1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND
As part of the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) Citywide Development Initiatives, MASS Consortium was appointed to develop and Urban Design Framework for the Rockey/Raleigh Street Precinct.

Rockey/Raleigh Street is one of Johannesburg's High Streets experiencing pressure for re-development due to degradation, changes in the land use activities and general economic dysfunction which is occurring along major arterials and mobility spines.

Historically for so long in Britain, the main shopping street of a town had been known by this name that it is now a generic term to describe shops that cater to the needs of the ordinary public.

In Old English, the word high meant something excellent of its type or of elevated rank or degree (we still have terms like high society, high priest and high sheriff that are based on it).

Very early on, high began to be applied to main roads. The first example is highway, recorded from the early ninth century. This referred to a main road between two towns or cities, one that was under the special protection of the monarch as an essential communications link (hence the later phrase the king's highway to refer to such important roads).

Around the year 1000 high street started to be used in the sense of a substantial thoroughfare, whether in country or town (street has rather gone down in the world-it used to refer to a road of some consequence, usually one so important that it was paved, a rarity at the time). As medieval towns often grew up (or were deliberately created) alongside such main routes in order to provide lodgings and otherwise tap the possibilities for trade presented by passers-by, the name High Street in time became the name of urban roads containing shops, and hence the main retail centre of a town.

The street as a public space, an African space, presents a challenge for which this study must necessarily address in reconciling what constitutes this high space, in the context of an African city/ town of Yeoville. The essential question for the framework is what makes an African space.

The project specifically aligns with the Joburg 2030 Strategy in respect of consolidating urban areas and stimulates improved linkages along corridors that provide opportunities for SMMEs to enter the local area's economy more effectively. To this end, the study is a 'focused' intervention addressing the need to balance residential and non-residential development as well as the social economic problems of the area.

This Framework will provide a basis for an implementation plan by the JDA whose role it is to stimulate and support economic development in this area-based initiative.

1.2 METHODOLGY AND PROCESS
The Rockey/Raleigh Street Development Framework was broadly undertaken through two parallel processes with a series of steps as outlined below:

The steps in the Planning and Design Process was also informed by interaction with Economic consultants, Urban-Econ, who had undertaken an earlier study on the socio-economic status of Yeoville as a whole with specific focus on Rockey/Raleigh Street.

The consultative process engaged various stakeholders through a number of meetings as individual members of the committees as well as focus group meetings at which issues as documented in the LIDP document were re-confirmed.

Having developed preliminary ideas in response to the challenges raised, a number of report back sessions were held with the stakeholders. The process established not only the shortcomings of the ideas, but also provided input into the process.

The following sections of the documents outlines in details the above processes.

2 STATUS QUO ANALYSIS

2.1 SUB-REGIONAL CONTEXT

2.1.1 Physical Context
The project area essentially encompasses three suburbs namely: Yeoville, Bellevue and Bellevue East as indicated on the map below.

The precinct is a sub-region of Region 8 of the eleven (11) Johannesburg City Regional structures. Located on the North/Easterly end of Region 8, the precinct is bounded by Berea to the West, Houghton to the North, Observatory to the East and Highlands to the South.

2.1.2 Movement and Connectivity
Main access to the precinct is primarily through Harrow Road to the West of the precinct, which provides North/South connections to M1 and M2 network. East/West connections are through Louis Botha on the Northern edge of the precinct.

The main movement through the precinct runs East/West through Raleigh Road/Rockey Street. The street is essentially a mixed-use spine, which have, transformed over the years from predominantly residential in character.

The area has a number of community facilities; most notably the Yeoville Square and the newly completed Yeoville Market.

2.1.3 Character and Form
The character and form of the area, its built form is captured in the photographic record below.

2.1.4 Socio-economic Context
The population of Yeoville and Bellevue in 1998 was approximately 14 506 (StatsSA). Current estimations have the population of Yeoville and Bellevue at approximately 25 000 people. The population composition has changed dramatically within Yeoville over the past 30 years. What was traditionally a majority white, Jewish suburb in the 1970's (9 000 white people and 1 400 African/black people) has steadily over the years become a majority African/black area (in 1998 2 507 white people and 11 999 African/black people) with a distinct African - predominantly French-North African - influence . This trends was coupled with the migration of the Jewish community from the area, which brought about distinct socio-economic changes to the area, mainly in terms of a loss of disposable income.

