In 2009, a public participation conference of the Ministry of the Interior was held in Haifa regarding the opening of the urban seafront in the Haifa port. The conference was led by the "Shanar Architects" office.
New uses for the western port of Haifa
The national outline plans (TMA) 13 and TMA 30, define new uses for the west of Haifa Port. (The port area in front of Ben Gurion Boulevard). According to the plans, this area which has belonged to the port of Haifa since the establishment of the state is expected to be vacated and become a public area for the residents to use!
The Ministry of the Interior has been promoting the public participation process for several years, while the involvement of the Haifa municipality in promoting the program is hardly noticeable on the ground.
The municipality releases from time to time superficial simulations without any real plan. Israel Railways at all means Electrify the rail and strengthen the wall Between the city and the sea with overhead electrification. In the meantime, time passes and we try to understand where the issue stands.
Simulation of the Western Port as prepared by the Haifa Municipality
4 years have passed since the day of this meeting under the auspices of the Ministry of the Interior.
What has changed since then?
Probably not much
The Haifa Port Committee still closes the port behind fences and fights for everything.
The planned private port at Petah Kishon only spurs the port committee to fortify itself
And we are standing in front of fences, no tourism, no passenger ships.
The most critical and immediate step is in the area around Rambam. This is an area that is going to become a wide road.
We need to make sure that along with the road a wide boardwalk will be built and there will be space for bathing beaches around it and plan it
in advance so that you connect to the program in the area of the Behad to the Pacific coast. This is not about something far away
One day we will wake up and discover that instead of a promenade around Rambam there is a main road up to the water line.
In phase A of the preparation of the plan, which is defined as the preliminary phase, four meetings were held with the public:
A. A meeting with the residents of "Haifa al-Atika".
on. A meeting with the residents of the nearby neighborhoods (Bet Galim, K. Eliezer, K. Eliyahu and the German settlement) - the documentation of which appears in the introduction to this discussion.
third. Meeting with merchants and business owners in the lower city
d. A meeting intended for the entire Haifa public and held in the city council hall, to which the second part of this thread refers. As part of this meeting, questionnaires were also handed out to which 75 of the participants answered.
At the end of the process, a report was written summarizing the public's positions. This report was submitted to the steering committee of the program (the "Editorial Committee"), approved by it and submitted as part of the report summarizing the preliminary stage of the plan for approval of the National Planning Commission (Committee for Planning Fundamental Issues - the highest approving body in the Planning Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior). The approval was received a few days later. before Passover.
At the last meetings of the editorial committee, various design alternatives for the complex were discussed, including schedules.
Drawings and simulations of the various complexes were presented, issues of height and intensity of the construction and its goals, public transportation and parking and other issues were discussed in detail.
As Dukes pointed out - part of the plan is indeed intended for the very distant stage, after the completion of the new docks in the eastern port, the evacuation of the navy base, the sinking of the train and the copying of the Dagon silos.
- This is exactly the essence of a planning process at such a level: to determine long-term considerations and not leave a planning vacuum that will quickly be seized by various opportunists.
However, it is important to note that the committee is also trying to promote the opening of certain parts of the port to the general public already in the short term. Not tomorrow, but yes in about a year or two.
One of the main principles of the program is the phased approach: what can be done as soon as possible, will be done as soon as possible - in order to create a positive momentum that will drive the process. The municipality of Haifa is also a partner in this effort.
And to continue the public participation process:
In a few months, after the preferred alternatives have been approved by the committees, these will be presented to the public in meetings open to the various audiences and hopefully also on a dedicated website.
Of course we will also update Hai-Pa surfers, as we have been careful to do until now.
Happy Independence Day greetings,
Yael Lebanon
Public engagement consultant
Haifa sea front.
If you haven't watched the presentation and the full documentation of the meeting before:
You are invited to view the meeting documentation on the HaifaTV website http://www.haifatv.co.il/2010/08/yamit-muni/
and download the printable presentation here http://picasaweb.google.com/HaifaWaterFront.Public/712010#