The Tel Aviv Regional Planning and Building Board yesterday approved the city's northwest plan, one of the largest plans submitted to the board in recent years.
Plan 3700 covers 1,874 dunam (468.5 acres), bordered by Herzliya on the north, Ramat Hasharon on the east, Tel Aviv's Chen neighborhood on the south and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. The plan calls for a new seaside neighborhood in north Tel Aviv on a site that has been marginal for years.
The plan calls for 10,500 housing units with an average size of 120 sq.m., and a 250,000-sq.m. commercial and business district. The plan includes 712 dunam (178 acres) of built-up space and 534 dunam (133.5 acres) of public space, including a 400-dunam (100-acre) beach park.
The Tel Aviv municipality engineering administration decided to promote a revised plan for the area three years ago. Kolker, Kolker, Epstein Architects prepared the plan. The land is owned by the Israel Land Administration (ILA), Tel Aviv municipality, and private parties. The area is part of the largest undeveloped land area in the city, amounting to almost 3,000 dunam (750 acres) along a 5-km strip.
The aggregate value of the various projects in the plan is estimated at several billion shekels. Some projects, including Sun and Sand, the Neeman towers, Chen areas, Country Club, and the Colony Hotel (formerly the Mandarin), are already included in the new Urban Building Plan (UBP).
The Regional Planning and Building Board also approved the Dolphinarium plan, a 30-dunam (7.5-acre) beachfront site in the south of the city. The plan calls for demolishing the Dolphinarium and building a public park that will extend the boardwalk between Tel Aviv and Jaffa. The plan hinges on the Dolphinarium's tenants vacating and demolishing the building at their own expense.
The area to be vacated and demolished covers 18 dunam (4.5 acres). The Dolphinarium includes 4,700 sq.m. of restaurants, clubs, events halls and other businesses. Under the plan, the memorial to the victims of the Dolphinarium bombing in 2001 will not be touched.
Sha'ar Leyisrael, the Tel Aviv municipality and developer Yosef Buchman own the land. Buchman will be offered an alternative 12-dunam (3-acre) site, zoned for the construction of a mixed residential-hotel-commercial project east of Koifman St., Tel Aviv. The project includes a 230-aprartment high-rise and a 400-room hotel, which will be built outside the 100-meter beachfront zone, as required under National Outline Plan 13.
Published by Globes [online] - www.globes.co.il - on July 20, 2004