The average unemployment rate in Yeoville is relatively low at 18%, which is significantly lower than the average of Gauteng, which approximately 35%. Despite the relatively low unemployment rate, compared with the rest of Gauteng, in general households located within Yeoville are relatively poor: seven percent of households earn an average household income of R2 400 or less, i.e. R200 or less a month. On the other end of the scale, however, 20% of households earn an average income greater than R72 000 per annum, i.e. more than R6 000 a month.

A household survey conducted by Urban-Econ: Development Economists in Yeoville (2003) affirmed that Yeoville has a disparate population, with a number of culturally diverse households residing within the area. This, in some instances, has resulted in a number of socio-economic problems occurring within the area. Households support the businesses along Rocky/Raleigh Street, mostly for top-up groceries and convenience shopping and to a limited extent for entertainment. The composition and state of the local high street business environment, however, does give rise to a sizeable leakage of purchase power from the area to other business centres.

2.1.5 The role and Function of Yeoville
Within the city context, Yeoville is predominantly residential suburb renown for its nightlife and unfortunately, associated with drug dealings. Almost all activity in Yeoville revolves around the High Street - Raleigh/Rockey Street.

Shopping and entertainment have dominated the land use in the High Street and has tended to serve regional functions more than local functions. In itself, it is not a contradiction to what the historical high street served. However uncontrolled changes in the land use activities in a general dysfunction of the city economy have had negative results in the current degradation, crime and loss of identity of what originally Yeoville was as characterised by Rockey/Raleigh Street.

The challenge here lies in the reconciliation of the conflict between the need for Rockey/Raleigh Street to serve a local function and not a regional one. The need to re-examine the mobility status of the high street and of course its land use activities becomes imperative and key to unlocking the potential of the high street.

2.1.6 Future Development Impacting on Yeoville Precinct
Apart from the Johannesburg Inner City regeneration programmes, this study has not established any major development initiative that will have a negative impact on Yeoville. However, developments of a regional function or scale need to be limited in the inner core of the suburb and located along Louis Botha as a higher order mobility system North of Yeoville.

2.1.7 Management of the Urban Environment
Several initiatives have been launched in the area to address problems that the community currently experiences. The issues include, among others Safety and security, illegal land use activities, maintenance that the Community base organisation, the Local Authority and the Law Enforcement Agency are attempting to address.

2.2 LOCAL CONTEXT
Figure 2 illustrates the extent of the focused study area within the context of Yeoville, which is the entire length of Rockey/Raleigh Street from Harrow Road Junction to the West, to De La Rey Street to the East.

To the North, the precinct is bounded by Hunter Street and Hopkins Street to the South.

Rockey/Raleigh Street is as North East Street with a number of North/South Street that crosses it at various points.

Yeoville is predominantly a residential suburb with Rockey/Raleigh Street as the main commercial and retail spine. A number of corner shops are spread around mainly located on Cavendish and Bezuidenhout Streets. On the northern edge along Louis Botha and the West edge to Harrow Road at corners Becker and Webb Streets.

Figure 2 also shows the Open Space System in Yeoville, which is dominated by the Yeoville Park off Raleigh Street. On the Southern edge of the precinct is the broad system of the Witwatersrand Ridge traversing East to West.

A number of Community Facilities exist and include educational, religious and recreational as indicated on Fig. 2. Two main pedestrian movement systems were identified running North South, Grafton and Kenmere Streets. Cavendish is also a major pedestrian movement system between Louis Both to the North and Rockey Street, capturing taxi movement along Louis Both. These systems are also closely related to the location of the community facilities beside the major transportation routes.

2.2.1 Transportation
As noted earlier, the precinct is primarily accessed through Harrow Road to the West of the precinct, which provides North/South connections to M1 and M2 network. East/West connections are through Louis Botha on the Northern edge of the precinct.

At a local level the main movement through the precinct runs East/West through Raleigh Road/Rockey Street, this is a metropolitan classified route, M18. The street essentially is a route through which traffic from the CBD was routed to the East through Yeoville.

Rockey /Raleigh Street is therefore a major bus and tax route to and through the precinct. Figure 3 illustrates the existing bus movement in the area and both bus and mini-bus taxi routes.

