Developers, take heart. The City of Johannesburg is processing the decisions on development applications quicker than ever before, thanks to a new decision-making structure that has been put in place.

Within just six weeks of being set up, the new Planning Committee, which has taken over the decision-making process of development applications in the city, has made tremendous strides towards wiping out the backlog of applications the city had accumulated.

Council decided in July to replace the Town Planning Tribunal with a new, more efficient process which has already reduced the number of outstanding applications from 239 at the end of July to 121, and promises to eradicate all backlogs by the end of October (including new and old applications in the system).

Amanda Nair, the Executive Director of Development Planning, Transportation and Environment (DPTE), says the new structure has helped to expedite the processing of building-plan applications and to eradicate the existing backlog of development applications. "Authority has now been delegated to the administration."

Town planners and developers are also happy with the new arrangement.

Tinie Bezuidenhout, a prominent town planning consultant, welcomes the quick processing of applications. "Shortening the time of processing applications will assist developers to be able to develop much earlier. It will also help in reducing the number of illegal constructions taking place."

Willie Buitendag, co-owner of Di Ciccio and Buitendag property consultants also welcomes the changes. "Processing applications quickly will promote development in the city. The new committees seem to be working pretty well and professionally."

Nair says the Planning Committee has the authority to approve, amend or turn down applications for new developments. As Executive Director of Planning, Nair has a delegated power to refuse applications which are not in line with the Regional Spatial Development Framework (RSDF) or do not have a town planning merit. "In the past, such a decision could only be taken by the Executive Tribunal," explains Henry Human, manager of committee services in the City's legal administration.

According to Human, between August and September, the committee held 16 hearings at which 81 applications were considered. "Of the 81 applications, 69 decisions were made and there were only 12 postponements (which postponements will be dealt with during the October hearings)." This is a radical improvement on the tribunal, which handled an average of 30 applications per month in the year ending 31 July. Human says that the number of postponements has also come down dramatically.

Human says the committee is on track to wipe out the backlog. Of the 121 items still outstanding, says Human, 45 will be processed in October. Fifty-three are old applications which were scheduled for the old Executive Tribunal. "Now 30 of those are to be handled by the Planning Committee in November. The remaining 23 will be heard by the Executive Tribunal before it is disbanded in December," says Human.

The other 23 outstanding items consists of nine which were referred to the Mayoral Committee by the tribunal in August, 10 which were turned down for not being in line with the RSDF and four items postponed by the last tribunal, which will now be processed by the Planning Committee, explains Human.

The Planning Committee has 43 members, mostly council officials, and seven chairpersons, all legal advisers, adds Human. "This is not a fixed panel. A different panel is constituted for every sitting. In that way, members can rotate and share the workload. We only need three members and a chairperson to form a quorum for each hearing."

One of the main benefits of the new systems, says Nair, is that it brings together professionals with expertise in fields such as planning, land use management and law.

Another time-saving change is that whereas the old tribunal inspected every application on site, now, the committee uses its discretion to determine if there is a need to go on site, says Human. Also, decisions are now being confirmed on the same day as the hearing, speeding up the notification of decision process.

Human expresses confidence that by the end of the year, applications will not be in the decision-making process for a period longer than three months, where previously with the Tribunal, it could have taken as long as a year to obtain a confirmed decision on development applications.