the Paterson Park development – has unfortunately backfired on the City, fuelling uncertainty and distrust in the area and provoking over 1 000 objections to the Paterson Park project.

4.3.11 Strengths and opportunities In many ways, Orange Grove is already representative of much of what the COF project is aiming to achieve – a high-density transport hub with active businesses and diverse residents who can work and live within their area. While residential densities are not as high as required by COF project, the densities in Orange Grove are considerably higher than the Johannesburg average; this has mostly been achieved through informal densification. The fact that this space has been relatively unregulated has enabled poorer urban residents to make rental arrangements and develop housing and business typologies in the area that facilitate their livelihoods.

Many business owners and employees live within Orange Grove or Norwood and are able to walk to work. This kind of accessibility – an ideal that the COF project aspires to across the network – is largely enabled through affordable and often informal rental arrangements. While public transport efficiency can no doubt be improved, along with much-needed infrastructure for non-motorised transport and improved mobility within parts of the area, Orange Grove already serves as a transit hub.

Orange Grove is considerably more integrated and diverse – in terms of both race and income – than the vast majority of Johannesburg’s suburbs. While this is desirable according to City policy, the area is also emblematic of urban inequality and there is considerable tension between residents, for whom diversity has not correlated with integration. There are a multitude of small businesses operating in the area. While more diversity in terms of business typology may be desirable, business owners already see potential in operating along Louis Botha Avenue – an anticipated outcome of the COF initiative. Thus, although a number of state interventions, residential accord and private sector buy-in is required to make the Louis Botha Corridor work in Orange Grove, the area already has many of the most desirable traits that the Marlboro initiative is aiming to achieve.

There is considerable opportunity to generate employment in Norwood and Orange Grove. Overall, the 75 businesses that answered the question about employee numbers are collectively responsible for 300 jobs in the area (excluding business owners).

Support to businesses and their growth could see more jobs generated in this area; the job creation potential is far from maximised. There are also a number of interested developers who have been working in Orange Grove and would like to continue to do so and expand their portfolios.

Marlboro South Orange Grove and Norwood Park Station Precinct Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Sandton Marlboro Gardens

Randburg

Louis Botha Development Corridor Empire Perth Development Corridor

Marlboro

N1

4.3.12 Challenges M1

Any urban improvements come with the threat of either state or market displacement; the risks of this increase substantially in an area as unequal as Orange Grove and Norwood. Those most vulnerable to displacement are the homeless; relatively low‑income residents, particularly the foreign migrant population, and small businesses (mostly owned by black South Africans or foreign migrants). Although unlikely threatened with displacement, another vulnerable group in the area is the residents of the police barracks who have no representation in local politics and are excluded from the ‘community’ by many who dislike the presence of the barracks and its reputation for stimulating crime and drug dealing. Managing the risk of displacement and increasing vulnerability is a challenge in the area but a vital component of the success of corridor development.

Turffontein Development Rashuma Village Corridor

&

Soweto Development Corridor Highway

Greater Alexandra Automotive Hub

Arterial Roads

!

Total Garage Wynberg

Rea Vaya BRT

!

Johannesburg CBD

Alexandra

! !

City of Tshwane

M2

! !

Soweto

The area is characterised by a number of contestations and the resulting antagonism: between the middleCoordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 class residents of Norwood and the1994CoJ; between Datum: Hartebeesthoek Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree NORA and OGRA; tensions between homeless residents and resident associations, as well as Marlboro Gardens concerns of xenophobic attitudes. These narratives and the combative relationships are divisive and demand a degree of reflection – if not resolution – Marlboro going forward.

!

! !

! !

Turffontein

0

0.75 1.5

Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree

Marlboro South

! !

Louis Botha Development Corridor ¬4.5 &

Greater Alexandra Automotive Hub !

0.3

0.45

0.6 Km

Arterial Roads Main Roads Local Roads

&

Rea Vaya BRT

! Schools

Open Spaces

¬ Health Facilities &

Arterial Roads

0 0.0750.15

Highways

Alexandra Renewal Project Highways

Marlboro Gardens

6

Km Open Spaces

Marlboro South & Louis Botha Development Corridor Rashuma Village

D !

Alexandra Renewal Project

! !

3

& City of Tshwane

&

±

!

!

! !

D !

! !

Recreation Centre Police Stations

Main Roads

Total Garage Wynberg

Local Roads

!

&

Rea Vaya BRT Figure 13: Map depicting the context of the study area in the Marlboro South study ! Schools

Rashuma Village

¬ Health Facilities &

57

SYNTHESIS REPORT

!

Greater Alexandra Automotive Hub !

!

Alexandra

! !

D !

Recreation Centre Police Stations

SYNTHESIS REPORT

58

±

63 businesses interviewed

Marlboro South 01

02 03

04

05

06

Marlboro South is a mixed-use site. Its location respective to development initiatives, and its historic proximity to the financial center of Sandton, gives it great potential to act as a flagship project for socially just development.

The four core development challenges in Marlboro South are: zoning, services, ownership, and stakeholder interaction.

Its history is tied to that of Alexandra, leading to tension over resource allocation as well as optimism for development on underutilized sites. Innovative strategies are required to unlock the potential of the land.

Residents of Marlboro South live under a variety of conditions, some extremely precarious. “Residential factories” characterize the area, most of which have limited (and/or illegal) access to basic utilities; however, they have highly organized social structures and cite high levels of interpersonal support.

While residents are often described as newcomers or outsiders, 30% of survey respondents were born in Marlboro South and 66% are originally from the City of Johannesburg or the Gauteng Province.

Many have resided in the area, some even in the same dwelling, since the late 1980s or early 1990s.

There is potential for job creation based on existing economic activities conducted on site. Without consultation of the general population (not merely embedded political organizations) there is high potential for contestation and low potential for acceptance by local stakeholders: “Nothing for us without us.”

Large-scale factories

07

08

09

10

A socio-technical solution alone cannot generate change in township environments, but settlements that focus on human development have the long-term potential to develop an area from within: “Housing is not a problem we’re going to solve; it’s an opportunity that will unfold if we create more sustainable livelihoods.”

39.7%

A mere 1% of area stakeholders were aware of the Corridors of Freedom initiative, indicating that the vision for the Corridors has not been adequately communicated. This lack of transparency can preclude stakeholders from understanding how government intentions will impact their everyday lives, and hinders the potential positive ramifications of local actors becoming “custodians of the results.”

retail

services

SYNTHESIS REPORT

12.7%

catering

28%

motor industry

67.7% business owners live within 1-2 km walking distance of their enterprise

28% businesses opened because their customers were neighbours, their workplace was close to home, or it was a secure place.

business Expenditure per month

26.7% isiZulu 11.7% Sesotho 10% Sepedi 9.9% Xitsonga

utilities

rent R14,656 [average]

security R2,590 [average]

R3,941 [average]

58.6% 56.6% 57.8%

78%

higher than mean averages from other areas

30%

of business owners originate from South Africa

Marlboro South

66.3%

Residents originate from

Gauteng

residents’ transit 48.1% 28.7% 11.1% 7.5% other

41

Living conditions 30.8%

52.7%

16.5%

Improved

Unchanged

Worsening

minutes average

4.6%

Challenges in the area

R1500 R2500 Average monthly income

59

20.6%

informal enterprises

Public spaces and nodal development of Marlboro South (educational, cultural, and recreational facilities) could act as a bridge to Marlboro Gardens, Linbro Park, and beyond to Modderfontein and Frankenwald.

Residents most want safe places for children to study and to play.

Positive statements about the future of conducting business and generating profit in Marlboro South were typically accompanied by “if” qualifiers: if the area is rezoned, if consistent utility services are provided, if the vacant land can be activated, or if the government will engage with us. 17.5% of businesses cited area cleanliness as their primary concern, while 14.5% were most concerned about municipal services. These concerns are shared by residents, whose top concerns are overcrowding, utility service provision, and pollution.

27%

42%

unemployed

unemployment

crime

22.8%

Don’t know or won’t disclose income

poor services

overcrowding

4.4

Constancy and change in Marlboro South10 The area known as Marlboro South, and occasionally as Marlboro Industrial Township, has often remained hidden in the Gauteng planning discourse. As an area of deep marginalisation yet simultaneously one of hope and potential, it is a valuable and even paradigmatic case study of urban development in Johannesburg.

4.4.1 Boundaries and spatial identity The boundaries of Marlboro South are contested, whereby, many residents and business owners see Marlboro South as having a distinct and separate identity from surrounding areas. In official documents, such as the South African National Censuses, it is considered a part of Marlboro Gardens, the former Indian township along its northern border (StatsSA 2011). Politically, Marlboro South is divided across two wards. Ward 108, run by the ANC, covers the western portion of the site until 4th Avenue, and includes the Urban Development Zone (UDZ). The sense of place has been re-stimulated by the recent ‘Greater Alexandra’ development, driven by the CoJ and Gauteng Province, and funded through the Alexandra Renewal Project, which has prompted Marlboro South to emerge as part of greater Alexandra. Many residents remain insistent that Marlboro South is an independent entity with a distinct identity, noting that they have lived in the area for more than 30 years and their struggles and triumphs have shaped the area into the mixeduse site it has become today. Business owners have mixed opinions over whether or not it should be considered a part of Alexandra, but stakeholders in the area unanimously agree that Marlboro South and Alexandra are intricately interlinked.

4.4.2 Historical context Unlike much of Alexandra, which is characterised by courtyards surrounded by residential units built in the early twentieth century and hostels constructed largely in the 1960s and 1970s, Marlboro South owes its origins to the construction of factories and warehouses established mostly in the early 1980s.

As Marlboro South emerged, political contestation began to significantly destabilise the extremely

61

SYNTHESIS REPORT

dense area of Alexandra, leading to the Alex Six Days uprising and the State of Emergency in 1986.

As apartheid neared its end, households that could not be accommodated in Alexandra proper began to move into this industrial zone. Since that period Marlboro South has seen a relatively sudden decline and rapid departure of businesses from the area. This has resulted in a complicated assemblage of abandoned and underdeveloped stands and buildings, which have been advertised as ‘emergency housing’ by owners and occupied by shack dwellers. This led to a precarious, mixed-use community in a light industrial area in violation of planning and zoning schemes, which continues to intertwine the complex histories of Marlboro South and Alexandra.

After the early 2000s, Marlboro stabilised and was characterised by cyclical periods of population and economic growth and decline.A major policy marking the beginning of this period was the Alexandra Renewal Project (ARP), whose primary goals was to address the over-densification of Alexandra and deliver housing to which the excess population could be relocated. As a result, fluctuation between evictions and mass, spontaneous appropriation of warehouses and vacant stands characterises this period in Marlboro South’s history. Residents have also faced eviction and have successfully defended their rights to these sites. The net result of all these processes has been a stable community of more than 8 000 residents who now call this area home (StatsSA 2011; GCRO 2016).

