Last night, Tuesday at 23:30 p.m., the members of the council decided that they reject the plan presented by the municipality, according to which a different improvement levy will be established in each neighborhood in the city (no levy / 25% levy / 50% levy) and that in its place will be adopted the one proposed by the deputy mayor Sophie Naksh and Councilwoman Sharit Golan Steinberg, according to which the improvement levy will not apply in all the city's neighborhoods, but only in the Carmel Ridge neighborhoods, where the improvement levy will be 50%.
In response, Mayor Einat Kalish Rotem claimed that the council members are destroying Haifa with this.
Let's recall that the state decided that each municipality will independently determine the rate of the improvement levy that will apply to the various areas of its territory (according to a number of general criteria) and will be valid for the next 5 years. And so last month a plan was presented by the director of engineering, in which a different improvement levy was determined for each A neighborhood and a neighborhood At last night's meeting, the presentation was brought before the city council and after a discussion of about two hours, the council decided to reject the municipality's proposal and pass an alternative proposal under it.
Feingold: "The only solution is to allow entrepreneurs a higher multiplier"
One of the first speakers was council member Jacob Feingold, who is also an entrepreneur by profession, who argued that it would be best to choose a uniform multiplier for the entire city and not have a different multiplier for each neighborhood. According to him, the solution is to allow the entrepreneurs to build more (that is, to change the multiplier) and that way both the city and the entrepreneurs would be hired. "I think that if we impose an improvement levy on the developers, the multiplier should be changed. If we give a blanket 25% to the whole city, this will provide an answer to building infrastructure and we will not end up in a budget pit, and the developer will be able to build more units in the city in return."
Zaatara: "I'm tired of not considering the Arabs in planning decisions"
Councilor Raja Zaatara claimed that in matters of planning, we are still in a military regime. "Not everyone speaks Hebrew, and it is their right to have this information accessible to them. Beyond the technical question of language, when talking about public participation, it is a tool that is not accessible to a disadvantaged population, yet, this is what is happening. There was a plan for Halisa. The district committee accepted the opposition of the residents In 2005 and since then the plan has been stuck."
"The Arab population is not taken into account," said Zaatara, "does it make sense to impose a higher improvement levy when more floors are built? In Dania you can pay 50%, but will the money in Dania be used only by Dania, or will it be taken for the whole city? I also don't understand the part of the 5 years. Is it not possible to change during the 5 years? I have seen in the last three and a half years, that investing in neighborhoods is a political matter. I must say that I usually have bad things to say about the municipality and the mayor, but in relation to gentrification The city shows more sensitivity than other mayors."
Kratnik: "All the professionals are against it"
Council member Kiril Kratnik admitted that until a month ago he did not know what the improvement levy was, and so for the past month he sat and studied the subject and discovered that it is a fascinating subject. "We are talking about multipliers and numbers, but we have forgotten the residents here. The residents of Shaar Aliya, Ein Hayam, Shaprintak, Bat Galim, Kiryat Eliezer, in recent years they dream of only one thing - a new apartment."
"I consulted with a lot of people, because that's what you do when dealing with an issue that's not clear enough," Kartnik continued, "They all argued in my ears, lawyers and real estate people, that the program should not be passed. According to them, real estate people wanted to meet with the mayor and she did not allow them. As we know, there are local and municipal councils that have decided to exempt the improvement fees completely, I live in Or Yehuda, I am in Carmel Castle, and you see that 30% of the population there are Haifa. We lost a lot of people who decided to leave Haifa because of these things. We need to keep the residents in Haifa, and with this plan we are putting an end to the eviction of buildings here. I agree with Feingold and think that it is not worthwhile to stifle entrepreneurs with 50% levies, instead entrepreneurs should be allowed to build More floors."
I picked up: "50% levy = empty apartments"
Yoav Harmati claimed that we have forgotten the city and its inhabitants. "When you raise the improvement percentages, you keep the young people away from the city. The problem is the infrastructure. On the main roads, where there are buildings for urban renewal projects. Already today the infrastructure is not suitable. New infrastructure is also good for the existing residents. The improvement is the improvement of the residents. There are no more young people in the neighborhoods . The apartments are becoming too expensive for the young people. We must not reach 50%, because we will end up with empty apartments. We will reach the improvement of the land, but not the improvement of the city."
