Hundreds of Thousands of New Homes Planned Around Public Transit Stations
A policy document whose work began today, Tuesday, at the Planning Administration is expected to transform construction near mass transit stations, including light rail and heavy rail, BRT lines, elongated buses operating on dedicated corridors, and even cable cars. The document is needed because, according to strategic plans by the Transportation Ministry, by 2060 the number of mass transit stations is expected to increase eightfold from today, from 220 to 1,745. The new policy is intended to bring as many people as possible close to these stations by increasing residential density, especially in urban areas, and thereby enable residents to shift from private cars to public transportation. In addition, the policy will create a walkable or bikeable area around the stations. In a cautious estimate, the new policy will make it possible to build hundreds of thousands of housing units near such stations across the country. At the Planning Administration, officials estimate that the policy document will affect about 1 million dunams, or about 5% of the state's land.
For comparison, National Outline Plan 70, approved by the government about a year ago, is a national master plan that sets similar policy, but only around the metro stations currently being built in the Gush Dan area. That plan applies to about 120,000 dunams and creates the potential to build about 350,000 housing units. By contrast, the policy document will apply to an area eight times larger.
Today is the first working meeting on the new policy led by the Planning Administration. Over the next two years, discussions will be held in various forums with the participation of local authority heads, senior officials from relevant government ministries, architects, urban planners and transportation experts. The final product will be a document that defines a policy that district planning committees are expected to adopt, and it is possible that parts of it will become binding directives with the force of law. The goal is to create a policy that takes into account the type of station, the type of transportation mode it serves and its geographic location. For example, in a rural area or on the edge of a city there would be only limited densification, if any, but attention would be given to connectivity, the ability to transfer between transportation modes, as well as bicycle parking and other complementary facilities that would make the stations more accessible. By contrast, in city centers the aim is to expand building rights so that as many residents as possible can live within walking distance of the stations, workplaces and retail areas.
Rafi Elmaleh, director general of the Planning Administration, told Calcalist that, "In the end, the goal is to improve the quality of life of the public and to fully realize the potential of the national investment in transportation infrastructure."
