The management of the Shalom Hotel in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood of Yerushalayim is thinking about expanding the building to add additional rooms while community rabbonim are opposed. They fear an expansion will bring additional visitors and tourists which will result in a compromise in the level of tznius in the community.
The local planning board headed by Deputy Mayor Meir Turgeman on Wednesday afternoon 11 Elul convened to discuss the plan. The hotel currently has 280 rooms and it wishes to add another 170 rooms. The planning board rejected the request citing planning and transportation issues in the area as well as explaining the area is zoned as a residential neighborhood and enlarging the hotel would compromise the character of the area.
Kikar News adds the community rabbonim worked hard to enlist the support of the experts, who presented opposition to the plan based on the professional considerations detailed above, succeeding in defeating the planned project. It is added the opinion of the area rabbonim is unanimous in their opposition to the expansion plan.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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One Response
I used to live on the same street as the Shalom Hotel, and I can confirm that the area is highly inappropriate for a larger hotel for many reasons. One of the biggest issues is, as mentioned, transportation. The Hotel is served by a narrow and winding road that often gets blocked with traffic, especially when there is a wedding in the nearby wedding hall (owned by the same people as the hotel).
Neither the hotel nor the hall have sufficient parking (not through lack of ability to provide it), nor is the area kept clean as it should be. The hotel and wedding hall function entirely at their own convenience with no regard to the residents of the area.