This department consists of the following sections:

• Land Use Planning - Local Economic Development (LED)
• Housing Administration - Land Survey and Valuations
• Spatial Planning - Building Control

Land Use Planning
The aim of Land Use Planning is to cater for development, but also to ensure that it is conducted in an orderly manner to contribute to the quality of life of all inhabitants. The most important tool in land use planning is the Zoning Scheme Regulations. Due to the
amalgamation process to create the new Drakenstein Municipality, four sets of Zoning Schemes applicable to the whole of the Municipal Area has been embarked upon, which has progressed up to a first draft phase, including a set of computerised zoning plans.

This section is responsible for the processing of land use planning/development applications such as rezonings, consent uses, land use departures, houses, shops and farm subdivisions. All submitted building plans are furthermore scrutinised by this section in order to ensure compliance with the land parameters applicable to the zoning of the property. This section also deals with all illegal land uses.

Local Economic Development (LED)
This section is responsible for the promotion of LED and includes the following functions: business support, tourism, informal trading support, skills development marketing and economic research within a local government environment. All of the vacant posts, except one, have been filled during this financial year. Four tourism officers as well as one senior tourism officer was appointed during this time.

Housing Administration
This section includes the administration of Council’s rental stock as well as the coordination of housing projects.

Land Survey
The section attends to:

• All urban land subdivision applications which do not require rezoning of the subject properties;
• Applications for encroachment over municipal land;
• Closures of street portions and public open spaces for alienation;
• Street names and numbering; and
• Recommendations on rates clearance applications, verifying whether development conditions have been complied with.

The section also assists with queries with regards to boundaries in the sub-economic areas where residents have bought their properties from Council. Assistance is also provided to other departments with the identification of property boundaries. The section (drawing office) keeps record of all land information (property diagrams, regional and street maps, ward maps, aerial photos, etc.) and provides the public with this information on request.

Valuations
This section is responsible for the upkeep of all property records in the Drakenstein Municipal Area. This is an extremely important function because it provides the basis of the Municipality’s income from property rates and taxes. It is important that the records of new properties and updated records of improved properties be provided timely to the municipal valuators, who prepare an annual Interim Valuation in order for the correct rates and taxes be implemented at the start of each financial year.

This section is responsible for arranging that a General Valuation be executed every four years as prescribed by the Property Valuation Ordinance 1993, as amended. The section provides property information (sizes of properties and buildings) to estate agents and the general public.

Spatial Planning
This section includes all spatial related planning actions, rural development heritage related functions, as well as planning related GIS functions. During the 2005/2006 financial year, this section processed the following:

Being a section which comments on technical issues pertaining to spatial planning, this section is totally reliant on comments from various applicable departments. Therefore, it is impossible for this section to assess the duration of applications. A dedicated staff member dealing with rural development issues has been appointed as from 1 April 2006. The main functions of this staff member will be to assist with the Land Redistribution for Agriculture Development Programmes of the Department of Land Affairs, Land Transformation and the implementation of rural development projects.

Building Control
The organogram makes provision for a total of 15 employees working in this department. This section currently has one vacancy for a Building Inspector. The functions of this section are divided into Building Inspections and Building Plan Scrutinising. The Building Plan Scrutinising Section are responsible for the approval of building plans, i.e. new buildings as well as extensions to existing buildings and advertising signs. The Building Inspection Section deals with building inspections on building sites when building plans are approved, as well as law enforcement (building without an approved building plan).