4.4.3 Planning Marlboro South Since 2012 three major projects have broken ground within the bounds of Marlboro South: the Thokoza Clinic reconstruction (financed and executed by the ARP as a branch of the JDA); the Greater Alexandra Automotive Hub (financed by the JDA), and the Industrial Hub (financed by the Gauteng Department of Economic Development). In 2012 Albonico Sack Metacity Architects and Urban Designers (ASM) were approached by the ARP to create a new master plan for the area. The plan aims to create a

10 This section is drawn from Lindsay Blair Howe’s report entitled Constancy and Change: Marlboro South as an Interstice of Marginalisation and Development in the Gauteng CityRegion. For more information, please see report 8 in this series.

SYNTHESIS REPORT

62

transit-oriented node in the west intersecting with Old Pretoria Road; social development initiatives along 2nd Street and 4th Avenue as an anchor for the centre of the site; industry clustered to the east of Marlboro South, and commercial and integrated design on City-owned land adjacent to the Marlboro Gautrain Station. The plan successfully captures the sentiment by planning and development experts that Alexandra must be conceived as an intrinsic part of the greater area, not as a ‘box’ or a ‘problem child’ in the urban fabric, but rather as ‘resilient and resourceful’ therefore including identifiable centralities and considering mobility in the design (interview with Monica Albonico, 18 August 2016).

In line with the corridors project, in 2014 two plots of land along Old Pretoria Road were earmarked for the development of a BRT station and a JOSHCO affordable housing development.

Currently, Marlboro South is characterised by increased interest in development originating from both the public and, very recently, the private sector. Emanating from the private sector, Inkanyeli, Kitso, IHS, Bombela, and the University of the Witwatersrand, but in partnership with the state is the proposed Alex City Development plan for Marlboro South, Marlboro Gardens Extension 1 and portions of Zandfontein farm. The proposed PPP has a budget of R4.4 billion and includes 30 800 mixed income units of housing. As such, 75% of the total space is dedicated to residential, 19% to commercial, 7% to retail, deco and auto centre, and 5% to industrial activities. The project has the support of the Gauteng provincial government as part of their ‘mega human settlements’ strategy, but there are concerns about implementation and consultation with current residents and businesses.

4.4.4 Businesses The nature of Marlboro South as a mixed-use site has led to the constancy of many long-term light industrial tenants; businesses in Marlboro South have evolved to address the needs of both the industrial factories and the increasing number of residents. Some of the most prevalent businesses related to light industry are food production factories, recycling plants, auto mechanics, panel beaters, construction material providers, and engineering firms to support industrial production.

Businesses to serve residents include spaza shops, a post office, small-scale supermarkets, churches and crèches. It is notable that Marlboro South businesses have a tendency to use local suppliers.

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SYNTHESIS REPORT

There are more motor-related industries in Marlboro South than any other type of business. These are often located in spaces, such as old garage or factory buildings, or in the backyard of an existing plot of land. A significant number of businesses located in Marlboro South are part of the recycling industry.

Large companies, such as South African Waste, have recycling plants located next to micro-businesses that sell used products and building materials.

Vacant lots are used by Pikitup employees to sort the materials, which are collected from around the city in trucks and loaded back onto the trucks after sorting to be taken to the recycling facilities in the area. There are also a significant number of independent recyclers in Marlboro South that sell their goods directly to recycling centres.

Outside of economic opportunities, the research uncovered a number of churches. Besides the Protestant and Catholic churches, a remarkable number of charismatic churches can be also found in Marlboro South. Not all of them are practising churches; some are aid-oriented businesses and others provide services, such as childcare and primary education. Religious organisations are one of the few ways money is invested in the area of Marlboro South.

Optimism about the future of the area is correlated to the length of time that owners and managers have been present on site. Managers and owners working in Marlboro South since the 1980s are more likely to report that conditions, including crime, policing and electricity provision, have remained the same or improved over time. In contrast, those present since the mid-2000s reported uncertainty and frustration with the lack of progress that has been achieved in addressing the difficulties that arise for businesses, which they primarily cite as petty theft and service delivery issues. Two out of four businesses interviewed are currently considering leaving and relocating elsewhere due to the uncertain future of the area, which they consider as stalled at the interstice between development and decline.

4.4.5 Residents The current population of Marlboro South is recorded as 8 344 residents (StatsSA 2011), contained within 0.44 km2. The built-up area of the industrial precinct is composed of 47 structures comprising 4 670 m2 of space (ASM 2016). The marginalised community living in Marlboro South consists largely of young residents under the age of 50 years (GCRO 2009).

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64

Many initially came to the area in search of a place to settle, due to the immense spatial pressure in neighbouring Alexandra, or arrived from their homes across Gauteng and the surrounding provinces once influx control was removed in the late 1980s. They report having lived in the area for an average of 22.6 years, and in their precise dwelling for an average of 18.4 years. Despite widespread perceptions, a relatively low number of foreigners reside in Marlboro South; most non-South Africans originate from Mozambique and Zimbabwe, with a small number from Somalia and Nigeria concentrated in the northwest blocks of the area.

Approximately equal proportions of the population are employed and unemployed according to the survey; unemployment is an increasingly large issue in the area, second only to precarious housing conditions. Most residents report moving to the area because it is close to job opportunities, also emphasising that it was available and they had found ‘emergency accommodation’ through word of mouth or newspaper ads. This aligns with the quantitative survey data, in which 30% of residents were born in the area, 20% came because it was located ‘close to work or school’, 17% because it was affordable or available, and 8% because of family ‘or other reasons’.

4.4.6 Housing The housing typologies of Marlboro South are a large part of what gives the area its unique character, and also its distinctive precarity. While Marlboro South hosts freestanding and backyard shacks like many impoverished areas across Johannesburg, the vast majority of its residents reside in ‘residential factories’ – warehouses and factories that were rented out to or appropriated by the people of Marlboro South.

The density of the Alexandra township and the inside of residential factories exhibit similar building patterns. Residential factories also replicate township patterns of semi-public space and the social structure of the courtyard, and the communal spaces found in Marlboro South reflect those of Alexandra. In a typical township structure, courtyards provide space for group activities.

Equivalent conditions exist within the residential factories or within the fenced area immediately surrounding a given building, establishing a form of social control over what is the sole entry and exit to the dwellings.

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SYNTHESIS REPORT

As an urbanisation process, the warehouse typology is more closely aligned with backyarding, as opposed to greenfield shack settlements, in terms of using existing structures and infrastructure. Although significantly more greenfield development has occurred over the past five years – exacerbated by construction of new shacks by the state as part of a relocation from Alexandra – the residential factory is still the dominant residential typology.

In contrast to the residential factories in Marlboro South, are newly constructed shack dwellings on 8th Avenue, adjacent to the Zandfontein transit camp (which residents consider to be a part of Alexandra). The current settlement, referred to as Rashuma Village, was constructed on abandoned land for people evicted from illegally occupied flats in Alexandra in January 2016. Residents have received little communication from the state about the tenure in their ‘temporary’ accommodation.

Concerns emerged immediately about the safety of the unfenced settlement, the quality of the construction, and the lack of facilities for the 158 households that reside there today.

4.4.7 Crime and policing In interviews business owners cited the increased trustworthiness of the police and improved response times to reported crimes as a positive change over the past decade, as well as the presence of private security companies such as ADT and Scorpion in Marlboro South. In general, residents interviewed reported that they feel safe through policing and social control; while petty theft is a concern, compared to other case studies along the corridors, residents are less worried about violent crime, drinking or drug abuse. The Bramley Police were praised in multiple interviews for their rapid response times, as well as their approach to conflict resolution. This increase in trust can certainly be considered a positive development.

4.4.8 Municipal services, urban management and social infrastructure Service delivery is one of the core development challenges in Marlboro South for both residents and businesses. The availability of clean water, electricity and sanitary facilities is one of the greatest challenges facing the inhabitants of residential factories and shack settlements. In most warehouses, one water tap provides water for washing, cleaning, bathing and cooking for the entire community. Similarly, the 137 Rashuma

Figure 14: Interior of a residential factory at 44 2nd street in Marlboro South (Mark Lewis 2016)

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66

4.4.9 Mobility, transport and access Marlboro South is a well-located area, in walking distance of Sandton and well-connected to the CBD through taxi networks. Most Marlboro South residents depend on public transportation to travel to their jobs. As the existing minibus taxi routes are limited and service is irregular intervals, people frequently walk to Sandton or to the Pan Africa taxi rank for longer distance travel. The taxis in the area cost R6 to ride to Pan Africa Mall, where a trip, to the CBD, for example, will cost another R16. As such, most taxi commuters require more than an hour to reach their workplace unless it is within walking distance (Howe and Joos 2012). Quantitative survey data indicates that 29% of residents walk and 48% use minibus taxis for their most frequent travel; 11% use private cars, 7.5% use the Rea Vaya, and 3% use another bus system.

Figure 15: Rashuma Village’s ‘temporary’ housing (Mark Lewis 2016)

village households have to stand in line for 10–15 minutes to get water. There is little to no formal electricity provision to Marlboro South residences.

It is dark inside residential factories and electricity is needed to illuminate interior rooms that lack windows. Utility connections are illegal and residents struggle to legalise them in a way they can afford. Cleanliness is also a key concern, with 16.5% of residents noting that their biggest concern in the area as service delivery and 8% with littering, dumping and rats.

Some warehouses have functioning sanitation, and typically in each building two or three toilets are utilised by between 130–160 residents. Portable toilets and the bucket system are also widely utilised, particularly when access to the city water and sanitation systems has been truncated. A row of 13 Sunshine-brand chemical toilets serve all of the residents of Rashuma Village, who worry about children falling in and the rats that are attracted to the site.

For businesses, service delivery challenges include and sanitation issues – blocked sewerage pipes, water running down the street – electricity provision and potholes. Business owners note that many suppliers and customers refuse to come to their premises in Marlboro South because of

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SYNTHESIS REPORT

the condition of the roads. Electricity provision is hampered by both Eskom’s unwillingness to enter the area without security and the proliferation of illegal connections by residents.

In terms of social infrastructure, Marlboro South is severely lacking. It offers few opportunities for people to access recreation or educational opportunities. The only school in the area was a school for handicapped children, which was relocated to Alexandra; the premises are now used as a makeshift community centre. While adults often play games or do small-scale craft projects, infrastructure is not available for them to promote their products or market their skills; children have only one compacted dirt sports field within the area, and primarily play on the streets. There are, however, two clinics in the area, one of which is currently undergoing a complete reconstruction through the ARP. Residents report comparatively high levels of satisfaction with access to and quality of health services in Marlboro South.

It does not look like social infrastructure provision will improve in the future, as the City’s social infrastructure budgets seem to neglect Marlboro South. The Louis Botha SAF allots R6.8 million for libraries, R14 million for social support facilities and R109 million for sports, but none of these facilities are planned for Marlboro South (CoJ 2014c).

