A city park, involving investment of at least a R1bn, is on the cards for the heart of Sandton.

The Sandton Chronicle reported last week that 26ha of council-owned open land in Parkmore, Sandton, including the Field and Study Recreation Centre, had been earmarked for urban development "incorporating a great city park".

The Field and Study Recreation Centre is situated on 17ha of land and was originally bought by the then Sandton Town Council in the 1970s at the urging of the Sandton Civic Foundation. The purpose of the centre was to study the environment. It has since evolved into a recreation centre and provides a range of courses and activities.

The fixed properties of the centre consist of a farmhouse, which is a heritage building, and four other buildings.

Alan Dinnie, the project manager of the City of Joburg Property Company (JPC), the property arm of the City of Johannesburg, confirms that over the past two years, the JPC has been investigating the greater area with a view to creating a great city park.

The site is bordered by River Club to the east, the Forest Farm centre for cerebral palsied adults to the west, and the William Nicol highway to the south.

Dinnie says the JPC earmarked a 5ha portion of the site to the west of the Braamfontein Spruit for development. At one stage, a development lease was signed for a possible theme park, but this fell through.

He says that when the JPC began investigating the ?best use of land? for the 5ha portion, it became clear it would not be a good idea to look at the piece of land in isolation from all the adjoining land.

Dinnie says the site is "unique" in that it is on a river and has a "country feel to it".

But there is a huge commercial development drive along William Nichol, and the JPC's model for development of the park is that commercial development on its fringes will subsidise the capital and operational costs. "We would develop only as much as was needed to create the park," Dinnie says.

The JPC is aware that a great city park, such as London's Hyde Park or New York's Central Park, would require a lot of money to develop, maintain and secure. A good source of funding could be commercial development. Dinnie says the development would result in an investment of at least R1bn in the area.

"We don't know what size of land would be needed for development to actualise the vision. We have started talks with internal role players. The only agreement we have is to investigate the area. There is no agreement to develop. We are a long way off."

He says agreement may be reached on a final development concept by the end of the year. "We are going to appoint consultants. We will do the base investigations and then we'll initiate ? consultation," he says.

Rose Johnson, the chairwoman of the recreation centre, says the west bank of the Braamfontein Spruit - part of the centre - needs development of some kind to secure it.

But she is concerned about commercial development encroaching on to the centre's fields. "Parks and open spaces are irreplaceable resources," she says.

Business Day