The Beit Shemesh Planning Board on Monday, 4 Adar 5772, approved the establishment of Beit Shemesh Hey (5), which will include 5,400 housing units. The new large neighborhood will be situated southeast of Ramat Beit Shemesh, in proximity of Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel 1 which is under construction. The latter will include 2,400 housing units. Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel 2 will include 1,800 housing units. Ramat Beit Shemesh Daled (4) will include 9,000 housing units, the daily HaMevaser reports.
The meeting in which the new community was approved was attended by Beit Shemesh Mayor Shlomo Abutbul, representatives of the regional planning board, Housing Ministry, Israel Lands Administration and other national officials.
District Planning Board member Rabbi Moshe Muntag addressed the forum, explaining the significance of the expansion, which will be accompanied by additional commercial, parks, recreational and other areas in line with the overall building concept of Beit Shemesh.
In the meantime, a battle in underway to stop the influx of chareidim into Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel 2, which is designed to include 1,800 housing units. The district board which approved the plan rejected no less than 7,400 objections. The petitioners have now taken their case to the District Appellate Planning Board claiming the new neighborhood is simply discriminatory in that it is being built for the chareidi community.
In response to the appellate board, Beit Shemesh City Hall stated the new community is not earmarked for any segment, but it is open to all. It was explained that in actuality, the developers, those who invest the funds and then sell the housing units decide which population they wish to target with advertisements for the community, and this decision has nothing to do with the city.
Petitioners also point out they object to areas designated for public buildings have been allocated for shuls, to which the city responded there are many non chareidi people who benefit from the presence of a shul as well. The city countered by adding the objections to the shuls signals the petitioners are opposed to chareidim, a discriminatory position as well as they wish to modify the plan to make it unsuitable for chareidi residents.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
our mayor’s name is MOSHE Abutbul, not Shlomo
yehi rotzon that his efforts continue to make Beit Shemesh the most desired city to live in Eretz Yisroel
The new areas should be open to all and any JEWS.
Forget about whom they’re building it for – they shouldn’t build ANYTHING until they address the deplorable state of Route 38 (the main road into Beit Shmesh)!!! It’s a two-lane road (think: Route 42) that serves a city of 80,000. Expanding it has been on the drawing board for several years, but NOTHING is scheduled to be done for another few years!!!
an Israeli Yid