Paving in Durbanville: Shale Hills and Estate Verges

Pinehurst 7 and the 30% verge rule

Garden Cities' Pinehurst 7 planning guide, dated 2026/07/20, says the roadway verge between the kerb and the front boundary forms part of the Garden Cities common property. Any alteration needs prior Garden Cities approval, and a detailed landscaping layout plan must accompany the application.

The guide lets 30% of the verge frontage be hard landscaped and wants the remaining 70% in live vegetation. Its definition of hard landscaping is brick paving, which includes the existing driveway, so a wider driveway uses part of the same 30%. Measure the frontage and the current driveway before planning a widening.

The guide is not consistent about who owns the verge. Clause 16 calls it Garden Cities common property, while one clause 7.4 calls the road reserve between the kerb and the front boundary the property of the City of Cape Town, needing the City's permission for alterations. Ask Garden Cities which applies to a verge job.

The same guide restricts contractors to 07h00 to 17h00 on weekdays and 07h00 to 13h00 on Saturdays, with no construction work on Sundays or public holidays. Construction materials and building supplies must be stored within the property boundaries, not on the roadway verge.

The City's Northern district plan lists Clara-Anna Fontein, Pinehurst and Graanendal among newer private developments where building activity concentrated in the five years before the plan. Ask each HOA for its verge and paver rules before booking work.

How Durbanville paving meets the hillside

The City's Tygerberg district plan places Malmesbury shale on the foot slopes of the Tygerberg and Durbanville Hills, and says the slopes below Durbanville are covered with recent surface deposits including scree and ferricrete. The Northern district plan says soils weathered from Malmesbury shale are rich in clay. Both describe districts, not single erven.

For concrete block paving on a slope, the CMA's guidance covers the points below.

• A minimum slope of 1 in 50 in one direction and 1 in 100 in the other, with the paving sloped away from the garage floor level (homeowner guide).
• Laying that starts at the lower end and works upwards against the slope, which the steep-slope note calls standard practice.
• An anchor beam at the lower end where the slope is greater than 12%, and between 8% and 12% at the engineer's discretion.

The note explains the beam. Accelerating up the hill and braking down it push the blocks downhill, and an uncontained field creeps and opens its joints at the top. Sloping driveways have their own section on the driveway paving in Cape Town page.

Run-off from the house above

On a hillside street, the City's Stormwater Management By-law gives the Council a power over neighbouring erven. By written notice, it can direct an owner to let the owner of a higher lying property lay a stormwater drain pipe or gutter across the lower property, to drain concentrated stormwater.

The crossing still needs the City

The Pinehurst 7 guide says Garden Cities approval is entirely separate from City of Cape Town approval. The City's RIM Wayleave Standards list a new or altered carriageway crossing under the Miscellaneous Permit, applied for directly at the relevant RIM district office.

For a light-duty residential crossing in concrete pavers, Table 6-1 of the City's roads and stormwater standards gives 60 or 80 mm pavers on a 25 mm uncompacted sand bed, over 150 mm of cement-stabilised C4 and a 150 mm G7 subgrade. Where clay material is encountered, the same table adds a 150 mm sand layer for a light-duty crossing, preferably enclosed in a geofabric blanket.

What a Durbanville driveway costs

Driveway paving is quoted per job, since fewer than three Cape Town installers publish a price for it. The averages this site does publish are set out on paving prices in Cape Town.

The Northern plan describes regic sands near Brackenfell, the town next door. Its page is paving in Brackenfell, and the other town pages are listed under Cape Town paving areas. The services Paving for Africa offers are on the paving contractors in Cape Town page.

Durbanville paving questions