The Knysna area, situated within the Garden Route District of the Western Cape Province in South Africa, lies approximately 500 km from Cape Town along the Southern Cape coastline. Knysna Town encompasses a mix of formal urban residential neighborhoods, informal settlements, and commercial and industrial nodes.

The National Treasury’s Neighbourhood Development Programme was designed to support spatial targeting at the precinct level, guiding the planning and implementation of infrastructure projects. Through this initiative, the Knysna Municipality, in collaboration with National Treasury, identified several secondary nodes along key activity corridors within the town for spatial development and business planning. These nodes include Masifunde, Nekkies, Heidevallei, and the Knysna CBD Taxi Rank, which serves as the Central Transport Hub. The overarching goal was to create investment plans for establishing an urban hub in the Knysna CBD and secondary nodes, interconnected by a public transport network.

These centers and the activity corridors linking them have been designated as priority areas for investment. They are envisioned as focal points for higher-order facilities, business activities, and higher-density development, supported by a high-quality public realm. A robust public transport network is essential for connecting these centers along identified accessibility routes, ensuring their success as integrated hubs.

The Northern Areas, a collective term for a series of urban settlements along the northern ridge of the Knysna basin, extend from north of the Knysna CBD to the Northern Areas Tourist Gateway. Initially consisting of a few scattered settlements connected by Concordia Road (later Chungwa Street), urban migration and rapid population growth have transformed this region into a continuous belt of township settlements. Key areas include Wit Lokasie, Flenters, Rhobololo, Qolweni, Edameni, Joodse Kamp, Concordia, Bongani, Kayalethu, Kairo, Dam-se-Bos, Nekkies, and Ou Pad.

This area is envisioned as a cohesive, integrated urban corridor. A corridor typically comprises a linear space influenced by activity nodes that create a dynamic system of mobility and accessibility. Activity nodes, or “beads,” are connected by residential areas, or the “string,” forming a “beads-on-a-string” configuration. These corridors are shaped by intersecting forces that generate activity hubs, serving both movement and accessibility functions. In this Northern Corridor, priority is placed on accommodating public transport and pedestrian movement to support its role as an integrated urban development framework.