After many years of talk and drawing up plans, the Central District Planning and Building Commission has approved for deposit a large-scale urban renewal plan in the Tekuma neighborhoods in Kfar Saba. The plan proposes demolishing 294 old apartments and building 1,100 new housing units in their place. The plan was approved by the full local Kfar Saba Planning and Building Commission and taken by the Kfar Saba municipality engineering department to government ministries.
The Tekuma neighborhood was built in the 1960s to house Holocaust survivors. Most of the buildings in the neighborhood are long 3-4 storey apartment buildings with many entrances.
Under the plan, 15 new 10-27 storey residential buildings will be constructed in place of the existing 294 apartments. The plan also proposes allocating space for public institutions, open public space, and 2,000 sq.m. of commercial space along Weitzman St., Kfar Saba's main artery. Also included in the plan is an underground parking lot with 150 parking spaces.
Commenting to "Globes on the urban renewal plans that had been proposed over years, Lihi Beckerman, an owner of a apartment in the neighborhood, said, "They've been talking about this project for 30 years already. They started again in the past eight years, and only recently did it appear that things were finally starting to move. Many things have delayed this project, but the time has come to demolish these buildings. They are disintegrating, there are cracks, and when you knock the wall, sand and seashells come loose. These buildings should have been knocked down 20 years ago. We have constant problems with infrastructure and sewage. I have small children, and I hope that by the time they get married, we'll see this project really carried out."
After decades, the plan reached the District Planning and Building Commission, which decided in favor of depositing it. At the same time, the plan must still pass the objections stage, and it will take another few years after that before the old buildings are demolished and the new ones built in their place.
Following the plan's approval, Kfar Saba Mayor Yehuda Ben-Hamo said, "I'm been familiar with this neighborhood since I was a boy. It's old and crowded, with only a small commercial space, and given the unsteady state of the buildings, we decided to go ahead with an urban renewal process. This is our biggest urban renewal site to date, as part of our policy of renewing the city and dealing with other neighborhoods, such as Eli Cohen, Yoseftal, Kisufim, and Aliya."
One urban renewal plan, by the Matzlawi Construction Company, has already been carried out in Kfar Saba in 2008, when five old residential buildings on the corner of Six-Day St. and Gordon St. in the city center were demolished. Construction in this project, in which 40 apartments were demolished and 120 new ones built, has already been completed, and it was occupied by tenants several years ago.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 6, 2016
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