With the completion of the BRT connecting to Sandton, the new infrastructure and cheaper fares can potentially impact significant change in the lives and livelihoods of Marlboro South residents.

Of the surveyed residents, more than 95% report knowledge of the Rea Vaya, which is a positive indicator of potential interest.

4.4.10 Governance Governance in Marlboro South is characterised by tense relationships between residents and the state, as well as between residents and businesses.

Prominent institutions in governance of the area include: the Marlboro Warehouse Crisis Committee (MWCC); the Informal Settlement Network, including the Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) and SDI; businesses and their owners (formal factories and warehouses, informal businesses, churches etc.); the City (JDA and ARP, and by association the JPC and JRA), and the Gauteng Province (GED).

The historical context of Marlboro South and its relationship with the highly politicised township of Alexandra, mean that inclusiveness and participation are highly prioritised by area stakeholders. Residents of Marlboro South have experiences of significant marginalisation, and often associate government planning with relocation, corruption, and a failure to represent the actual interests of the community.

A further concern has been the lack of consultation about interventions in the areas, such as the Rea Vaya. There is a sense from respondents that the

state imposes plans without consulting anyone outside of political channels. However, residents see the importance of consultation the lack thereof fuels the belief that government planning does not consider the best interests of the community. The relationship between the state and business owners is also fraught. Business owners do not currently have a body that represents their interests to the state or assists in negotiations with residents. According to interviews, this contributes to their perceptions of decline and powerlessness in Marlboro South. The general sentiment is that businesses would like to be consulted more by the CoJ. The most prominent and powerful resident’s association in Marlboro South is the MWCC, formed in response to evictions and threats of eviction from residential factories. It is bolstered by strong connections to Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and Informal Settlements Network (ISN) and often represents residents in forums with government organisations, such as ARP. However, the MWCC withdrew from participating in the Greater Alexandra Development Forum, in which they were involved for several years in the early 2000s, because it felt that the forum was too entrenched in party politics and also reinforcing the historical divide in perception between Alexandra and Marlboro South. Since the community has not participated in these fora, there have been few opportunities and platforms of engagement with the City.

The relationship between businesses and residents in Marlboro South is fragile and has governance implications for the area. Businesses seem to resent residents’ overcrowding, illegal methods of electricity connection, pressure on services and crime in the area. The overarching sentiment of interviewed residents is that businesses are not interested in engaging with residents, “because of the decreasing value of businesses and what they see as safety issues for their customers,” (interview with T Gininda, 2016).

4.4.11 Strengths and opportunities Marlboro South has long been a compact, inclusive, connected and resilient urban assemblage. The area already exhibits some of the characteristics desired by the Corridors of Freedom initiative. It is well-located, densely occupied, has a number of job opportunities and is a dynamic, mixed-use space. What the area needs for further development are the traits of the “generative city” described in

SYNTHESIS REPORT

68

the SDF: focusing investment in nodes with the potential for innovative job creation, high-quality and appropriate public space, and sustainability (interview with Alan Fuchs, 18 August 2016). This shift follows the logic of the Corridors project, with its focus on transit-oriented nodal development of economic and social opportunity.

Dissatisfaction with the area

Safety & security Job/business opportunities Access to health services Quality of health services

Residents Business

Access to schools / educational facilities Quality of schools / educational facilities Municipal services

4.4.12 Challenges A core challenge facing the future development of Marlboro South is addressing the everyday stakeholders in the area, which includes reframing communication and community participation.

Overwhelmingly, no knowledge of the Corridors project is present amongst businesses or residents.

Community participation in Marlboro is restricted to the political sphere and that initiatives are perceived by local actors as ‘imposed’ rather than participatory, because they are not consulted directly about their needs nor involved in the process of developing the imposed initiatives.

Cleanliness of area Police services Recreational & leisure facilities Roads &public transport & infrastructure Standard of accommodation / business premises Regulation enforcement Size of the market

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40% Percentage dissatisfied

Figure 16: Overall residential and business dissatisfaction in Marlboro South

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SYNTHESIS REPORT

In a positive step in the area, after years of complaints by businesses, the CoJ recently intervened in the issue of illegal dumping in Marlboro South. A hotline has been setup for witnesses of dumping and, according to a business owner, Pikitup and Jozi@Work, “are doing an excellent job improving conditions in the area,” and there has been a considerable reduction in rats in the area (interview with Mark Delborg, 23 July 2016). Illegal dumping still continues and both residents and businesses are concerned by cleanliness and pollution in the area. It is important that the CoJ anti-dumping initiatives continue.

The BRT is likely to generate contestation with minibus taxis along Old Pretoria Road in Marlboro South, where the Alexandra Taxi Association (ATA) headquarters are located. The association was approached and offered incentives to participate in the Louis Botha Corridor. However, this was after the routes were established and not during the planning phase. Although the official position of the ATA is that talks with government are ongoing and violence is an unlikely result, area residents are concerned about violence breaking out and are fearful of using the BRT as a result.

Marlboro South contains several social and economic groups that live in extremely precarious conditions, and whose voices are often unheard in the development process. They face risks of eviction, of fire and of truncated basic services on the most elementary level. They are limited by the cost and distance associated with accessing economic opportunity and are treated prejudicially by development forums. This vulnerability must be addressed if current precinct plans or private developments are permitted to move forward.

Zoning is a key issue in the area, the area was and remains zoned commercial (CoJ 2010). Therefore, development planning faces a form of ‘Morton’s fork’: because the area is zoned commercial, government institutions are unable to provide improved services to the residents, and since the residents cannot be removed or evicted without providing alternative housing within a reasonable distance government is also unable to address the needs of businesses.

The complex assemblage of property owners impedes development. There are 321 stands in the area, with 93 currently being vacant. Although there is significant potential and enthusiasm of young investors to purchase properties and re-develop, absentee landowners complicate the situation.

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Park Station Precinct

1.4 million motorised person trips daily Passenger trips per day

¢¢ There is a shortage of ranking facilities and taxi routes are extremely inefficient. They bring commuters all the way into CBD for journeys that do not require passing trough the CBD. This is not feasible in the context of such extreme congestion. ¢¢ Institutionally blurred responsibility, competing mandates and poor lines of accountability compromise strategic planning and urban management. ¢¢ Physically the precinct is poorly connected, lacks legibility and permeability and suffers modal conflict in a highly congested public environment. ¢¢ Sidewalk informal trading space is severely crowded and poorly managed. ¢¢ The public environment is poor, with infrastructure in disrepair and inadequate management of cleanliness. ¢¢ The lack of public safety is an enormous concern. ¢¢ A severe shortage of basic facilities including public toilets and facilities to support informal trading adds to the hostility of the environment. ¢¢ There is high demand for lower income housing and this is provided in apartment blocks that are in many cases poorly managed and overcrowded. ¢¢ Overall the environment prioritises vehicles and where pedestrians have dominated the space their movement is not catered for in the public realm.

Park Station Precinct should be a platform to the inner city. It requires:

2,000

Gautrain bus

If the inner city is a gateway to the rest of Johannesburg, as an arrival place for local and foreign migrants, then Park Station Precinct is the entry port. It is poised to be a successful TOD environment. It is a shopping hub - the major port for daily interprovincial and cross border consumer activity in the inner city. A new retail type – the cubicle shop – was innovated in this precinct in the early 2000s by Ethiopian entrepreneurs. This typology has spread to much of the inner city. The public transit conditions and the housing and mixed land use conditions exist; the key issue is enhancing the functionality and quality of the public realm. This requires positive open spaces, green spaces, social amenities, space for informal and formal economic activity.

But problems inhibit the TOD environment:

Metrobus

45%

2,900

32%

BRT

3,500

Long distance taxis

22%

11,400

Gautrain 17,000

Taxi congestion: 6800 taxis rank in the inner city per day

4000

¢¢ A bold public space redevelopment. ¢¢ Strong pedestrian connections, including a link between the station and the Joubert Park.

Long distance train demand

¢¢ Reduction in vehicular roads and increased space for pedestrian movement close to station and ranks (with some road closures and elevating new buildings to free ground level).

Peaks 200 000

¢¢ Taxi routes need to be rationalised to ensure that unnecessary taxi circulation in the CBD is drastically reduced. ¢¢ Improved management of street trading. ¢¢ More economically productive space, and the required supporting facilities to support residents and users. ¢¢ More well managed micro living spaces and communal accommodation. ¢¢ Improved facilities for cross border shoppers. ¢¢ Coherent signage and maps in the station and through precinct.

2800

formal ranks

rank on street

67.21%

April, June & December

Formal businesses operate from subdivided premises

passengers per month

17.5% Johannesburg 15% Zimbabwe 15% Nigeria

13% residents Occupy two rooms or more

20%

Occupy entire dwelling

51%

68%

Occupy just 1 room

residents originate from South Africa

of the household

Business types

54.7%

21.3%

22.7%

1.3%

retail

services

catering

motor industry

¢¢ Urban management in the precinct is weak.

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SYNTHESIS REPORT

City of Tshwane Marlboro South

4.5

!

Challenges on the platform to the arrival city: Park Station Precinct11 The Park Station Precinct is loosely defined as the station and the surrounding three city blocks on all sides. This precinct encompasses important transport interchanges in addition to the station itself. It is fundamentally a transport-based precinct and is the key gateway to the inner city of Johannesburg and the largest intermodal transport interchange in southern Africa (JDA 2008: 3). The precinct is a transport node, an economic hub, a cross-border trade hub, a residential node, and a key inner city recreation space. It both divides and connects the inner city. While not formally on the first phase of COF plans, it is undoubtedly the central hub for city transportation routes, and its functioning impacts on the efficacy of the rest of the city’s transportation network. With its high levels of public transportation, walkability, dense living and economic activity, and its role as a hub and a destination place, Park Station holds all the ingredients of a successful TOD environment.

4.5.1 Boundaries, spatial identity and broader context The Park Station Precinct is located at “the geographical centre of Johannesburg’s inner city,” and has “the potential to knit together all the surrounding precincts, such as Braamfontein, Constitution Hill, Hillbrow/Berea, Ellis Park, Fashion District, Retail Improvement District (RID), Gauteng Government Precinct and Newtown Cultural Precinct,” (JDA 2008: 55). The precinct consists ! of extremely diverse neighbourhoods, with some of these exhibiting varied qualities and types of activity and built form. The neighbourhoods that Braamfontein surround and bleed into the Park Station Precinct are feeders to the transport interchanges and to the economic activities in the precinct. The variances in these neighbourhoods indicate the many spatial conditions that exist in the precinct.

Park Station consists of a 22.6 hectare site that includes station buildings, administration offices, taxi and bus ranking facilities, canteens, shops, informal trade, heritage buildings with variable intensities of SYNTHESIS REPORT

Westbury, Coronationville and Slovo Park

Sandton

Louis Botha Development & Corridor

Randburg

use, substantial portions of vacant patches of land, and railway lines and associated yards.

