Frequently Asked Questions

There is an opportunity for growth in the north-western areas of the City of Cape Town. Milkwood is situated within the Western Growth Corridor. The City of Cape Town’s Medium to Long-Term Growth Options Study indicates that there are only two directions in which the urban build can grow; up the West Coast towards Saldanha (Western Growth Corridor) and northwards towards Fisantekraal (Northern Growth Corridor). Milkwood will be located in this area of future growth and will assist in providing solutions to many of the metropole’s economic expansion requirements.

There is limited space for growth in the urban build

The City of Cape Town has limited options for growth beyond the current developed areas. Cape Town is surrounded by valuable farmland, biodiversity corridors and mountainous terrain that are unsuitable or too valuable for development. The City of Cape Town’s Medium to Long-Term Growth Options Study indicates that there are only two directions in which the urban build can grow; up the West Coast towards Saldanha (the Western Growth Corridor) and the limited area northwards towards Fisantekraal (Northern Growth Corridor). Milkwood must be seen within the context of the Western Growth Corridor, which will link the urban build in the south with Atlantis in the north. Milkwood constitutes approximately one third of this corridor.

The costs of developing land in the inner-urban build are high

High demand for property in the urban build centre drives up property prices as well as the costs of building residential developments. According to The City of Cape Town it estimates, approximately 10 000ha of land will be required to address the 400,000 housing backlog.

Long transactional times and the high costs associated with developing many small sites

Even the land available within the city is subject to certain constraints that cause it to be unsuitable for developing affordable housing. Because almost half this land is privately owned and because many small-scale sites would have to be developed rather than a single large scale site, the costs of development on this land would drive up the price of the finished product; homes. Therefore, developing on this land would raise costs dramatically, and homes built on these sites would not be affordable, especially to lower income earners. Developing on land further from the CBD where land prices are lower allows Milkwood to provide better quality homes in an affordable bracket.

The scale of Milkwood and the opportunity for integration

Milkwood is an ambitious development that views urban build building holistically as a long-term project. The size of the development, with all of its integrated services and amenities, such as schools, clinics, tertiary education institutions, public open spaces and community facilities, would not be possible at a site closer to the CBD.

Milkwood is not a “leap frog” of development; rather, it is development of the western corridor of Cape Town. The Atlantis Corridor, north of Milnerton, is owned by a small number of landowners. Two companies in particular own a large portion of the land: Garden Cities and Milnerton Estate. Those companies are driven by their own particular development model, which is the same as the Parklands and Sunningdale developments.

While these developments have their place in the future growth of Cape Town, they do not provide suitable homes for lower income households. These developments that will eventually occupy the space between Milnerton and Milkwood will not address the needs of the majority of people on the housing waiting list. While it may appear that there is land available for development south of Milkwood, it is already privately owned and banked for future middle income development.

The development of Milkwood will not incur any direct costs to the taxpayer. There is existing public investment previously committed to the area that will impact Milkwood. A portion of this investment has already been implemented, for example, the extension of the IRT bus service through the Western Corridor to Atlantis. Existing plans for the upgrading of the Atlantis railway line into a commuter line have earmarked as part of the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA) prioritisation system. Milkwood will continue to improve the efficient use of these services.

Milkwood is located on a site that has an arid and exhausted land and soil system characterised by shallow valleys and ridges;which are located within the sub-catchment of the Sout River. The urban design of Milkwood has taken the soil and water movement into consideration and transport routes are designed to run at the higher levels on the ridges, which will allow for watercourses and natural routes for rain and storm water in the valleys.

Milkwood has taken the natural habitat of the location into consideration in its design. With over 15% of the total land area at Milkwood given to greening, in either the form of the central Metropolitan Open Space System (MOSS) – which links the biodiversity corridors of the urban build and runs through the valley system of the site and consists of urban agriculture, forests, civic landscape or bio swales – the amount of land set aside for nature is extensive. This will be woven directly into the urban fabric. This will not only regenerate the ecosystem functions but also contribute to creating a distinct and enjoyable living environment.

Milkwood provides opportunities for biodiversity and habitat regeneration, which are addressed in various ways. There is an existing fragmented habitat corridor running through the site of Milkwood. The water cycle management system will create a central urban waterpark. The design and road drainage systems combined with urban landscape will slow down runoff and optimise groundwater recharge. These elements are integrated into the urban and ecosystem design to support and regenerate evolutionary ecological processes and, where possible, help regenerate ecological processes.

Yes, Milkwood is being designed to maximise the re-use of water, utilise solar power in many ways and reduce energy consumption drastically through conscious Urban Design at every scale and through the use of the most appropriate and cutting-edge technologies.

Yes, Milkwood considers principles of sustainability to be of the utmost importance to settlement design. In conventional urban build systems, water and food are brought into the urban build and leave the urban build as waste and pollution carrying away critical resources that have value. By using different systems of water sanitation and urban landscape systems, these resources can be recovered and used locally and deployed into the surrounding district.

