Heritage Cases

An HIA exemption is requested due to the condonement of a building of a main house and entertainment area on Portion 308 of the Farm Roodekrans 183 IQ, Roodepoort, City of Johannesburg. The approximately 8500m2 site was cleared of indigenous vegetation between 9 December 2012 and 14 July 2013. The buildings and associated infrastructure amounts to approximately 1800m2. There are two main structures in the development, being the main house and the entertainment area. The main house has a basement; ground floor (garage, ground floor, covered patio, staff quarters, entertainment area); and first floor (first floor with balconies). The entertainment area has a ground floor (covered entrance, indoor pool area, entertainment ground floor, staff rooms, staff covered patio, covered patio indoor pool); and first floor (entertainment and balcony). An HIA must be done under the following circumstances: a. The construction of a linear development (road, wall, power line, canal etc.) exceeding 300m in length. b. The construction of a bridge or similar structure exceeding 50m in length. c. Any development or other activity that will change the character of a site and exceed 5 000m2 or involve three or more existing erven or subdivisions thereof. d. Re-zoning of a site exceeding 10 000 m2. e. Any other category provided for in the regulations of SAHRA or a provincial heritage authority. It is requested by the Culture & Cultural Resource Consultant that the project may be exempted from doing a Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA). Due to the applicable following: • Firstly, it is a condonement, forming part of environmental condonement, for which such a heritage approval is needed. • The site, as a result, is entirely developed consisting of the buildings, infrastructure, and landscaped gardens. • Any possible heritage features that may have existed would have been removed during the clearing of the site done in 2012 and 2013. If you look at a Google Earth view of the site it indicates it is entirely developed and landscaped. Due to the mentioned factors, the chances therefore of finding any heritage-related features are indeed extremely slim, and an exemption is requested.