N1 The eastern side of the station, although the most densely-used boundary, is particularly poorly integrated. The inner city’s largest open space, Joubert Park, is located here and it also hosts the Johannesburg Art Gallery. This environment includes high-rise apartments, hotels, mixed-use development with retail at ground floor, and shopping centres. It is an intense retail area, comprising dense formal and informal trade. The residential environment is mixed, with some well-managed buildings and many sectional title buildings that are weakly managed with high densities and poor services. There are also empty and underutilised heritage buildings immediately south of the station. Beyond that, the core CBD has a tight street grid densely occupied by medium- and high-rise buildings. It is the heart of formal large volume retail, with informal trade ! on sidewalks and commercial !or residential use occupying upper floors. Schools and clinics exist in Soweto high-rise buildings.

The Newtown precinct southwest of the station Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 houses larger low-rise commercial, entertainment Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Date: 2017/05/19 Units: Degree and cultural developments that interrupt the grid. Warehouse buildings are being redeveloped for entertainment and residential use. It offers some courtyard and open space but these are underutilised in a CBD where open space is in short & ! supply. Braamfontein lies north of Park Station. It D ! is an educational, commercial and student housing and municipal zone. The high-rise developments ! of Joubert Park and Hillbrow to the northeast are situated on a tight street grid. Large buildings (including the Civic Centre) dominate the & ¬link from the station to Hillbrow (via Braamfontein).

While some of the high-rise residential blocks are well-managed, several are stressed sectional title !

P developments. Hotels serving long-distance traders & M1 are found in the area. Low-fee private schools and clinics are located in the area. Contraventions of X ! land use regulations !

P are widespread in Hillbrow, Joubert Park and the eastern sector of the inner city.

Empire Perth Development Corridor & Turffontein Development Corridor

M1

Soweto Development Corridor X !

Highway

!

P Joubert Park

X !

!

P M1

&

X !

Johannesburg CBD

!

P

M2

&

&

Park Station Precinct

Newtown

D !

Turffontein Coordinate System: GCS Hartebeesthoek 1994 D Hillbrow Datum: Hartebeesthoek 1994 Units: Degree

!0 0.75 1.5

&

Park Station !

P & Louis Botha Corridor

!

&

!

&

Rea Vaya BRT

&

Hillbrow

The Joubert Park

Arterial Roads

!

Braamfontein

11 This section is drawn from Dr Tanya Zack’s report entitled Platform to an Arrival City: Johannesburg’s Newtown Park Station and Surrounds. For more information, please see report 6 in this series.

&

!

Braamfontein

X !

73

¬ Orange Grove and & Norwood D !

Park Station Precinct

!

Johannesburg CBD

Empire-Perth Corridor Open Spaces 3

4.5

Date: 2017/05/11

6 Highways Km

Arterial Roads

±

!

P 0

0.1

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8 Kilometers

&

Main Roads ! ¬ Park Station Precinct &

X !

Hillbrow

! &

Park Station

Railway

Louis Botha Corridor

Rea Vaya BRT

Empire-Perth Corridor & The Joubert Park Open Spaces

X ! !

P

P Highways !

¬ Health Facilities &

Arterial Roads Joubert Park

!

Main Roads

D Police Stations !

X !

Taxi Ranks Museums/Galleries Schools

Local Roads

Railway FigureRea 17: Vaya Map depicting the context of the study area in the Park Station Precinct studyv BRT

& &

The Joubert Park

!

P

Local Roads

&

X ! !

P

Taxi Ranks Museums/Galleries

¬ Health Johannesburg CBDFacilities &

SYNTHESIS REPORT

74

±

4.5.2 Economic environment The Park Station precinct has a strong economic base and lively business activity. The economy is a complex lattice of formal and informal businesses, of which the survey revealed just over half are in retail; a quarter are in the service industry and almost an equal number are in catering. The shopping precinct around Park Station is a dense wholesale trade area. Many shoppers are purchasing in bulk, to on sell in shops, hawker stalls or door-to-door elsewhere in South Africa or in SADC countries.

Cross-border trade in this sector is truly globalised: traders, retailers, customers and goods, all flow across national and continental borders. There is great diversity in nationality among business owners: 44% South African; 17% Zimbabwean; 14% Nigerian and significant numbers coming from Ethiopia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Mozambique and Malawi. Cross-border trade in this area contributes a substantial amount to the local economy.

Informal trade defines much of the precinct, where survivalist entrepreneurs have set up food kiosks, clothing stalls, mechanic services, and hairdressing and barber stools in the streets. There is a particularly high concentration of street trading in the street blocks immediately south and southeast of Park Station and adjacent to dense taxi routes and taxi ranks. As illegal and informal ranks emerge across the inner city, informal trade follows.

An ambiguous municipal policy towards traders, coupled with negative perceptions of trading being dirty and contributing to crime, has left this economy in limbo. These spaces may be threatened or criminalised, but they are often the only remaining places of opportunity for new entrants to the saturated informal economy of the inner city.

The most vulnerable traders are mobile hawkers who sell goods from their arms or from small stalls, buckets and carrier bags. There are no demarcated stalls for these traders. Nor would many qualify for a demarcated stall because they may come to Johannesburg for a few weeks at a time to sell goods and then return home to rural areas, or to other SADC countries.

Prominent around Park Station, a new retail footprint has been introduced to the inner city since the early 2000s: the cubicle shop. These tiny shops – dominant in the ‘Ethiopian quarter’ but increasingly spreading across the city – change the configuration

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SYNTHESIS REPORT

of storage, display and operation of retail. Microstores are rented out at substantial rates, meaning that profits are often low; the economic model is to extract small profits on multiple items.

The survey revealed considerable differences in the experience and performance of businesses in Braamfontein, compared to those in the rest of the precinct. The lower demand for retail space in Braamfontein is reflected in the rental costs. Average rental for the store in Braamfontein is R3 943 per month, while in the rest of the Park Station Precinct average rental is R9 243 per month. Businesses in Braamfontein also report lower satisfaction rates: 29% of Braamfontein respondents indicated that business was improving, compared to 45% of respondents in the rest of the area. Motivation for the selection of premises also varies. Three quarters of businesses in the Park Station Precinct operate there because it is a busy area. However, within the Braamfontein section, half of the businesses are motivated by the size of space and personal convenience.

4.5.3 Residents Residents in the Park Station Precinct are a diverse population living in very high-density accommodation. The census data for the City’s UDZ12 shows rapid population growth and densification.

The area experienced 23% growth between 2001 and 2011, but a slower growth in the number of households (6%), suggesting substantially higher occupancy densities. There are some 92 000 households in the inner city. The occupancy density in this precinct is high, at 8 007 persons per km2 in Park Station central and 2 961 persons per km2 in Newtown. Most inner city residents (84%) are employed, nevertheless many households have extremely low incomes (CoJ 2016b) and indications are that of the 33 861 households living in the inner city, approximately 121 899 people or just under half earn below R3 200 per month (SERI 2013).

There is also a high concentration of transnational migrants (over 30%) in and around the inner city of Johannesburg (CoJ 2014b); just over half of the respondents (51%) are South African, with 17.5% of respondents born in Johannesburg. More than 15% were born in Zimbabwe and almost 15% in Nigeria.

The survey found that 67% of respondents live there due to its proximity to either work or school, with the second and third most common main reasons (both 9%) being affordability and it, surprisingly being a ‘quiet’ area.

12 The UDZ comprises the neighbourhoods of the CBD, Braamfontein, Berea, Hillbrow, Yeoville, Bertrams, Troyeville, Jeppestown, Fordsburg, Pageview and Vrededorp. This is a broader area than the Park Station Precinct.

Figure 18: Micro-retail in the Park Station Precinct (Mark Lewis 2016)

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4.5.4 Housing The housing on offer in the Park Station Precinct includes older rental accommodation in a range of conditions (including well-managed and overcrowded buildings) in Hillbrow, south eastern Braamfontein and the Joubert Park area; affordable rental stock in the northern CBD; overnight accommodation in hotels; student accommodation, loft apartments and social housing in Braamfontein, and apartments across the precinct. The majority (93%) of residents surveyed live in flats or apartments; most residents (94%) rent their dwellings. There are various occupancy patterns in Park Station: 68% of households occupied just one room, 20% of households occupy the entire dwelling, and 13% occupied two rooms or more. The monthly rental paid in Park Station is R2 408 per month, which is slightly higher than Orange Grove (R2 154), and considerably higher than Marlboro South and Westbury.

Low rentals in the northeast and eastern parts of the precinct allow for low-income earners to locate in the heart of the inner city, however the quality of much of the accommodation is questionable. Within stressed buildings multiple households often occupy a single apartment. In these instances apartments are subdivided into accommodation spaces that include balconies, door spaces, or bed spaces. Most of the space in the flats is reserved for sleeping areas and all household activities might take place on a bed. Living rooms and even bathrooms and kitchens may be used as sleeping areas. A doorway space or simple bed space is the most limited accommodation available in the inner city and rents at minimum of R500 per month (CoJ 2016b).

The low income market has seen some recent changes and the surrounds of Park Station are witnessing an increase in housing provision in the low middle-income ‘affordable rental’ market, social housing and in student accommodation. Much of the new development is for blue-collar commuter workers who are looking for simple, much smaller spaces and there is evidence to suggest that recent demand is for 28 m2–40 m2 studio or one bedroom units (interview with Lael Bethlehem, 1 July 2016).

The demand for short-stay accommodation in the precinct is high, as long-distance traders come to the inner city to stock on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis. There are several hotels near Park Station that are used by long-distance shoppers

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that offer storage, clean and safe rooms, and restaurant spaces. This accommodation may be under threat, as at least one hotel in the precinct has been purchased for conversion into apartments and at least one other is under negotiation for the same purpose. These possible conversions may reduce the availability of safe, managed space for cross-border traders.

4.5.5 Crime and policing Survey data shows the extent of the issue of crime in the Park Station Precinct. A large portion (45%) of respondents believe crime to be the biggest challenge in the area, reiterated when asked about areas of dissatisfaction. Thirty-one per cent highlighted safety and security, with over 20% indicating problems with police services. Relatedly, 47% of respondents answered that the combatting of crime would be the most important thing they would like to see improved in the area.

There are also specific sites that are considered more dangerous than others: Wanderers Street is avoided by pedestrians due to personal safety concerns (ARUP 2016). It is a point of exit for cross-border arrivals to the inner city and the disorientation of new entrants to the city is exacerbated by the dark, poorly signposted and illegible station entrances, as well as underutilised and unmanaged land on the northeast portion of the station site. The value of living in Braamfontein is its proximity to the inner city; however, students are at risk in public spaces and crossing into the inner city over the bridges is dangerous due to the high risk of mugging on the bridges.

Streets hawkers and traders also highlight another threat: criminal activities being directed by corrupt officials. In the Ethiopian quarter, ethnographic research has highlighted stories of police corruption, for example, JMPD officers taking traders’ stock only to return it for an exchange of large sums of money, or to sell it to other traders (Zack 2013; 2014).

