Ridgeside Area Information

The Ridgeside development is a prime precinct on Umhlanga Ridge and in total, comprises some 140 hectares of combined office estate, commercial, mixed-use, residential and leisure developments and managed open spaces. The Ridgeside framework plan has been developed to maximise the views along the KwaZulu-Natal coastline, the orientation of the property relative to the sun, the prevailing sea breezes and the natural coastal forest and open space of some 40 hectares that is maintained as a framing element within the development. It also capitalises on its proximity and connectivity to the existing Umhlanga area, including the Umhlanga Ridge Town Centre anchored by the Gateway super regional shopping centre, the La Lucia Ridge Office Estate and the beach facilities, hotels and restaurants of the resort node on the sea front.

The Ridgeside site is situated at the nexus of a number of different developments and uses. These include La Lucia Ridge Office Estate, the Umhlanga Ridge Town Centre and the town centre and residential suburbs of Umhlanga Rocks. The site is surrounded by an existing major road network that supports the sub-region and is therefore ideally placed to provide a strategic, new integrating, structuring and consolidating role. The development takes cognisance of the natural environment and the relationship with the existing adjacent developments. Crawford La Lucia, Atholton, Victory Christian Academy and Umhlanga College are four well-established schools situated within 5km of Ridgeside.

Both the Busamed Gateway Private Hospital and the Umhlanga Hospital are across Umhlanga Rocks Drive from Ridgeside. The site straddles two specific development directions, forming the interface between the residential coastal/tourism/recreation corridor and the mixed-use economic centre.

Consequently, the role of development on the site is to consolidate and integrate the diverse parts, thus yielding a wide range of possible uses and different positioning options for the site.

• Establishment of a residential interface (northern and eastern edges), with the adjoining established residential areas, taking cognisance of the coastal forest belt and associated environmental opportunities;
• Enabling the consolidation of the mixed-use town centre activities on the north-western and western portions of the site (on the ridge), and forging linkages with the Umhlanga Ridge Town Centre that interface with its orthogonal grid structure;
• Enabling the consolidation of the business and commercial activities along the western and southwestern edges of the site, and forging appropriate linkages; and
• The main access routes traversing the site are linked to key intersections in Umhlanga Ridge Town Centre, extending the east-west linkage and enabling access between the two precincts. The north-south routes link with the main intersections on the M41 (into Armstrong Avenue) and into Umhlanga Rocks Drive (northern link with Umhlanga Rocks Village Centre).

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