Urban Development Stakeholders Interacting in Practice: The case of Kraaifontein East

Abstract

In 1993 a process was launched to prepare a structure plan for the eastern parts of the former Kraaifontein Municipal area. The Kraaifontein Joint Planning Committee was established as a vehicle to achieve maximum public input and participation. The Committee was abandoned in late 1994 in favour of a conventional planning practice, namely following the minumum procedural prescriptions contained in the relevant legislation. Numerous theoretical models for critically assessing processes have been offered in planning literature over the years. In this paper a synthesis of models is used to critically review the case of the Kraaifontein process. The paper is divided into three sections. The first section briefly reviews the elements deemed important by the theoretical models. With these elements in mind, the paper then presents a brief  history of the process as it unfolded, emphasising those dimensions in the process pertinent to the subsequent evaluation. The last section critically assesses the process with the intention of uncovering some of the possible reasons for the failure of the process.