(haipo) - Residents of the Bat Galim neighborhood in Haifa are protesting against turning the casino building, "the symbol of the neighborhood", into another hotel, on the waterfront, while significantly expanding the building towards the northeast (toward the urban beach). The additional building is planned to be erected on the area where the municipal pool used to be. The residents have established a struggle headquarters in which environmental activists and neighborhood residents are partners and intend to fight for the future of the program, which, according to them, will have a significant impact on the future of the neighborhood.
Diagram from the plan submitted for review by the Haifa Municipality
In recent days there was a demonstration of residents in Bat Galim against the new plan, to convert the purpose of the abandoned casino building into a hotel. A resident of the neighborhood tells Lahi Pa:
Bat Galim is a hundred-year-old neighborhood, and among its early buildings is the casino, built in the 1930s. Despite its name, it was never used as a casino but as a party and event hall. Many Haifa residents learned to swim in the nearby Olympic pool, or celebrated their joys in the casino hall. The residents of the neighborhood remember the casino in all its glory, some talk about the glass floor through which the sea waves were visible, others about the dance floor or about international artists such as Josephine Baker who performed there. There are also those who tell about the Haganah men who seduced British officers and extracted secrets from them while they came to hang out at the casino.
The plan that caused the storm
On Monday, June 17, 2024, a call was issued for a meeting of the sub-committee for the local committee to be held next week, on Monday, June 24, 2024. This committee will meet with the Haifa city engineer, with the aim of changing the land designation of the complex from a site for public buildings and institutions to a tourist site , and this is for the purpose of "regulating the construction of the existing casino building and turning it into a hotel, while developing an urban facade and a pedestrian route through the complex."
The developer proposes a plan to build a hotel with 110 rooms, part of it on the area north of the casino, in the place where the Olympic pool used to be. According to the plan submitted for discussion, a small pool will also be built in the complex for the use of hotel guests only and not for the residents of the neighborhood, as well as another building, five stories high (an elevated lobby and three stories above it) in front of the sea, exactly where the legislation prohibits the construction of buildings at all (the Committee for the Protection of the Coastal Environment – "and to the beach").
The residents are divided between those young people who have arrived in the community maritime neighborhood in recent years, and veteran apartment owners who are waiting for a "knight" to rescue them from the neglect and misery in which the neighborhood has served for many years, including the casino as a symbol of neglect.
The casino building is an unusual structure. It was built almost 100 years ago on the sea level, and has been empty for decades. Today, this is no longer the original building made of stone, but a concrete casting in its likeness.
This is not the first time that residents are up in arms about plans regarding the casino. Last time, several years ago, Gil Dankner tried to get permission to build an additional floor on top of the casino building. The opposition of his father Han and the "Greens of Haifa" faction dissuaded him from the plan.
Hotel infrastructure - the meaning
In the last ten years, a large number of hotels have been established and will be established in Bat Galim. A hotel with dozens of rooms is an institution that requires water, sewage and parking infrastructure (also for employees), which turns out to be the weak link of the Bat Galim neighborhood.
The roads to reach the casino building are not suitable for bus traffic. The neighborhood roads are narrow, and the beautiful boulevard leading to the casino consists of an island of grass on which two rows of decades-old palm trees are planted. The roads on the sides of the boulevard are too narrow to accommodate large vehicles.
Parking congestion is one of the discussed problems in the neighborhood:
People from the neighborhood, from the Carmel and from all over the country come to the beaches of Bat Galim. The many construction projects taking place in the neighborhood today bring in families with a lot of purchasing power, who sometimes own more than one vehicle. There are already many parking offenders blocking sidewalks and roads. How can the problem be solved? Some residents fear that this will not be discussed in the committee.
"The area surrounding the casino can have many uses. It is one of the most valuable resources in the State of Israel":
Residents of the Bat Galim neighborhood who are opposed to the plan say it word of mouth: the neighborhood's beautiful and abundant beach strip is a unique asset. There are attempts to designate the beach south of the casino as a marine reserve. It is a rare beach in its marine treasures, as well as in the wind regime that enables international competitions of sailing and water sports. Twice in the past entrepreneurs tried to build an anchorage there, which would have destroyed all this natural beauty. The struggles of the residents of the Bat Galim neighborhood prevented this.
Marco Rodis, a resident of the neighborhood, for the past five years - chairman of the "Bar Galim" cooperative association, and a musician who performs on the boardwalk at sunset:
I wish that we would keep this neighborhood as charming as it is: we, the residents of Bat Galim, are shocked by this dramatic plan, not only because of its size and location, but also because of its planning, which is subject to a wide and varied interpretation, which will allow the takeover of roads on the boulevard, burdening the water and sewer infrastructures Not for the needs of the residents, creating a traffic route that will make noise throughout the day, and will not take into account the current route of the neighborhood.
