The National Committee for Planning Priority Housing Areas approved today the plan for the site of the Sirkin IDF camp in Petah Tikva. The plan, which applies to 2,000 dunam (500 acres), provides for 8,500 housing units and 270,000 square meters of commercial and business space. Architect Ari Cohen designed the plan.
The transportation projects that will be promoted in order to carry out this plan include a number of solutions, some of them in the very long term. Among other things, a road is to be built connecting the residential site and eastern Petah Tikva to Road 471 via the Amishav Interchange. A link is also planned between the residential site and the new railway station to be constructed in Elad. Also in the pipeline are expansion of the light railway Purple Line, upgrading of the Amishav Interchange, construction of two metro stations on the site and other measures.
It was also agreed that Road 40 east of the new neighborhood would become a local road, and would be replaced by a new national road as part of the transportation solutions. The road bypassing Road 40 will be lowered and a large municipal park built above it with sports facilities and an amphitheater.
Many residents in the area have been objecting to the plan for a long time because of the large scale of additional construction and concern about additional traffic in an area already suffering from transportation congestion. Following the decision by the National Committee for Planning Priority Housing Areas, organization for reasonable planning chairperson Moshe Fisher told "Globes," "We see that even when reasonable and balanced complaints and objections are submitted, the National Committee for Planning Priority Housing Areas still works like a robot. It does not examine things in depth. The investigator serves as a rubber stamp for the committee's instructions from above."
Israel Union for Environmental Defense economy natural resources & environment department director Adv. Leehee Goldenberg responded to the decision by saying, "We are glad that the National Committee for Planning Priority Housing Areas decided to strike out the power stations that were planned on the area of the Sirkin plan. We discovered that natural gas power stations were to have been constructed. They may be small, but they cause substantial pollution. Not even an aggregate test was conducted at Sirkin, although these stations were to have been located 50 meters from the homes in the neighborhood. From our perspective, the National Committee for Planning Priority Housing Areas' decision not to accept a polluting energy facility was correct."
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on November 13, 2019
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