Plan to revitalise Durban’s inner city
The eThekwini metropolitan municipality has unveiled an ambitious plan to transform the inner city over the next 25 years.
|||Durban – The eThekwini metropolitan municipality has unveiled an ambitious plan to transform the inner city over the next 25 years.
Public transport, cycling and walking lanes, carbon reduction, green landscaping, and rejuvenating various parts of the city that have fallen into disrepair are all envisioned as eThekwini positions itself as “Africa’s leading, most vibrant, liveable, walkable, city centre, providing economic, residential, sporting, and leisure opportunities for all” by 2040.
Members of the multi-disciplinary team responsible for the eThekwini inner city local area plan hosted an open day on Friday at the Durban Exhibition Centre, where the public and stakeholders were able to view a draft proposal of the project and offer comments and suggestions.
In becoming a “great city”, the project is aimed at emulating highly sought after global cities, which are “liveable communities where government, commerce, and culture thrive. [Great cities] find a balance between the natural and built environment [and are] places where the human spirit can thrive socially, economically, and culturally,” according to a media statement.
“The city has gone beyond the minimum consultations required,” said acting deputy city manager for economic development and planning Musa Mbhele. “We let Durbanites guide us on what they want to see by 2040,” he said, adding that the city had been on a “massive communications drive” since the project’s inception in September 2015.
The stakeholder engagement process has seen over 50 meetings and workshops take place to date.
The nine districts covered by the plan are the Point, Albert Park, Warwick Junction, Greyville, Victoria Embankment, the Beachfront, Greater Kings Park, the Umngeni Corridor, and the Central Business District (CBD).
Speaking at the event, consultant Cathy Ferguson, of The Planning Initiative, said it was important to agree on the local area plan before the actual inner city regeneration started. “We need to integrate and co-ordinate,” she said.
The vision for a renewed inner city includes integration of the bus rapid transport (BRT) system and other means of transport, including rail. It is anticipated that through the BRT, 85 percent of residents “will have access to safe, affordable, and quality scheduled public transport”.
But the renewal programme also punts non-motorised transport (NMT), with planning to include more paved and green areas for walking and cycling. Access to the inner city for the disabled is also big on the agenda.
It is envisaged that NMT will reduce congestion, cut down on carbon emissions, encourage sustainable environment and create a community-orientated environment, and boost walking-orientated tourism.
Ferguson said that according to the United Nations, 71.3 percent of populations would live in cities by 2030; and by 2050 that number would have swelled to 80 percent.
“Urban centres, especially metros, dominate the country’s economy, offering the best job opportunities. Sixty percent of eThekwini’s rates-base is generated in the inner city,” she said.
It was proposed that the spatial framework for the inner city be based on three “cross cutting” themes – future development should be based on the lessons from the past and present; all planning and regeneration should be firmly and completely based on a solid understanding of the drivers of economic growth and focus on promoting these elements; and all future development proposals should be resilient and sustainable to ensure that plans were not contributing to climate change and might, in fact, mitigate some issues.
eThekwini has been vocal on positioning itself as a major transit and manufacturing hub, with multi-billion rand investments being pumped into the harbour, including a new excavated port to be constructed on the site of the decommissioned international airport to the south of the city.
To the north of the city, near the upmarket Umhlanga area, residential and commercial developments have been ongoing for more than a decade, while the Dube TradePort, based at the new King Shaka International Airport, has attracted massive blue-chip firms, such as Samsung, using the airport precinct as a manufacturing hub.
African News Agency
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