"We waited for Trump and we'll exploit the situation to produce extensive construction plans for Jerusalem," Meir Turgeman, deputy mayor of Jerusalem and chairman of the Jerusalem Local Planning Committee, told "Globes" at the conference of the Association of Contractors and Builders in Jerusalem and the Association of Contractors and Builders in Beersheva and the Negev on Friday.
The first plan that will be promoted in Jerusalem is for Givat Hamatos in the south-east of the city. On Wednesday, commenting on construction in Jerusalem, Minister of Construction and Housing Yoav Galant said, "Construction in Jerusalem is ideological and a matter of principle, and there is every reason to build there. Not just in Jerusalem itself, but in Greater Jerusalem. There have been obstacles, urban planning obstacles, but mainly political obstacles. We have been through a difficult period," the minister said.
Turgeman said that he and Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat would demand of the prime minister that there should be immediate development of infrastructure at Givat Hamatos. Givat Hamatos is an area of 375 acres that was annexed to the city after the Six Day War of 1967. The construction plan for Givat Hamatos was approved three years ago, but has never been carried out because of delays in infrastructure work by the authorities. The plan consists of 2,600 housing units for the Jewish population and 600 units earmarked for young people from the Arab population.
Another plan that is taking shape at the offices of the Jerusalem city engineer is for construction at Atarot in the north-east of the city. Here too, the project concerns land annexed to Jerusalem after the Six Day War. Under the plan, 15,000 housing units will be built for the haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) population, which will create a continuous belt of haredi neighborhoods in the north of Jerusalem, joining such neighborhoods as Ramat Shlomo. The municipality thus hopes to encourage haredi households in secular neighborhoods in Jerusalem to move to new parts of the city that will suit them better from the point of view of the characteristics of the population.
Last week, the Jerusalem Local Planning Committee approved the construction of 560 housing units in haredi neighborhoods in Ramot and Ramat Shlomo.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 29, 2017
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017