Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa September 2015 | Page 31

• The Inner City Transformation programme, with a R205-million budget and a 10-year capital investment plan, maintains and repairs the infrastructure that is the backbone of the built environment, as well as rejuvenates the inner city and refurbishes parks and public spaces. • The Station Precinct Development programme encourages optimal development of transit hubs and corridors to provide access to affordable accommodation and transport. • The Priority Area Planning and Implementation Programme shifts the design of the city to improve livability and create sustainable human settlements, which include public amenities and transit facilities. • The Greenways programme focuses on providing resilient, livable and sustainable environments by using roads, rivers and transport modes to promote walking, cycling, and sustainable public transport. It includes the continued roll-out of the Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit service. • The Alexandra Renewal Project involves human settlement development projects such as hostel upgrading, housing development and the construction of community facilities. Two of its projects – Station Precinct Development and Greenways – make up the transit-oriented development intervention that will build Joburg’s Corridors of Freedom, an urban revolution that will build a new city, driven by mass transit lines. They will restructure Joburg’s spatial economy, with housing, jobs and social opportunities in proximity to each other and are built on solid objectives: energy efficiency, climate change mitigation, economic growth, and social inclusion. access to affordable housing that is well located in terms of job opportunities, economic activity and affordable transit services. With the new Rea Vaya BRT services as the key structuring element, the approach is to develop station precincts at key transit interchanges. All of these initiatives, however, have a driving force behind them: increasing investment in Johannesburg that will translate into economic growth and job creation. With this in mind, the JDA’s capital works are specifically designed to address aspects of the challenges facing Joburg by: • Connecting people with opportunities to live, work, play, learn and be healthy in the city • Catalysing growth of opportunities in areas of latent investment potential and growth • Creating quality robust democratic public environments and places that give dignity and choice to city users • Co-producing solutions in partnership with local communities and multi-sectoral stakeholders to meet local needs and mitigate local challenges. Part and parcel of building a new city space is more sustainable energy consumption and land use. The JDA is introducing Blue Economy interventions such as reusing base material in the layerworks of roads for the Rea Vaya bus way; supporting local production of building material such as paving bricks; and reusing waste to make public art. Green Economy interventions are also key to JDA projects. In the design of buildings and public spaces, it promotes green building technologies such as solar water heating, efficient lighting and sustainable urban drainage systems. There are three identified Corridors of Freedom: • Corridor 1: Soweto to the Johannesburg CBD along Empire and Perth roads • Corridor 2: Johannesburg CBD to Alexandra along Louis Botha Avenue • Corridor 3: Turffontein The primary aim is to reshape the space economy of Johannesburg by ensuring that poor people have better www.reimag.co.za SEPTEMBER 2015 SA Real Estate Investor 29