700 objections on plan to cover Jerusalem’s Begin Highway

The plan to cover the Begin Highway in Jerusalem, designed to create 214 dunams (53.5 acres) of new space above the road, is set to receive objections. This final hurdle before approval will not be clear because hundreds of objections have been filed.

Under the plan, a 1.6-kilometre stretch of the Begin Highway linking Beit Hakerem and Givat Ram will be covered. Above the road will be a 53-dunam (13.25-acre) park, and 2,000 housing units and more.

Objections began to be heard at the beginning of the week by counsel. Shahar Levinson, who was appointed by the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee. Since the plan includes an exceptionally large number of 685 objections, including those submitted by private companies, regulatory bodies and state institutions – this phase is distributed over three full days: two days in which the objections will be heard for approximately 12 hours each day, and another day that will continue. About eight hours. At the end of this stage, a report on Levinson’s recommendations will be prepared, after which the Jerusalem Area and Planning Committee will decide whether to approve the plan or not.

Most of the objections come from residents, but there are also several large organizations that have lodged objections to the plan including: The Israel Lands Authority (ILA), which insists that building permits are linked to the completion of remediation of contaminated land in the immediate area. Beit Hakerem Industrial and Commercial Zone; The government housing department, which says the plan will harm the activities of the nearby Israel Geological Institute; BaySide, which says the covered area will harm the Hebrew University’s technology park activities; Even the Jerusalem Municipality, one of the project developers.

The progress on the plan to cover Begin is big news for the city, both because of its central location and because such a step has not yet been taken in Israel. Although there are many examples of such initiatives around the world being realized, such a plan in Israel has not yet been completed. The plan to cover Tel Aviv’s Ayalon Expressway, an idea that had been raised even before the Begin coverage plan, was supposed to be the first of its kind in the country but has been almost completely shelved and now only includes widening several bridges.

Published by Globes, Israel Business News – en.globes.co.il – on December 11, 2024

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