We residents of Bat Galim are in awe of the current plan and the dizzying pace at which it is receiving the support of the municipality in the Yona Yahav Authority. We would like to demand our legal right to object to the construction of a high-rise hotel on the most central historical point in the neighborhood.
An outline plan for the neighborhood is required
No less than seven other grandiose construction projects are planned in the neighborhood: the evacuation of the Navy Yard, the doubling of the Bat Galim Medical Campus, the doubling of the Rambam Hospital, three construction projects in the housing estates on Aliyah Second Street and the Navy Complex, and the renewal of the sea level at the nearest port. The number of residents in the neighborhood is expected to increase fourfold.
In light of this, the residents request that there be a projector for the neighborhood, one that will have the overall view of all the entrepreneurial proposals that are emerging in the mornings, and that an outline plan for the neighborhood be drawn up.
The residents' demand is that there be a transparent procedure for the general public, a discussion with the relevant public bodies and public participation. Many of them see the upcoming debate as "abductor".
What do the residents want?
Here are a number of alternatives raised at the headquarters of the residents' struggle:
- Demolish the building and develop the area for the benefit of the public.
- Develop the place for public needs such as a faculty or community center.
- Develop boutique hotels and restaurants within the boundaries of the existing building.
- Olympic public pool as before.
Following the growth of its population, the neighborhood needs, according to the residents, a mini-mall with diverse shopping options such as food, clothing and luxury goods. In addition, there is a need for a community center or an educational institution to meet the needs of the local community.
Aviv Nesher, a tenant in Bat Galim and part of the resistance team to the construction of the hotel:
The young people and renters in Bat Galim are in favor of the renewal, and welcome the initiatives that are taking place in the neighborhood. However, it should be remembered that the momentum should operate within the community and ecological context unique to the neighborhood. The amount of projects that are going to be built here in the coming years are causing gentrification and an outrageous price increase that is unmatched anywhere in the city of Haifa. The young families who came to live here were looking for an active community where people know each other. This is a neighborhood that will turn from a community into an alienated luxury neighborhood. Maybe the value of the apartments will increase, but the apartment owners will be left with apartments in skyscrapers in a neighborhood that has lost its charm
In conclusion
Most residents of Bat Galim, including the writer of these lines, welcome urban renewal. One that will allow community life in this special neighborhood. There is no objection to innovation and investments. It is necessary to determine with the public what the appropriate investments will be for the character of the neighborhood, thinking that will include a vision for the future of the neighborhood.
In short, a pool would be the best
restaurants and shops
What is your problem?
Let me get excited and see this place rebuilt. This hotel can be great. As a Haifaite for over 45 years, my parents got married in the casino. Why not renew it into a new hall. My whole family grew up in Bat Galim and we spent a lot of time in the Olympic pool. Why not restore Atara to its former glory? .
It's time to build a boutique hotel with a beach
with beautiful public spaces and bike paths.
Stop resisting and protesting
It's for the good of the neighborhood
And for all the fanatics, the Bat Galim neighborhood is a luxury neighborhood like Herzliya Pituach.
The opponents are those who live in rent and do not want to leave Bat Galim due to rising prices
I want to continue to see the beautiful gray building submerged in the sea and the sea waves crashing on it, also the graffiti that sometimes renews a painting or writing I want, even the rusted fence from sea corrosion I want to continue to see.
I want the nicest boardwalk in Israel, in its modesty and with piles of sand that it covers after a storm, which is easy and so convenient to reach from every corner of Bat Galim.
In short, leave the "casino" to me as I know it.
Let me continue to recreate it and its appearance
In the days, at that time, when I was invited to a Bar Mitzvah celebration in one of its halls.
The developer wants an event hall there in the new giant wing. Any event of up to 300 people will lead to huge traffic jams that will clog the entire area, exactly what happens in the parking lot near Dan Carmel when there is a conference in Dan Carmel. I can already imagine an event at night when the residents of Bat Galim cannot enter at all because the police blocked the entire entrance to the neighborhood because some ministers came to some Bat Mitzvah.
It will be very bad
Do you live in an opposing rental? I did not see that any of the opponents were residents of Bat Galim. And which beach exactly is stolen from the public. I have been in Bat Galim since I was 3 years old. It has been 53 years since I had the privilege of swimming in the Barakah. And since then until now it's a disgusting public variable a long time ago, a better hotel should have been built in the area, a barcha was built as well as a marina
A huge pool of sea water is the solution
What is this outrageous and chauvinistic response?
