The State of Israel will be divided into 28 regions, each of which will be capable of providing for the needs of the people who live in it. This is the main aim of the new strategic plan presented by the Planning Administration in the Ministry of the Interior. The goal is to change the face of the country by advancing high-quality planning to meet the changing needs and characteristics of the economy and the population. Nevertheless, the plan will not for the time being be translated into an operative outline plan, but will be embedded in the planning system through directives.
At a press conference held by the Planning Administration last Thursday, the Administration’s director Rafi Elmaliach explained that the idea of the plan was not to continue with the present trend whereby the quantity and quality of services and employment available to residents of the periphery of the country are lower than in the center, forcing them to travel considerably more. This is one of the main causes of the constant migration from the periphery to the center of the country and of the growing overcrowding in the center.
In order to halt this trend, the plan, drafted by the Strategic Planning and the Spatial Planning departments of the Planning Administration, headed by Shahar Solar and Dr. Roni Bar, divides the country into 28 regions that were found to be more or less homogeneous in the behavior of their residents as far as travelling for work or services is concerned. The aim is to turn them into regions that will meet all the needs of their residents in the same way as Gush Dan does, without them having to travel to the center in the future.
The Planning Administration believes that the plan will considerably strengthen the periphery in the north and south of Israel. Its officials said that the disaster of the war and the need to rehabilitate the settlements in the area bordering the Gaza Strip had led the Planning Administration to implement the new planning principles in that region, which they say will change it completely once it is rehabilitated. So, for example, the community settlement of Neve Zohar in the Western Negev, opposite the southern Gaza Strip, is designated as the future center of this region that will provide most of the services required in it.
The planning principles will also include consideration of climate change and the rise in the level of the sea, greater strictness in preserving open areas, and strengthening of urbanization trends and lowering the need to use private vehicles.
The plan amounts to a revolution in planning thinking, but not something that will immediately change outline plans or the structure of regional planning committees. Six regional planning committees currently operate under the Ministry of the Interior (Morth, Haifa, Center, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and South), acting in accordance with regional outline plans.
There is no present intention to change the planning committees, or even the outline plans, but Solar said that partial outline plans could be drawn up, in accordance with the needs of the region. This of course is if the new planning principles are in fact applied by the planning establishment.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 25, 2024.
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2024.