Glensburg
Glensburg
Glensburg
Visit Us
35 Fricker Road
Illovo, Sandton 2196
Johannesburg, South Africa
Get in Touch
planning@glensburg.co.za
Ph: +27 10 442 5522
Back

Services

SACPLAN-registered town planners in Illovo, Sandton, acting across the Gauteng City-Region and beyond.
Speak to a Planner
What We Do

A Research-Led Planning Practice

Glensburg is a firm of SACPLAN-registered town planners at 35 Fricker Road, Illovo, Sandton, providing statutory planning, architectural and property development services across the Gauteng City-Region. Because design and approval strategy are developed together by our in-house planners and architects, our applications are built to be both desirable and defensible before the Municipal Planning Tribunal.

How We Practise

Every motivation is argued against the five development principles in Section 7 of SPLUMA, Nodal Policies, not compliance with the municipal by-law alone.

Our Disciplines

Three Practices, One Team

Planning, architecture and development advice sit under one roof, so the approval strategy and the drawings are developed together rather than in sequence.

01. Town Planning

Our core discipline. We secure and defend land use rights under SPLUMA and the applicable by-law, from rezoning a single erf to establishing an entire township, and argue contested applications before the Municipal Planning Tribunal.

Town Planning >
02. Architecture & Design

Our in-house architects work alongside our planners from the first meeting. We prepare and submit building plans and Site Development Plans (SDPs), and retrieve previously approved building plans from council records.

Architecture & Design >
03. Property Development

Most schemes fail on something knowable before transfer: a servitude across the property, a road reserve, insufficient bulk services. We test for those before capital is committed, and structure sectional title schemes.

Property Development >
Our Services

Every Application Your Property Might Need

Most projects need more than one of these. We establish which applications your property actually requires at assessment stage, before anything is lodged.

Town Planning Twelve Services

Rezoning

Change your property's zoning to unlock new development rights. We prepare, motivate and defend the application from submission to decision.

Rezoning >

Consolidation

Combine two or more adjoining erven into one. We resolve the zoning, servitude and title conditions that consolidation usually surfaces.

Consolidation >

Building Line Relaxation

Obtain municipal consent to build within a restricted building line, as provided for in the land use scheme.

Building Line Relaxation >

Consent Use

Secure municipal consent for a use the scheme permits only with approval: guest houses, places of instruction, second dwellings.

Consent Use >

Contravention Notices

Respond to a municipal contravention notice. We assess the alleged breach, advise on regularisation, and prepare the representations the by-law requires.

Contravention Notices >

Departures and Permissions

Obtain the scheme-specific permissions, departures and relaxations regulated by the land use scheme.

Permission Applications >

Subdivision

Divide an erf into separate portions. We handle the application, servitude implications and the Surveyor-General submissions that follow.

Subdivision >

Agricultural Land Subdivision

Subdivide agricultural land, which requires Ministerial consent under Section 3 of the Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act 70 of 1970.

Agricultural Land Subdivision >

Removal of Restrictive Conditions

Remove or amend outdated title deed conditions that limit the use, coverage or building lines of your property.

Removal of Restrictive Conditions >

Township Establishment

Establish a new township on raw or subdivided land, from pre-application through to proclamation in the Provincial Gazette.

Township Establishment >

Excision of Agricultural Holdings

Remove land from the Agricultural Holding Register so it reverts to a farm portion and can be developed for other uses.

Excision of Agricultural Holdings >

Representation at MPTs and Appeals

Argue desirability before Municipal Planning Tribunals, and prepare appeals to the appeal authority.

Representation at MPTs and Appeals >

Architecture & Design Four Services

Building Plans Preparation

Prepare building plans that comply with the National Building Regulations and with your property's approved zoning parameters.

Building Plans Preparation >

Building Plans Submission

Lodge and manage building plans and house plans through the local authority's building control process, through to final approval.

Building Plans Submission >

Site Development Plans

Prepare the Site Development Plan — layout, parking, access, refuse and landscaping — required as a condition of your land use rights.

Site Development Plans >

Retrieval of Past-approved Plans

Recover previously approved building plans from municipal archives, required for compliance, alteration, valuation or the sale of property.

Retrieval of Past-approved Plans >

Property Development Three Services

Development Feasibility Studies

Test viability against zoning, the Spatial Development Framework and engineering service capacity, so fatal flaws surface early.

Development Feasibility Studies >

Due Diligence Investigations

Investigate zoning, title conditions, servitudes and encumbrances before acquisition, so you know what the land legally permits.

Due Diligence Investigations >

Sectional Title Development

Structure and register schemes under the Sectional Titles Act 95 of 1986 and the Sectional Titles Schemes Management Act.

