Environmental organizations and other groups, including the Society for the Preservation of Nature in Israel (SPNI) and the Mevasseret Zion Local Council, as well as MKs, today appealed to Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon, housing cabinet chairman Avigdor Yitzhaki, and the rest of the ministers in the housing cabinet to remove from the agenda of the housing cabinet meeting tomorrow a construction plan for Har Herat in the Judean hills (near Mevasseret Zion). They argue that the area is zoned for a national park.
The plan is one of those that the housing cabinet is scheduled to declare tomorrow as suitable for going ahead with in the framework of the committee for high-priority construction sites.
"We, the member organizations in the Coalition for Strengthening Jerusalem and Preserving the Mountains Around It, a coalition of local authorities, environmental organizations, and regional public committees, emphatically oppose the declaration of the Mevasseret environs plan as a high-priority housing site, and call on the Minister of Finance and the ministers in the housing cabinet to take it off the agenda," a letter sent to Kahlon stated.
"The current planning measure of the Israel Land Authority (ILA) for the construction of 3,000 housing units and an industrial zone on Har Herat absolutely contradicts the district outline plan. Needless to say, the National Planning and Building Commission rejected by an absolute majority a similar plan in 2007, finding that there were adequate land reserves for the city of Jerusalem. In the realization of the qualities of the mountain area west of Jerusalem and the importance of preserving the ancient landscape of Jerusalem as a city surrounded by hills, it was defined as a "core reserve" in the outline plan for the Jerusalem District, approved in 2013, and it is therefore necessary to strictly preserve the nature and landscape values, and many restrictions on its development are imposed… under the valid outline plans, most of the Har Herat area is zoned for a national park, the announcement of which is scheduled for the near future. An inactive quarry is in its center, and the Mevasseret Zion Local Council, in cooperation with other agencies, is leading a plan to rehabilitate it and establish a special park within it for the benefit of the public and the environment.
"The various development plans for Har Herat are opposed not only by environmental organizations and authorities, but also by the heads of leaders of the Jerusalem City Council and the Mevasseret Zion Local Council, and a considerable proportion of their residents. In the current proposed borders as a 'high-priority site,' the plan damages values of nature, the landscape, and heritage, as well as the planned national park, without any need, while causing irreparable damage to the existing community. The issues of balanced development from the general perspective of the cities and the preservation of the environment, nature, and the landscape at the approaches to Jerusalem are not a matter that should be recklessly railroaded through the committee for high-priority construction sites. These issues should be left for a careful and precise assessment by the regular planning institutions, in cooperation with the local authorities.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 25, 2015
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