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

Industries We Serve

Planning, architecture and development advice for residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and specialised schemes — each decided by something different.
Speak to a Planner
What Sector Experience Mean

The Same Law, Decided Differently

Every project we take on runs under the same framework: SPLUMA, the municipality’s planning by-law and its land use scheme. What differs is what decides it. A data centre is won or lost on bulk electricity before anyone considers the zoning. Student accommodation turns on parking and density. An agro-industrial scheme turns on the Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act, and a school on the traffic outside it at eight in the morning. Sector experience, in planning, means knowing which of those constraints governs your kind of project — and testing it first, before the land is bought or the design is fixed. It is the difference between meeting the deciding factor at feasibility and meeting it at the Tribunal.

How We Practise

The constraint that decides your sector is tested at feasibility, not discovered at objection stage — and the evidence that answers it is commissioned before lodgement, not after the municipality asks for it.

Our Sectors

Five Sectors, One Team

Each sector carries its own zoning parameters, bulk provisions and approval pathway. The same planners and architects work across all five.

Residential

From two sections on one erf to a township of several hundred homes. Density, bulk services and the form of title decide most schemes.

⦿ Sectional title schemes
⦿ Affordable housing
⦿ Lifestyle estates
⦿ Student accommodation

Residential >

Commercial

Shops, offices and mixed-use schemes on nodes and corridors, where parking, access and the Spatial Development Framework carry the argument.

⦿ Retail and mixed-use
⦿ Offices
⦿ Fuel and automotive
⦿ Urban regeneration

Commercial >

Industrial

From light industrial units to data centres, where bulk electricity, water and heavy-vehicle access decide the site before the zoning does.

⦿ Data centres
⦿ Light industrial
⦿ Heavy manufacturing
⦿ Logistics and warehousing

Industrial >

Institutional

Clinics, schools and civic buildings, usually in or beside residential areas, where traffic and the neighbours shape the outcome.

⦿ Healthcare
⦿ Education
⦿ Civic and government

Institutional >

Specialised

Renewable energy, tourism and agro-industry, often on agricultural land, where national consent and environmental authorisation run alongside the planning application.

⦿ Renewable energy
⦿ Tourism and leisure
⦿ Agro-industrial

Specialised >
By Project Type

What Each Sector Turns On

Eighteen kinds of project, and what usually decides each one. The usual route is a starting point; which applications your site actually needs is established at assessment, before anything is lodged.

Residential Four Project Types

Sectional title schemes

Density, parking and common property, settled in the layout before a unit is sold — because the sectional plan records whatever was built.

Usual Route: Rezoning, Site Development Plan, sectional title

Sectional title schemes >

Affordable housing

Density and bulk services at a price point that leaves no room for a second attempt. The application route has to be right the first time.

Usual route: Rezoning or township establishment

Affordable housing >

Lifestyle estates

Internal roads, services and bulk contributions, and whether the streets remain private — each of all these land use variables needs to be settled before the township is proclaimed.

Usual route: Township establishment

Lifestyle estates >

Student accommodation

Parking and density relaxations, and which land use definition in the town planning scheme the building falls under — the question that decides everything after it.

Usual route: Rezoning with departures

Student accommodation >

Commercial Four Project Types

Retail and mixed-use

Parking, loading and access, and whether the site sits on a node or corridor the Spatial Development Framework supports at this intensity.

Usual Route: Rezoning and Site Development Plan

Retail and mixed-use >

Offices

Parking ratios and floor area. A house converted to offices usually needs a rezoning or a consent use, and the SDF decides whether the street is expected to change.

Usual route: Rezoning or Consent Use

Offices >

Fuel and automotive

Vehicular access, traffic and sight lines at the entrance — and a fuel site licence that is a separate approval from the land use rights.

Usual route: Rezoning, alongside licensing

Fuel and automotive >

Urban regeneration

Existing buildings changing use — offices to flats, warehouses to mixed-use — which must be lawful as they stand before they can be reused.

Usual route: Due diligence, then rezoning or consent

Urban regeneration >

Industrial Four Project Types

Data centres

Bulk electricity and water, need to be confirmed with the supply authority rather than assumed. They decide the site before the land use zoning is even considered.

Usual Route: Feasibility, then rezoning

Data centres >

Light industrial

Whether the intended land use falls within what the zoning permits, and the interface with residential neighbours such as access, noise and hours of operation are considered.

Usual Route:Consent use or rezoning

Light industrial >

Heavy manufacturing

Buffers, emissions and noise, with environmental authorisation alongside the land use application — and among the most likely to draw objections.

Usual route: Rezoning, often before the Tribunal

Heavy manufacturing >

Logistics and warehousing

Heavy-vehicle access, the class of road the site sits on, and the turning space a truck actually needs rather than what looks sufficient.

Usual route: Rezoning and Site Development Plan

Logistics and warehousing >

Institutional Three Project Types

Healthcare

Parking and traffic — from consulting rooms in a converted house to a day clinic on a main road — and how much of either the street can absorb.

Usual Route: Consent use or rezoning

Healthcare >

Education

Drop-off, traffic and the neighbours. A house becoming a crèche or a school also needs building plans, even where nothing is built.

Usual Route: Consent use and building plans

Education >

Civic and government

Often on public land, where ownership, the approving authority and community consultation have to be settled before the design begins.

Usual Route: Rezoning, often with subdivision

Civic and government >

Specialised Three Project Types

Renewable energy

Agricultural land, where the long lease a solar or wind project needs can require Ministerial consent — alongside environmental authorisation and grid connection.