4.5.6 Municipal services, urban management and social infrastructure Poor urban management is a central issue in the Park Station Precinct. The blurring of boundaries between the agencies responsible for delivering and maintaining municipal services, and those agencies that are responsible for overseeing the reporting of faults in these services, gives rise to a system that is duplicated, lacks adequate accountability and is inefficient.

Dissatisfaction with the area

Safety & security Job/business opportunities Access to health services Residents

Quality of health services

Business

Access to schools / educational facilities

Users

Quality of schools / educational facilities Municipal services Cleanliness of area Police services Recreational & leisure facilities Roads & public transport Standard of accommodation / business premises Regulation enforcement Size of the market Quality of public space Variety of businesses on offer

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40% Percentage dissatisfied

Figure 19: Overall residential, business and user dissatisfaction in the Park Station Precinct

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The work of Region F depends on the cooperation of various entities that are responsible for repairing and maintaining services in the inner city. The system of dividing the space into quadrants for urban management has not guaranteed that problems are dealt with. Arguably due to rapid staff turnover, inadequate communication channels and inefficient computer systems.

Waste management is a particular issue in the Park Station Precinct. A high turnover of shops, weak relationships between shopkeepers, building owners and the City, and the poor enforcement of by-laws means that many businesses in the area are not contributing to the cost of solid waste removal.

Many formal businesses (possibly as high as 95%, according the ABM) do not have contracts with Pikitup and informal traders seldom have adequate facilities for waste management. It has been noted that cleanliness issues could be solved through infrastructure interventions, such as the provision and maintenance of public toilets.

Park Station does not fit the label of a previouslymarginalised area, but in surrounding buildings and street trading activity it hosts a significant proportion of living and working conditions that are survivalist. It is well known that the inner city lacks the social amenities necessary to support its residential population; the social needs of poor people in the area are not catered to and there are few welfare facilities. There is a dire need for high quality public space, park space, recreation opportunities, entertainment and social facilities in the inner city. There are few appropriate opportunities for afterschool activities, learning space and recreation for youth in the inner city. This is also necessary for the many young people who live in the area (Zack in ARUP 2016: 38). The need for recreational and leisure activities featured amongst the top five concerns highlighted by resident respondents in the survey, with 14% mentioning dissatisfaction with these facilities.

As residential development intensifies the need for developed open space and recreational opportunities becomes more critical.

4.5.7 Mobility, transport and access Park Station is not a destination, rather it is an intermodal interchange. The precinct serves a local, metropolitan, regional, national and international catchment area. No other facility in the city generates the traffic patterns that Park Station does (interview with Esther Schmidt, 8 August 2016). The station generates transportation services and demands for additional services. At present the environment is

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clogged. Modal conflict adds to the intense stress of the environment. Conflict occurs between commuter movement, other pedestrian movement (shoppers), informal trading space, and vehicles. Congestion of moving and stationary minibus taxis is extreme.

The travel demand is varied and includes “regular daily commuters; weekly travellers; occasional longdistance visitors from other countries (usually lowincome); low- to middle-income travellers to other provinces (bus, taxi and rail), and tourists. Over a third of the survey respondents who were passing through the area (34%) were on the way to work, and just over a fifth (20%) said they were en route home. Other reasons for being in the station included ‘visiting’, shopping, looking for work (11%) and ‘waiting’. Half of the users report being in Park Station daily; 13% are in the area a few times per week, and 15% make several visits monthly.

The Park Station Precinct is exceptionally wellconnected by public transit. Transport services comprise suburban rail, regional rail, long-distance rail, high-speed rail, long-distance bus services (particularly important for cross-border traders), long-distance taxi services, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, local buses, local minibus taxis, and metered taxi services. In addition, some corporates provide private shuttle services for staff exiting the Gautrain.

The large number of taxis in the area means that transport is convenient for users. But short waiting time is not necessarily a measure of efficiency of the system. Many taxi routes converge on the Park Station Precinct and much of the congestion is caused by unnecessary duplication of taxi services.

There is a need to rationalise these routes so that, where necessary, routes bypass the inner city.

Approximately 2 370 private cars arrive at, and 2 050 private cars leave from, the station each day. In addition 90 heavy vehicles arrive or leave the station each day, further compounding congestion around the station (ARUP 2016). In the wider precinct, high levels of congestion and conflict between transport modes and vehicular and pedestrian traffic severely impede the flow for private vehicles, leading to an avoidance of certain roads by private vehicles, as well as to confusion and further congestion at intersections. Intersections around the station are hazardous and the road network is illegible.

4.5.8 Governance The key governance issue in the Park Station Precinct is that of divergent institutional approaches of state

entities and spheres of government. Institutional arrangements and complexities present some of the most pressing challenges to the creation of TOD environments. The divided mandates and decisionmaking powers of the City and PRASA in relation to Park Station and its surrounds impede the possibility of integrated planning and design.

There is no evidence of a common set of land use and transportation outcomes for the Park Station area defined by the City and PRASA, or across the City’s relevant departments and entities. Nor are the interests within a single stakeholder group necessarily aligned. Both the City and the rail authorities, in particular PRASA, govern the Park Station Precinct.

The land developments on the station site and those in the immediate surrounds are administrated separately, which creates a problem for coordinated planning. It is also subject to competing mandates: while the City’s mandate centres on the public good and on interrogating land uses and activities across the inner city, PRASA’s mandate as a state entity focuses on maximising the assets of the station site.

The City’s social objectives compete with PRASA’s commercial objectives, with none of the many plans developed for the site implemented.

Three different national ministries oversee the agencies that have interests on Park Station site – PRASA operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Transport, Transnet under Public Enterprises and the City under Cooperative Governance (COGTA) – making associated development processes cumbersome.

There has not been a clear land use response to the transit station in the inner city, rather, over 20 plans have been developed for the Park Station site and the City’s planning response has focused on discreet precincts or transport interchanges in the vicinity of the station. Planning for the precinct is further fragmented by the City’s separation of transport and land use planning, and by its precinct approach, which has focused urban design level planning on select city blocks but not on a broader station precinct.

4.5.9 Strengths and opportunities The inner city hosts 13% of the total population of Gauteng (ARUP 2016: 27), and the neighbourhoods surrounding Park Station exhibit considerable residential densities. These figures have given rise to a residential demand that dominates the property market. The density of the area, although largely driven by informal practices, is a key strength of the Park Station Precinct, and together with the high concentration of public transport, provides the

context for successful TOD. There are a wide variety of stakeholders in the Park Station Precinct and many opportunities for partnerships. There is an opportunity for the City to roll out mini area management precincts and incorporate a variety of stakeholders. For instance, schools could partner for management of local public squares, parks and sidewalk space that are geared towards safety and amenity of schoolchildren.

Over the last few years, following Operation Cleansweep, the City, in consultation with traders, has developed processes include the development of an audited, electronic and transparent database of traders, as well as the development of processes for by-law enforcement, for cleaning and for the resolution of all infrastructure problems (interview with Xolani Nxumalo, 14 September 2016). The new system provides an opportunity to better manage informal traders in the Park Station Precinct while continuing to enable their livelihoods.

4.5.10 Challenges The success of the precinct as the major interchange in the city is compromised at an institutional, physical and management level. Institutionally blurred responsibilities, competing mandates and poor lines of accountability compromise strategic planning and urban management. Overcoming the governance challenges is vital. Physically, the precinct is poorly connected, lacks legibility and permeability, and suffers modal conflict in a highly-congested public environment. The latter is poor, with infrastructure in disrepair and the inadequate management of cleanliness. Design interventions have focused on particular market or taxi rank spaces but not on a coherent connected and enjoyable public space.

Therefore the area around the station fails to read as the integrated TOD and station platform that it could be. The lack of public safety is an enormous concern, and a severe shortage of basic facilities (including public toilets and facilities to support informal trading) adds to the hostility of the environment.

Overall the environment prioritises vehicles, and where pedestrians have dominated the space their movement is not catered for in the public realm.

Management responsibilities for security and for urban management are problematic. The property market is buoyant and there are positive investments taking place. At the same time there may be a threat of displacement and the narrowing of options for low-income and short-stay accommodation. There are few social and recreational facilities to support a resident and user population.

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5

RECOMMENDATIONS The recommendations that follow are based on the empirical findings from the research, the aim of which is to strengthen the Transit Corridors Programme and build on what has been achieved by both the City of Joburg and the affected communities. It should be stated upfront that the CoJ has made significant and important strides in the Corridors programme and that the principles of transit-oriented development, strategic densification and mixed-use areas linked to public transport are on their way to being achieved. It is also understood that TOD is of immense importance to the future of Johannesburg. Should the transit corridors not be implemented there is a large potential cost to Johannesburg’s residents and to the future of the city. Without TOD, spatial fragmentation, social and racial segregation and high municipal running costs will persist and economic opportunities and access to better services and urban amenities will remain out of reach for many of the poorest households. TOD also presents an important economic opportunity for Johannesburg – a city that drives South Africa’s economy.

To aid Johannesburg’s TOD corridors in working to their full potential, the researchers on this project have been focused on providing constructive critiques, presented here in the recommendations.

Our recommendations are divided in a number of ways: there are area-specific recommendations of the particular study areas, as well as more general recommendations that apply to the entire programme of work.13

5.1 Consultation, community interaction and participation One of the most difficult parts of any urban intervention is public participation. The CoJ and the JDA ran extensive public participation programmes during the first part of the intervention and continue to run participatory programmes for specific plans and projects. Unfortunately, many of the stakeholders that were interviewed mentioned that the consultation and engagement process was insufficient. Going forward, there is a clear recognition that should the CoJ fail to improve its ability to interact and consult with all urban actors – including middle class communities, foreign nationals and poor and disenfranchised residents – limited financial, legal and human resources will continue to be unnecessarily diverted. Furthermore, without an improvement in the consultation process, the CoJ will not respond to actual needs of communities; may not be able to gauge tensions that exist; could compromise the projects or

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interventions, and will have implications in terms of community ownership of Corridors projects.

Considering the sincere time and effort that was put into the participatory process, the issue here is not with City officials but the participation protocol itself.

• There is a sense that current public participation protocols are insufficient and that different models and modes of engagement need to be considered in order for more marginalised and excluded voices to be able to engage with planning processes and concerns.

• Many of the community participation sessions were actually information-sharing sessions rather than an engagement where community members could still influence the plans. Community members were aware of this and were frustrated by these processes. The City needs to be transparent around the nature of the engagement.

• The CoJ needs to build in a process of understanding community dynamics before and during participation procedures, to ensure that the City does not unwittingly inflame local tensions and is able to identify all local groups. Prior consultation with a wide variety of key stakeholders in each area could aid in this, as well as following other research processes.

13 F or the area-specific recommendations, suggestions related to regulation and the private sector, or international best practice, please see the relevant reports in this series.

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• Often officials and key informants have specialist knowledge that could provide important insights into an area (for example, the police in Westbury).

