The Sunday Mail
Extra Reporter
The news of a group of neighbours dragging a top company executive to the courts for being noisy made headlines recently. Many could have missed the significance of that news item.
OK Zimbabwe CEO Mr Willard Zireva was dragged to court by his neighbours for turning his property into a party house and disturbing their peace. Six Greendale residents took Mr Zireva and his company to the Civil Courts and obtained an order barring him from committing “acts of nuisance”.
The residents complained that the functions were held almost every weekend while the noise levels were unbearable, the neighbours argued.
They said the functions at times ended around 3am with live bands playing. A Harare magistrate granted an interdict against Mr Zireva after the neighbours argued that it was their right to stay in an environment free of any nuisance.
While Mr Zireva admitted having converted the residential property into a wedding and events venue, he, however, denied the functions lasted as late as 3am, or caused unbearable noise.
Harare has seen an increasing trend of houses being turned into business premises as council incorporated 10 suburbs into the CBD.
The suburbs which are part of the expanded CBD include Arcadia, Braeside, Hillside, Ridgeview, Milton Park, Newlands, Eastlea, parts of Belvedere and Belgravia, Workington and Graniteside.
In expanding, the city also reviewed the CBD Local Development Plan 22 with a view to incorporating the suburbs. The review of the local development plan superseded local development plans for the Showgrounds and Newlands areas.
Then Harare City Council urban planning services director Mr Psychology Chiwanga said in 2013: “There has been a trend of applications for change of use permits in these areas. We decided to incorporate the areas because of demand.”
Harare has been going through a natural outward growth while CBD offices have been deserted and are mostly occupied by small-to-medium enterprises such as tailors and printing companies.
While proprietors in the affected areas would retain ownership, Mr Chiwanga said then, companies could also buy these properties to develop into multi-storey buildings.
The then town clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi invited operators to regularise business operations in residential suburbs falling within the proposed expansion of the central business district.
Zimbabwe Institute of Regional and Urban Planning president, Mr Percy Toriro, said the process of converting a home into any other use that is not residential is regulated by land use plans also known as master plans or local plans.
“It is sound town planning practice that every city has a master plan. This is the overall land use planning and development guide and policy for the city. Below it, there is also good practice that all areas of a city are covered by local level plans known as local plans.
“These state in detail what use each square inch of the city is assigned to, what buildings they can erect, what space they leave in front of their building, what height they are allowed to build up to, and generally all development parameters.”
He said a local plan would also state how to go about changing use of buildings.
“Generally the expectation is that before land uses are changed, the intention is advertised and immediate neighbours are informed. Council technocrats then undertake the necessary assessments such as whether the traffic, noise levels, and other issues to do with the intended use can be accommodated without disadvantaging neighbours.”
Mr Toriro said a permit can then be granted or refused.
“If permission is granted, relevant conditions of operation are also included; if refused, the reasons are given,” he said.
The urban planner said while people are changing use of their properties many are not applying for that and generally the process is not being followed.
“The main reason why many people are changing use of their premises is socio-economic with several people leaving formal employment they use their skills to start new ventures such as crèches, small offices, welding, repairs and so on.
“Unfortunately, the planning processes have been slow to react. Whereas sound town planning requires master plans to be reviewed after every 10 years and local plans after every five years, 90 percent of plans in our cities are much older than that.
“The reality on the ground and what is in the plans are now so different that people are forced to change use because what they are thinking of was not anticipated 20 years ago when the plan was done,” he said.
Mr Toriro encouraged local authorities to periodically review their plans so that they reflect the new socio-economic realities.
“The Harare Master Plan is a 1993 plan. So many policies and other parameters have changed. It is of necessity that it is reviewed to capture all those changes. Likewise all local plans must undergo the same process,” he said.
Harare-based urban planner, Mr Shingai Kawadza, said it has become evident that Harare’s CBD was experiencing spatial change/shift as its boundaries are encroaching in suburban areas such as Eastlea, Milton Park, Belvedere, Belgravia, etc, leaving the CBD under stress of decay.
Mr Kawadza said some of the factors influencing urban re-location include high and unaffordable rentals in the CBD.
“People are avoiding such issues as parking costs and homes provide free parking while some are also running away from congestion in the CBD,” he said.
Mr Kawadza said the advent of home industries in Zimbabwe came in 1994 as the government decided to relax some of the colonial vestiges by adjusting the Regional Town and Country Planning Act Use Groups Regulations through Statutory Instrument 216.
“The letter and spirit of the Statutory Instrument was to incorporate the informal sector activities like flea-markets, stalls, shacks and home industries by special consent.
“However, this relaxation of the colonial regulations opened the floodgates of the informal sector activities in most urban areas. Thus the informal sector became a reserve army and a seedbed of the unemployed,” he said.
He said a property owner has to notify neighbours if they intend to change use of a certain land listed under special consent.
“The communities and neighbours should be granted a chance to air their objections which council will take note of before a change of use permit is granted,” he said.
