Guy Nardi , globes.co.il
The National Planning and Building Committee for Favorite Housing (and MLA) complexes today approved the plan on the grounds of Sirkin Military Camp in Petah Tikva. The program planner is architect Ari Cohen.
The transport projects promoted to implement the program include a number of transport solutions - some in the very long run. Among other things, it is paving a road that will connect the residential complex and East Petah Tikva to Route 471 via the "Amishav" interchange. The residential complex is also planned to be connected to the new Elad railway station. In addition, expansion of the "Sgula" station is planned, upgrading the "Amishav" interchange, the construction of two metro stations in the complex, and more.
It has also been agreed that the existing 40th road west of the borough will become a local street and a new national highway will be set up to be part of the transportation solutions. In the new district, '40 Bypass Road' will be paved and an extensive urban park will be erected above it that will include sports, country and amphitheater facilities.
The promotion of the plan has for a long time been resisted by many residents in the area, due to the massive construction increase and the fear of transport loads being added to an area that is also suffering from transport loads. Moshe Fisher of the headquarters of the fight for sane construction told "Globes" following the decision that "even when calculated claims and objections are submitted and the system's weighted system is again working as an automatic machine. It does not examine things in depth.
Lehia Goldenberg of the Nature and Dean Association, also responded to the decision, saying that "we are pleased that the IDF has decided to take down the power plants that were to be on Sirkin's plan. We discovered that the program has natural gas power stations that are small but significantly polluting. Sirkin did not even do a French check, although the stations were supposed to be located 50 meters from the neighborhood's houses. For us, the publisher made the right decision not to receive a polluting energy economy. "
Petah Tikva Mayor Rami Greenberg: "After we fought and acted tirelessly with all government agencies, including the Planning Administration, the Israel Lands Administration and the Ministry of Transportation, a decision was made in the IDF to approve the Sirkin Plan, subject to much of our demand. We have fought every possible front to exhaust all the legal tools at our disposal to provide an adequate transport solution to suit the population growth in the area. We will continue to work in all ways available to us to ensure that all the commitments given to us in the summaries with former Minister of Transport Israel Katz and current Minister of Transport Bezalel Smutrich are fully implemented on the ground. All that is done for the benefit of the residents and their quality of life and for the progressive construction of the pace of infrastructure progress there. It is evident that the correspondent and the Ministry of Transport have received our requests to provide a broad and appropriate transport response and to allow for progress in the pace of construction in accordance with the progress of the transport solutions and we see the range of transport solutions offered by the Administration. "
The response from the headquarters of Petah Tikva and Kfar Sirkin's headquarters: "The decision of the publisher is more and more suspect in light of the fact that the planners themselves claim that it is mainly problematic in the transport emphasis, the Ministry of Transport has defined that it should be phased and therefore cannot be shaken. And, in fact, on this important issue of transport phases, the argument of the most delusional publisher. Construction cannot be carried out in the execution of the transport, since "those who pave the roads have no interest and affinity for building housing units and so they may be delayed ....".
As a result, residents of Sirkin, the closest neighborhoods in Petah Tikva: Amishav, Hadar Ganim, Beilinson, and even neighboring cities such as Rosh Ha'ayin, face devastating health consequences - thousands of oxygen-producing trees are going to be wiped out and in return they will get severe pollution and loud noise. And in terms of transportation, Sirkin residents are going to enter a transport chaos that is unclear how they will succeed.