• When community engagement does take place, appropriate facilitators who speak local languages need to be employed.

• Given that the CoJ has very active social media pages that garner a high degree of public interaction, social media forums as a forum to facilitate community participation should be considered. While this could not be a blanket approach, it could work very effectively in a variety of areas where residents have internet access.

• The communities along the Corridors are highly heterogeneous; once-off engagement is insufficient and needs to be complemented by ongoing engagement with a recognition of the various groups of people in the area, ensuring inclusion in participation processes.

• Relationships of trust need to be built between the City and the various communities. This requires transparency on behalf of the City, building consensus over time, and developing capacity within communities or constituencies that have no history of engagement.

• There is a need to take community members seriously as custodians of own knowledge.

Dismissing peoples’ perceptions as untruths is counter-productive; rather, participation processes need to acknowledge the importance of an individual’s reality, even if it appears empirically false.

Westbury: There are a number of community initiatives in Westbury that tend to operate within their particular sectors, such as drug rehabilitation, skills development and crime prevention. Through partnership arrangements between the proposed community development organisations and the ABM unit of the City, better coordination could be achieved between existing, as well as future, programmes. This coordination could be around enabling common goals and objectives to be shared by the various stakeholders (including state organisations at local and provincial level, NGOs and CBOs).

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Marlboro South: The areas’ complexities require a deep understanding in order to ensure that legitimate community ‘leaders’ are engaged and all perspectives are fairly represented. The suggestion is that deeper analysis and better information sharing between stakeholders and government departments would strengthen existing plans and approaches.

Orange Grove and the Louis Botha Corridor: The relationship between the CoJ and some of the middle class residents’ associations has degenerated considerably since the advent of the COF plans – why and how that has happened is important to understand. Firstly, because the relationships require improvement and intervention; secondly, because various nodes along the Corridors have similar community dynamics and all that is possible should be done to avoid creating antagonism and resentment, which potentially leads to delays and the inability of both the community and the City to satisfy their needs.

5.2 Communication and Marketing Within a number of circles there is clear recognition of the importance of the Transit Corridors and their transformative potential. However, the research indicated that despite the marketing and communication drives of the CoJ and the Strategic Planning unit, there is need for further engagement and marketing, both within government and to external stakeholders.

5.2.1 Internal communication There is a concern that despite the strong leadership of the Strategic Planning unit in the CoJ, other municipal, and provincial departments and state entities are not engaging adequately with the project, which has negative effects. The failure of CoJ entities and departments to cooperate and strategise collectively creates issues in the implementation of projects. Failure to improve this capacity will lead to continued miscommunications, duplications of work and discontent from communities, as has been seen in Orange Grove and Norwood and in the Park Station Precinct.

• Internal inter-departmental task teams or area-based management teams could be constituted for areas along the corridors receiving CoJ attention.

• Further consideration and time needs to be given to gaining internal buy-in.

• Given the limitations of the small but dedicated team within the CoJ, capacitybuilding and increasing the team size to drive development in the corridors should be considered. In addition, ensuring political buy-in would provide officials with the necessary support to demand more from the private sector during negotiations.

• Although the CoJ and Gauteng Province have discussed their SDFs and aligned some of the bigger issues, there is still much that needs to be resolved, which requires ongoing engagement.

Park Station Precinct: If the CoJ does not improve management of the complex governance dynamics of the Park Station Precinct, the node will not live up to its TOD potential. Most importantly, PRASA needs to be brought to the table for discussion and engagement.

5.2.2 External communication The CoJ has made significant progress in developing regulatory mechanisms and incentives for the COFs and has delivered a number of interventions.

However, the CoJ has been far too modest and the general public is not aware of all that has been done.

• The current practice of having ‘point people’ dedicated to specific nodes and corridors is excellent and should be continued but must be supported by up-to-date websites that are current and easy to access all of the relevant information • The full ‘toolbox’ of incentives needs to be ‘sold’ to developers – this should be inculcated in a clear pitch and be easily accessible online.

• The City needs to market its significant achievements and its visions through variety of media. Social media, including Twitter and Facebook, which the CoJ already uses effectively in other spheres, should be used to promote the TOD-related achievements and visions of the City.

5.3 Built environment interventions and the BRT Much of what has been accomplished and what will be undertaken in the transit corridors revolves around changes, additions and improvements to the built environment and infrastructure, as well as the key intervention of the BRT. There is no question that infrastructure provision is important and necessary – especially in under-serviced

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communities. However, there is a need to understand the limitations of infrastructural intervention. Thus, the City needs to recognise that: • If there is not adequate community engagement and coordination with other social and economic development initiatives, the City’s TOD vision will not be realised.

• While both housing and zoning provision are necessary precursors for change and growth, they are not in themselves drivers.

• Often infrastructural intervention is not seen by communities, and is not linked in the minds of the community to the Corridors project; once again marketing becomes important.

• Not all of the responsibility falls on Strategic Planning and other departments in all spheres need to take responsibility for their specific mandates, particularly in the role of supplementing infrastructural provision with social and economic services.

• Infrastructure can worsen community relations and community experience and as such, needs extensive consideration and consultation with communities. For example, the BRT and pedestrian bridge in Westbury has physically divided the community between Westbury and Coronationville.

• If the CoJ continues to put in place inappropriate built environment interventions – such as planning for more public open space in Westbury or constructing a fence along Louis Botha Avenue – the City will continue to be met with high levels of community resistance.

• The mixed-use model is unproven in South Africa and arguably may mean that some of the benefits derived from agglomeration may not be realised.14 In order to avoid this impact, the CoJ should carefully examine local contexts and the appropriateness of models to the context, rather than a single approach across the Corridors.

• Importantly, there needs to be a reconsideration of area-based management (ABM) as a mechanism to ensure co‑ordinated and cross-sectoral intervention. ABM has been demonstrated to have the ability to bring together resources and capabilities commanded by various agencies and thus

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bring together multiple-skills and capacities to address cross-cutting concerns.

In terms of the BRT specifically:

• If the CoJ does not review its pricing strategy for the BRT and makes tickets and passes more readily available, ridership will likely remain low.

• As has been seen in Marlboro South and Orange Grove, not consulting key area stakeholders about the BRT has led to resentment of the initiative and the state more generally. In areas that will receive the BRT in future, better consultation around the BRT itself could improve relationships throughout the process and buy-in into the BRT and TOD project.

• The rhetoric of ‘restitching’ the city is useful, but it should not be reliant on the BRT as the only way of doing so. Paths of green infrastructure and green connectivity, as well as social and economic connections need to be surfaced more in the ‘restitching’ narrative.

• The BRT will not achieve its full potential unless it is integrated into a functional multimodal transport system, which incorporates the existing – and extended – Gauteng rapid rail (Gautrain) system, the minibus taxi industry and traditional commuter rail. The minibus taxi industry provides a paratransit system in Johannesburg that is vital in terms of the city’s overall network of urban mobility. While the taxi industry has complex and flexible routes, it does link into transport interchange hubs, and these – like Park Station – should be explored as key sites of TOD. • More engagement between the state and the taxi industry needs to take place in order to find innovative ways of including taxis in the overall mobility network that is being developed.

Marlboro South: There is a paucity of social amenities and public goods for both Alexandra as a whole and for Marlboro South; access to and the provision of such facilities is an important element of development for the site. This should also be done with a specific focus on the youth given the youthful demographic profile

14 Traditional urban economics argues that similar businesses cluster together spatially in order to accrue agglomeration benefits, which include, for example, lower supply and production costs and a larger customer base.

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of the township and its surrounds, and the high levels of unemployment and disenfranchisement faced by this group. Infrastructure and service delivery requires improvement in Marlboro South if the CoJ wishes to improve the lives of residents and prevent businesses from relocating from the area.

Westbury: In order for TOD to work in Johannesburg, the vast and deeply embedded social and economic issues of Westbury need to be addressed. Without this, the infrastructural investments will have a low yield. Given these characteristics, it is suggested that in order to build appropriate institutions, an area-based management (ABM) approach could be used. Such an approach is uniquely suited to the demographic and social profile but is expensive and time consuming and thus requires significant support from the CoJ in order to be implemented.

If taken on, such an approach will have a number of benefits and spin-offs. In addition, the current role of the JDA development facilitation unit could possibly be expanded to include creating both horizontal and vertical partnerships with state and non-state organisations, within the framework of an ABM model. The ABM could also engage with a set of planning concerns and instruments so that the ABM could be directly involved in the preparation of local community-based planning initiatives, which would plainly set out desired projects and their integrated timelines, in consultation with the local community and its structures.

Park Station Precinct: Without significant engagement with wider problems of how the minibus taxi industry operates in the city and the use of the inner city as the main terminus, little can be done to alleviate the problems of congestion, inefficiency and overcrowding that hinder the functionality of the precinct.

need to engage in other forms of development, especially social upliftment and economic development. Working with existing community structures and addressing specific social and economic ills on a case-by-case basis are necessary interventions that need to be pushed along with the more technical inputs. In addition, linking social development into larger area-based management models will assist in ensuring that there is a holistic and co-ordinated approach.

Westbury: Each department has a role to play in Westbury/Coronationville, including Social Development, in the Department of Health – given that drugs are impacting the physical and mental wellbeing of residents – and the Justice Department (interview with SAPS Officer, 7 September 2016).

A co-ordinated approach with City departments working together is a necessity in improving conditions in the impoverished and crime-ridden area of Westbury/Coronationville. While the success of WTDC and the Drug Action Committee have not been substantial, it is clear that both the will and the infrastructure exist for social development projects. This presents an opportunity for the CoJ to become more involved in social issues in the community and ameliorate the relationship with historically-neglected residents. The fact that physical infrastructure and service delivery are not major issues for most of the area (excluding Slovo Park) is a strength of the area and enables the City to focus on much-needed social programmes.

In Marlboro South, basic service provision is vital, as is job creation; in the Park Station Precinct, the facilitation of informal trade and improved public space link closely to social development. In Orange Grove, support for homeless residents including a homeless shelter is of considerable importance.

5.4 Social development

5.5 Economic development

The importance of social development in Johannesburg’s impoverished areas is self-evident.

Failure to intervene in the cycles of poverty in Marlboro South and Slovo Park, and in drugs, crime and unemployment in Westbury will enable these problematic environments to flourish, further disenfranchising individuals and communities in contradiction with the goals of the City of Johannesburg and ensuring that this is not a city that works. Once again this points to some of the limitations of infrastructural intervention and the

The development of local economies – and the overall economy of Johannesburg – is one of the key priorities of the TOD programme. In order to best facilitate economic development, the following should be taken into account.

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• There are businesses, innovations and enterprise occurring at a number of scales throughout the corridors. Care needs to be taken to support such activities rather than penalise them. This may mean changes to

by-laws, building regulations and zoning, as well as an incremental approach to formalisation.

• Innovative land-use policies that are adapted to the norms of specific areas may be more constructive than a direct application of existing legislative frames.

