The Haifa streets are an essential component of Haifa's urban DNA, but they still function as distant and passive fringes instead of being a public space that invites residents to enter and stroll through it.
In 2012, in a joint initiative of the Municipality of Haifa and the Society for the Protection of Nature and funded by the Fund for Open Areas, experts from various fields of knowledge came together to create a plan whose purpose was to outline the principles of development for wadis, so that it would form the basis for creating agreements between the various authorities for the purpose of continuing planning and guiding all planning, management and maintenance factors related to the city and its immediate surroundings.
The program was published in 2016 and is accessible to the public live, so anyone who wishes to review it, can review the series of articles at the following link:
prologue
On the page that opens the program, things are written that those who happen upon them may suspect that this is a distant place: "Every morning when we go to work or school, we are surrounded by breathtaking beauty, God's gift to the city... a beauty reinforced by those hills and green vapors, which open views and frame every landscape image It is silent with a murmur that expresses life itself - the whistling of the wind in the branches, the chirping of the birds and the footsteps of animal paws on the dry leaves."
As someone who chose to get to know nature in the city, I identify with this statement and admit that Haifa is blessed with wadis and trails whose botanical and biological diversity is vast and sometimes rare, but without a legally valid and binding master plan, not only is there no preservation of the existing, but there is destruction of the existing.
The British Succession
"The Haifa marshes were defined in the mandatory plan by the British as a natural area and sometimes as a nature reserve, but since the British left, their borders have never been clearly defined by the local authority."
Participant Ella Alexandri, who previously served as director of the Haifa Community of the Society for the Protection of Nature:
"When I took office in 2012, we conducted an urban nature survey, which is the basis of the master plan in question. The survey was conducted in collaboration with the Society for the Protection of Nature, the Municipality of Haifa and the Union of Cities for the Protection of the Environment and its directors at the time. The survey clarified what is unique about Huadiot, where there are special areas, the level of rare species, and more. In 2015, the Society for the Protection of Nature and the Administration and Planning Department of the Haifa Municipality applied to the Fund for Open Areas, in order to budget for the master plan for the Haifa wadis. A budget of one million NIS was received for the planning of the master plan, and as part of this, there had to be meetings for the participation of the public and the neighborhoods where the wadis pass through. This is how the plan was launched The father of the Haifa valleys".
Protection of identity and nature
The 'Wadiyot Master Plan' examines the Haifa wadiyot for the first time as a whole and as a unique urban system in the city. According to Nava Saber, environmental ecologist and author of the chapter on the ecological aspect of the 'master plan', the immediate danger to the wadis is that if construction spreads and there are no wadis and habitats for plants and animals, all the biological diversity that Haifa's nature allows will be destroyed.
The planning alternatives
The 'master plan' defined a detailed plan with five stages and goals to be achieved by pre-determined dates over the course of a year. Accordingly, phases A-C, which dealt with the preparation of a survey and analysis of the existing situation, formulation of principles and vision, and formulation of planning alternatives, were completed already in October 2016. In contrast, phases D-F, which were supposed to deal with the selection of a preferred planning alternative and project recommendations derived from the preferred planning concept, including recommendations for the management of huadias, they never existed.
According to the original plan, in June 2016 the planning procedure for the 'master plan' was supposed to be completed, after holding public meetings, choosing the preferred alternative and publishing the final documents to accumulate. At this stage, it was required to bring the 'master plan' to the attention of all planning departments in the municipality and work on its budgeting .
A statement product
Ella Alexandri explains the status of the program:
"Nature will not be preserved if there is no budget section, and the master plan was supposed to regulate that. The challenge is that it is only a declarative product and the plan has no statutory status.
There were two steering committee meetings in the past where 3 alternatives were presented for the uses of the wadi: the wadi as an urban park, the wadi as an urban reserve and the wadi in a neighborhood area. There was a very professional team from a company that specializes in sharing processes and indeed public participation was done in two meetings, but in 2016 the program was stopped and the gathering meetings that were supposed to end with the selection of the appropriate alternative did not continue. In practice, the entire move for which the municipality received a budget of one million NIS was completely canceled in the last term of 2018. Meaning, the plan was not promoted, there are no planning or budgeting processes for the plan.
Urban perception - vision and reality
Sharit Golan, chairman of the Union of Cities, council member and candidate for mayor:
"Today, in the municipality of Haifa, the master plan really has no standing. I look at the Haifa valleys as the backbone of the city and therefore they need to be preserved not only operationally but also in terms of construction.
In my view, an official should be trained to work under the environmental enforcement unit, but to have direct authority vis-a-vis the director general of the municipality, because in the end the environmental impact is on all municipal departments.
