THE City of Johannesburg has approved an urban design framework for the Randburg central business district, paving the way for the immediate implementation of projects to revitalise the declining district.
The framework will tackle the ills affecting the district in a bid to attract back business and investment, according to a report from the City's development planning, transportation and environment department.
Michael Hart Architects and Urban Designers, with Syn-Consult Africa and urban designer Melinda Silverman, was commissioned by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) to produce the report.
Ursula Ntsubane, the development manager at the JDA, says the City has already allocated R5-million to the three-year project, which is expected to begin "in the next few weeks".
"Randburg has been experiencing economic decline in the past years and this is an effort to revitalise the district. We want to clean, green and make it safe."
Shops and offices closed down as most business moved to new developments in Sandton and Rosebank, and Randburg posted the fastest growing vacancy rates between 2000 and 2003, compared to other nodes, such as the Joburg CBD, Bryanston, Fourways, Sandton and Rosebank, says the report.
The suburb, in Region 3, is the third largest office market after the Joburg CBD and Sandton. Region 3 is "an area of relatively high environmental quality comprising commercial and high income residential areas".
The council has already identified six projects for the revitalisation of Randburg, which is listed as a city improvement district. These include upgrading the physical infrastructure of the area's CBD, economic development and empowerment, social development, environmental interventions, urban management and marketing.
Proposed land uses include redeveloping the taxi rank, upgrading and moving council offices back into the old civic centre, the general improvement of public spaces and upgrading roads.
The taxi rank will be redeveloped to accommodate "related retail, trading, convenience services and information services". There are also plans to develop the taxi rank into a multi-storey complex.
To ensure as many council departments as possible set up offices in the old civic centre, plans are being drawn up to redevelop the existing building, while additions have been proposed to house new functions.
Environmental degradation of the public spaces in the CBD is particularly worrying, and the urban design framework report says there are plans to tackle the problem. The council will work with utility agencies that collect rubbish, provide electricity, and sewer and water delivery, to improve lighting and better manage the cleaning of streets and public open spaces.
Gautrain, the express train, is expected to affect the area's transport infrastructure. A station is planned for Sandton, and Randburg is expected to be an interchange point for passengers living in the north-west of Johannesburg en route to board the train. The report proposes that stations that are well connected to other public transport services and that promote pedestrian and bicycle traffic be built.
The revitalisation of the Randburg CBD is expected to reduce drastically the vacancy rates for the existing stock of offices, retail and civic buildings. The value of properties is expected to increase and more than 5 000 jobs be created.
In 1959 Randburg was granted municipality status for 13 northern suburbs of Johannesburg, following a request by 24 "influential residents" to establish an independent municipality. A plan was drawn up to develop a central business district with retail, civic and office uses.
Retail activity in the early 1960s comprised a shopping strip along Jan Smuts Avenue and Hendrik Verwoerd Drive arterials, the report says. However, the steep roads restricted pedestrian traffic because of "shoppers' reluctance to walk uphill".
Consequently, the Randburg council commissioned a new plan in 1972 and an outdoor mall was built in 1976, in an attempt to "shift activity patterns in the area by 90 degrees and take advantage of the relatively flat topography in the east-west direction" of the CBD.
The new mall was complemented by the construction of a new civic centre to house the municipality and other major commercial developments. The future of Randburg looked bright.
Yet another plan was commissioned in 1985 for the expansion of the CBD. The plan envisaged that the new CBD would stretch from Bond Street in the north to Republic Road in the south and as far as Main Street in the west. However, the report says this ambitious plan was never realised and "only a limited number of blocks managed to attract commercial development".
Randburg initially had enjoyed an advantage as one of the few decentralised office nodes, but the development of office parks were stiff competition with their strong security, privately landscaped surroundings and generous parking.
The mini-bus taxi industry moved into Randburg at the same time. Illegal ranks were established in almost every vacant plot of land along the major arterials, notably on the council site west of Jan Smuts Avenue and on the top of the Hilltop site west of Jan Smuts Avenue and Hendrik Verwoerd Drive.
Informal trading sprung up around the taxi ranks, which negatively affected the surrounding formal shops. Grime took root.
The then Northern Metropolitan Local Council moved out of the old civic centre, which had been an important activity in the Randburg CBD, after local government restructuring in 2000. Eventually, squatters invaded the building, leading "to further environmental degradation".
In 2004, Johannesburg approved plans to declare the Randburg CBD a city improvement district (CID) and to transform the area into a safe, clean, attractive, user-friendly and desirable commercial node, an incentive to attract back business and investment.
The upgrade, a joint effort by the City and the local business community, will ensure "more effective management of public areas, address issues of crime and grime, promote business confidence and play an overarching role in the promotion of the area, particularly the mall".
In March 2003 Kagiso Urban Management, the Randburg CID's implementing agent, carried out a survey of the perceptions of the area's stakeholders and users. It found that safety, security and the public environment had to be tackled urgently by the CID, which would be done over three years.
To boost these efforts, the Johannesburg Property Company, the company that manages the City's properties, has commissioned a plan to develop a civic precinct on the council-owned site bounded by Jan Smuts Avenue, Hendrik Verwoerd Drive and Selkirk Road.
The plan entails "reintroducing civic services into the existing council buildings, introducing new administrative and service functions to be accommodated in new buildings and the restructuring of the site to ensure a more appropriate and coherent balance of built and open spaces".
The JDA's Ntsubane is optimistic that despite the problems experienced in Randburg, the revitalisation efforts will attract back business. "The revitalisation is an incentive for business to stay."