• Methods need to be found to extend subsidised services and infrastructure to small businesses and community enterprises, as this allows for growth and development.

Marlboro South: Any proposed interventions need to engage sensitively with the existing livelihood and survival strategies of the residents and ensure that they improve rather than disrupt what is already in place. This requires a high level of creative engagement and interaction with the existing communities to override some of the historically generated mistrust between the City and residents.

Working on the principle of building on what exists, arguments could be made to develop potential spatial clusters based on existing businesses: catering services; cooking skills development; building material production and construction training, and urban gardening.

The variety and relative concentration of the kinds of businesses in the area create distinct development possibilities. However, proposals currently in the implementation phase have only drawn from these potentials in a superficial manner. For example, in the case of the two projects by the City and province, the proposals’ sole potential is arguably to formalise existing informal transactions rather than drawing from the site’s unique patchwork to meet the needs of existing and future stakeholders in Marlboro South.

Park Station Precinct: Informal trading is a key activity in and around the station, but has yet to be adequately addressed. Currently, the public environment lacks much of the basic infrastructure required to support the density of informal business in the inner city, contributing to disorganisation and considerable unmanaged solid waste generation.

The following services are required: smooth road and sidewalk surfaces (for safety and comfort); water (for cooking or washing tasks); drainage (for disposal of wastewater); public toilets (for traders, shoppers and commuters), and electricity or alternative fuel (for cooking).

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Westbury: If businesses in Westbury are not given sufficient support through loans and business improvement programmes, the area will continue to underperform economically. Given the high levels of economic marginalisation, there needs to be a set of clear economic strategies – particularly around microenterprises and micro-financing. One such avenue could be through local entrepreneurial skills training and capacity-building around capital accumulation through micro-loan mechanisms. For example, NGOs such as SaveAct could be partnered with to explore local savings group options (such as stokvels), and the financial training of community organisations.

• Attaching a budget to improved urban management interventions is a necessary practice and a potential space to measure social and economic benefits.

Orange Grove: Much of the economic activities that exist in the area are functional, if informal and unconventional. As such, a key recommendation for the area is that some thought should be given to situations where no action on the part of the City would be the most appropriate ‘intervention’. There is a risk that too much intervention from the CoJ will result in Orange Grove losing much of what makes it a desirable and transformative area. There are perhaps geographical areas and economic sectors within the node that would benefit most by being left alone, such as the ability of businesses to subdivide informally to create micro retail space and affordable rental. However, this is not to say that there should be no CoJ intervention in the area – the Paterson Park re-development into mixed income housing is an example of an appropriate intervention, given the nature of demand in the area and the principles of inclusion explicit in the City’s policies.

• Community policing can be supported and encouraged in the Corridors to assist with urban management, buy-in and safety, although some caution must be exercised with regards to community policing forums in areas of inequality or where local tensions already exist, such as in Orange Grove.

5.6 Operational issues: policing and urban management A key issue that has arisen consistently during interviews, urban labs and the research is the importance of what to do once interventions have been completed. In this light, two issues consistently arose: urban management and policing. Distrust of the police is a city-wide problem, and police harassment of foreign migrants and those involved in informality are widespread.Improving these issues in the Corridors is necessary for their sustainability and success. Similarly, urban management is vital for developers as it mitigates risk and enhances demand, improving willingness to invest. Shifting the emphasis from a purely capital expenditure budget to operational support should have the potential to demonstrate enormous benefits.

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• Area-based management approaches can also be explored to assist with urban management issues that cross mandates and institutional responsibilities.

• The Citizen Relations and Urban Management (CRUM) programme needs to be revisited in order to increase its effectiveness and integration with other departments.

Park Station Precinct is in many ways unsafe, inaccessible for pedestrians and illegible for users.

There is a need for overarching urban management, coherent policy and a body sufficiently powerful to enforce the policy and engage the multitude of actors and stakeholders who contest the space.

Additionally, there is a need for the implementation of existing plans that have considered questions of pedestrian needs, place-making and urban management, this could include bold public space interventions and the idea to pedestrianise or semipedestrianise some of the surrounding areas. The site needs to be connected to the rest of the inner city and made more permeable.

5.7 The private sector The City has developed a set of incentives to assist in driving private sector enthusiasm.As has been discussed, these are largely in line with the requirements of the private sector. However, some revisions may be helpful in gaining more support from the sector.

• There is often a need to understand the histories of areas. Past deeds and decisions can have meaningful implications for the present and future.

• Calculating the cost of the proposed development incentives to the CoJ in order to understand whether the cost of the incentives is viable or whether the money could be better utilised elsewhere to the benefit of poor city residents.

• Key to attracting interest is speeding up development applications and getting the basics right, in order to build trust between developers, CoJ officials and broader communities.

• The regulatory framework could be strengthened, both in terms of its abilities to halt unwanted developments and in clarifying in more detail obligations for developers benefiting from permissive development rights and incentives.

• In order for the project to remain viable, the CoJ requires a better understanding of the drivers of the private sector.

• Within a constrained economy, there is a growing demand for affordable rental housing in proximity to the inner city, making the residential market the most viable at present. If the City wants to harness private sector investment it should maximise this opportunity.

• An effective conversation between developers and City governments can be undermined by an • unsophisticated binary explanation of their relationship. Developers are mostly construed as ‘bad’ and City governments as ‘ineffective’, thereby shutting down any discussion before it even begins. Yet, if one speaks directly to city planners and developers there is often a willingness to engage and collaborate. Building this collaborative effort is crucial to realising the vision of the TOD in Johannesburg.

• There are two kinds of developments that will most likely be done in the Corridors, largely because there is a limited supply of vacant land: brownfield developments and conversions. Each of these entails different interactions and incentives, this distinction needs to be explored.

Orange Grove: Improving the image of Louis Botha Avenue going forward, as well as attempting to appease the middle-class community in being seen to do something about crime, the City could close down the illegal taverns and support the police in their effort to remove the drug trafficking from the neighbourhood. This would improve neighbourhood safety; gratify middle-class residents and associations; satisfy law abiding business owners who resent the taverns and the image they bring to Louis Botha Avenue, and improve the City’s relationship with local police.

Marlboro South: Bramley police station was seen as a possible case of best practice. How and why this police station was lauded should be investigated.

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Potentially Park Station Precinct could be handed over to a private sector management agency or an inclusionary CID type model could be used, which incorporates the views and voices of informal traders.

There is also a need for improved housing for the very low income sector, which could be accomplished on sites that flank Burghersdorp. These areas should be developed for communal and transitional housing development. Furthermore, development on underdeveloped sites needs to be intensified and increased in height, and the addition of residential use to non-residential spaces, should be encouraged.

Orange Grove: Already has significant private sector interest as it is directly in the affordable housing market. A combination of shared accommodation and long-term residents typify the environment. However, a detailed analysis of where the gaps in the housing market will be, or at what point the City needs to step in to support or directly develop housing, has not been done.

Westbury has a well-established group of business owners who are keen to ensure that their investments are maintained. In Marlboro South, the proposed Alexandra City mega project could be extended to include the area; there are also smaller private developers who are entering the affordable housing market their energy and innovations should be harnessed.

5.8 Gentrification and displacement There is some potential for TOD corridors to gentrify and for land values to increase, thus excluding some of the poorest and most marginalised residents of the city and displacing small and informal businesses. There are other areas in which displacement along the corridors is a serious risk and can be caused by a range of actors, such as the market; the CoJ (or other state entities); the police, and the social milieu. Thus, strategies to prevent displacement of the poor along the Corridors are vital if the CoJ and its TOD initiative wish to fulfil the mandate of improving the lives of the poor and creating mixed communities.

• There is a need to clearly understand what gentrification is, where it is a risk and how to avoid it. It is not an equal risk in all areas across the corridors; of the areas researched, it is of particular concern in Orange Grove.

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• It is imperative that direct action be taken to guarantee the provision of affordable and emergency housing, and to ensure that exclusion is not an unintended consequence of the strategy.

• The Community Land Trust (CLT) model could be explored in some areas to counter displacement, as well as to meet a range of other developmental needs.

• If housing is the anchor of the Johannesburg TOD programme, further and more detailed analysis is required to determine who will provide affordable housing and at what cost.

by powerful residents’ associations complaining about the ‘vagrant’ problem and the JMPD enforcing by-laws. The vulnerability of the homeless and the precariousness of their tenure and livelihoods is a key issue in the area.

Rising land values and rental costs could also lead to the gentrification of Louis Botha Avenue and the displacement of poor residents, and small businesses, who account for much of the diversity

of the area. The survey found that a large number of business owners and employees live within the area and walk to work. This is one of the key aims of TOD and it is already occurring in this area. This needs to be protected and enhanced.

If either businesses or low-income residents are displaced, this balance will be interrupted.

As such, it is important that the City is wary of displacing the residents, businesses and informal arrangements that enable the area to function.

• By-law implementation poses a risk to foreign migrants’ livelihoods and ways of life that often do not conform to narrow bylaws. Foreign migrants – both residents and businesses – are at particular risk of being displaced by increasing rents. This group needs to be considered.

• Many of the businesses and residents along the corridors rent their premises or homes.

Monitoring the rental costs will enable the CoJ to prevent market displacement and avoid displacement.

While Westbury is not at particular risk from gentrification, other forms of displacement – such as those at the hands of the state, the police or the social milieu – are possible. Of the housing and subsidy mechanisms currently being offered or explored by the CoJ, very few are appropriate to the Westbury/Coronationville area. Despite the levels of poverty, many residents in the area would not qualify for subsidies as they are neither first-time homeowners nor do they qualify in terms of the maximum income level of R3 500 per month. More appropriate financial support mechanisms need to be explored in such a low-resourced area in order to ensure local homeowners are able to exploit the benefits being offered through densification rights (for example, area-based loan guarantees).

Orange Grove: Despite the sizeable homeless population in the area, this group is almost entirely invisible in policy discourse, including in the TOD‑related plans for the area. This is problematic, since this group has arguably been most affected by the Paterson Park upgrades.

They also face the greatest risk of displacement

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6

Further studies • A comprehensive study of the economic drivers of Johannesburg and the TOD corridors is imperative to realise the full economic potential of TOD for Johannesburg.

• A study of demand on the corridors. If the City wishes to shape the market more effectively, it needs to be clearer as to which residents are most likely to take up new opportunities in the corridors. This would aid in attracting private sector developers.

• A study of who can provide affordable housing along the corridors and at what cost, particularly given the importance of both housing and the upliftment of the poor to the TOD programme.

• An investigation of which housing stock has conversion potential would assist in determining social housing locations.

will enable the City to measure the impact of the TOD initiative. We suggest redoing the survey in three to five years. In addition, to keep track of the changes in the four case study areas, the Gauteng City Region Observatory’s Quality of Life survey could include over-sampling in these areas, and perhaps incorporate additional questions from this survey.

