Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck shared that the Old Parkhurst Bowls and Soccer Club went out for tender last month. The City of Johannesburg Property Company put up a notice on August 21 asking for proposals for the development and long-term lease of the property to be submitted. The closing date for these submissions is September 21 at 10:30.
Councillor Truluck said members of the public are welcome to attend the opening of the tender box to see who the bidders are at JPC offices on 3rd Floor, Forum 1, 33 Hoofd Street, Braamfontein.
Truluck said at the non-compulsory briefing at the JPC offices on September 7, the following info came to light:
- All prior proposals submitted have fallen away – new proposals have to be submitted.
- There are 60 homeless people on site who will have to be accommodated in situ in temporary alternative accommodation for about six to eight months before they can be relocated to a more permanent structure.
- The land is a former land-fill site. Only about one hectare of the eight-hectare site is suitable for development.
- If you build on the land fill section – you will need to do an extensive geotechnical survey; and will either have huge excavation costs or have to install expensive pilings drilled down into the bedrock to stabilize any structure.
- The land is currently still registered as farmland – the two events would have to be deproclaimed as parkland, consolidated and rezoned.
- There will have to be a heritage report as it is over five hectares.
- There will have to be an environmental assessment.
The subject properties are located in Parkhurst and is bounded by Victoria Road on the South, Rustenburg Road on the west and Parkhurst Road on the east. The site measure 8.3 hectares in extent. The properties have two structures on the southern section which are occupied by vagrants.
Truluck said the properties are currently zoned as a public open space: any form of development on the sites will have to be preceded by a park closure and rezoning. The topographical survey has revealed the existence of services traversing the site, and the survey has also indicated a planned road that separates the two land portions in a south-north.
Due to the spruit, a portion of the northeastern part of the site falls within a 1:50 year flood line. A Geotech investigation has proved that there is large amount of fill material that was encountered in the majority of the trial holes. More intrusive tests are required to get a full assimilation of the extent of the fill material.
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