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Cape Town’s new Development Charges Policy for Engineering Services

13 August, 2014 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm SAST

The City of Cape Town has recently approved a new Development Charges Policy for Engineering Services.  This policy pins down some vexing questions.  

When land use intensifies the municipality has to increase its infrastructure networks to accommodate the increased demand for services.  There is always a cost to the city, but who should cover that cost: the developer or the body of ratepayers as a whole?  How should the municipality calculate that amount?  Should socially beneficial land use changes, like low-income housing have to pay the same as land use changes that are commercially driven?  Should there be a different method of calculating this amount for small or emerging businesses as opposed to big businesses?  Why can’t the costs of extending the infrastructure networks be covered through monthly tariffs for the different services?

Nick Graham and Stephen Berrisford have been part of the professional team, headed by AECOM, drafting the new policy for the City of Cape Town.  They are also working on the National Treasury’s process to develop national law and policy on the subject.  They will share their experiences at the ACC’s Brown Bag session and explain the rationale behind the new policy as well as identify some of the implications for the city of the new approach.

Nick Graham is a Director at PDG, responsible for the Urban Systems Practice Area. He is an urban geographer and registered professional engineer with Masters degrees in civil engineering, environmental policy and urban geography.

Stephen Berrisford is an independent consultant specialising in the legal and policy frameworks governing urban land and development. He is trained as a lawyer and urban planner, with degrees from the Universities of Cape Town and Cambridge. He works primarily in southern and eastern Africa as well as on global initiatives for agencies such as UN-Habitat, Cities Alliance and the World Bank. Stephen is an adjunct associate professor at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town and visiting professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. He was the governance coordinator for the Urban Land Markets Programme Southern Africa (Urban LandMark), a UK aid-funded think tank focused on making urban land markets in southern Africa work better for the poor.

Image credit: Barry Christianson

Details

Date:
13 August, 2014
Time:
1:00 pm - 2:00 pm SAST
Event Category:

Organizer

Liza Cirolia

Other

Theme
Location
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Venue

Davies Reading Room
Room 2.27, Environmental and Geographical Science, UCT
Cape Town, Western Cape 8000 South Africa
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