Towards an understanding of proactive upzoning globally and in South Africa

Upzoning typically occurs as a passive process whereby landowners approach the municipality for a change of rights. Proactive upzoning, where a municipality takes the initiative to increase the rights assigned to land in its jurisdiction, can be a powerful tool to encourage development to occur in line with municipal policies. This paper firstly describes the various approaches used to achieve proactive upzoning. The focus then shifts to understanding examples of proactive upzoning in South(ern) Africa, which provide examples of policy transfer of ideas, primarily from the Northern into a Southern context. Four key lessons are identified from this discussion. Firstly, proactive upzoning can affect the poor negatively or positively, depending on the design of the initiative. Secondly, from South African experience, it is clear that there is a danger of proactive upzoning examples from the North being copied almost verbatim and applied in a Southern context, despite the considerable differences in context. Thirdly, there is a need to ensure that initiatives are in line with market dynamics, to avoid ‘wasted’ infrastructure investment. Fourthly, proactive upzoning often just considers zoning schemes’ rights, whereas the land development process can face a slew of regulatory constraints beyond the zoning scheme.