Departure / Relaxation application in Johannesburg.

Schemes distinguish between permanent departures, which permanently relax a parameter for the property, and temporary departures, which allow a use or deviation for a fixed period. Most owner applications are permanent departures, and most of those are building line relaxations - a garage, carport, patio or extension that would otherwise sit closer to a boundary than the scheme permits.

The decision turns almost entirely on impact on neighbours and on the streetscape: overshadowing, loss of privacy, drainage, and whether the relaxation is consistent with what already exists in the area. Because the affected interests are usually confined to the immediate neighbours, notice is normally limited to them rather than published widely, which is part of why a departure is faster than a rezoning.

A departure cannot be used to authorise a use the zone does not allow, however small the departure looks on paper. Where a proposal needs both - a use that requires consent and a building that breaches a building line - both applications are required and are usually lodged together.

The Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act 16 of 2013 (SPLUMA) is the national framework: it requires every municipality to adopt its own land use scheme and municipal planning by-law, and it makes the municipality - not the province - the authority of first instance on land development applications. The departure provisions themselves sit in the municipality's own planning by-law and land use scheme, so the categories and thresholds differ from one municipality to the next.