Almog: "Want to get answers from the mayor"
"I wanted to ask the mayor a few questions and she's not there" (Klish left the hall before that) said council member Hadva Almog, who in the previous term served as the mayor's assistant and head of the engineering director. witness
"What is the number of residents that the mayor is planning for 2030? Does she accept the state's decision that we will then reach 330,000? How many permits do you think will be given in the 5 years? I remember you and Nachshon Tzuk talking about the fact that you don't want construction. You have to understand that if you don't go ahead , going back.
When we planned Neve David, we reached 40,000 inhabitants, and we realized that it was too much, so we went back. If in one place they don't take improvement levies and in another place they do, is that socialism? Will the expensive place finance the cheap one? I am very much in favor of it. There are also levies and agro, which are part of the construction. The fees are not always enough for development. If someone defines the direction for me, it will be easier to know where we are going. The question is how many units will be built in the next 5 years."
City engineer Ariel Weterman answered Almog's questions, although Klish Rotem had already returned to the discussion studio in the meantime. "We went with an optimistic scenario - 2,000 apartments per year. With all the income, including fees and levies, we are still in a big deficit, so this money is critical. 2,000 apartments per year is a very nice goal for Haifa."
"I was hoping to hear an answer from the mayor, but we don't get anything from her," Almog responded to Waterman's words.
Golan Steinberg: "You do not allow urban renewal programs
"Do we want to promote urban renewal?", Golan Steinberg opened her speech with a question. "Most of the city's neighborhoods are crying out for urban renewal. There are neighborhoods that are interested in urban renewal, but this is not possible. On the contrary, they receive fines because their buildings are dangerous. Your judgment is simply poor, or you don't understand how to read tables. Your reality check is poor," said Golan Steinberg . "In 2021, we did not approve any plans. The hope is that in 2022 the traffic jam will be released and we will start approving plans from years ago. You are blocking all the renewal plans. The entire Carmel Ridge was destroyed without creating infrastructure? Make an effort, create the possibility. In Jerusalem, they decided that there would be no improvement levy in the entire city The cheapest neighborhood in Jerusalem, the price per square meter is over NIS 25,000, so the Jerusalemites probably know something. In the Carmel Ridge, I completely agree that there is no possibility of urban renewal and a 50% improvement levy should be imposed. Where there is a chance for urban renewal - zero percent of the improvement levy ".
"Full disclosure - I don't have an array of apartments in Pini Binui areas, so I am free of interests," said the chairman of the Green faction Avihu Han, "this is a critical and important decision for the city in the next 5 years and it should be done with discretion. The city needs renewal and you can see it in the coastal neighborhoods. The railway buildings from the 50s require renewal, and there is no debate about that. I lack one aspect - the financial aspect. Decisions are made that raise the finger without thinking, and this is not my way. I would expect to hear an economic report of different neighborhoods in the city. According to this report, we will be presented with a solution based on improvement levies. Neve David in a previous report had 50% and now 25%. This is not a luxury neighborhood. In Kiryat Eliyahu and Kiryat Eliezer, urban renewal must be allowed. I feel that the work was not done thoroughly. There are several aspects that will be affected by the decision. There is a risk that they will not build where the improvement charges will be high, Hahn said.
"Feingold said to give one more multiplier to developers. This means that if we vacate 1,000 apartments, instead of receiving 4,000 units in their place, we will get 5,000 units, the differences are enormous. That is why I do not completely accept Feingold's approach, which I think does not understand what the city needs. The delicate balances were not tested. You dropped to 25% in neighborhoods that a month ago were 50%. I oppose Sarit's proposal to give 0 to the entire city and 50% to the old Carmel. This could create a very difficult reality for the city in a decision that could turn out to be reckless. When we come to do renewal, We also want transportation solutions. We don't want a resident to wait half an hour to get out of the neighborhood. I don't want to turn my city into a slum. I want the city to offer a quality of life to the residents. Mention Habiva Reich here. Habiva Reich, we in the committee shouted that we are heading for a disaster. I think it's a disaster and the residents think it's a disaster. We have to be careful about it. I propose another discussion to talk about problem areas."
Ben Dayan: "One of the most important discussions in recent years"
"I, contrary to the schedules and the pressure they are trying to put on us, I repeat that this discussion is one of the most important discussions that have been held in recent years," explained the council member from the Likud faction, CPA Eli Ben Dayan. "We need to give it the proper time and we need to listen to all One of the arguments, to understand what we are talking about. The professionals come and present their professional arguments and put the risks involved in a situation where no decision will be made. This is their professional truth. We can decide not to consider what they say, or we can formulate a decision that gives us a solution, since the decision is for 5 years."
