(haipo) - On Thursday, 05/09/2024, in the afternoon, the Haifa Municipality held a public participation meeting regarding the construction plan on the Lincoln and Tel Aharon slopes. The meeting was led by the deputy mayor and chairman of the sub-committee for planning and construction, attorney Sharit Golan-Steiberg, in preparation for the discussion that will take place soon in the district planning and construction committee. The meeting was held with the participation of the professional staff of the Haifa Municipality's Engineering Director.
Construction on the western ridge of Haifa
Since 2011, the plan to build about 2,800 units, under Harofeh Street and up to the southern entrance to the Carmel tunnels, has been undergoing changes. At the same time as the planning changes, the plan has also been discussed several times in the courts, when landowners sued the Haifa municipality, claiming that the plan is excessively delayed. The court demanded from the municipality to commit to timetables for the promotion of the program, and now the municipality is making an effort to comply with the court's directive.
Not at any cost
Residents living near the neighborhood, which is to be built, held a preliminary meeting with the municipality where they detailed their objections. The residents have specific claims regarding the planning and drainage of the neighborhood, and in addition another claim was raised, that the municipality is not obliged at all costs to establish the neighborhood. The argument is that it is not possible to compel a municipality to establish a neighborhood, which the planners believe will harm the city. Opponents claim that there are examples of municipalities that managed to deal with similar plans, which they did not see.
Golan Steinberg explained that the municipality opened the plan documents to the public, at an early stage and things are very preliminary:
"We are not yet at the objections stage, but at the disclosure stage. We have opened an email address for comments. You are welcome to send us comments to our email, and we will consider every comment."
Architect Tagit Kalimor: We did the best under the existing conditions
At the beginning of the meeting, the planner of the plan, the architect Tagit Kalimor, explained the plan to the residents, who came to the meeting:
"The neighborhood is very proportionate, it consists of buildings that are not tall and we will force the future planners to maintain this. On the main street of the neighborhood the slope is moderate compared to the rest of the neighborhood. We protect green areas in the plan.
The plan is divided into two parts: under Harofeh Street and on the slopes of Freud. In the slopes of Lincoln, 2,534 housing units are planned, at a lower density.
This plan was already approved during the British Mandate period, and the area has been designated for construction for decades. The original design had narrow roads and many small housing units, as well as a previous design by the Tzmir Architects office.
The current plan includes 2,500 housing units in Lincoln Slopes and another 300 housing units in Freud Slopes. Following the great fire of 2016, there is now more awareness of the issue, and the program also addresses scenarios such as fire.
The new neighborhood will have three exits: one exit to Harofeh Street and two connections to Freud Road. The neighborhood is characterized by topographical complexity with unusual slopes of 25% and 65%. The subject of the damage to the stream channels, the drainage and the green areas particularly bothered me, but we managed to significantly reduce from one passage, and Nahal Azov remained outside the scope of the plan. Efforts were also made to avoid another interchange on Freud Road.
Kalimor also referred to the design of the houses:
"Every building in the neighborhood is designed to be graded, and the main street has almost no slopes. I believe in the need to reduce asphalt buildings and roads, and I apply this approach to neighborhood planning as well.
The buildings in the neighborhood will be surrounded by courtyards, and the streets will be connected by stairs, which characterizes Haifa's DNA. The buildings will be built with a column floor and three residential floors above. The streets in the plan are planned to be narrow, without freeways, and green areas will be very noticeable in the neighborhood. The plan also includes tiered buildings with a height of 8 floors, but due to the topographic slopes their height will not be noticeable. Lower buildings could have been chosen, but this would have reduced the presence of the green areas.
The main street, which is the widest, will be 18 meters wide. At the request of the municipality, we checked the view from every house on Harofeh Street, adjacent to the new neighborhood, and came to the conclusion that it is necessary to lower two floors of the new construction in order to preserve the view for the residents of Harofeh Street, and we are considering this recommendation."
What will happen to the traffic congestion?
