"Today, we are building another Akko - doubling the town's size with 17,000 housing units. This roof agreement will bring young people into the city and push it ahead. The entire government is here in order to help push the town ahead. Akko is going in the right direction," Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon said yesterday at a ceremony for signing a roof agreement in Akko between the local authority, the Ministries of Finance and Construction and Housing, and the Israel Land Authority (ILA).
Present at the ceremony were Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Construction and Housing Yoav Galant, Ministry of Finance Housing Committee chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki, ILA director Adiel Shimron, and Akko Mayor Shimon Lankri.
Under the agreement, plans will be promoted and land marketed for construction of 16,200 housing units in Akko in 2017-2021, in addition to 1,500 housing units in tenders are currently being marketed in the Tzafon Hakerem neighborhood.
Under the roof agreement, in order to supply the thousands of new housing units, 121 new kindergarten classrooms, 538 school classrooms, 52 special education classrooms, 12 daycare centers, eight synagogues and three mikvaot (ritual baths), three community centers, three libraries, and seven sports centers and playing fields will be built. The plans also include commercial space. The planned extent of the agreement is NIS 3 billion.
Under the roof agreement, the government is undertaking to provide preliminary funding for infrastructure development, as well as public institutions, marketing of lots in the new neighborhoods, and removing the existing planning barriers, such as construction of sewage purification facilities and traffic interchanges. At the same time, the local authority is undertaking to issue building permits within three months.
Speaking at the event, Galant said, "The housing units and additional commercial space to be built under the roof agreement signed in Akko will substantially reinforce the town and the northern area and entire western Galilee. "We have to ensure that the towns and communities in the outlying areas prosper and grow for long-term security and strategic reasons."
Lankri said at the ceremony, "The momentum of construction in Akko is part of the municipal renewal we have been focusing on in recent years."
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on May 4, 2017
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