Most of the bus services originate from Ghandi Square in the CBD. Mini-bus taxis on the Louis Botha route often drop off passengers along the arterial. These passengers then find their way into Yeoville through a series of North/South Street, of which the most used are Kenmere and Cavendish Roads.

A number of problems and issues regarding traffic and transportation were highlighted from the LIDP prepared in August/September 2002. These included the following:

• Traffic control and parking problems especially along Rockey/Raleigh Streets
• Lack of, or damaged street furniture and road signs
• Ineffective street management of Rockey/Raleigh Streets
• Inefficient use of street road reserve along Rockey Street; between Bezuidenhout and De la Rey Streets
• Informal taxi holding areas, especially with regard to metered taxis
• Conflict between vehicular and pedestrian on Rockey/Raleigh Streets.

Raleigh and Rockey Street are one of the same streets but with a name change. This is a metro classified street (M18), an East/West arterial, running through the precinct with eight other streets crossing it. Raleigh Street portion is a largely a two-way system while Rockey street is one East from to Da Le Rey Street. Hunter and Hopkins are also one-way streets to the West.

All other street running North/South, crossing Rockey/Raleigh Street are two-ways streets.

Parking around the precinct is both on street and off street as indicated on Figure 4. Based on the current ground floor land uses, it is estimated that 800 parking spaces are required. However, approximately 700 parking spaces are available within the precinct. The results have been that the street is heavily congested at certain peak times and invariably directly related to entertainment peaks.

Most conflicts occurred in Rockey Street between Bedford and Cavendish Streets. Problems experienced in this section of the road were mainly due to the limited road reserve and the extensive pedestrian movements on the same section. The main problems included:

• Relatively high traffic volumes, taking the geometry of the road into account
• Conflict between local and through (regional) traffic
• Illegal parking of private vehicles
• Double parking of delivery vans and taxis
• Jay-walking of pedestrians
• Pedestrian Street sidewalk limited by informal traders.

There are two specific zones where such problems occur.

The first is around Times Square and the second around Rockerfellers as indicated on Figure 4. Both these areas characterised a concentration of adult entertainment. Other sections of the street do not seem to experience similar congestions and this is largely due to the adjacent land uses as indicated earlier in Figure 3.

Another area that has similar problems is around Kenmere Road, which is a metered taxi-ranking strip.

The major problems experienced on the high street are largely the result of the conflict between local and regional traffic on one hand and parking, loading and moving traffic on the other.

A full preliminary assessment of traffic and transportation report is included with this report as Annexure I.

2.2.2 Land Use Activities
Businesses along the local high street reveal a linear configuration. The majority of businesses along Rocky/Raleigh Street are retail (54%) and consist mainly of convenience stores selling for example, general groceries, meat, liquor, fast foods, clothing and a limited amount of furniture.

The second most common type of business along Rock/Raleigh Road is personal services businesses (30%), which mainly consists of Internet cafes, hairdressers and laundries.

Rocky/Raleigh Street could therefore be categorised as a local high street, which serves a localised function. A combination of weak demand, in part due to the leakage of purchase power and in part due to crime, coupled to the deteriorating socio-economic status of the area gave rise to a current business vacancy rate of approximately 13.0% (Urban-Econ Business Audit, 2003). This figure is not excessively high, but it is of concern, since it has increased consistently over the past five years.

Spatially from west to east, four distinct groupings of land uses can be distinguished, namely

• ZONE 1: Business node consisting of freestanding residential units. together with small business units. The intersection of Harrow Street and Rocky Street is a problem, as the configuration is ineffective: the intersection is too wide, with too few lanes and no turning indicators.
• ZONE 2: The more established entertainment node, which is characterised by take-away facilities, i.e. Nandos, as well as pubs and taverns.
• ZONE 3: The convenience function activities such as Shoprite and the Market. Rocky/Raleigh Street also becomes a one-way street in an easterly direction (at the Yeoville Market).
• ZONE 4: If one continues along Rocky/Raleigh Street in an easterly direction, the business land uses decrease to predominantly personal service and related functions and free-standing residences.

