Summary: | Urban Growth Boundaries are one of the most popular urban containment tools worldwide. In
South Africa, this has found expression in the recent (2001) implementation of the Gauteng
Urban Edge. (Barker, 2004 [Email interview]). Many urban conurbations are experiencing
severe symptoms of urban sprawl resulting from the development of industrial manufacturing
cities in the 19thcentury,and mass transport modes that facilitated movement away from city
centers during the 20th century .Today, major urbanized areas such as Boston, Chicago, San
Francisco and London exhibit exhaustive urban sprawl.
International experience: Policymakers responded to these experiences as early as 1947
when the Town and Country Planning Act in the United Kingdom suggested as policy
objective, the containment of growth of major conurbations and large cities. The policy found
expression in the implementation of greenbelts around these cities, which at the time proved
to be the most effective form of containment policy. Since then, the concept of an urban
growth boundary has become one of the most popular urban containment tools, and has been
implemented in sprawled urban areas such as London, Copenhagen and the often cited
example of Portland, Oregon.
National experience: Deliberate government policies during the pre-1994 Apartheid regime
effected that, South Africa, as a developing country, exhibit wide disparities between richer
urban areas, and poorer rural settlements. As a result large numbers of the population
migrates to city centers. The influx of people are usually accommodated on the (cheaper)
periphery of the city, and consequently, all South African cities have one important feature in
common - that urban growth has taken the form of dispersed residential accretion at the city
edge. (Department of Development Planning and Local Government, 2002: 1).
In response to National legislation, the Development Facilitation Act of 1995, which promotes
urban densification and infill development, the Provincial Government of Gauteng drafted a
spatial framework in 1999, which aimed to steer all spatial trends in Gauteng. One of the
proposals in this Spatial Development Framework was to strive towards a more compact
urban form. The process of delineating the Gauteng Urban Edge was initiated and the policy
implemented in 2001. The purpose of this paper is to review and assess the origin of the
Urban Edge and to finally draw some conclusions from this specific case study, on the lessons
learnt from International case studies, concerning Urban Growth Management in South Africa.
Focus of this study:
. To integrate existing planning knowledge and approaches in order to answer to the
research questions.
. To gain and unlock new knowledge in the research area, to describe the current trends.
. To integrate the theoretical founding and empirical realities mentioned, and to apply the
knowledge and findings in the South African context.
. To communicate professionally with Professional Planners, Scientists and the community,
to stimulate further debate and to publish the results of the research. === Thesis (M.Art. et Scien.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.
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