[RBS] RBS Dalet, RBS Hay ... Yay! ... NOT!!

[Ephrayim Naiman]

The new areas of RBS Dalet and Hay are very hilly areas and difficult
to build on.
The current plan is to build it very densely.
About twice as dense as the Cheftziba project!
The plans are - in one person's words - "hideous"!

B"H, Beit Shemesh is growing, but we all know the infrastructure is not.

One infrastructure sorely missed is a National Park and B"H a
500-duname park has been approved.
But that's a *very* minimal size.
It would be amazing if we would preserve the areas of Dalet and Hay.
Areas full of green, beauty and wildlife.
Areas that are the second most popular bike riding areas in the country.
Areas, where if Gimmel is any indication, is probably full of wonderful atikot.

By keeping Dalet and Hay green, we would create a respectable and
valuable 2,000-dunam national park which we would all enjoy (all
"walks" of life! :-).

        Please stop by BEST in RBS this coming Friday, from 9:30 on
        to sign a hitnagduyot against RBS-D and RBS-E

But I hear you say:
            "the signatures, protests, committees ... they have all
been tried before, and failed - sad, but true!"
!!! NOT !!!

With relatively little money and a bunch of us stubborn people,
we mounted a campaign against poor city planning for the expansion of
the RBS areas in Mishkafayim, Mem-3, RBS-C1 and RBS-C2.

And certainly while most of the objections were brushed aside with
impunity and against the law (I kid you not!), there were some
victories.  With each set of objections submitted, the planning
commission corrected some parts of future neighborhoods.  Some of the
victories include:

+ Thousands of building permits won't be given until the road
infrastructure catches up
+ Thousands more occupancy permits won't be released until certain
major arteries have been approved/built
+ More green areas
+ High elevation points kept clean of building
+ Recommendations to the Iriya to allocate more buildings for "Public
Use" (weak, yeah, but still)
+ Strongly worded suggestions to add more commercial areas (and guess
what - the Ma'ar is starting to move!)
+ More shuls and Mikvaot
+ Emphasis to build parks and open spaces at the *same* time as the residences.
+ No building height increases or unit increases allowed in certain areas.
+ Certain areas will be required to have service roads built, so that
current roads aren't unduly obstructed

Kol Tuv,

-Ephraim Naiman
ejnaiman at gmail.com