Jerusalem officials divided over ambitious ‘Rooftop’ plan atop Begin Highway
While the project will connect the Beit Hakerem neighborhood to Givat Ram and add 2,200 housing units, some say it will harm the environment and mean less green space per person
Zev Stub is the Times of Israel's Diaspora Affairs correspondent.
Jerusalem officials are divided over an ambitious planned construction project to build a land bridge and urban complex above the Begin Highway.
Mayor Moshe Lion and his urban development team say the project will connect disparate parts of the city, add thousands of new housing units and improve overall quality of life in the city. Detractors argue that the planned development will increase congestion in some neighborhoods and damage the city’s natural beauty. Nearly 600 objections have been filed with the municipality against the plan.
The Begin Rooftop project is a plan to build a 214-dunam (53-acre) complex over the Begin Highway that will include 2,210 housing units, five 45-story towers and 64 dunams of open public spaces.
The project would create a land bridge connecting the Beit Hakerem neighborhood and Givat Ram campus, making it easy to walk between the two areas. The municipality says that some 30% of the new area would be allotted for open public space, while new public transportation routes, bicycle paths and pedestrian walkways would help ease congestion in the city.
Lion is enthusiastically supportive of the project, calling it “a spectacular, innovative and advanced plan that is unparalleled in the country.”
“This plan creates ecological continuity from south to north with a spacious park that connects the two parts of the city together,” the mayor said. “It creates an innovative center that connects academia and industry while adding residential and commercial spaces. This will help make Jerusalem Israel’s next big thing, including in the field of high-tech.”
However, not everyone shares the mayor’s excitement. Since the project received the green light from the Jerusalem Local Planning and Building Committee earlier this month, 584 objections have been filed against it, including petitions from the Israel Land Authority, the National Transport Infrastructure Company and the city’s own transportation planners.
Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yosi Havilio, who has frequently opposed the city’s ambitious construction projects, said the addition of thousands of new housing units will damage the neighboring communities.
The current plan includes a 45-story building that will serve as a hotel and shopping space, along with four other 45-story residential and commercial buildings. Another seven residential buildings of 6 to 15 floors each are planned, along with 55 dunams for public buildings and institutions.
“The Beit Hakerem neighborhood will be burdened with thousands of additional units without adding sufficient infrastructure,” Havilio said. “It also harms the high school next to the university and the other schools in the area.”
He added that, while the city says the project will add green spaces to the city, there will actually be less green space per person due to the additional housing being built.
Furthermore, Havilio said that the financial details for the plan were not shared with council members, making its approval “blatantly irresponsible.”
“We might end up with just the towers and no rooftop,” he jeered.
Efraim Shlein, an urban planner and long-time resident of Beit Hakerem, added that the planned areas wouldn’t make driving between Givat Ram and Beit Hakerem any easier, and that the environmental benefits were negligible.
Much of his argument against the project was aesthetic: “The Begin highway is a pretty road,” he said. “You should be able to enjoy Jerusalem’s beauty as you drive, not be confined to a tunnel.”
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