Origin, purpose and impacts of the land use planning ordinance (No. 15 of 1985)

Abstract

The new Land Use Planning Ordi­nance, which replaced the old Town­ships Ordinance (33/1934) in July 1986, was drafted because the Town­ships Ordinance had become cumber­some and outdated during the course of the 50 years that it had been in ope­ration. When the Townships Ordi­nance was drafted shortly after the First World War, the major problem that had to be faced was the hapha­zard subdivision of land that was being perpetrated at the time; zoning and forward planning were new and untried concepts at that stage. There­fore Chapter 2 of the old Ordinance, which deals with the subdivision of land, received prominence, whereas zoning control and the forward plan­ning of land, were grouped together in a less important chapter, namely Chapter 4 (with forward planning playing the least important role). This order of priority changed over the years and this change was one of the major reasons why a new ordi­nance was needed. In the new Land Use Planning Ordinance the order of priority is reversed compared to that of the old Townships Ordinance: for­ward planning is now the most impor­tant element, followed by zoning con­trol and lastly subdivision. This order of priority is reflected in the sequence of the first three chapters, 1: Structure plans, 2: Zoning schemes, and 3: Sub­division of land. The second reason why the Town­ships Ordinance had to be replaced was that it had become illogical and cumbersome owing to frequent and extensive amendments, particularly during the sixties and early seventies.