The business survey outlines a number of problems, which are experienced within in the suburb of Yeoville. All of these problems in turn have an effect and influence on the efficient economic functioning of Rocky/Raleigh Street. The leakage of purchasing power from the area implies that there are problem with the shopping environment and associated shopping experience in Yeoville, and in particular, along Rocky/Raleigh Street, which serves as the local high street for Yeoville. The main problems, as revealed by the households' survey, include:

• Crime: This problem is exacerbated by a lack of sufficient street lighting. Drug dealing was a real concern.
• There is a severe lack of parking along Rocky/Raleigh Street. Due to the traditional linear configuration, most retail businesses do not comply with the prescribed ratio of 6 parking bays per 100m² gross leasable business floor space.
• Although there is a strong prevalence of entertainment-orientated businesses along Rocky/Raleigh Street, there is relatively little nightlife along Rocky/Raleigh Street. Furthermore, the emphasis is on adult entertainment, rather than on family entertainment.
• Shopping hours are limited, reducing the shopping experience for potential shoppers along Rocky/Raleigh Street.

The tenant composition along Rocky/Raleigh Street is limited, with very little retail variation and severe duplication. This limits the high street's power of attraction and points towards the need for management of the business environment.

In addition, there are areas where adjacent land uses are generally incompatible. This for instance the juxtaposition of the adult entertainment, Times Square, and public open space, Yeoville Park, which is a 'family' recreation facility.

A full Socio-Economic Report is attached to this report as Annexure II, for further details.

2.2.3 BUILT FORM
Yeovilles's built fabric is mainly of residential with the exception of Rockey/ Raleigh Street, which is mostly commercial retail. The residential area is of low to medium density.

The buildings in Yeoville are a mix of the following:

• Single storey residential dwellings, with corrugated sheet metal and concrete tile roofing
• Double storey arcaded structures with retail on the ground, office, retail or residential on the upper floor.
• Double storey structures with cantilevered canopies, open walkways, with retail on the ground, office, retail or residential on the upper floor.
• Double storey residential structures: semi-detached duplexes and blocks of 4 unit flats.
• Blocks of flats up to 6 storeys high in various states of repair.
• Public Buildings.

The arrangement of the buildings is that of mainly linear pavilions, street orientated, without much emphasis on the nature of spaces created between adjacent buildings.

In the more single storey residential areas, access alleys to the back of the properties create unsavoury passages, prone to litter dumping and creating an ideal hiding/ambush area for criminals.

More structured spaces between buildings are formed by some retail establishments, which enclose or border parking lots (e.g. Time Square and Piccadilly Arcade)

The fine grain on the Western and Eastern ends of the high street reflects mostly single store residential buildings, which on the East have, remained largely unchanged in use. On the Western section between Harrow Road and Fortesque Road, have their residential uses changed to business.

2.2.4 PUBLIC OPEN SPACES AND VEGETATION

2.2.4.1 PUBLIC OPEN SPACE and PARKS
Figure 2 above shows available green spaces in and around Yeoville. The need for open space in areas of high-density residential developments cannot be over emphasized, in particular in the light of changing demographics of our cities and suburbs. Some of the benefits of open space of recreational space can be summarized as follows:

• Providing " green relief " from noises and confusion of the city.
• Opening up spaces for play
• Creating a common space where diverse populations could intermingle
• Investing public funds in a way that would have a significant payoff in shaping the land and creating real estate opportunities.

There are numerous standards used to provide open spaces. However most are general guidelines that need to be adapted to particular city or suburb.

Country
Standard of Gardens and Parks (Minimum)
Town Population
UK
0.7ha
10000 people

0.4ha
1000 people
USA
1.32ha
1000 people
South Africa
1.0ha
1000 people


Two kinds of open spaces are important in a residential area. Firstly the is the local play park which is normally a children's play area that should be in the immediate walking distances of households i.e. not more than 300 meters away. The activities are mostly passive recreation with seating places and play structures for small children.

Secondly there is the neighborhood park with more active recreation, which need special surfaces needs equipment, a higher degree of supervision and a community centre. This may have structured sports activities for older kids and adults. The distance from most households should not be more than 800meters.

Yeoville square is the only neighbourhood park in the area. Most households are however more than 800 meters away from the Square. The extent the park and the all buildings in it (Community Center, Swimming Pool) is about 2 hectares essentially is meant to serve an estimated population of over 30 000 people. Under the current standards, there is a shortfall of 28hac, which the Yeoville community needs.

