After seven months in limbo, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has started sifting through hundreds of rezoning and town planning applications, some of which date back to 2015.
The backlog was caused by the municipal planning tribunal not sitting since November over concerns the structure was not properly constituted.
This was because the council did not establish a panel to evaluate the members who served on the tribunal in 2015. The problem has since been rectified and the new planning tribunal held its first meeting to process a massive bundle of applications on Monday, with a second meeting to take place on Thursday next week.
These include rezoning applications by residents and businesses as well as applications for special consent and the removal of restrictions applications.
Any approvals by the tribunal need to be approved by the human settlements committee and ultimately the council before residents can develop their properties.
The council has not been able to reach a quorum long enough to approve some of the longstanding agenda items. A council agenda from March still has to be processed by the council.
However, rifts between the coalition government and opposition councillors have thwarted attempts to do so.
Council approvals are vital for development in the city and delays could cost the metro investments, which they have in the past.
Human settlements political head Nqaba Bhanga said the tribunal was functioning again.
“The problem was when it was established years ago, it was constituted incorrectly. “Now that it’s been reconstituted, the tribunal is dealing with the backlog from November,” Bhanga said.
The purpose of the tribunal was to take the technical land use matters away from the politicians, for them to be debated by the city’s technocrats and simply approved by the council, he said.
In July last year, the municipality’s human settlements department closed its offices to the public for three days and processed more than 300 rezoning applications, some of which dated back to 2010.
Bhanga vowed, at the time, to ensure the processing of applications would be cut down from 16 months to about five months.
Planning body sitting again
After seven months in limbo, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has started sifting through hundreds of rezoning and town planning applications, some of which date back to 2015.
The backlog was caused by the municipal planning tribunal not sitting since November over concerns the structure was not properly constituted.
This was because the council did not establish a panel to evaluate the members who served on the tribunal in 2015. The problem has since been rectified and the new planning tribunal held its first meeting to process a massive bundle of applications on Monday, with a second meeting to take place on Thursday next week.
These include rezoning applications by residents and businesses as well as applications for special consent and the removal of restrictions applications.
Any approvals by the tribunal need to be approved by the human settlements committee and ultimately the council before residents can develop their properties.
The council has not been able to reach a quorum long enough to approve some of the longstanding agenda items. A council agenda from March still has to be processed by the council.
However, rifts between the coalition government and opposition councillors have thwarted attempts to do so.
Council approvals are vital for development in the city and delays could cost the metro investments, which they have in the past.
Human settlements political head Nqaba Bhanga said the tribunal was functioning again.
“The problem was when it was established years ago, it was constituted incorrectly. “Now that it’s been reconstituted, the tribunal is dealing with the backlog from November,” Bhanga said.
The purpose of the tribunal was to take the technical land use matters away from the politicians, for them to be debated by the city’s technocrats and simply approved by the council, he said.
In July last year, the municipality’s human settlements department closed its offices to the public for three days and processed more than 300 rezoning applications, some of which dated back to 2010.
Bhanga vowed, at the time, to ensure the processing of applications would be cut down from 16 months to about five months.
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