The legal adviser, Adv. Yamit Klein, said that there is no possibility of postponing the decision to another day. The first vote was on the original proposal. 6 voted in favor, 13 against and 5 abstained.
The second vote was that there would be no improvement levy in the whole city and in the Carmel Ridge neighborhoods 50%. Mayor Einat Kalish Rotem said this is devastating for the city.
The council members decided to extend the meeting by half an hour. Klein asked her father Han to make his proposal. "I don't want to see that we come out with a decision of zero percent improvement. I suggest that in the next 10 days you make corrections and then we will vote. I think it is possible to make final amendments to the proposal. A large part of the proposal is correct, we need to correct the weak areas of the city" .
The professionals said that it is not possible to make repairs in 10 days. Klein said that the municipality's decision must be announced today. Nakash and Golan Steinberg's counter proposal was accepted, 15 council members voted in favor.
"A bad decision that will be felt for many years"
After the decision was made, Avihu Han said that this is one of the worst decisions made in recent years by the city council. "Obviously I'm in favor of an exemption from the improvement levy in Kiryat Eliezer and Kiryat Eliyahu, but why should there be an exemption from the improvement levy in Romma? Each apartment there will cost millions, why won't the developer pay for the development? People do not understand that there is a need for infrastructure that will cost hundreds of millions. There will be nowhere to get this money now, after we have given up on improvement levies for 5 years. It is a celebration for entrepreneurs, but there will be no new roads, no public institutions and no schools for those who want to come and live in the new projects in the coastal neighborhoods. The quality of life will be very low and it's a shame. I expected that Klish Rotem would intervene and tell the engineering director that they needed a week to work 24/7 and prepare a new proposal that we could approve, but she didn't say a word.'
This morning (Wednesday 6/4/22) Han said following last night's decision: "The severe effects of this decision will accompany the city for many years." The decision led by the members of the Change Council exempts the real estate developers from paying the improvement levies that are required for the development of the necessary infrastructures, which include transportation solutions, bicycle paths, schools and gardens, public buildings, sewage and water infrastructures and other infrastructures that enable a good quality of life in the development of construction evacuation projects The entrepreneurs and only they are required to provide these infrastructures."
"The money required to develop these infrastructures is in the amount of tens of millions of NIS per project and in the amount of hundreds and even billions of NIS for evacuation projects for the city. The city council yesterday released this payment from the contractors, and guess who will pay this money...? Yes, you. The residents of the city.
This bad decision will seriously harm the quality of life of all the city's residents who will receive project towers without required infrastructure, without quality of life and development of a neighborhood based on advanced infrastructure.
The only ones who will benefit are the real estate developers who won here and by and large, they are the ones who will pocket tens and hundreds of millions of NIS when the resident will not benefit from the property in his possession other than receiving a base that is a dimension, an elevator and a balcony and nothing else.
The buildings they will build will be tall buildings with high maintenance costs without the required services and without appropriate transportation solutions.
In short, many areas will become slums for many years.
Klish failed miserably, her entire planning vision failed and she allowed in her incompetence a decision that was devastating to the city.
The city engineer says that he will not be able to undertake the promotion of projects without the ability to carry out the required infrastructures and he was right in this case.
In the last line it seems that the municipal system will stop promoting urban renewal projects because it will not be possible.
The residents will lose!
The entrepreneurs will lose!
The city will lose!
In yesterday's decision we all came out losers.
Undoubtedly, foreign parties and from a narrow perspective entered into the considerations of the city council members and caused such great damage to the residents.
It's a shame that the members of the city council broke under the pressure of the entrepreneurs and created a new and bad reality for Haifa.
I always try to end on an optimistic note, this time it's hard to find optimism in this bad decision.
We will pay and our children and grandchildren will too!
Haifa is planning a curve and a reversal of trends in the world of public transportation, the removal of the private car, the encouragement of pedestrians and sidewalks and the development of areas of squares and public buildings in a sequence without crossing roads.
With us, the head of the traffic and roads department (note the nomenclature, not public transport...roads and traffic) boasts in his farewell interview that he did a lot of blue and white parking. You understand that public transportation is not of interest to the municipality because it is not possible to collect fines and fines from it. Therefore, the goal of the municipality is to plan poorly. There are no fast bus lines to the train stations, so you will come by car, then they will slap fines and try to paint blue and white. That's the whole patent.
