This strategy feeds into the City’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP). It supports private sector investment within a guiding framework consistent with public sector policies and planning. The CCDS is the product of discussions between a wide range of Central City stakeholders over the past year and the Partnership invites public participation and comment. (See separate press statement.)

Much work remains, not least the issues of affordable housing and greater inclusivity for all Capetonians. What is obvious is the widespread optimism in the viability of the Central City and the true believers who work tirelessly to make this great City of Cape Town, even better.

For the past 10 years the work of the Cape Town Partnership and the Central City Improvement District has been largely focused on basic urban management issues and crime prevention strategies to provide a clean and safe environment to attract investment. Slowly, issues like capital flight, crime and urban decay have made way for a rejuvenated and upgraded Central City. Now, the future of the Central City for the next decade can be proactively charted – through a Central City Development Strategy (CCDS).

The Cape Town Central City plays an important role within the economic, social, cultural and political life of the region. It represents 40% of business turnover in the City. It is a destination for Capetonians and visitors, a place of many education and training institutions, location of important sectors of the regional economy, and the site of all three spheres of Government and the South African National Parliament. Given its significance, that it succeeds and continues to attract investors, locals and visitors is not negotiable.

The purpose of the CCDS is to inspire and to capture the public imagination about what the future of the Central City can be. The aim is to mobilise stakeholders around a shared vision and specific strategies, and to generate a measurable delivery plan, in order to manage growth and lead change over the next 10 years.

The CCDS is part of other City of Cape Town processes, such as the City Development Strategy, the Integrated Development Plan and the City Space project (City Spatial Development Framework and district integrated Spatial Development Plans/Environmental Management Frameworks).

The CCDS describes five key outcomes (what will set the Central City apart and be achieved over the next ten years), and suggests strategies (how we will get there) and actions (what we will do) to make these outcomes a reality. There is a strong emphasis on enhancing and protecting elements that contribute to local distinctiveness.
Within the next ten years, the Central City aims to be:
• Cape Town’s premier business location, recognised globally;
• A high quality sustainable urban environment;
• A popular destination for Capetonians and visitors;
• A leading centre for knowledge, innovation, creativity and culture, in Africa and the South; and
• A place that embodies the heart and soul of Cape Town.

While the CCDS contains many different inter-connected strategies, it is built on five ‘big ideas’. These are:
• To reinstate the historical connection of the City to the sea, the mountain and to water, the raison d’être of the City of Cape Town in the first place, through a variety of public space interventions;
• To bring the people of Cape Town back into the Central City, through appropriate residential densification and affordable housing;
• To improve the public transport system, providing greater accessibility to, from and around the Central City for Capetonians and visitors;
• To provide space for future growth and investment in the Central City, in particular through the redevelopment of the Cape Town Station Precinct; and
• To divide the Central City into 20 neighbourhoods, paving the way for development protocols, based on local characteristics that reinforce the distinctiveness of the Central City, which can address issues such as appropriate densification, mixed usage, building height, parking ratios, street-frontage, heritage and conservation.

Over the next few months, the City and the Partnership will be conducting a public process so that the ideas and proposals in the CCDS can be enriched and augmented, and translated into a 10-year Delivery Plan, to be published early in 2009.

Copies of the CCDS are available at the Cape Town Partnership’s offices, or can be downloaded at www.capetownpartnership.co.za. Persons who would like to participate in forthcoming CCDS workshops can register via the website.