The Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning (DEA&DP) has gazetted the City of Cape Town’s Environmental Management Frameworks (EMFs) as well as having adopted the City’s Urban Development Edge as an Urban Area under the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA).

“Numerous activities listed in terms of the NEMA Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations are exempted from the need for environmental authorisation when located within the Urban Area,” says the City of Cape Town. “This means it is now easier, under certain conditions, to develop and implement services infrastructure within the City’s Urban Development Edge (UDE).”

The City of Cape Town’s integrated EMFs and District Spatial Development Frameworks, which include the Urban Development Edge (UDE), were adopted by Council in early 2023. The UDE demarcates the boundary of the outer edge of the future City of Cape Town including farms and rural areas not yet developed and that are located outside of the current build-up area.

“The UDE reflects the estimated land needed for new urban development to accommodate Cape Town’s population growth over the next 20 years. The demarcation assumes that the land will be developed for residential, business, industrial, and community uses in the future,” says the municipality.

The City applied to the DEA&DP to gazette the EMFs and adopt the area within the Urban Development Edge as a NEMA Urban Area to simplify and align policy and legislation. This process, a first in the country, is of interest to Environmental Assessment Practitioners in particular.

The Western Cape Province gazetted the adoption on the 15^th of July 2025 after consultations with interested and affected parties, including the National Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, over a period of two years.

“Given the adoption of the Urban Area line, a number of NEMA listed activities are now excluded from environmental authorisation under the NEMA EIA Regulations for the areas that fall within the Urban Development Edge. This is not a blanket exclusion though, as authorisation will still be required for development activities that take place in areas of significant environmental value such as rivers and floodplains, vleis, and biodiversity sensitive areas, for example. In these areas, authorisation will still be required from competent authorities as prescribed by the NEMA,” comments he City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.

The NEMA EMFs and Urban Area make it easier for the DEA&DP as the competent authority, as well as property owners, residents and professionals to determine whether an environmental impact assessment is required for a development on land that falls within the UDE:

• Undeveloped land in or on the edge of developed areas often does not have bulk services or the capacity needed for basic services such as water, sanitation, transport, and electricity provision
• These areas being mostly agricultural, rarely have any environmental features or habitats which would trigger the requirement for an environmental authorisation. In these areas, the Urban Area exclusion provision will enable investment and service delivery without the need for an Environmental Impact Assessment.
• The Urban Area exclusion provision reduces the number of environmental authorisations required and facilitates services. provision, particularly in new areas that are included in the Urban Development Edge.
• This will save time and costs.
• The Urban Area exclusion provides a list of activities that are excluded from requiring authorisation when located within a NEMA Urban Area.
• However, if the land has features such as a river, stream, wetland, and core biodiversity, or if the area is of agricultural significance, then other legislative requirements will apply, for example Water Use Licences or other requirements in terms of the National Water Act and the City’s Municipal Planning By-law and policies.

The City says the Urban Area line will be advertised every five years along with the process to update or revise the Municipal Spatial Development Framework and other spatial policies during which the Urban Development Edge is also reviewed.