Real Estate Investor Magazine South Africa September 2018 | Page 20

SPATIAL PLANNING
Investing in cities of the future
BY WARREN HEWITT
T
he UN reports that 70% of people will be living in
cities by 2050. This will have a direct impact on how
cities are planned, built and managed. Cities will need
to adapt to accommodate the needs of growing urban popu-
lations. Resources, infrastructure, mobility and economic op-
portunities will become even more important than they are
today. With constrained opportunities for outward expansion
and finite resources, cities will need to consider how they can
be reimagined, and repurposed, rather than built from the
ground up.
To sustain itself as a thriving centre, the city of the future
needs to provide sufficient infrastructure, connections and
innovation that can sustain the increasing demands of the
people who live and work there. Residents will need to live
closer to their places of work. Employers will need to harness
technology to offer more sustainable work practices.
To reimagine today’s city into a vibrant urban hub requires a
detailed analysis of what already exists and a sound strategy to
support the vision of what could be their future. As an import-
ant node that feeds the transport and economic infrastructure
of Cape Town, Bellville is no different. Bellville has all the
ingredients for a successful urban transition that will secure its
future for this and the next generation, and beyond.
In its current form, the economic centre of Cape Town’s
northern suburbs already has the infrastructure to able to do
that. Each day, over 300 000 commuters pass through the Bell-
ville transport interchange. Its business environment caters for
micro-entrepreneurs, small and medium businesses and global
corporates. Existing buildings with large floorplates are avail-
able for high-density employment operators such as the busi-
ness process outsourcing sector. And students are able to find
reasonably priced accommodation close to the ten educational
institutions where they study.
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine
However, there is yet more to be done to transform Bellville
into a thriving, prosperous and inclusive African city.
It starts with spatial planning and infrastructure. The City
of Cape Town, which recently confirmed its funding for the
GTP’s next three-year operational cycle, is continuing to
develop its planned investments in the Public Transport In-
terchange. This includes the upgrade of the Blue Downs rail
corridor, scheduled to happen over the next five to eight years.
These are vital projects that will stimulate economic growth
and strategic densification.
Other privately funded developments are also leading
the reinvention of the city centre. Projects like the R2bn
upgrade of the Parow Centre, a transit-oriented devel-
opment by a private developer, will bring an additional
95 000m2 of commercial and retail space, and 1 200 afford-
able housing units to the area. Similarly, the University of the
Western Cape (UWC) has earmarked millions of rands of in-
vestments in Bellville over the next three years. UWC’s new
Faculty of Community and Health Sciences, which formally
opened on 23 July, is the start of that wave.
But these are long-term projects that need to be under-
pinned by shorter-term gains. Smaller developments, cultural
programming, community activations and technology solu-
tions have a role to play. Urban transitions are incremental.
Each isolated idea serves and supports a matrix of steady
adjustments that will ultimately form a sustainable platform
to support a connected community living and working in a
vibrant, inclusive and prosperous 24-hour city.
The GTP’s role in Bellville is to facilitate these develop-
ments. This is a critical aspect of the work it does, because ur-
ban renewal cannot be delivered by one entity alone. Whether
large or small, each project and innovation, delivered in collab-
oration with committed partners, will shape Bellville into an
African city of the future.