this is a legal provision that states that if a development application is not approved by the appropriate authorities, within a specified time, then the development is deemed refused. Under normal circumstances, this means that the onus is on the applicant to prove, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the development is necessary. With the deemed refusal provision in place, urban development will be difficult to attain.
Published in Chapter:
Reimaging, Rethinking, and Reinvigorating Planning Practices for Resilient Urban and Rural Development in Zimbabwe
Joseph Kamuzhanje (Coopers, Zimbabwe)
Copyright: © 2023
|Pages: 18
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-6684-6258-4.ch018
Abstract
Scholarly thought is that planning should be an opportunity for the interface of systems and methodologies that lead to consensus building in addressing the needs of communities. This is because planning is ‘a process which involves decisions on alternative ways of using available resources, to achieve particular goals at some time in the future.' Development is 'the carrying out of building, engineering, mining or other operations in, on, over or under land.' These definitions miss the planner, who is supposed to champion the development planning processes. In Zimbabwe and other developing countries, the discussion on the efficacy of planning has shifted from the technical to the professional. With the advances made in technology, the increasing civic awareness among both rural and urban communities, planning standards are going down. In urban areas, there is increasing urban sprawl, traffic congestion, environmental degradation, and general disorder. All these issues have led to the need to (re)look at the issue of professional planning practice.