Development planning – appeals process
Appeals process: Background
- From 1 July 2015 appeals were no longer submitted to the Provincial Townships Board but with the City. The provisions of section 51(2) of SPLUMA determine that the Executive Mayor, as the executive authority of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality act as the appeal authority.
- The CoJ Appeals process is regulated by the provisions of Section 49 of the Municipal Planning Bylaw 2016 (as amended 2023) that determines processes and procedures in relation to the submission, circulation and deciding on appeals.
It furthermore in section 49(3) stipulates-
“The City’s executive authority may delegate its appeal authority in terms of section 56 of SPLUMA read with section 59 of the Municipal Systems Act to-
- (a). a body or institution outside of the City to assume the obligations of an appeal authority; or
- (b). to an official or a committee of officials in the employ of the City; or
- (c). to a Member of the Executive Committee or Mayoral Committee, as the case may be,
provided that such appeal authority may not be delegated to an official in the employ of the City who originally made the decision on the application or who is a member of the City’s Municipal Planning Tribunal”.
Current appeals process:
- Appeals are currently, conducted based on written representations (as provided for in the SPLUMA Regulations) in the form of a report with all the relevant information attached, with the discretion that the MMC may call for a formal hearing before a decision is taken on the appeal.
- An owner of land, any person that submitted an objection and any person who’s petition to intervene has been granted as envisaged in section 52 of the By-law, whose rights may be adversely affected by a decision taken by the Municipal Planning Tribunal, the authorised official or any of its sub-delegates in respect of-
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- (a). any land development application envisaged in Chapter 5 of this By-law;
- (b). a change of circumstances application envisaged in section 24(2) and 42(6) above;
- (c). any engineering services- and/or parks or open spaces contributions imposed or levied in terms of any provision of this By-law, may
- Appeal against that decision and must be addressed to the City Manager.
- The appeal must be submitted within 28 days of the date of receipt notification of the decision or of date of receipt of the notification of such engineering services- and/or parks or open spaces and/or inclusionary housing contributions imposed or levied. If and when the decision was received late, proof must be submitted.
- A comprehensive ground of appeal and written notice must be submitted to the Land Use Management Registration Section, at LUM Help Desk, Braam Park, Forum 1 within the period mentioned above.
- The applicable application fee is payable.
- Should reference be made to any specific document, policy framework, copies of Documents should be attached and must be marked as annexures.
- Should the applicant of an application be the appellant the Applicant would be responsible in the notification of all the objectors and interested parties of such appeal.
- Should the objector be the appellant, the Council would be responsible in the notification to the applicant and the other objectors to the application.
- An appeal is invalid if not lodged within the period mentioned in (2) above.
- The notice of an appeal must allow all parties concerned 21 days from date of notification to oppose or comment on the appeal.
- The appellant (if applicant) must provide the City with proof of notification within 14 days from date of notification as in (6) above.
- The appeal will be captured on the date of submission in the Council Application system and a file will be opened for the appeal. The appeal will be allocated a reference number and all documents related to the appeal will be placed on file.
- The appeal will proceed by the Department of Development Planning. Once finalised the appeal will be forwarded to Legal and Compliance.
- Thereafter the appeal will be submitted for consideration to the internal Appeal Steering Committee where the appeal will be discussed, evaluated, and considered.
- A written recommendation will be made by the Appeal Steering Committee to the MMC Development Planning (Appeal Authority) Such recommendation will be accompanied by the complete Appeal file as well as the complete application file for consideration by the MMC.
- Once a decision has been made by the MMC, the Appellant and or objectors / applicant will be informed in writing of the decision taken. The MMC has 30 days to make decision on the appeal.
Appeal process Timelines:
Summary of timelines and activities required to be actioned by the City in terms of section 49 of the By-law:
- Section 49(1) Parties affected by the decision must submit appeal within 28 days to submit appeal form date of receipt of notification of the decision. –
- Section 49(2) City Manager to submit appeal to executive authority of eth City (appeal authority) for a decision with 7 days after pre-hearing.
- Section 49 (3) The pre-hearing process must not exceed 150 days.
- Section 49 (8) if appeal is lodge by the objectors the City (CM) must inform the owner/applicant and anyone who had validly opposed the application and granted intervenor status, of the appeal with 14 days of date of receipt.
- Section 49 (13) the appeal authority must decide on the appeal within 30 days of receipt of appeal documents form CM (read with subsection 2).
- Section 49 (15) Parties must be notified of the decision within 21 days from date of the decision.
As it stands currently, the department is struggling to comply with the 150 days pre-hearing turnaround time, some of the matters submitted for appeals takes more than 2 years to conclude, emanating from the above-mentioned delay caused by Covid, on which the process stood still for a relatively long time causing the backup/ Backlog.
As of October 2024, the department has about 78 appeals matters that have been submitted that still under consideration.