Green Cities / Roads will expand, parking space will shrink

The Dan region and is surroundings constitute the most densely-populated area in Israel and will be even more crowded with homes, infrastructure and industrial zones in the future. Planning officials are trying to prepare for what lies ahead with the help of a new district master plan that is in the final stages of the approval process.

The plan, which was initiated by the Tel Aviv District Planning and Construction Committee, presumes to create an urban miracle: high quality of life, substantial increase in the number of parks and enhancement of public transit. But there will also be dense construction and more roads paved to cope with the traffic.

Green activists and organizations such as the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) and the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED) feel the plan favors economic and infrastructure development at the expense of green spaces, natural resources and area residents' quality of life.

Levana Alonim was appointed by the Interior Ministry's planning administration to investigate the objections submitted to the plan. Last week, the subcommittee of the National Council for Planning and Construction began discussing Alonim's recommendations.

Metropolitan arteries

One concern of environmental organizations is a road referred to as "a metropolitan arterial road." This is a fairly monstrous hybrid creation that combines a regular urban road with a highway, and is likely to expand to a width of 100 meters; the kind of road that such streets as Raul Wallenberg Street, Moshe Dayan Street and Shlavim Street in Tel Aviv and Jabotinsky Street in Ramat Gan are likely to become. The objections to the plan hold that these arteries and the planned junctions above them would transform city streets into environmental blights that would ruin residents' quality of life.

Alonim believes the plan does not encourage the development of roads at the expense of public transit, but offers the total number of lanes needed for all types of transit. She notes that the metropolitan arteries are vital for preserving the flow of traffic. However, several conditions were set for approving the arteries. She recommended insetting the road or building a tunnel to reduce the environmental blight. She determined that the planning committee should be given the option of reducing the width of the road and conducting studies on the impact the road will have on noise and air pollution.

To prevent the metropolitan artery from becoming a buffer that splits the urban fabric, Alonim suggests it be stipulated that this artery have public transit lanes, parking bays, pedestrian crossings and bike lanes.

One of Alonim's important recommendations was canceling the rail lane that was to run through Tel Aviv's Neve Tzedek neighborhood and likely damage historical sites, including the Shalosh Bridge. In a hearing last week, the idea of the road was nixed but other alternatives reviewed for a road through Neve Tzedek - including a split road, part of which would run through the neighborhood, leaving historic buildings untarnished.

One of Alonim's recommendations that was accepted was to reduce the construction of parking lots within park areas. She determine that the number of parking spaces that can be built inside parks should be reduced and should total just 1.5 percent of the park's area. If more parking spaces are needed, they will be built in underground lots. Alonim also rejected a request by local authorities to allow them to double the permitted area that they can build on in the parks.