We need a plan that relies on the master plan, a plan that will have statutory validity that will allow us later on in a local committee to reject requests or to reduce requests so that a district appeals committee will reverse the decisions, with the understanding that the Haifa neighborhoods are of value to the city itself. For example, in TMA 38, there is section 23 which allows each local authority to consider considerations that are unique to the city, and with all due respect to Adiot Haifa, these are unique considerations. I think that preservation in Haifa is not only the buildings, houses for preservation, but also how we preserve the fabric of urban nature. "
Avihu Han, council member and candidate for mayor:
"Taking care of the issue should be a high priority in any mayor's plan, as a result of this I intend to establish a budgeted and planned municipal administration to deal with wadis in the city of Haifa. In recent years we have experienced dangerous activity of construction overflows into Haifa's wadis.
Spillage of urban construction into the wadis must not be allowed and there must be strict enforcement of the dumping of construction waste into the city's wadis.
In the last 20 years, the mayors of Haifa did not pay attention to the importance of the Haifa wadis and did not invest the necessary resources to change the reality and see the Haifa wadis as one of the most important strategic assets for the city. I intend to change this reality and turn Haifa's valleys into an important strategic asset for the city."
What next?
While the candidates for mayor talk about the right to nature and its preservation, every day areas of ecological value to the environment are destroyed, construction waste is dumped that seeps into the vegetation and blocks water sources, there are illegal construction encroachments into wadis, and in addition, construction plans are approved at the expense of public areas and the urban nature area is shrinking.
In the first stage, the master plan that has already been drawn up must be brought back to the discussion table and the declarative stage must be completed, and those in the next stage must be progressed to budgeting. This is a program that should create a joint commitment of the municipality and the residents in preserving the natural assets that the city has won and show local and national responsibility in preserving them.
All the writers here are hypocrites, I too am against building in unique wadis that are an important natural value, but... there are also branches on which are mandatory construction plans such as the "Slopes of Ramat Eshkol" and of course the "Lincoln Plan" in the municipality of Haifa. The whole issue of planning does not meet any reasonable standard, see decisions The district court in Haifa regarding the Lincoln plan... I repeat again that you residents of Haifa [I don't] live in wadis or in a group of wadis that were built in the past on the slopes of Carmel [what to do 80 percent of the city of Haifa is built on wadis or near them], you bought apartments in the past Without blinking, as long as it's about you, the nature is not so interesting to you, but when it comes to a requested development in the west of the city of Haifa according to advance planning, you "cry crocodile tears", "my whiners" cry and they won't help you, in the suburbs I mentioned are sites designated for construction and worth As such, it is about 8 to 10 million per dunam, and this is what the Haifa municipality will be required to pay if it decides to freeze the planning, even though in practice the municipality does not promote the new neighborhoods in the west of the city for its own reasons...so see you when the tractors arrive to start work.
Hello Emmanuel, thank you for the things you wrote. I was born three days before Tu Beshvat, my parents gave me the name - Ilan, and in some place I see myself as obligated to trees - to trees - and to nature in general. In any case, I have an appetite for destroying nature without any real need. I would be happy to publish an article on the website. Regarding a new mayor Haifa, I am debating on this matter, it is clear to me that the existing leadership must be replaced, even though Ms. Kalish tried to make certain positive moves, amidst a sea of non-interference on her part, and many failures. I know his father Han to some extent, there are many struggles behind him that were important and positive; unfortunately, he did not get involved in preventing the destruction of Wadi Azov, even though I have not let up on the matter in the last six months, among other things, by sending many emails in circulation to all members of the city council, etc. Also my fight to save Nahal Amiram, to save the amazing olive trees and the park that was supposed to be built in the plan The southern entrances B (including opposition to the plan, an administrative petition and an appeal to the Supreme Court, while charging me tens of thousands of NIS - for the benefit of the wronged - the municipality of Haifa, the local committee and the district committee - and the rejection of the petition and the appeal - which today, in light of the changes in the southern entrances plan B (and the main failures are still ahead of us) - they show that it was wrong to reject my claims) did not motivate his father Han to action - in this, unfortunately, I was disappointed, and therefore I find it difficult to support him. I did not find a significant factor working to save nature who proposed his candidacy for mayor of Haifa and it seems that it will be necessary to roll up our sleeves and make a great effort in the coming years, together with any mayor who chooses, in order to achieve development and promotion of the city, at the same time as preserving and restoring nature.
Thank you very much Ilan, for your work you are indeed fulfilling the prophecy on your behalf, I was really disappointed to hear that although you tried repeatedly to motivate his father to action the attempts were unsuccessful, does his father know something that he is not revealing about the issue? I would be happy to hear Avihu Hahn's comment on this specific issue, in my opinion, a firm preservation of the identity should be an integral part of the Green platform.
