Superblock pegging

Superblock pegging
What process/ task is too complex?

The process of township establishment is a long and complex process

Why is this process/ thing is complex?

The process of township establishment takes a long time as you need a set of professionals to follow a long standard process. It is also expensive to employ town planners, land surveyors and others to do this township establishment. Communities have to wait for professionals to complete this whole process, and they have no significant role in this process. If communities try and do their own layout it is seen as illegal.

How can this process/ thing be simplified?

The process of employing professionals to do predominantly top down township establishment can be linked to the communities doing their own more bottom up plot layout at the superblock scale. The professionals can, through more top down township establishment processes, plan down to the superblock scale. These superblocks can be zoned for incremental settlement. Communities who are then allocated to these superblocks can then do their own internal plot layout, while guided by more professional/ experienced people.

What benefits arise from this suggestion and for whom?

The process is cheaper in the short term for government in that they don’t have to pay for all the land surveying and planning. They just pay for planning down to the superblock scale. Government is still able to control land use in the neighbourhood by setting aside land between the superblocks for schools, roads, etc If this land is planned in advance of need, government can allocate it to people who can rapidly mark it out and occupy this land. Communities can have far more control over what their local blocks look like. They can for example make the house plots smaller and set aside more public or common space.

What are the challenges to implementation & how can these challenges be overcome?

Getting government to agree to such a process and getting government to plan enough of this land in advance so it quicker for communities to do the planning. Making sure that communities do the internal planning in a way that makes it easy for future upgrading.

Possible solutions include

Pilot projects. Standard examples of zoning. Standard examples of guidelines for communities to do their own planning.

What are the practical steps in implementing the simplification suggestion?

Get government to sponsor pilot projects.

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