• Area-based management is a model that could be further explored to see how and in what ways it may be applicable and useful in the Johannesburg context. There is significant peer learning from local and international contexts that could be investigated.

• There has not been a sufficient review of the implications of the development incentives for the long-term interests of the City.

• The City has actively intervened in the public environment since 2001, attempting to catalyse private sector investment through area-based interventions and capital investment in social infrastructure.

There is a lack of conclusive analysis done regarding the impact of these interventions.

• To date, the City does not have a blueprint of the kinds of developments required to balance neighbourhoods and nodes to ensure that some residents are not excluded on the basis of affordability. This lack of research remains an omission in the policy to date. Given the disquiet expressed by academics and activists around housing in the Johannesburg inner city,15 it is urgent that these concerns are tackled with as much vigour as the development incentives.

• Monitoring indicators and trends throughout Johannesburg is important. A repetition of the survey of businesses and residents in the four strategic case study areas – and perhaps more widely along the Corridors –

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15 There is much concern that the current local government trajectory in the inner city of Johannesburg is one of gentrification and displacement, as units are renovated and rented at prices that are beyond the reach of many inner city residents and those who would like to access the inner city.

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REFERENCES Albonico Sack Metacity (ASM) (2016) “Alexandra Urban Development Framework: City of Johannesburg Planning Department Progress Report” PowerPoint presentation (20 May 2016).

CoJ (2014b) “Alternative Formalities, Transnationalism and Xenophobia in the City of Johannesburg (AFTraX)” Report prepared by the School of Architecture and Planning, University of Witwatersrand.

ARUP (2016) “Park Station Sub Precinct Development Framework” prepared for PRASA.

CoJ (2014c Louis Botha Avenue Development Corridor Strategic Area Framework.

Beinart W (1975) in Chapman T (2013) “Occupying the Divide: Investigating a Justice-based Approach to Urban Design in The Former Western Areas of Johannesburg” Master of Urban Design research report, University of the Witwatersrand. Available at http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/ handle/10539/13646

CoJ (2015) “Paterson Park Precinct Plan” (October 2015).

Bonner P and Nieftagodien N (2001) Alexandra: A History. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Burgess J (2016) The Road through the Grove. Johannesburg: Redsky Publishing.

Buxton M and Scheurer J (2007) “Density and Outer Urban Development in Melbourne”, Urban Policy and Research, 25, 1, pp. 91-111 Chapman T (2013) “Occupying the Divide: Investigating a Justice-based Approach to Urban Design in The Former Western Areas of Johannesburg” Master of Urban Design research report, University of the Witwatersrand.

Available at http://wiredspace.wits. ac.za/handle/10539/13646 CoJ (2008) “Newclare, Coronationville, Brixton Corridor: Urban Development Framework” Prepared by Ikemeleng Architects and 26’10 South Architects for the Department of Development Planning and Facilitation, City of Johannesburg.

CoJ (2010) Consolidated Johannesburg Town Planning Scheme of 2010.

Available at http://www.joburgarchive.co.za/2010/pdfs/town_ planning_ 2010.pdf CoJ (2014a) Empire-Perth Development Corridor Strategic Area Framework.

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CoJ (2016a) “Grant Avenue Precinct Plan” (June 2016).

CoJ (2016b) Johannesburg Inner City Housing Strategy and Implementation Plan 2014–2021. Submitted by RebelGroup to the CoJ and JDA (20 April 2016).

CoJ (2017) Corridors of Freedom for a people-centred city, http://www. corridorsoffreedom.co.za/ [Accessed: 20 June 2017 ] Crime Stats SA (2016) “Precinct Norwood”.

Available at http://www.crimestatssa. com/precinct.php?id=247 CTOD (Center for Transit Oriented Development) (2010) “Transit Corridors and TOD: Connecting the Dots” TOD 203. Available at http://ctod.org/pdfs/ tod203.pdf Dittmar H with Belzer D and Autler G (2004) “An Introduction to TransitOriented Development” in H Dittmar and G Ohland (eds.) The New Transit Town: Best Practices in Transit‑Oriented Development.

Washington: Island Press, pp. 2-18.

GCRO (Gauteng City-Region Observatory) (2009) Quality of Life Survey 2009. Data points collected in Marlboro South.

GCRO (Gauteng City-Region Observatory) (2016) “Quality of Life in the GCR: Quality of Life Survey 2015” Presentation from launch (28 June 2016).

Goodhew D (1990) “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Crime, Policing and the Western Areas of Johannesburg, c. 1930–1962” History Workshop paper presented at the Structure and Experience in the Making of Apartheid Conference (University of the Witwatersrand, 6–10 February 1990).

Howe L B and Joos V (2012) Post-Apartheid Urbanism. Master’s thesis, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.

JDA (2008) “Greater Park Station Precinct Urban Design and Heritage Management Framework” Prepared by Osmond Lange Architects & Planners.

SERI (Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa) (2013) Minding the Gap: An Analysis of the Supply of and Demand for Low-Income Rental Accommodation in Inner City Johannesburg. Available at: http://www.seri-sa.org/images/ Minding_the_Gap.pdf Stats SA (Statistics South Africa) (2011) Statistical Release Census 2011.

Available at http://www.statssa. gov.za/publications/P03014/ P030142011.pdf

Sustainable Cities Institute, (2013) Transit Oriented Development, http://www. sustainablecitiesinstitute.org/topics/ land-use-and-planning/transitoriented-development-(tod) Trueman M, Cornelius N and KillingbeckWiddup A (2007) “Urban corridors and the lost city: Overcoming negative perceptions to reposition city brands” Journal of Brand Management, 15, pp. 20-31

Zack T (2013) “Seeking Logic in the Chaos Precinct: The Spatial and Property Dynamics of Trading Space in Jeppe” in E Pieterse and A Simone (eds.)

Rogue Urbanism: Emergent African Cities. Cape Town: Jacana Media.

Zack T (2014) Skop. Book 1 in the “Wake Up This is Joburg” series.

Johannesburg: Fourthwall Books.

INTERVIEWS Albonico, Monica. Founder of Albonico Sack Metacity Architects and Urban Design. Interview with Lindsay Blair Howe (Johannesburg, 18 August 2016).

Gininda, Charles. Spokesperson for Marlboro Warehouse Crisis Committee and member of SDI/ISN. Interview with Lindsay Blair Howe (various between 2011 and 2016).

Ntshangase, Jabulani. Spokesperson for the Alexandra Taxi Association in Marlboro Gardens. Interview with Lucky Nkali (Johannesburg, 25 August 2016).

Lupton M (1992) “Class Struggle over the Built Environment in Johannesburg’s Coloured Areas” in Smith D M (ed.)

The Apartheid City and Beyond; Urbanization and Social Change in South Africa. 1st edition, pp. 65–73.

London and New York: Routledge.

Anonymous Retailer. Interview with Tanya Zack (Johannesburg, 24 May 2016).

Gininda, Thulisile. Resident of Marlboro South warehouse. Interview with Lindsay Blair Howe (Johannesburg, July and August 2016).

Nxumalo, Xolani. Deputy Director: Informal Trading, Development of Economic Department, CoJ. Interview with Tanya Zack (Johannesburg, 14 September 2016).

Mungoshi, R (2016) “Pensioners enjoy Rea Vaya Comfort, Freedom” Rea Vaya Website: http://www.reavaya.org. za/news-archive/june-2016/1327pensioners-enjoy-rea-vaya-comfortfreedom [Accessed: 20 June 2017]

Bethlehem, Lael. Investment Executive, Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI). Interview with Tanya Zack (Johannesburg, 1 July 2016).

JDA (2015) JDA Integrated Annual Report 2015.

Pieterse E (2014) “Johannesburg: Corridors of Freedom” Urban Age. Available at: https://urbanage.lsecities.net/essays/ johannesburg-corridors-of-freedom [Accessed: 11 July 2017] SAPOA (2016) “Spatial Development Framework 2040 – Facts Sheet” (1 August 2016).

Scheidegger U (2015) Transformation from Below? White Suburbia in the Transformation of Apartheid South Africa to Democracy. Basel: Basler Afrika Bibliographien.

SERI (Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa) (2016) Edged Out: Spatial Mismatch and Spatial Justice in South Africa’s main urban areas.

Available at: http://seri-sa.org/ images/SERI_Edged_out_report_Final_ high_res.pdf

Bennett, Jhono. Founder of 1:1 Agency of Engagement. Interview with Lindsay Blair Howe (Johannesburg, 24 August 2016).

CBO A. Westbury Community Policing Forum. Interview with Neil Klug (Sophiatown, 27 July 2016).

Jackson, Matt. Development Facilitation Manager, JDA. Interview with Alexandra Appelbaum (Johannesburg, 29 July 2016).

James. Homeless resident in Norwood.

Interview with Alexandra Appelbaum (Johannesburg, 18 August 2016).

John. Homeless resident in Norwood.

Interview with Alexandra Appelbaum (Johannesburg, 18 August 2016).

Chadwick, Roger. Chairperson, OGRA and Blue Rhino Consultant to JPC. Interview with Alexandra Appelbaum (Johannesburg, 31 October 2016).

Local Business B. Coronationville street vendors. Interview with Neil Klug (Coronationville, 19 August 2016).

David. Homeless resident in Norwood.

Interview with Alexandra Appelbaum (Johannesburg, 18 August 2016).

Local Business E. Ebrahim and Sons. Interview with Neil Klug (Johannesburg, 30 September 2016).

Davidson, Ndumiso. CEO, South Point. Interview with Tanya Zack (Johannesburg, 4 August 2016).

Local Resident A. Slovo Park resident and caretaker at Christ the King Church. Interview with Neil Klug (Slovo Park informal settlement, 7 September 2016).

Delborg, Mark. Manager of Springbok Scaffolding, Marlboro South.

Interview with Lindsay Blair Howe (Johannesburg, 23 July 2016).

Fuchs, Alan. Former DA Councillor for Ward 109. Interview with Lindsay Blair Howe (Killarney, 18 August 2016).

Pedestrian 1. Interview with Alexandra Appelbaum (Johannesburg, 2 September 2016).

Ravid-Bloom, Marcelle. Former ward councillor for Ward 74. Interview with Alexandra Appelbaum (Johannesburg, 13 August 2016).

SAPS Officer. SAPS Liaison Officer, Sophiatown Police Station. Interview with Neil Klug (Sophiatown, 7 September 2016).

Schmidt, Esther. Senior Engineer, JRA. Interview with Tanya Zack (Johannesburg, 8 August 2016).

Ward Councillor. Ward 69 Councillor, CoJ. Interview with Neil Klug (Auckland Park, 12 October 2016).

William. Homeless resident. Interview with Alexandra Appelbaum (Johannesburg, 18 August 2016).

McDougall, Brett. Chairperson, NORA. Interview with Alexandra Appelbaum (Johannesburg, 21 August 2016).

NGO B. L & H Solutions. Interview with Neil Klug (Westbury, 1 August 2016).

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