The development framework brings Africa's most important city into line with the world's great cities.

The 1995 Development Facilitation Act introduced the compact-city and mixed-use concepts, as well as development tribunals to ensure they worked. But developers and their bevies of planners and lawyers ran rings around tribunal politicians, developing almost anywhere at will. A plan to introduce development corridors on busy roads turned into an office-building frenzy.

Cowboy developers ignore the rules and begin building before they have planning approval. "Forgiveness is easier than permission in Johannesburg," quips one of them.

"Playpen of the rich" is how Professor Philip Harrison, chairman of Wits University's School of Town and Regional Planning, last year described the planning controls that have tried and failed to manage development.

But there are hopes that this will soon end. Harrison, economists and some enlightened developers praise the new spatial development framework. "Its policies are great, its strategies world-class," says property economist Pauline Larsen, a partner in Viruly Consulting. For one thing, an urban edge will prevent development from sprawling horizontally on to cheap land (see Sunday Time property June 8).

According to the 10cm-thick document submitted to the council for approval, the three main objectives of the spatial development framework are to:

"Create a sustainable urban environment." This is one in which a Sandton CBD can boom while a Johannesburg CBD bust can never happen again. It is one in which a neighbourhood will not degenerate because the residential, commercial and other uses do not fit together;

"Ensure the efficiency of the city's various components." For instance, the density of development will be controlled, starting at a base of 10 residential units/hectare (the same as Parkview or Linden) and clustering more densely around schools, parks, shopping and other facilities. This will ensure that an economical public transport system really works; and

"Ensure optimal accessibility to opportunities and the city experience." This aims to make Johannesburg a city of vibrant centres in which people live, work and play, as they do in London, Rome or New York. It will protect open spaces and rural areas from development and create new spaces.

Developers will no longer be able to do their own thing on their properties, unfettered by zoning, height restriction and building lines. Their projects will have to be co-ordinated with the ones next door to ensure that proper community precincts are created. And each region will have its own special requirement based on local development plans (LDPs) that have been established in public meetings over a number of years.

Ennerdale, Soweto, Orange Farm and Lenasia in region 11 will each have their own rules which retain their unique features. Region three, which covers Sandton, Rosebank and the heart of the northern suburbs will have their own. And they are applied in detail at a local level. For instance, there is already a plan for the Hobart Road precinct in Bryanston, and another for Rivonia Village.

It means that areas will slowly develop their own distinctive character. There will be interesting centres where people live, work and play in their own way. And there will be comfortable, efficient public transport between these nodes.

Eventually, if you travel down a street, you will see that homes have a better relationship with each other and are generally close to the street. This will create better security and more community. And the communities will hopefully be more diverse and interesting.

Quality of life will improve because the higher density will make a much greater variety of shops and entertainment possible. Home-buyers and tenants will have greater choice of types of homes and areas from which to choose. You will probably need to travel less, and when you do it will be easier.

It will be more like a European city or some American cities than Johannesburg today. And as Pretoria, Centurion and other cities adopt their own development framework, so will the whole of Gauteng. But don't hold your breath. Sadly, it will take many years to happen.

Sunday Times