Usual Route: Agricultural land consent, then rezoning

Renewable energy >

Tourism and leisure

Lodges, venues and guest accommodation on rural or residential land, where the consent, heritage considerations and the neighbours usually decide.

Usual Route: Consent use or Rezoning

Tourism and leisure >

Agro-industrial

The Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act, and the line between farming and industry — processing, packing and storage on agricultural land.

Usual Route: Agricultural land consent and rezoning

Agro-industrial >
MUNICIPAL PLANNING JURISDICTIONS

Where We Work

We prepare and defend land use applications across the Gauteng City-Region, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and North West, and appear before Municipal Planning Tribunals where a matter is referred.

Every municipality applies its own land use scheme and planning by-law. Johannesburg operates under the Municipal Planning By-law, 2016 as amended in 2023. In our experience, knowing precisely where these frameworks differ is where applications are won or lost.

Explore Where We Work
Gauteng

Johannesburg

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality

Gauteng

Ekurhuleni

City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality

Gauteng

Tshwane

City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality

Gauteng

Midvaal

Midvaal Local Municipality

Gauteng

Mogale City

Mogale City Local Municipality

Western Cape

Cape Town

City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality

KwaZulu-Natal

eThekwini

eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality

North West

Mahikeng

Mahikeng Local Municipality

Including Sandton, Randburg, Centurion, Pretoria, Germiston, Kempton Park, Krugersdorp, Meyerton, Bellville and Durban.

How We Work

Sector First, Application Second

The statutory process is the same in every sector. What changes is the work before lodgement, which is where the outcome is usually decided.

Sector constraint

The factor that usually decides your kind of project — bulk supply, parking, agricultural land or traffic — identified before anything else.

Rights

What the land permits now, from the zoning, the title deed and any approvals already granted on it.

Route

Which application, or sequence of applications, the scheme actually needs — and the order they have to run in.

Evidence

The specialist input your sector demands, commissioned before lodgement rather than after an objection or a municipal query.

Motivation

The case argued on the development principles in Chapter 2 of SPLUMA, in the terms the decision will be written in.

Most schemes need more than one application, and the order they run in is part of the advice. Each route above links to its service page.

How we work
Common Questions

Industry Questions

What developers, institutions and landowners ask us about working in their sector.

Question not answered here?

Send us the erf number and what you plan to build.

Speak to a Planner
Do you work across all these sectors, or specialise in some?

Across all of them, with the same team. The applications are the same in every sector — rezonings, consents, subdivisions, township establishment — and so are the planning principles. What changes is the constraint that decides the outcome, and knowing which one governs your kind of project is where sector experience shows. Where a project needs a specialist we do not have in-house — a traffic engineer, an environmental practitioner, an agricultural assessor — we brief them and coordinate their input.

My scheme spans more than one sector. How is that handled?

As one scheme, with each part tested against its own constraint. Shops below and flats above are assessed on the commercial parking and access and on the residential density at the same time, and the application has to satisfy both. The Spatial Development Framework usually encourages mixed use on nodes and corridors — but the zoning has to permit every use in the building, or the application has to add the ones it does not.

Is student accommodation treated as ordinary residential?

Not always, and the answer decides the rest of the application. A building let by the room to students may fall under a different use definition in the scheme from a block of flats, with different parking requirements, different density limits and sometimes a different route to approval. Establishing which definition applies is the first thing we do on a student accommodation scheme, because every figure that follows depends on it.

Can a solar farm go on agricultural land?

Often, but not on a lease alone. The long lease a solar or wind project needs over agricultural land can require Ministerial consent under the Subdivision of Agricultural Land Act, and the project usually needs environmental authorisation, land use rights and a grid connection as well. Those run with different authorities on different timelines, so the sequence matters as much as any single approval. We establish which consents the site needs before the lease is signed.

What decides whether a site works for a data centre?

Usually bulk electricity, before anything else. A data centre needs a supply most sites cannot offer without significant upgrades, and many designs need water for cooling. Whether the supply authority can deliver — at what cost, and on what timeline — decides the site long before the zoning does. We confirm capacity with the authority rather than assume it, because a site that fails on supply fails whatever its zoning.

Does a filling station need anything beyond land use rights?

Yes. A filling station needs land use rights from the municipality and, separately, a site licence under the petroleum legislation — two approvals from two authorities, and neither stands in for the other. Traffic and access usually decide both, and fuel storage can bring environmental requirements as well. The planning application and the licence application have to describe the same site and the same layout, so they are best prepared together.

Do you act for institutions and government, or only private developers?

Both. Schools, clinics, non-profit organisations and public bodies need the same applications as private developers, and often face closer scrutiny, because their buildings sit among homes and serve the public. Where the land is publicly owned, establishing who owns it, who decides and what consultation is expected comes before the design — and it can be the longest part of the programme.

Does the sector change what an application costs?

The sector changes the evidence more than the application. A rezoning for offices and a rezoning for a data centre follow the same statutory process, but the data centre needs services confirmation and often an engineering assessment, and a school usually needs a traffic study. That specialist input is often the larger variable and is commissioned separately. We tell you at assessment which studies your sector will need, so they are in the budget from the start.

Start a Conversation

Speak to a Planner

Tell us the sector and send us the erf number. We will tell you what usually decides schemes like yours, whether your site clears it, and which applications it will need. Initial consultations carry no obligation.

Speak to a Planner
010 442 5522

35 Fricker Road, Illovo, Sandton · Eight municipalities, four provinces