The Tel Aviv Metro is the largest infrastructure plan in Israel's history, expected to cost NIS150 billion. This week, the government decided to remove it from the Arrangements Law, to the chagrin of those who hoped for a quick incentive for its implementation. The law will be legislated separately, and is expected to go through different versions and many objections.
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Over the past months, discussions have been held regarding objections submitted against the route of the M1 line. The state appointed an investigator who will hear the objections and examine whether the route proposed by NTA (the company building the Metro project) is indeed the optimal one and complies with all the necessary standards and requirements.
One of the objections discussed was submitted by hundreds of residents of Ra'anana's 2005 neighborhood, which combines multi-residential buildings with detached homes. The proposed route passes diagonally beneath the neighborhood's houses. According to the residents, damage will be caused to hundreds of housing units and the houses' value will plummet, both during work on the project (which is expected to take years) and when it begins operating, due to the possibility of sinkage, tremors, noise, radiation, and more.
They argue that the plan will eliminate the development potential of one of the most attractive and in-demand areas in central Israel. Furthermore, they say, the existing route is seriously flawed in that it does not improve access to Loewenstein Hospital, locating the station more than a kilometer away from the facility.
Smadar Aharon, a town planner hired by the residents, proposed alternatives for the segment passing through Ra'anana and the 2005 neighborhood. According to Aharon, these alternatives are preferable in terms of engineering and transportation, since they do not pass beneath residential areas but rather beneath highways and open terrain. In addition, they pass near areas where Metro stations are needed, such as Ahuza Street, rather than through the city's outskirts.
According to the survey presented at the discussion, the optimal alternative is 3.5 (see plan above). Changing the route will allow adding a station at the intersection of Ahuza and Sderot Yerushalayim, accommodating the area's existing and future needs.
The alternative route will provide service to national high-demand hubs, such as Loewenstein Hospital, and will expand the Metro's range of service to Ra'anana's western neighborhoods: Lev HaPark, Kiryat Ganim, and Shikun Asher. It will also more fully cover the 2005 neighborhood. Some additional 14,000 housing units will join the station's sphere of service in its new location.
Another advantage of the proposed route is its possible interface with other public transit services, such as the "Mahir La'Ir" rapid transport project, bus stations, and Israel Railways.
During the discussion, real estate appraiser and advocate Nehama Bogin, who is consulting the residents, asked NTA representatives whether they realized that the present route would significantly infringe property rights, leading to thousands of lawsuits demanding compensation from the state. The representatives answered that their focus at present was on the planning and engineering aspects, and that the issue of property rights would be examined in a different forum.
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"It's scandalous that property and economic considerations weren't taken into account at all when choosing the recommended alternative," said Bogin.
"Out of the alternatives chosen, only one causes major damage to hundreds of housing units, while all the others pass beneath existing infrastructure. Of course, this massive oversight harms the residents, whose quality of life has been impaired and the value of their properties decimated, even before approval of the plan and the building of the Metro, which is planned for at least a decade from now. This amounts to a disastrous waste of public funds, since the state will have to spend hundreds of millions of shekels compensating the residents."
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