The mayor of Hadera is against the plan to build 6,000 apartments in the East of the city.
In a letter to Zeev Bielski, chairman of the housing committee, Zvika Gendelman states that “it is unreasonable to proceed with this plan as long as the location of the Hadera-East airport has not yet been removed from the agenda.”
The mayor of Hadera, Zvika Gendelman, addressed the Minister of Housing and Construction, Zeev Bielski, and expressed his opposition to the continuation of the planning of preferred housing zones in the east of the city, which includes approximately 6,000 residential units; a round table on the program will be held in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
In his letter, Gendelman also mentions the planning for the construction of a civil airport transferred from Herzliya to Hadera East alongside the housing plan, stating that the Minister of Finance had frozen this plan due to the difficulty of promoting the housing program in the accelerated process.
“It is unreasonable, incorrect, and incompatible with our public mission to continue to advance the program as long as the issue of the airport plan has not been clarified and the location of the airport in East Hadera has not yet been removed from the agenda once and for all, as informed by the Minister of Finance.”
“It is evident that the two plans have mutual effects and that it is impossible to advance one over the other and, preferably, to advance neither.” I believe that good city planning should be based on the approved urban planning plan, the HD 2020 program, to which we have worked hard and which I have even signed for validation and which outlines the future vision of the city and its development for the next two decades, rather than by thematic programs that contradict the outlined plans and harm their objectives,” wrote Gendelman.
The plan for Hadera East – Beit Eliezer was announced last May and includes 6,000 housing units. This plan was preceded by another plan, launched in 2016 and known as Tamal 1055 in the same area, which also included about 6,000 housing units on 2,000 dunams of agricultural land.
Similar to those in other regions of the country, where a large demonstration took place, such as in Sirckin in Petah Tikva; it seems that Gendelman’s main criticism of the plan is that the planning does not provide a solution for the infrastructure in which transportation takes place: the lack of transportation solutions for its implementation, the scope of the units proposed, the necessary infrastructure for its existence, its connectivity to the city, its physical, social, and economic influences.
“The plan for the civil airport in Hadera, intended to absorb the activities of the Herzliya airport, will be evacuated in favor of the construction of a new neighborhood. The decision also mentioned the transfer of some of the civil activities conducted at Sde Dov to the new site planned for Hadera East.
In conclusion, the mayor writes to Bielski that as long as he does not have an urgent discussion with Minister Kahlon, when he will hold a series of promises from government officials, he will not advance the plans in Hadera East.
The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel stated: “The development of the proposed complex extends the built-up area of the city over large distances and therefore largely contradicts the logic of planning and the direction of the natural development of the city. This would weaken the socio-economic strength of the downtown area, and lead to inefficient use of public funds.”
