Earlier this month, Deputy Mayor of Cape Town, Alderman Eddie Andrews (centre), led an engagement session with representatives of various Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres, aimed at helping operators navigate land use and zoning requirements and removing red tape. On Saturday, 11 July, the City of Cape Town hosted an engagement session with representatives of various local Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres at Robinvale Community Hall.
They were given the opportunity to raise any concerns they might have regarding zoning and land use ECD centres were then informed by the City of various legal barriers that have been removed to make land use compliance easier. This includes centres now being exempt from paying any penalties if they are operating in certain mapped areas and are only required to submit a building plan. Another barrier that has been removed is that small-scale ECD centres operating from a house can now operate without the need for a land use application and are only required to get permission from their neighbours.
The City has also started the Development Charges Fund, which ECD centres can access if they want to expand their operations.According to the Deputy Mayor of Cape Town, Eddie Andrews, the purpose of the engagement was to inform ECD operators about the importance of land use compliance and what measures the City has put in place to make compliance easier. “It is about trying to understand how we can communicate with all of the operators so that they can know what provisions are available, clarifying why it is important to have a compliance structure, why an architect is required and what support we are offering because they should not be suffering alone. The program is there to help each and every one to be a lot more compliant,” explained Andrews.
Melanie Andrews is one of the ECD operators in the area, and also chairperson of Atlantis Cares, a not-for-profit organisation in Atlantis. She expressed her gratitude for the Deputy Mayor’s visit. “We’ve got all the answers that we need and I know this is going to make the path easier for us to get our registration in place. This will make things much easier for ECDs that have fewer than 34 children. Instead of going through the lengthy and costly zoning application process, we can now obtain a zoning extract and simply get consent from our neighbours. It will help creches to be registered more quickly and gain access to funding,” she said.