The residents are bothered by many issues, one of which is the issue of transportation. One of the residents said that already today there is heavy traffic in the streets near the Carmel Medical Center up to Harofeh Street. He asked how the addition of thousands of vehicles from the new neighborhood would affect the traffic on Harofeh and Smolenskin streets.
Golan Steinberg replied that Mayor Yona Yahav requested that an inspection be made regarding all traffic on the streets between Carmel Hospital and Horev. In addition, it was explained to the residents that there will be cars from the new neighborhood that will drive towards Horev, but there will also be cars that today want to reach Matam and go up to Horev, and those cars will reduce the traffic jams that exist today, since they will be able to go directly down. Regarding the number of vehicles in each direction, The matter is now under investigation.
Will we pay for the establishment of the neighborhood?
One of the residents asked whether the residents of Haifa might be forced to pay from their property taxes for the development of the neighborhood, especially due to the high costs resulting from the slopes in the area.
The city engineer, Ariel Waterman, clarified that the plan is limited when it comes to roads, and canceling one of the interchanges saved 150 million NIS. The development levies to be paid by the developers will finance the development of the neighborhood, and the municipality is also looking for external financing, to check how government offices can help finance the construction of the neighborhood.
Golan Steinberg added that the property tax of the residents is intended for specific purposes and cannot be used for investment in the development of the neighborhood.
Attorney Keren Goldschmidt: "We need to understand that there is a public that owns property in the unbuilt areas"
Property owners in areas designated for construction
Attorney Keren Goldschmidt, Deputy to the Haifa Municipality Ombudsman for Planning and Construction and Administrative Law, explained to the residents the legal status of the program:
"There are property owners in the unbuilt areas in the area, and development there was stopped several years ago. The municipality is now promoting its construction reserves, when construction plans in this area were already approved during the mandate period. The land was frozen because the need arose to update the planning. Urban planning is a dynamic thing, and therefore It is necessary to make adjustments over time.
There is a national interest in developing residential neighborhoods, and it is about the realization of approved construction areas. Over the years there were many processes, including a plan that reached the deposit but it was decided to shelve it. Also, there are legal proceedings from recent years that require the municipality to move forward with the plan."
Urban nature conservation
The next question dealt with preserving the trees and animals in the areas where the neighborhood will be built. Golan Steinberg explained that a survey is currently being conducted to check the number of trees, and an effort will be made to reduce the damage to them as much as possible.
The trees that cannot remain in place will be copied and replanted in suitable places. Regarding the animals, an environmental prospectus will be carried out to assess the impact on the ecosystem. As the discussion continued, residents asked to return and focus on the plan itself, for which the meeting was held.
Golan Steinberg explained that a local authority cannot avoid developing land that has already been approved for construction, and in addition to that, there is a set schedule for handling the plan. She added that if 66% of the landowners unite, they can submit their own plan, and the district committee will be the one to decide on the issue.
Those interested in seeing what the municipality's promises for preservation are worth, should come see the construction monsters on Harofeh, Smolenskin and Whitkin streets. All the construction does not make sense, and exceeds what is allowed in such an area, regardless of the matter. It will be the same on the slopes of Lincoln. Don't have any doubt.
The response of a loyal reader is important and correct
On the other hand, they say that planning is a dynamic thing that needs to be adapted to the city's wishes and property rights. Municipalities know how to deal with outdated plan updates including "from the mandate" which is also a lie because they greatly expanded what they defined in the British mandate to continue part of the hill of an estate and it is not similar to the huge neighborhood that is currently being brought here.