A number of problems have been highlighted on the Park and these include the following:

• Lack of Litter collection is a problem on the Square.
• Lack park wardens.
• Vendors selling their wares are also problematic
• Lack of order or control of recreation activities in the use of the square i.e. soccer

Soccer has been identified as the single most destructive activity to grass and vegetation in the park. It is generally aggressive activity and residents consider it anti -social because at the level at which it is played excludes other users like younger children and women

Issues that were identified at Yeoville Square are as follows:

• At least three (3) park wardens need to employed to maintain order at a cost of at least R1000 a month (City Parks).
• The Park, as a long-term goal, should be redesigned to remove undesirable activities like soccer.
• Tennis courts should be to be redesigned so that they can accommodate multi-purpose activities.
• The water feature needs to be repaired
• Play areas should be redesigned.
• New play equipment should be provided.
• Surface and Storm drains for paved areas need to be fixed.
• Litter collection should be organised through Yeoville community

2.2.5 VEGETATION - TREE SPECIES

2.2.6 SAFETY AND SECURITY - STREET LIGHTING

2.2.6.1 Site inspection
Two site visits were made one during the day and the other at night. The daytime visit was to carry out visual inspection of the street lighting installation to determine its state of repair. The night visit was to accord us the opportunity to assess the actual working condition of the street lighting and its adequacy.

The visual inspection revealed that the street lighting installation was old and in most cases in a poor state of repair. The night inspection made it evident that a substantial number of lights were not functioning causing darkness in certain areas, which coincided with criminal activity spots.

A meeting was held with the City Power to determine whether any "as-built" plans were available. None was available. Hence, it was decided to make a rough mapping of the existing streetlights.

2.2.6.2 Mapping of existing street lighting
A thorough site inspection was made to try to position the actual streetlights physically on the plans to be able to quantify the status quo.

2.2.6.3 Survey at night
Together with a resident who is thoroughly versant with Yeoville, a detailed night survey was made to determine the working condition of the streetlights and to map out the crime hot spots.

Several crime hot spot were identified and these were correlated with the lighting situation.

2.2.6.4 Summary of the Prevailing Situation in Yeoville
From the report on the detailed survey of the Yeoville area during night time it is evident that the main common factor that the crops up in all the areas that have an evidently increased crime rate is absence of lighting ringing time to the proverbial saying that "evil works are done in darkness". Thus, the first and foremost line of action to stop crime and other shady activities is to increase visibility by lighting up the dark spots.

Light also attracts people and increase flow of human traffic further scares off would be muggers, rapists etc. This coupled with proper policing would go a long way in making the Raleigh-Rockey area a much safer place.

3 DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES

The development objectives and guiding principles have been built upon the issues, constraints and opportunities highlighted in the RSDP as well as urban design imperatives.

Pertinent contextual informants to the guiding principles included the following issues:

• Holistic, Integrated and Sustainable
• Integration in the precinct broadly implies re-appraisal of the regional role of Yeoville and the current interrelationships and compatibility of certain land uses that have seemingly created a number of the problems experienced in and around the precinct.
• Integration of pedestrian and vehicular movement
• Sustainability on one hand has to do with appropriate mix of land use activities that focus on serving the needs of the neighbourhood rather than the regional requirement of the city at large. On the other hand, while it is recognition that market forces will largely dictate the activities on Rockey/Raleigh Street, it will be crucial to direct and control such what is desirable for the area.
• Function Integration - Housing. Appropriate densities to support land use activities on the high street.
• Preserve the residential integrity of the areas
• Locate regional functions land use on mobility spines - i.e. Louis Botha.
• Reduce the conflict in the movement system:
  • Between Local Traffic and Regional Traffic.
  • Parking, loading and moving traffic
• Creating a special place exemplifying / celebrating its pan-African nature
• Creating accessibility to support appropriate land use opportunities
  • Improve East/West accessibility into Rockey/Raleigh Street.
• Reclaiming the street sidewalk as positive public space
• High level of Management and 'Control'
• Land use mix required high degree of control to limit undesirable use. Policy interventions in land use activities (i.e. Re-zoning).
• Safety and Security