Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski decided Thursday to freeze the controversial Safdie Plan for the city's westward development, and plans to ask the National Planning and Construction Council to adopt his position on the matter.

Lupolianski decided that in place of the Safdie plan, he will support a series of alternative development programs for various Jerusalem neighborhoods. He therefore met with representatives of environmental groups opposed to the Safdie plan, in an effort to create a broad coalition that will back alternative plans.

The Safdie plan, one of the symbols of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's tenure as Jerusalem mayor, is the largest construction and development proposal for expanding Jerusalem westward. It covers some 26,000 dunams, on which more than 20,000 residential units would be constructed. Its goal is to significantly expand the built-up area of Jerusalem, in order to meet a projected demand for 165,000 new residential units by 2020.

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But environmental groups have long been critical of the plan, in large part because it would involve the destruction of much open space. And now, the plan is expected to undergo a real overhaul.

Lupolianski decided to freeze the plan after he realized that the officials responsible for urban planning and development in Jerusalem were focusing on advancing the Safdie plan, rather than on developing land for residential construction within the city's municipal boundaries. As a result of this focus on the Safdie plan, he concluded, a number of easily implementable projects for developing Jerusalem's downtown area and building apartments for young couples had essentially been allowed to die.

According to sources familiar with the issue, Lupolianski prefers to form a broad-based coalition that would focus on developing the city.

The mayor also believes that even if the Safdie plan is approved, construction would not begin for at least a decade, and by then, the municipality would find it difficult to meet the growing demand for housing in Jerusalem.

The mayor's assessment of the situation is based on evaluations carried out by the municipality regarding the chances of the Safdie plan having a positive effect on the city. Many of these evaluations concluded that its success would depend on the city being transformed into a dominant metropolis attractive enough to make people want to live in neighborhoods on its outskirts.

Municipal planners have pinpointed a number of neighborhoods in Jerusalem where massive construction could be undertaken. These include Ramat Rachel, Arnona Hahadasha, Homat Shmuel, Gilo and Givat Hamatos.

Lupolianski also plans to offer environmental groups a deal that would cancel the Safdie plan in return for their support of other controversial projects, such as building high-rises in the center of town, constructing more buildings on smaller plots, or evacuating residents from existing buildings and then adding more floors to them.