This is how Haifa is going backwards in front of the world. We come to Europe impressed by streets without lines of cars parked on top of each other and on sidewalks making it difficult to walk in the city. True, there is a developed public transport there. Owning a car is a huge waste of money and just a burden on time. There is a train and a bus and a taxi everywhere. Who needs tons of metal near the house to transport themselves a few kilometers??
We need a lot of improvement levies. Because the municipality wants them to build 38 more blue and white parking lots next to all the Binui and Tama evacuations. That way they will be able to tell you that it is for your benefit, that others will not park there. This is how they sell you to the private car without a break. Instead of the development fees going to the addition of bus lines, and without 2 bus lines in each neighborhood, one that goes to Matam and the train and one to Carmel, Tama 38 will not be allowed at all, so all the neighborhoods will be blocked by the addition of 500-1000 vehicles of additional apartments in Tama 38 and the evacuation of 500 apartments in Benue David There will be 2000 additional vehicles, people there will cry that they are unable to leave the parking lot at all and there is a traffic jam right from the exit of the parking lot like in the Am Moshevat neighborhood in Petah Tikva, where at least there will be a light rail and a metro, in Haifa there are simply no plans for anything, only the addition of another 20,000 apartments of renewal+Givat Zemar+ Evacuation of construction and another 40 vehicles, when the traffic jam arrives, it will already be destroyed directly to the center of Carmel, you will stand for an hour and a half. I wonder what will happen then, beatings in Safar square between stationary vehicles??
His father deserves to be mayor of Haifa!
The city council should be dissolved immediately and new mayoral elections should be held, there is a hard feeling that there is no landlord and father for our city!!!!
Feingold - it's money, money and only money. A typical entrepreneur who doesn't see residents, doesn't see the city and only cares about himself (his pocket), and that everyone will jump on him.
The law should prevent the election of a council member who is also an entrepreneur. A recipe for disaster. Damage to the other entrepreneurs.
There is no suspicion of enrichment of public servants who are all tzaddik - see for example the tzaddik Michi Alper - no one even thinks, even in the wildest imagination, that he is getting rich.
As the friction with the PA increases, the potential for combinations increases. Therefore, it is appropriate to completely cancel the improvement levy. Even in his absence, almost no one builds in Haifa.
Second resignation at the engineering director in Haifa today. Yoav Danziger, director of the Roads and Traffic Department, resigned after Nir Levy, director of enforcement.
You can't work when there are no budgets.
If there are no improvement levies, the tenants in those "renewal" projects will be "urban decay" and will sue the municipality for pipe explosions, destroyed roads, lack of playgrounds and public buildings. That's exactly why levies are levied. It does not make sense that the property tax of the residents of Haifa would fund urban renewal for contractors. The contractors make a profit and have to pay the municipality for the development that supports urban renewal and is required as a result of re-paving, landscaping, cleaning, etc. The director of engineering in the Haifa municipality is paralyzed and more people will leave and part of the paralysis is Waterman but part of it is also such failed decisions of the city council in this case the change council made a critical mistake in its decision, which will require urgent correction
Once again Carmel the Seven finances the entire city. is that right
The time has finally come to build in Haifa, otherwise the city will not develop and we will be left behind. I also once thought otherwise, but I realized that it is not
It's not about 'building', it's about construction monsters and transport and infrastructure failures - slums that will destroy the city. This is not about 'the city developing' - but about a heavy suspicion of densely packed apartments without infrastructure, without transportation solutions, while creating a severe shortage of open and built-up public areas - and all under heavy suspicion of illegally enriching public servants and some elected officials. In other words, Haifa is on a slippery and steep slope on a direct path to collapse and crash.
It is worth reminding Zaatara that if it was a military regime, he would have had to enlist in the army in order to win figures equal to those who spend three years of their lives doing the work for him. Equality of rights for those who share also with equality of duties.. When the Arab sector shares equally, it will receive equally. For now we are not there. to remind you
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A just decision, socially and economically, and I say this as a resident of the Carmel Ridge since childhood. Han is wrong and misleading. Romema is considered one of the Carmel Ridge neighborhoods and will bear a 50% improvement levy. The entrepreneurs are required to shell out huge sums from their pockets for infrastructure, and for various institutions for public needs: gardens, a shopping center, a synagogue or another place of worship, and more. Enough, tired of being scared of concrete monsters. According to conservation reports accepted all over the world, the higher you build and the more you build smartly, the more green areas remain - in fact you don't need a report, simple logic is enough.
