Page 31 - UGU Dstrct Mun IDP Report '21-22

District development nodes: These nodes play an integral role in the regional economy and contribute substantially to the provincial economy. They serve as major clusters of economic activities and provincial population. They have considerably developed and diversified economies. They serve as both economic hubs and administrative centres, but also perform some service centre functions. Municipal Development Nodes are physically connected to each other and to urban centres outside their regions (districts), by frequent and reliable transport and all-weather roads. They offer diversified commercial, financial, professional and administrative duties and services. They accommodate sub-regional offices of national government departments and branch offices of provincial government departments. They provide facilities for large scale and diversified markets, function as communication nodes for a broad rural hinterland, and provide sites for agri-business and largescale agriculture processing.
They also provide space for the location of small-scale consumer goods industries, repair workshops, and light durable goods. They offer higher educational opportunities and more specialised vocational training; and provide diversified and multi-purpose hospitals and health clinics. Municipal offices would mostly be located in these development nodes.Community Development Nodes are small towns that provide an area-wide exchange point household and common consumer products as well as farm inputs. They serve as nodes of transportation and distribution linked to regional centres within the province. They provide higher-level administrative services that cannot be found in community development nodes and offer vocational and secondary education, health and childcare services and rural commercial services.
Neighbourhood/Settlement Development Nodes: These would locate a settlement or cluster of settlements. Its service area would be limited to the surrounding settlements and would include lower order public, shopping and small business enterprise facilities. They serve as linkage between the local communities and the major towns and as such they should be located in accessible areas along or at the intersections on public transport routes. The majority of these are in the rural areas and would be discussed in detail in the local municipalities SDFs.
3.1.3.1 Hierarchy of Development Corridors
Corridors are areas of street or route-oriented uses which incorporate a mix of retail, employment and residential uses, developed at overall greater densities, located along arterial roads serving as major transit routes. Corridors link Nodes and important areas of activity within the district and are intended to be key locations for residential intensification. Corridors may form the boundaries of residential subdivisions or neighbourhoods but should act as a linear focus for activities and uses within the community. The District’s Corridors provide a significant opportunity for creating vibrant pedestrian and transit-oriented places through investment in hard and soft infrastructure, residential intensification, infill and re-development.
The concept of spatial development requires an understanding of the movement networks of people, goods and services which are channelled along specific routes. These routes are described as networks of interaction. The level and intensity of activity that these networks of interaction provide result in the concept of “Development Corridors” which are broad areas of development which are centred on activity and development routes. They are characterised by dynamic, mutually supporting relationships between land uses and the supporting movement system. These development corridors are generally supported by a hierarchy of transport services which functions as an integrated system to facilitate and foster ease of movement for private and public transport users.
A key element of corridor development is intensification. A large portion of the District’s land use intensification target is directed to Nodes and Corridors. In older Corridors, intensification stabilizes and grows the population, helping to support local businesses, institutions and community facilities such as community centres, parks and schools, thus returning vitality to these areas. In new or developing corridors, intensification, supported by transit, provides a diversity of housing types and living environments that reduce the dependency on automobiles, creating liveable environments.
The SDF recognizes Corridors as key structural elements for Municipal, neighbourhood and precinct planning; however, some corridors function as an integral part of a much broader environment with a national, provincial and district wide impact (N2). Therefore, a central element of corridor planning will be to identify the unique role played by each corridor and ensure that proper planning co-ordination and guidance is provided for each of the corridors identified, whilst embracing the general ethos of corridor development planning.
Development corridors in Ugu DM occur at various scales and are dependent on function and categorisation of the transportation route that forms the basis of the corridor. They carry flows of people and trade between two points (origin and destination) and foster nodal development at strategic points. Corridor development forms the basis of spatial structuring and is a tool for economic growth. It seeks to create functional linkages between areas of higher thresholds and economic potential, with those that have insufficient thresholds. This, in turn, enables areas that are poorly serviced, to be linked to areas of opportunity and benefit and with higher thresholds.
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