Sectional Title Development >
MUNICIPAL PLANNING JURISDICTIONS

Where We Work

We practice across the Gauteng City-Region, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and North West — in Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, Midvaal, Mogale City, Cape Town, eThekwini and Mahikeng. Each municipality applies its own land use scheme and planning by-law, and the differences between them are material.

Explore Where We Work
How We Work

The Statutory Spine

Every land use application follows the same five phases. Knowing where you are in that sequence is most of what clients want from us.

Assessment

Zoning, title conditions, servitudes and service capacity, established before an application route is chosen.

Lodgement

The motivation is written against SPLUMA Section 7 and the by-law, with likely objections answered inside it.

Participation

The 28-day public participation period runs alongside departmental circulation. Both are mandatory.

Decision

Decided administratively, or referred to the Municipal Planning Tribunal where valid objections are received.

Promulgation

Conditions of approval are complied with and the scheme promulgated in the Provincial Gazette. Only then do the rights vest.

A clean rezoning typically runs six to nine months. Opposed matters run twelve to eighteen months or longer, and township establishment twelve to eighteen months plus proclamation. We give you the realistic figure at assessment, not the optimistic one.

How we work
Common Questions

Title Deed Questions

What property owners and developers ask most often, answered from practice rather than from a template.

Question not answered here?

Tell us about the property and we’ll advise on the application route.

Speak to a Planner
Which application do I actually need?

It depends on what the scheme currently permits and what you intend to do. A change of zoning category needs a rezoning; a secondary use the scheme already contemplates needs a consent use; a new erf boundary needs a subdivision. In our experience, choosing the wrong route is the most expensive error in the process, because the wasted months are not recoverable. We establish the route at assessment stage, before anything is lodged.

How much do town planning services cost?

There is no standard fee, because the work varies enormously between a building line relaxation and a township establishment. What we can tell you is what drives the cost: the type of application, whether objections are likely, whether specialist reports such as traffic, environmental or geotechnical studies are required, and whether the matter proceeds to a Tribunal hearing. Municipal application and advertising fees are separate and payable to the council. We quote against a defined scope after the initial assessment, so you know what you are committing to before work begins.

What is the difference between rezoning and consent use?

Rezoning changes the zoning category itself — from Residential 1 to Business 2, for example — and permanently alters what the land may be used for. A consent use leaves the zoning unchanged and asks the municipality to permit a specific use that the scheme already contemplates for that zoning, subject to approval. Consent uses are usually quicker and less costly, but they are not always available: the scheme has to list the use as one requiring consent. Where it does not, rezoning is the only route.

Can a land use application be legally fast-tracked?

No. There is no legal mechanism to shorten the statutory timeframes. The public participation period is mandatory, as is circulation to the municipality's internal departments and to external service providers. Any firm promising to fast-track your application is describing something that does not exist. What can be compressed is the time an application spends in resubmission, and that is determined by the quality of the lodgement rather than by anything that happens afterwards.

What happens if my application is refused?

A refusal is not the end of the matter. SPLUMA and the municipal by-law provide for an appeal to the appeal authority, and the reasons given for refusal usually indicate what a revised application would need to address. We advise on whether appeal or resubmission is the stronger route, based on those reasons rather than on optimism. Appeals have their own timeframes and procedural requirements, and missing them forecloses the option entirely.

Do I need to remove a restrictive title-deed condition as well as rezone?

Often, yes. Zoning and title conditions are separate legal instruments, and a rezoning does not override a restrictive condition registered against the title deed. If your title deed limits the property to a single dwelling, rezoning to permit a block of flats will not by itself make that development lawful — the condition has to be removed or amended as well. We examine the title deed at assessment stage, because discovering a restrictive condition after lodgement is one of the more common causes of delay.

Can you prepare our building plans as well?

Yes. Our in-house architects prepare and submit building plans, and prepare the Site Development Plans usually imposed as a condition of approval. In our experience, having planners and architects on the same team matters more than it sounds. Plans drawn without reference to the approved zoning parameters — coverage, height, building lines, parking — are rejected at building control, and the rework costs more than the original drawings did.

Do you take on matters another planner started?

Yes. We regularly take over applications that have stalled, been refused, or attracted objections the original motivation did not anticipate. The first step is reading the file: what was lodged, what the municipality raised, and whether the route chosen was the right one to begin with. Sometimes the answer is to press on; sometimes it is to withdraw and lodge correctly. We will tell you which, and why.

Start a Conversation

Speak to a Planner

Not sure which application your project needs? Tell us about the property and we’ll advise on the route, the likely timeline, and what the municipality will want to see. Initial consultations carry no obligation.

Speak to a Planner
010 442 5522

35 Fricker Road, Illovo, Sandton · Applications across the Gauteng City-Region