Richards Bay Waterfront Rezoning and Redevelopment

The City of uMhalthuze has applied for an Environmental Authorisation (EA) in support of the SPLUMA application to rezone the existing Richards Bay Waterfront. The area is located within Ward 2 of the City of uMhlathuze and King Cetshwayo District Municipality along the Richards Bay Estuary within the suburb of Meerensee.

This proposal aims to fulfil the goal of the applicant, City of uMhlathuze, to redevelop the Richards Bay Waterfront to maximise usage and unlock economic potential while opening the area for further use by tourists and locals. The City of uMhlathuze feels that the current project area is well suited to support this kind of development with a key motivator being that the area is already partly transformed and disturbed thus avoiding large scale greenfield developments. However, to meet this goal, the City of uMhlathuze first has to formulate new developable rights/zoning for the land. As explained above this process is handled in a SPLUMA application however to advise on these developable rights/zoning an environmental assessment to required. The City of uMhlathuze believes that undertaking an environmental assessment at such an early stage is key to strategically developing the area. Consequently, this application aims to provide a high-level environmental approval in support of the SPLUMA application and does not aim to dictate details at a site-specific level. Therefore it is important to note that any further development/changes to the proposed layout that falls outside of this application and trigger additional listed activities would need to follow a separate amendment process if the EA is granted.