FAQs

The Questions and answers below are based on the City's standard list of CID frequently asked questions. However, they have been reworked to specifically tailor them to our area.


City FAQs, By-laws and Policies can be found here.


What is a CID?

A City Improvement District (CID) is a geographical area where an accredited non-profit company delivers extra services to residents - over and above what the City is able to.


The City does not reduce service levels to CIDs.  This is explicitly stated at every stage of the application.  The CID delivers supplementary services, over and above mandated service levels from the City.


These supplementary activities cover public safety, litter and cleanliness, environmental upgrades and social responsibility.  Public safety is typically the top priority and budget focus.


Who runs the CID?

A Board of Directors which is elected by the local community, plus a City council representative.  They draw up an annual budget which must be approved by property owners at the AGM.


As a non-profit, the CID has ‘Members’ instead of shareholders.  All qualifying property owners can become Members of the CID and they elect the Board and approve the annual budget. This is a highly localised enterprise.


What exactly does the CID do?

The CID must deliver the services budgeted for in the latest annual plan.  That plan has to be approved by the Members at the AGM.  


The CID Management will contract with organisations and individuals to deliver the supplementary services.  For example, it will choose a private security company to provide security officers, and a team to collect litter. 


How is it funded?

When a CID is established, every ratepayer has a levy added to their rates bill.  These levies are billed and collected by the City in exactly the same way as your normal rates.


Each month those levies are paid across to the CID who spends them according to the approved budget.  The City retains a 3% provision, to cover bad debts, and pays it over to the CID at the end of the year if it can be released. 


Unlike your current rates obligations, every single rand raised by the CID levy will be brought back to our area and spent for the benefit of our neighbourhood. 


The process is completely transparent.  Financial reports are submitted to the CID Board and the City every month, the company’s figures must be audited and all financial statements are published online. 


How is it established?

It is hard to establish a CID.  The process takes approximately two years and we are still in the application stage - about one year in.  Until approval has been granted, the application is driven by a volunteer Steering Committee of residents.  They prepare the draft budgets and documentation, liaise with the various City departments, run the public participation process and ultimately hold a vote - which is where we are now.


If 60% of our property owners vote in favour of a CID, then the application will be formally presented to Council.  If we get through that, the non-profit company will have to be registered, with all the legal and financial compliance that involves. 


The first time that additional rates levies could be due is in July 2024.


What are the benefits to homeowners?

The difficulties facing Newlands are growing.  Crime is an ever-increasing threat, the challenges of homelessness have grown massively and the City has to spread its service delivery resources thinner than ever.  


And the traditional Newlands responses - volunteerism and individual generosity - cannot keep up for much longer.  We are trying to get ahead of a problem which will strike hard quite soon. To maintain our quality of life and protect our property investment, we need a new, sustainable funding model. 


The CID will build on our existing volunteer services, expand them and fund them sustainably.  The funding burden will be shared equitably and affordably.



How is this different from what is happening in Newlands today?

The proposed supplementary services will make our area a safer, cleaner and more desirable place to live. 


There will be greater security, more litter management, better management of our open spaces and more effective engagement with homeless people in our area. 


At the moment each of these functions is carried out, to a greater or lesser extent, by volunteer organisations and individuals - but they are vulnerable.


For example, about one quarter of all the homeowners carry the entire cost of the highly effective Community Patrol scheme.  That is unsustainable.  The business plan proposed by the CID includes growth of this scheme and sustainability of funding.  


In the same way, the Park Wardens in Paradise Park who patrol the playgrounds and pick up litter, are funded by donations from a very small number of residents.  The Wardens had to be let go recently because of a lack of money. Litter will increase and personal safety will be compromised.  Under the proposed CID, this scheme would be made permanent and expanded to include Wardens in other open spaces as well.  


I am one of the hundreds of homeowners who pay into the Community Patrols project every month, via my FADT bill.  Will that project be ended?

The very successful Community Patrol project will be continued and expanded under the CID.  It will also be fully funded by the CID.  Therefore you will no longer need to pay the Community Patrol levy (‘LSS’) on your FADT bill.  For owners of many properties this will mean that the CID cost will be cancelled out by the savings on the Community Patrol Scheme - and you will enjoy an expanded Community Patrol service.


What will it cost me?

The CID Steering Committee has prepared a draft five year budget. They have looked for a balance between effectiveness and affordability.


The additional rates levy each month will be (0.000640 of your municipal valuation / 12).  This will equate to 10% of the item amount marked Property Rates on your rates bill. (i.e. your rates bill excluding Water, Electricity, Refuse & Sewerage).