The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), Greenpeace, the Israeli Green Building Council, the Israeli Association of Landscape Architects, and the Heschel Center for Sustainability today wrote a letter to the members of the Tel Aviv Local Planning and Building Commission in advance of a scheduled discussion tomorrow on a new plan for Sde Dov Airport. The plan, which has been referred to as the Huldai alternative and which seeks to avoid closing the airport, includes the construction of 8,000 housing units in the eastern part of the existing airport. Another plan being proposed, the original plan for the area, involves the complete dismantling of the civilian airport and the construction of 16,000 housing units on the site. The national government will have to make the final decision about which plan to adopt.
Meanwhile, the Local Planning and Building Commission is seeking to push through its plan, which the environmental organizations find unacceptable.
"We oppose the new plan and support the development plan being promoted by Israel Land Administration for the following reasons," the five organizations wrote the Planning and Building Commission members. "The Sde Dov plan, one of the plans in Tel Aviv in which thought and sustainable planning on the highest level has been invested, uses the principles of preservation of nature and leaving open spaces, planning of streets that encourages walking and a combination of uses, protected housing, etc. In view of the large amount of thought and planning invested in this neighborhood aimed at making it a model neighborhood in Tel Aviv, it is unclear why after such a great investment, there is such a regression in the proposed plan, in which all of these important principles will be lost."
The letter continued, "The new alternative plan proposed by the mayor preserves the disadvantages of the airport's existence in the heart of an urban continuity and continues the damage to the public's right to benefit from coastal continuity in one of the most desirable and crowded places in Israel. The new plan for Sde Dov reduces the number of housing units by 50%; it proposes 7,990 housing units in comparison with 16,000 housing units in the Israel Land Administration's alternative. In the midst of a housing crisis, particularly in the central region, such a major reduction in housing units is unacceptable. It should be kept in mind that the Israel Land Administration plan includes affordable apartments and stringent criteria for environmentally friendly construction. We believe that creation of housing solutions in urban areas, which are in any case already despoiled, will reduce the pressure for construction in valuable open spaces, and that the most use possible should be made out of planned construction within cities. A plan that reduces the number of housing units in the midst of housing crisis for no justifiable reason should not be allowed to go forward."