Objections to two planned 24-storey towers on the Alliance Israélite Universelle site facing the Mahane Yehuda open-air market have recently been filed by interested parties near the site. The opponents assert that approval of the two high-rises will completely strangle the already overloaded city center. A hearing on the matter will be held on Sunday at the objections subcommittee of the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Commission.
The District Planning and Building Commission approved for deposit a plan to build two 24-storey high-rises on the Alliance Israélite Universelle site, one of the most crowded places in the Jerusalem city center. The eight-dunam (two-acre) site is located between the Mahane Yehuda market, Alliance Israélite Universelle and Agrippas Streets, and the Etz Chaim Yeshiva site. The towers are planned to contain 140 housing units for sale and 44 housing units for rent. The site is currently occupied by the abandoned historical Alliance Israélite Universelle school and a number of stories next to the market facing Agrippas Street. People frequenting the market have been using the site for parking in recent years.
Representing the owners and operators of the Clal Center parking lot, Adv. Yuval Gal-On says, "This is a rare case in which such an important change in the transportation situation in central Jerusalem at its busiest spot, the Mahane Yehuda market site and Agrippas and Alliance Israélite Universelle Streets, escaped the attention of the Ministry of Transportation, municipal transportation authorities, and an enormous number of vulnerable people. This failure will have a disastrous effect on future generations; it must be stopped."
Gal-On added, "We believe that if the quality of traffic and the passage of vehicles on the site, already less than the essential minimum, cannot be maintained, the plan should not be approved in its current form, and the construction rights on the site should be drastically reduced."
Also opposing the towers is the Israel Police, whose offices are in the nearby Clal Center building. The police claim that construction of the towers will hamper the exit of police vehicles, including emergency vehicles. Another opponent of the plan is the Alliance Israélite Universelle non-profit organization, which owns the rights in the Alliance Israélite Universelle building located at the intersection of Alliance Israélite Universelle and Agrippas Streets. The organization asserts that implementation of the plan will aggravate the already unbearable traffic jams on Alliance Israélite Universelle and Agrippas Streets, and in the parking lot under the Alliance Israélite Universelle building and the Clal Center.
Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on January 26, 2017
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