The second thing is to understand that there are no transportation solutions, and it's not just that they didn't know how to give any answers because there are no answers to give. The thought of Sarit Golan Steinberg is fundamentally wrong. She says that the road that will pass through the neighborhood will reduce the increase in destruction and the traffic jams. This has already been proven wrong. With electric vehicles, the amount of travel on the roads is increasing and increasing and neighborhoods where all the apartments will have to be based on a private vehicle not only will not reduce loads, but loads will also increase significantly in the direction of Horev, also on the existing Azoza streets (which are already having difficulty with the existing loads, such as Harofeh Street which is very narrow at the top) , even two large vehicles at the same time have difficulty passing together). But also the new street that will be created to Freud will be congested all year round with residents of other neighborhoods who will use it as an alternative to Freud's traffic jams, for example MTA workers who live in an estate or a neighborhood that will simply try to go through the same neighborhood every afternoon knowing that Freud will be congested. The addition of thousands of vehicles in the neighborhood itself means huge traffic jams along its entire length just like what happens on the sea road. In fact, it is a model of the sea route, except that public transportation passes there and in this neighborhood, in the planning you presented, it is also impossible to produce bus lines that will serve it, the topography is shocking.
The last point is the outdated thought about "low housing and not towers" presented by the architect
That is to say, further sleepy neighborhoods with staggered construction that does not produce urban streets and does not produce efficient utilization of flat areas and simply spreads the construction wastefully on as many wadi natural areas as possible. This is actually the failure of Givat Zemer in the 2nd edition.
In the southern part, rights could be concentrated in a 30-story building that does not interfere and also becomes part of the view, just like the Carmel Castle did. 30 story buildings with a street that combines shopping centers and gardens below them. Why in Carmel Castle is the model and in Haifa the model is 15 floors. Can any of you give a reasonable explanation? After all, if they had taken advantage of the plane reward
It was possible to exchange territories with a very large part of the rights in this problematic topographical area. The municipality should strongly oppose the continuation of neighborhoods with retaining walls of 20-3 meters - we have seen what happened with bricklayers to such a retaining wall or at a hint level when such new walls collapsed. It's not "topographic recession" it's "living next to huge walls".
The whole program without the accompaniment of transport consultants, without public transport. It's nice that they removed an excellent interchange, it will create a closed neighborhood like Ramat Eshkol, only worse, one that is closed and congested with one route through it. You create the future hazards with your own hands. Surrendering to the landowners among us, everyone knows that the main one is the Ofer family - not exactly poor and not exactly going to live on these lands.
The rattling method will also produce a planning rattling that will damage the entire neighborhood above it in a very severe way.
If the Haifa municipality does not have transportation surveys and information about what will be done in the ridge neighborhoods as a result of Tama 38, a petition should be submitted by the neighborhood committees against the municipality for a complete stop of Tama 38 until full transportation reviews are received on what is currently happening before approving more and more hundreds of additional apartments with thousands of additional vehicles.
Thank you for the wise and eye-opening response.
A stupid and destructive plan that will be lamented for generations.
Yahav will be known to Diraon Olam as the destroyer of the city of Haifa.
Dear Kalymor Architect,
Due to your age and your extensive professional experience, you have not yet learned that a complex and problematic project of this kind also requires a construction engineer of an adequate level - France for the planning team a construction engineer who specialized in railway works and not in mountain construction.
Your project in the slopes of Lincoln is not applicable - neither planning nor performance!!
They are waving at the residential zoning from the British Mandate period - has anyone from the planning team thoroughly read the IBA from that period?!
Did the project's planning team and the professional team of the city engineer delve into similar claims near other wadis throughout Carmel about their limitations?!
The project is explained to the public by municipal lawyers who lack any formal education and minimal understanding in the field of construction engineering.
Where did the constructor and the land consultant go who are required by law to be part of the building planning team?!
We can only hope that at the stage of publication of objections by the district committee, this whole project will be smashed to pieces with a great noise and buried in a grave.
A dream in its entirety.
Destructive plans for the green lung, for the residents of Harofeh and for all of Haifa. The criminal Haifa municipality!! Making money will make us all run away from here. A failing city that is being destroyed by stupid plans. It is clear that all the residents of Harofeh will flee.
An apologetic discussion from beginning to end. Oh... and there's no choice... and we did a little damage here and there... that's not how you plan a city. Bad plan.
It was an orderly and to-the-point discussion
It will take some time before it is submitted to the committee