Northern planning panel approves major renewal in Karmiel and new neighborhood in Kiryat Shmona

The Northern District Planning and Building Committee has approved two large housing plans, in a move officials linked to the war’s direct and indirect damage and to the need to reinforce buildings and attract residents back to the north. One plan advances urban renewal in the older Misyavdim neighborhood of Karmiel, and the other authorizes a new residential district in Kiryat Shmona.

In Karmiel, the committee deposited a master plan for redeveloping the Misyavdim neighborhood. The plan covers about 239 dunams and includes roughly 4,260 housing units, 40,000 square meters for commerce, employment and hospitality, 75,000 square meters for public buildings, and about 40 dunams of open space. It is intended to serve about 10,000 additional residents on top of the approximately 4,700 people already living there. The Israel Authority for Urban Renewal and Karmiel municipality are promoting it. Construction is planned to follow the neighborhood’s topography, with tower buildings of up to 25 stories on streets such as Sderot Nasi HaMedina, and mid-rise buildings of up to nine stories on internal streets such as Tzahal Street.

Committee chairman Boaz Yosef said the plan is “good news for Karmiel” because it can renew the city’s old district while bringing buildings up to earthquake standards and adding required protected rooms, known as mamadim. Guri Nadler, head of planning at the Israel Authority for Urban Renewal, said the authority and the city are advancing several significant renewal plans to revitalize the city’s older areas.

In Kiryat Shmona, the committee approved within about nine months a giant plan for a new neighborhood called Rehov HaNachalim. The district will include about 4,500 housing units, 166,000 square meters of employment space, 70,000 square meters for industry, 20,000 square meters for retail, 485,000 square meters for public buildings, and 30 dunams of open space. It will cover about 1,240 dunams east of Givat Shchunit and north of Road 9779, with a large urban park at its center connecting two parts of the neighborhood. Around the park, planners רוצים a lively frontage with a promenade, hotels, restaurants, cafes, shops and municipal public buildings. Yosef called it a major and emotional milestone for a city that suffered heavily in the war and was left empty for a long period.