City will continue receiving, assessing development applications during lockdown

STATEMENT BY THE CITY’S MAYORAL COMMITTEE MEMBER FOR SPATIAL PLANNING AND ENVIRONMENT, ALDERMAN MARIAN NIEUWOUDT.

The construction industry, residents, government departments and professionals can continue to submit building plans, and development and land use applications via the City’s e-Services platform during the national lockdown that is now in effect.

This online portal has been available to residents and industry since 2015:

• Submissions can be made 24/7
• Submissions can be made from anywhere in the world, be it from your study or another country
• Applicants can monitor and track the progress/status of their applications at any time from any place
• It enables instant electronic communication between the City and the applicant during the assessment process

I encourage those who have not yet registered for, or activated this service, to do so now. Click here to find out:How to Register for e-Services and submit an application using the Development Application Management System (DAMS)

Thus, measures are in place to ensure we keep on providing our services, but industry and residents must also take into account that there are resource limitations and that unforeseen challenges will have an impact.

Officials from the City’s Development Management Department will be assessing applications, and write reports while working from home. We will make every effort to ensure business continues, and that we limit the impact of the lockdown on our residents and the industry.

We do foresee that there will be constraints such as disruptions to the internet, poor connectivity, and the prioritisation of COVID-19 related interventions from other City Directorates who may not have time to comment on applications during the 21-day lockdown period.

Also, given the prohibition on movement, no meetings will take place – for example, the Municipal Planning Tribunal will not be able to meet and therefore, no decisions will be made by the MPT during this time.

In matters that are delegated to City officials, these decisions will be made in accordance with our procedures.

We encourage residents and industry to contact the Development Management Department through any of the following district mailboxes:

comments_objections.blaauwberg@capetown.gov.za

comments_objections.capeflats@capetown.gov.za

comments_objections.helderberg@capetown.gov.za

comments_objections.khayemitch@capetown.gov.za

comments_objections.northern@capetown.gov.za

comments_objections.southern@capetown.gov.za

comments_objections.tablebay@capetown.gov.za

comments_objections.tygerberg@capetown.gov.za

A dedicated team will monitor the messages and respond during this time.

Kindly direct your query by sending an email to the relevant district office mailbox.

Queries can also be sent to my office: marian.nieuwoudt@capetown.gov.za