Small-Town Regeneration Insights #12
The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.” Linus Pauling
In the Small-Town Regeneration (STR) process, the first two phases set the stage. By the end of Phase 2, towns have listened, reflected, and agreed on what matters most. Now the focus shifts to turning those priorities into real possibilities.
This is the start of Phase 3: Design and Resolve.
Over the next three posts, we’ll explore each step of this phase. This post focuses on Step 1: Develop Options. The next will look at Make Choices, and the one after that at Formalise Decisions.
Why “Develop Options” Matters
The aim at this stage is not to select the final project. It’s to explore a wide range of possibilities before deciding which to pursue. A good set of options gives a town room to adapt, mix ideas, and choose what fits best when priorities meet practical realities.
This is where divergent thinking and convergent thinking work together:
- Divergent thinking is about generating as many ideas as possible. It happens in brainstorming sessions, design workshops, and collaborative mapping exercises. Quantity comes before quality here; creativity is given space to stretch.
- Convergent thinking follows, using agreed criteria, structured debates, and simple ranking tools to narrow down the list. This is where feasibility, alignment, and potential impact come into focus.
In practice, towns move between these two modes more than once. Each round of idea generation and review sharpens the options and ensures they’re both imaginative and workable.
Planning the Ideation Process
The process begins by bringing stakeholders together—residents, business owners, community organisations, and municipal officials—to pool their insights and ideas. This is not a meeting about “fixing” things. It’s a conversation about possibilities.
A typical approach looks like this:
1. Identify the right mix of stakeholders
Bring together residents, business owners, community organisations, and municipal officials. Diversity of perspective is critical. In Piketberg’s public heart precinct process, youth groups, tourism operators, and municipal engineers all sat at the same table.
2. Set a clear objective
Be specific about the focus of the session. In Senekal, the goal was to re-imagine the market square as a space that worked for traders, residents, and visitors alike.
3. Present the current situation
Visual tools like maps, photos, and quick data snapshots are used to create a shared baseline. In Modimolle, before any ideas were discussed for Joe Slovo Street, the group walked the corridor together to see its current conditions.
Generating Ideas: Divergent Thinking in Action
The first round is about opening the door to possibilities. Techniques include:
- Mind mapping to connect ideas visually.
- SWOT analysis to frame opportunities alongside risks.
In Senekal, this stage produced ideas as varied as a covered trading area for year-round use, shaded seating under indigenous trees, and heritage-themed market stalls.
Breaking into smaller groups can help deepen the conversation. One group may focus on aesthetics and appearance, another on economic activity, and another on safety and accessibility.
Testing and Refining: Convergent Thinking
Once ideas are on the table, the next step is to apply simple tests:
- Does it align with the town’s regeneration vision and the statements developed in Phase 2?
- Is it feasible within policy, land use, and infrastructure constraints?
- Could it attract investment or partnerships?
In Piketberg, several concepts for the public heart were reviewed. While a full amphitheatre design drew enthusiasm, budget realities meant it was refined into a multi-use open space with seating terraces that could host performances without major structural work.
Organising Ideas into Categories
Some towns find it helpful to group ideas into broad categories before shortlisting:
- Appearance projects: quick wins like cleaning, planting, painting or repairing.
- Property development: projects that make areas more investor-friendly.
- SMME and township economy: improving markets, trading spaces, and local supply chains.
- Tourism: enhancing heritage and identity to draw visitors.
- Institutional: strengthening governance, accountability, and coordination.
- Safety and security: lighting, surveillance, and design for safer public spaces.
In Modimolle, options were grouped into public space upgrades, mobility improvements, and economic activation, helping the team see how smaller and larger projects could link together.
Quick Wins to Build Momentum
Visible early actions send a signal that the process is real, and that regeneration means movement, not just talk.
Residents and local farmers in Senekal have shown how collective action can shift perceptions quickly. In one noted effort, community members came together across divides to tackle neglected infrastructure, fixing potholes on local roads that had long frustrated drivers and passengers alike. This kind of action isn’t a headline project, but it has an outsize effect. It stakes a claim that change is underway, and that the work is for and by the community.
See this short video of the Senekal Swimming Pool Makeover
These small but strategic actions create trust and generate energy. Within the STR ideation stage, integrating “quick wins” like this into divergent-convergent workshops helps people imagine what’s possible. They also reinforce that regeneration isn’t abstract; it’s starting in the here and now.
From Ideas on Paper to Options on the Table
Developing options is the creative heart of the design phase. It’s where community priorities start to take shape as real, tangible proposals. By moving between divergent and convergent thinking, towns ensure their ideas are both ambitious and achievable.
In the next post, Make Choices, we’ll look at how towns decide which of these options to take forward, and why the way those choices are made matters as much as the projects themselves.
For More Information
STR Implementing Agent: CITEPLAN (Pty) Ltd | Technical Manager: Istell Orton-Nightingale at istell@citeplan.net or Communication Contact: Eriva Nanyonjo at eriva@citeplan.net
Project Sponsor: Department of Cooperative Governance | Project Manager: Prabin Govender at prabing@cogta.gov.za or Communication Contact: Moferefere Moloi at mofereferem@cogta.gov.za