Well done to the members of the Change Coalition! You have proven that you are a worthy governing option.
Response to Ms. Asnin: I will try to explain your mistake: in a brand new neighborhood, building higher can leave more green space. However, in Carmel, which is completely built up, building to a height will not free up any green space. On the contrary, many more residents, on the same green space that exists and cannot be increased. I can understand Feingold, who wants to raise his tower in Kiryat Safar square, but it is hard to understand residents who support it, and think it will increase the green areas.
Dear Nechama, the description you presented may seem reasonable (in part), but it is not relevant to the city of Haifa. Here in Haifa, in the eviction projects (or urban renewal) what you presented is not actually carried out. For example: the new and illegal cemetery project (contradicts Amendment 3 to TMA 19 which prohibits the establishment of a cemetery on the site) in Haifa (also known as the evacuation of the King Solomon building; 1,212 apartments and the addition of about 7,000 new, fresh burial places that create a serious hazard for the residents of the Neveh neighborhood David and to the purchasers of Azorim Company in the project, as many such purchasers are found) - where they add 1,000 new apartments and on the other hand reduce and reduce the green infrastructure (green infrastructure) - the result - a lack of open spaces and in fact also a lack of spaces for public buildings; Another example - two construction evacuation projects in the Bat Galim neighborhood - the 'Second Ascent' project again creates a shortage and the reduction of the green infrastructure (to be clear, the guide for the allocation of public spaces forbids the reduction of the green infrastructure and no one imagines that the plans that add hundreds of apartments create great density and the reduction of the green areas instead) - the result - in the Bat Galim neighborhood there is a severe lack of open spaces - the high school students are destined to be transported every morning to a future high school in the second southern entrances program - near the Carmel Castle - the middle school students will move to a future solution that will supposedly be created in Kiryat Eliezer - traffic jams throughout the city - Traffic jams that add to the shortage of kindergartens and daycare centers in new projects - Plan HF/2185A (Naot Peres Mizrah; about 1,000 apartments - 'Migdali Ofer', 'Praskovski' and others) - something that will create new traffic jams and a lot of trouble for parents who will be busy transporting the children and toddlers from the side The one of the city to the other side - and all to ensure that certain developers are allowed to count more apartments, if only to allow, so it is suspected, bribe payments on a huge scale. In Haifa it is not a matter of planning, but of a colossal failure based on the suspicion of governmental corruption and fraudulent practices.
Another response to Ms. Asnin - in Haifa it works completely differently - for example, the Pinoy Binui Azorim JV project - 1,212 apartments in Neve David (the cemetery project that works to prepare about 7,000 new grave plots instead of existing houses and right inside Neve David neighborhoods - in order to return Atara to the old age' - to destroy the lives of the residents) including existing residential buildings in an area of 22.2 dunams - the new construction does not allocate new public areas from the area and produces high-rise buildings - construction monsters - but the construction monsters occupy an area of 28.2 dunams - that is, allotments in favor of the project over 6 more dunams for residences and commerce than was before - at the expense of public areas - by way of reducing the public area - especially the 'green' area. There is no planning here that takes advantage of the reduction of construction within high-rise buildings while increasing the public area - there are monstrous high-rise buildings here - many apartments with one air direction - which humanly harm the person and the environment (there is no need to worry so much, after all, these are apartments, the majority of which are intended for the owners of the existing apartments - The residents of the existing Neve David neighborhood - who, as you know, are underprivileged people who are not really cared for here and who are without rights in the eyes of those who decide and whose pockets are inflated by the project) - and while reducing and shrinking the public areas - this is how construction in Haifa is 'properly' managed - this is how every good plot is destroyed here .
Absolutely not true. This is not what is happening in Carmel - yes, they build higher, yes, they reduce spaces and leave no greenery! Everything is concrete - trees are destroyed, the small green gardens are damaged, even the 15% stipulated in the master plan to preserve without construction is often not fulfilled!!!
How exactly did you plan to finance all the neighborhoods that received a solution before the debate?
At the beginning of the discussion, the issue of pigs in the city came up and also the issue of feeding cats
The pigs arrived in the neighborhoods about a year and a half ago and they get a place of honor in the discussion that was extended 3 times
I've been in Haifa for 60 years and I've never been fed, so I'm asking you to come out of our pocket, please