Firm overview
A town planning firm in Johannesburg, with a research arm
Glensburg Town Planners is a South African town planning practice based in Illovo, Johannesburg. We act for property owners, developers, architects, attorneys and institutions, on matters from a house and a cottage on one erf to a township of several hundred homes.
We are small on purpose. The planner you meet at the first consultation is the planner who prepares your application, motivates it and, if it comes to that, argues it before the Municipal Planning Tribunal.
Behind the practice stands the Glensburg Cities Institute, our research arm. It follows the schemes, by-laws, policy and court judgments our advice depends on.
The practice
Who does the work
The person you instruct is the person who does the work. This is how a matter is staffed, and how you follow it.
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Planning
A registered planner leads every matter
From the first consultation to the decision, and before the Municipal Planning Tribunal if the application is referred. The planner who takes the instruction sees it through.
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Architecture
Plans drawn by professionals registered with SACAP
Building plans and site development plans are prepared and submitted by the same practice that handles the planning, so they fit the rights from the start.
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Specialists
Briefed and coordinated by us
Where an application needs them, we bring in traffic engineers, environmental assessment practitioners, civil engineers and land surveyors, and brief each so that the report answers the planning question. Their fees are their own.
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Glensburg Studio
Every matter tracked where you can see it
Each matter runs in Glensburg Studio, our client platform: the stage it has reached, what is outstanding and what comes next, visible to you without having to ask.
Where we are not the right practice for a matter, because it is too specialised, too far from where we work or better served by a larger team, we say so and, where we can, suggest who is better placed.
What we do
Three disciplines, one instruction
Most developments need more than one of these. They go best when they are not three separate appointments arguing past each other.
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The rights
Town planning
Rezoning, subdivision, consent use and township establishment, and the compliance work that follows when something has already gone wrong.
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The drawing
Architecture and design
Building plans and site development plans, drawn to what the rights allow and submitted by us, so they are not found at building control to exceed them.
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The judgement
Property development
Feasibility before a price is agreed, planning due diligence before transfer, and the conversion of existing buildings to sectional title.
Nineteen services in all, and most matters use two or three of them. Which ones your property needs is settled at the first consultation, before anything is lodged.
What you can hold us to
Conditions we practise under
A municipality approves an application subject to conditions, and holds the owner to them. These are the conditions we hold ourselves to. Each is something you could point to if we failed to meet it.
Schedule of conditions
Evidence before advocacy
We establish what the land permits, from its zoning and title deed to its approvals and services, before we argue for what it could become.
Better an early no than a late refusal
Where we expect an application to fail, we say so before it is lodged, and where the first consultation shows it, before any fee is agreed. A refused application costs more than the advice that would have prevented it.
The version in force
Schemes are replaced and by-laws amended more often than habits change. Every matter starts by confirming which scheme and by-law govern the site, and which amendment of each.
The rights and the drawing together
Planning, architecture and development advice come from one practice, so the drawing fits the rights and the feasibility rests on both.
No promises we cannot keep
We do not promise approvals: the decision belongs to the municipality or the Tribunal. We promise a complete application, argued on its evidence, and a straight answer about its prospects.
Sectors and jurisdictions
Where we work, and on what
Two things shape every application: the kind of development it is, and the municipality that will decide it. Each municipality has its own planning by-law and land use scheme, and the differences between them are material.
Eleven municipalities, three provinces
- Gauteng
- Metropolitan
- Johannesburg
- Tshwane
- Ekurhuleni
- West Rand District
- Mogale City
- Rand West City
- Merafong City
- Sedibeng District
- Emfuleni
- Midvaal
- Lesedi
- Metropolitan
- KwaZulu-Natal
- eThekwini
- North West
- Mahikeng
Five sectors
Residential work runs from a second dwelling to a new township; specialised work takes in data centres, student accommodation and agro-industry.
Research and publishing
The Glensburg Cities Institute
The Glensburg Cities Institute is the practice’s research arm. It studies how African cities are planned, regulated and built.
The practice and the Institute work from the same reading. The practice publishes Briefings and Guides on the instruments its clients deal with, such as Johannesburg’s land use scheme and its planning by-law.
Since 2017
How the practice came to be
Glensburg did not begin as a consultancy. It began as a think tank on Africa’s cities, and the habit of asking for the evidence first came with it into practice.
- African Urban Institute A think tank on urbanisation in Africa is launched at the Central European University in Budapest.
- African Planning Society Formed by the Institute to promote best town planning practice across Africa.
- Glensburg The practice the Institute had begun becomes Glensburg Town Planners, and the Society becomes the Glensburg Cities Institute.
- Glensburg (Pty) Ltd The practice is incorporated.
- Today Illovo, Johannesburg One office, eleven municipalities, and planners and architectural professionals working together.
Questions
Questions clients ask about the firm
Not answered here? Call +27 10 442 5522, or tell us about your property below.
How long have you been in practice?
The practice has carried the Glensburg name since June 2020 and was incorporated as Glensburg (Pty) Ltd in 2023. It grew out of the African Urban Institute, a think tank launched in 2017. A firm’s age tells you how long it has been trading, not whether it will read your title deed properly.
Who will actually handle my matter?
A registered planner, and the same one throughout: there is no handover to a junior once a fee is agreed, and you can follow the matter in Glensburg Studio. Where a matter needs a traffic engineer, an environmental assessment practitioner or a land surveyor, we brief and coordinate them; they are separate appointments with their own fees.
Are your planners registered?
Yes. Our planning work is led by planners registered with SACPLAN, the South African Council for Planners, and our architectural work by professionals registered with SACAP, the South African Council for the Architectural Profession. Both professions are regulated by statute: planning by the Planning Profession Act 36 of 2002, and architecture by the Architectural Profession Act 44 of 2000. We do not publish registration numbers, to keep them from being misused. Ask us for the name of the professional on your matter, and check it with the council.
SACPLAN: registered planners (opens in a new tab) SACAP: for the public (opens in a new tab)
Do you work outside Johannesburg?
Yes. We take instructions in every metropolitan and local municipality in Gauteng, from Tshwane and Ekurhuleni to Mogale City, Emfuleni and Midvaal, and beyond the province in eThekwini and Mahikeng. Each application is prepared to its own municipality’s by-law and scheme, not Johannesburg’s.
Do you take small matters?
Yes: a building line relaxation, a consent use for a guest house, a second dwelling to be converted to sectional title. Small matters are where honest advice counts most, because the fee is a larger share of what is at stake.
What does a research arm have to do with my application?
It keeps the advice current. The Institute follows changes to the rules, and the practice applies them: Tshwane’s land use scheme of 2024 came into operation on 1 July 2024, and Johannesburg’s amended scheme on 1 July 2026. An application prepared under the text that was replaced answers the wrong questions. The larger changes are set out in our Briefings, which anyone can read.
What will you not do?
We will not promise an approval: the decision is the municipality’s or the Tribunal’s, not ours. We will not lodge an application we expect to fail. And we will not advise beyond our professions: on questions of law we will send you to an attorney, and on structural or engineering questions, to an engineer.
Tell us about your property
The first consultation is free and carries no obligation. If your property does not need an application, we will say so.
What happens next
- TodayYou tell us about the propertyThe street address or erf number, and what you want to do.
- Within one working dayA planner replies
- First consultation, freeYou know where you standThe application route, the likely timeline, and what the municipality will want to see.