Jerusalem mayor reverses support for large development at Bible Hill nature spot
Following widespread public objection, municipality backs away from plan for hotel and commercial center on central site overlooking Old City
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
The Jerusalem Municipality has decided to withdraw its support for a plan to build a large hotel and commercial complex on a beauty spot known to locals as Bible Hill.
Carpeted in wildflowers in autumn and spring, and providing panoramic views of the Old City and the Judean Desert, the hill, in southeast Jerusalem, is a favorite place for locals to meet, picnic, and walk their dogs.
The plot earmarked for development is located on David Remez Street, between St. Andrew’s Church, which opened in 1930, and the Khan Theater, which occupies a converted Ottoman-era inn.
Reaching six stories belowground and six stories above, the 20,000-square-meter (215,300 square foot) complex is designed to comprise two hotel wings with a total of 96 rooms and a commercial center.
The modern buildings would wrap around a tower, the Eyal (Deer) Fortress, thought to be from the 17th century. This forms part of a later (19th century) Templer building that served for some 60 years as the British consulate.
Dozens of trees have been marked for uprooting.
Bible Hill is one of very few hilltops left in the city that has not been built upon, in an area of Jerusalem scheduled for massive residential and commercial construction, including hotels. Plans envisage a train station (an extension of the Tel Aviv to Jerusalem line), light rail lines, and a controversial cable car. The cable car is to cross the historic Hinnom Valley beneath the Old City. One of its pylons is to be built on another spot on Bible Hill.
The local planning committee approved the hotel project. No date has been set yet for the district planning committee to hear objections.
But in a statement, the Jerusalem Municipality said, “The mayor does not support the plan that was submitted to the district committee, among other things given the great sensitivity and the many objections that were submitted.”
The council would “continue, in accordance with the mayor’s vision, to place the protection of green and open spaces at the forefront of municipal action,” said the statement.
Among those objecting to the plans were the British Embassy and British Consulate General. In their highly unusual move, they said the plan ignored the church’s lease and right to renew the lease for the land earmarked for construction, and to the church’s registered right of way to the only path leading to the church.
The plan would “substantially impede” traffic along the only road leading to the church, and “significantly hinder” the functioning of the church and its adjacent guesthouse.
It concluded that the proposed hotel was “completely disproportionate to its surroundings on Bible Hill,” and that it would permanently alter the skyline.
Among other objectors are the Association of Architects, the Council for Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel, and environmental groups such as the Jerusalem Green Fund, founded by former Jerusalem deputy mayor Naomi Tzur.
They protested building a private, for-profit development on land zoned for a public building, as well as the size, volume, and style of the project, and the need to protect an increasingly rare urban nature site for public use.
The site was acquired from the Greek Orthodox Church by Kronty Investments Ltd., whose main shareholder is David Sofer, a Jewish-Israeli businessman living in London.
Companies in which Sofer is involved acquired whole swaths of real estate from the church, mainly in Jerusalem, some years ago. Some of Sofer’s attempts to develop these plots have so far come to nothing.