The best solution is to find another solution for the entrepreneurs (perhaps building rights for the entrepreneurs in another place instead of this place) and then the ideal solution: the demolition of the building.
Continuity of boardwalk and benches for the benefit of all visitors and not just for the rich and impudent like you.
There is no precedent for an entrepreneur who receives from his close friend the mayor a gift worth tens of millions of shekels - turning a lot designated as a public building into a private lot for hotels and an event hall.
A hotel is not a public building. A hotel is a type of accommodation for tourist use. Let's not get confused.
The developer declares that the area around the hotel will be open to the public. Many declare and then quietly insert an amendment to the program
which allows them to fence off the area for security purposes and leave some two benches on a side road. ask you
The Jerusalem local committee that knows all the tricks of hotel entrepreneurs.
There are no hotels on the water line in Tel Aviv. A developer tried to build a hotel 200 meters from the sea on a beach area and the Bat Yam municipality rolled him down all the stairs and the plan was rejected. Why is it that here in Haifa they don't rule out a plan that wants to build another huge wing 20 meters high, 50 meters wide that will block a beach area that used to be a public pool? How is this space added to the building?
The casino - this is a beach area adjacent to a breakwater. Why is new construction approved? By what right? What does the Committee for the Protection of the Coastal Environment and the Foreign Ministry have to say on the matter? Why should the area not be given as an extension of the bathing beach in the city anyway?
They robbed her of most of the bathing beach areas for the port, military port, infrastructure, bases and container terminals?!
and on top of everything -
Why can the municipalities of Bat Yam and Tel Aviv carry out land exchanges and cancel plans in the area of their coastal strip and firmly refuse to approve construction within an area 300 meters from the sea even in a built-up area, while the Haifa municipality abandons its role and duty to keep the coastal environment open as much as possible to the general public and without construction??
Tell me are you normal??????!!!!!!!!!
For decades this ugly grotesque thing that serves as a home for drug addicts sits there and destroys the entire beach!!!!!!!!
Until someone comes and is ready to invest millions in turning this thing into a beautiful hotel and a tourist center that will bring in money from tourists and girls in bikinis from Germany, are you opposed ????
The beach is a public resource, of all the residents of the country and it is a resource in short supply. The building is not a building for preservation and it is possible to destroy it and return the beach to the original owner - the citizens
The original building was filled - here we are talking about the construction of a new building 20 meters high, 50 meters wide, with its entire lower floor actually intended to be used as a huge event hall. Robbery of beach area - sand!!! From the public, an area that was designated as a public area, which was a public pool, is handed over to a private developer and allowed to build a huge walled wing there, 6 stories high, 20 meters high, 50 meters long in front of the neighborhood and blocking the sea and the beach from the promenade.
What is going on in this crazy town hall?!
How deep is the corruption in the planning commissions?!
A kidnapper who will rob the residents of what little beach is left. Stop selling Haifa's treasures to the highest bidder
Bat Galim residents are pathetic, AI can write their responses…
"...the neighborhood needs, according to the residents, a mini-mall with diverse shopping options such as food, clothing and luxury products"?!?
So buy the building from Dankner and set up this mall with the luxury goods
We don't want more construction on the waterfront
Thanks
Little by little the neighborhood starts to deteriorate.
Instead of its advantage in the local and friendly city, they brought a restaurant that attracts hundreds of cars from the countryside and the cities of the Galilee and causes a parking crisis not to mention noise, as if there is a lack of restaurants in Haifa and the lower city.
Now you want a hotel that will close the complex only to the rich partygoers and hotel workers? As if there aren't enough empty hotels in the Carmel Beach Towers and Carmel.
In other places, this is how processes of robbing the beach and land from the residents begin in the washed-up name of urban renewal.
I wonder what Mr. Han, who opposed with the Greens all these years the taking of nature and beach from the residents, will say now that he is in an official position with a salary in the municipality?
It's so scary to go near there in the evening
More houses are being built, more floors, more cars, so we need more parking lots and not in blue and white. And secondly, why not expand Bat Galim's beach towards the casino.
money money money follow money
It's a shame that the residents there are against it. It's a real shame. You have to listen to the residents how to help them. And on the other hand, I do remember the place to develop this neighborhood. As a place very close to me fifty-three years ago, I got married there. How then was everything fine with all the parking and everyone who came to the wedding and the hall. I believe that he will open the ban and how to help them in everything. If they don't let the place be developed, I think they will miss out on the development of their neighborhood. The city is surveyed for internal tourism hotels and with a lovely view from abroad, what a shame.
Are you really comparing the amount of vehicles 50 years ago and today?