Yes. Milkwood’s strategy is to “daisy-chain” (interconnect as many interventions as possible), and obtain a yield from a number of strategies, rather than seeking one single solution. A number of alternative technologies have been designed conceptually and will be developed to increase water recharge, attenuate runoff and increase greening and solid systems.

Milkwood aims to reduce waste to landfill by up to 90%. Milkwood will incorporate viable and sustainable alternatives for waste minimisation and resource recovery and management. Waste could be recycled into three streams: organics will be composted and turned into biogas and biochar; inorganic recyclables will be recycled to base compounds; and inorganic non-recyclable will be processed by Plasma or equivalent treatment. The combination of these will reduce waste to landfill by up to 90%.

Yes, Milkwood will use organic and permaculture models for localised food production in both Milkwood itself and in the surrounding areas. This will create jobs for a large number of people on the site and take resolute steps towards reaching food security for residents of the community at a district level.

Yes, Buildings will use intelligent and regenerative design principles, passive cooling and heating, geothermal cooling, solar water heating and LED lighting. The integration of the buildings into their environment – the marriage of built and natural environment – is a key concept in the design of next generation of towns. Sustainable landscaping will be used to reduce the urban heat island effect and improve the water cycle.

With over 15% of the total land area at Milkwood given to greening, in either the form of the central Metropolitan Open Space System (MOSS) – which links the biodiversity corridors of the urban build and runs through the valley system of the site and consists of urban agriculture, forests, civic landscape or bio swales – the amount of land set aside for nature is extensive. This will be woven directly into the urban fabric. This will not only regenerate the ecosystem functions but also contribute to creating a distinct and enjoyable living environment.

Many companies who are suppliers of goods and services in the built environment have expressed an interest in participating in Milkwood. These sectors include construction, materials supply, healthcare and education. These companies are also interested in engaging with the community building and developmental goals of the project. Access to a steady market demand, especially in housing, makes Milkwood an attractive opportunity to deploy productive and other resource capacities on favourable terms.

The primary industries that will be created in Milkwood are construction, local manufacturing and enterprise, green services, financial services, public and civic services and commercial and retail.

Milkwood is located just beyond the City of Cape Town. Milkwood is located directly adjacent to land identified for potential development in the short- and medium-term by the City of Cape Town’s Spatial Development Framework.

Inner-urban build development and development outside of the CBD are not mutually exclusive. There is a massive demand for housing in Cape Town, and with the population projected to grow over the next 15 years this demand will only continue to rise. Development of the inner urban build is necessary, but both inner urban build development and new developments are needed to plan for the urban build’s future if there are to be enough homes and economic development to accommodate Cape Town’s population.

Milkwood offers a unique opportunity to the City to facilitate the Western Growth Corridor of Cape Town by bringing in bulk services financed by the developer; and through introducing ground- breaking developmental and regenerative principles that will create a sustainable settlement.

The facilitation of the development of this corridor will create the vital link between the Atlantis community and the rest of the urban build, integrating the area spatially and economically into the greater economy. The economic growth that will result from Milkwood will provide job opportunities for residents of Atlantis, where unemployment rates are extremely high.

Milkwood differs from other large-scale developments built in Cape Town because its model is intently focused on a long-term vision of both societal and economic development. The aim of Milkwood is integration, both within the development and within the urban build at large.

The urban build remains spatially divided on the basis of race and class. Although there are indications that the level of integration has increased, significant levels of integration are confined to only a few suburbs in Cape Town. The relatively new suburbs of Parklands and Sunningdale are primary examples of new integration. Milkwood, based on the Regenerative whole-systems and communiTgrow’s approach to urban build building, differs dramatically from previous large-scale developments in Cape Town both in ideology and in method.

Unlike the apartheid models of development, Milkwood does not neglect the aspects essential for a community to succeed in the long-term: building a sustainable local economy, respecting the environment and instituting sound structures of governance.

Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, Atlantis and several other large scale developments in the urban build were townships built to serve the Apartheid Government’s segregation agenda. Areas like Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha were built in the 1970s and 1980s as dormitory suburbs with rudimentary rental housing, infrastructure and facilities.

Because of the shortage of accommodation in these areas, subletting of rooms and backyard shacks became common. This caused severe overcrowding and overloaded sewage systems, infrastructure, schools and other public facilities. Atlantis was built on similar principles as a segregated township far from any commercial activity in the urban build. Its purpose was to provide labour for a local industrial economy. However, the incentives to keep businesses in the area were not sustainable, and because of this firms eventually relocated.

Milkwood takes into account the pitfalls that caused commercial activity to leave Atlantis and is focused on building a sustainable economic model that integrates commercial, civic and residential activities.