Also regarding the plan of the southern entrances B - in the area of the plan there was an olive vineyard, some of which are ancient and have a very large diameter. The condition of the olive trees was excellent since they were nourished by quality soil and good water flow from the Carmel ridge. The plan for the southern entrances determined that one of them was to be cut down and all the other 169 olive trees were to be moved - there is not a single olive tree that was meant to be kept in its place, and really why keep the olive vineyard when it is possible to remove it from the place and even bring in, as is suspected, good money from the sale of the trees. There are, of course, other serious problems included in the second southern corridors plan - the main one is harming the quality of life - but who cares about the quality of life???
Ilan, it is very interesting to read and listen to your words, it seems that the topic of nature conservation is close to your heart and you spend a lot of time studying the topics in depth, would you agree to publish articles on these topics on the website? I would also like to read whether, in your opinion, there is a candidate for mayor that the issues you mentioned are of interest to him/her, perhaps Avihu Han? Thank you
In the last six months, the Haifa municipality began infrastructure works for the Naut Peres B neighborhood - without building permits and without paving permits, contrary to the plan that started on the spot, which requires the issuing of paving permits; The plan for the southern entrances B is another colossal failure of the planning authorities and the municipality of Haifa - in contrast to the 2000 plan that states that a district / urban park with an area of 100 dunams or more will be built there and in fact its power was to save the Nahal Amiram which is supposed to run through the center of the park - instead - a concrete and asphalt slab - Nahal Amiram, as well as Nahal Ahuza and Nahal Ovadia, also within the scope of the plan, will be fed into an expensive concrete pipeline that will pass under the roads and the water will flow according to the route of the roads above them, sometimes they will turn right and at the traffic light they will turn left and will continue to obey the change of nature until there is a serious rainstorm and then they will know The roads obey the flow of water and the flow of water will not obey the magnificent and strange design. So the roads are expected to collapse. By the way, the city park was eliminated and will not be established.
In the aforementioned Wadi Azov section, many trees were cut down and uprooted, including trees marked for conservation - all the result of the actions of the Haifa Municipality to be proud of.
The issue of identity is dealt with by all members of the Haifa City Council as they see fit to do. In general, this includes Attorney Sharit Golan Shteinberg, the mayor of Kalish and many other good people. In the last six months, a section of the Wadi Azov outlet, east of the Kastra mall, has been eliminated without any need, without building permits and without paving permits and in complete contrast to the 2185A plan which in terms of legislation states that it must be preserved This wadi section and not to destroy it - and this matter is of no interest to anyone except the writer of these lines, certainly not all the wadi 'seekers' who advertise themselves for the elections.
Nahal Azov is not found east of Kastra. Are you referring to the development carried out below Freud and above the first award?
The damage done by Klish and Yahav will be difficult to repair.
20 years of approving old destructive plans from the Mandate period aimed at destroying the western Uadis.
And unnecessary roadology that will only increase the traffic jams in Carmel.
There is no future for Haifa, destroying all its advantages - beaches, wadis, spacious construction, avenues of trees and a quiet environment - the contractors and developers are bribing the municipality, raping the planning offices in the city
A disaster unfolds.
Fascinating article! It's time before the elections, an important time to shine a light before all the parties, together with volunteers, active citizens and everyone who cares. We will preserve our identity and special nature!
Thank you Einval
In the meantime, more and more of this beautiful mountain is being gnawed away by increased construction and the destruction of many trees and natural assets for the benefit of entrepreneurs and contractors who in their eyes, natural assets are worth another step on the road to wealth
Dear Inbal!
Unfortunately, in Wadi at the foot of Margalit St. in the estate.
Suffering from sick pine trees, which are prone to burn in the heat waves in the summer. I contacted the municipality to the department of existing gardens and the environment.
The answer I received was that the municipality has no authority to take care of the natural area. From their correspondence I also received the documents showing how large parts of Huadi have already been sold to entrepreneurs because the lease period of the Haifa municipality has ended!
Before the elections, you can act!!!!
You will have many supporters.
Hadassah Gutman Margalit 50a Haifa
It's time to give our voice to Sharit Golan, who comes with the Ajanga that is most correct for our city in the field of urban renewal while preserving the green lungs, nurturing and developing them. The unit that not only talks, but simply does and works tirelessly for us. God
The municipality actually handles the issue of the wadis...
Petah Wadi Amik was sold to a developer who is trying to approve the Nitsanim complex there.
The end of Derech Hayam was sold to another developer, one of the donors to Yona Yahav, who wants to build on the site.
Soon there will be no wadis left. The municipality takes care of itself.
I haven't heard of any petitions from the loud council members.
Well done for the fascinating article. Bottom line, dream it here. Such a beautiful gift that was given to the city of Haifa, the open and private areas, are turned into just another real estate potential by a failed leadership. The time has come for a mayor to make the big move and lead the process from start to finish, until the law is passed.