Over the next two years, the City of Cape Town’s Development Management Department will transition from traditional mail to email notifications for interested and affected parties under the City’s Municipal Planning By-law.
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To date, the City has only used registered mail to inform or notify residents, interested parties, and affected parties about development applications that may affect them, as well as to solicit feedback on applications submitted to the Development Management Department for review in accordance with the Municipal Planning By-law.
In January and February of this year, the City asked the public for feedback on a proposal to change the method of notification from registered mail from the post office to electronic mail. The vast majority of the comments the City received confirmed their support for this proposal.
Given the positive feedback, the City is now beginning a two-year transition period to allow residents to register for e-services and for the City to collect electronic mail addresses from residents and clients. The goal is to complete this transition as soon as possible, with the cooperation and assistance of landowners.
In the meantime, the City will use email addresses that are already on the system.
‘The City is always exploring interventions that will improve our service delivery,’ said the City’s deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment, Eddie Andrews.
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‘The transition to electronic mail, or email, is part of the Development Management Department’s efforts to modernise and streamline its services. Electronic mail is faster and more reliable as it cannot get lost. There is also cost savings for the City, ratepayers, and the applicant, as it requires substantial resources to prepare registered notifications and applicants have to pay for registered notifications that are sent via the post office.’
‘We will give residents ample time to update their electronic contact details, but we also want to encourage land owners to register for e-services as soon as possible and to provide us with their email addresses so that we can fast track the transition.’
‘While this is ongoing, we will keep on using registered mail to notify persons whose rights or legitimate expectations may be adversely affected by applications and whose email addresses are not available on the City’s system. These notifications are for land use applications in terms of the Municipal Planning By-law.’
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